Nightmare Mode Offers Not My Neighbour A Greater Challenge
With real eyes rolling in the corners of the window frame, Nightmare Mode turns the Doorman's office into a gore-splattered rendition of itself, as fitting the literal dream it is. Among the most obvious modifications to the real gameplay is that any Doppelganger avoiding discovery would now attack the Doorman right away instead of at the end of his shift. This naturally results in a game over, therefore transforming Nightmare Mode as a whole into a gauntlet. Nightmare Mode also finishes with the Nightmare Clown begging to play a game of cards, which has to be won to finish the run.
Unlike letting Doppelgangers in, misidentifying real occupants of the building has less immediate repercussions. One error will make The Entity—a purple face with sunken eye sockets and a gaping mouth—show on the other wall. It will then attack upon a second pointless call to the D.D.D. Nightmare Mode is therefore somewhat more lenient about the Doorman consigning undeserving neighbors to a tragic end. Since it unlocks the HEADACHE accomplishment, it is also important to note that drawing the Entity's wrath once is necessary for full completion of the game.
Everything To Know About That Is Not My Neighbor: Nightmare Mode
Though the world of That's Not My Neighbour is one beset by hazardous and frequently unsettling doppelgangers, the Nightmare Mode of the game amplifies both the horror and challenge to unprecedented degrees. Furthermore, even if the game overall seems straightforward, close study reveals a startling degree of complexity in Nightmare Mode, including several mysteries that might offer fresh insight into the world of the Doorman. Between these and other modifications, learning and completely exploring Nightmare Mode can be a very difficult task even for those familiar with Arcade Mode of the game.
Tasking the player to investigate differences and judge whether the people attempting to enter the Doorman's building are who they say they are, That's Not My Neighbour uses gameplay strikingly similar to the indie work simulator game Papers. Any irreconcilable conflict suggests that the person on the other side of the window is a Doppelganger, whose disguises can range from almost perfect to rather evident. With the Doppelgangers now trying to replicate a range of already-inhuman people, Nightmare Mode flips this idea on its head and produces some amazing examples of video game body horror.
Features of Nightmare Mode: Brand-New but familiar cast of characters
Apart from Nightmare Mode with equivalents of all 20 Neighbors, it features several randomly arriving individuals with individual tendencies. The Mask Ghost, for instance, shows up several times in a row—usually indicative of a Doppelganger. In her instance, though, she must be admitted inside the building three times to advance—as her repeated "Three times" to the Doorman suggests. Likewise, although being a lethal Doppelganger in Arcade Mode, Peach is a very uncommon VIP character in Nightmare Mode who may be let into the building without problems.
Sometimes, too, Nightmare Mode provides fresh perspectives on the Neighbours of Arcade Mode, most especially in relation to Anastacha Mikaelys. She lives with her mother, Nacha Mikaelys, in Arcade Mode; her Nightmare Mode equivalent has a different home arrangement. Usually living alone, Quachil Uttaus resides with Yog Sothoth, the Nightmare form of milkman Francis Mosses. This suggests that Francis is really Anastcha's father since the two characters have the same eyes and practice repeating "Mmm." Though Arcade Mode clearly shows their similarities, Nightmare Mode is where the relationship is directly acknowledged.
Hidden in That Not My Neighbour's Nightmare Mode is Secret Lore.
Nightmare Mode also offers some fascinating world building on the larger backdrop of That's Not My Neighbour, notably on the Doppelganger origins themselves. A Hooded Man may turn up during a run and provide the Doorman a piece of paper displaying a code and a link to a real encoded web page, dddsecurities. Properly interpreted, this page indicates the existence of Operation Trojan Horse, a covert military project headed by "Oswald D. Keppler" with Dr. W. Afton himself as principal researcher, as proven by Reddit user Chickynuggiesgud.
Ten years before the game's events, Operation Trojan Horse apparently produced Doppelgangers to act as infiltrators of some sort, although they have shown resistance to follow commands. An Evolutionary Algorithm Project has then been suggested as a training scheme. But specifics about the Doppelgangers' existence have also been leaked, and a contingency known as the Doppelganger Detection Department was established. Especially, as the study notes the project as being both "active" and "promising," indicating the in-game Doppelganger invasions may actually be purposefully manufactured as part of the Evolutionary Algorithm Project.
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With the Collector accomplishment included—rewarded for unlocking all other milestones—there are eight in-game achievements altogether that only require Nightmare Mode to unlock. Though most of the Dreams have Arcade Mode counterparts, they can have distinct personal characteristics and living circumstances. In Nightmare mode, variations in both appearances and documentation can be considerably more difficult to find. This means that players will have to start any memorizing from scratch in Nightmare Mode even though it is possible to memorize the specifics available in the in-game files. Conversely, the player's win/loss history in the former has no bearing on the later's own letter grade-based scoring system as Nightmare Mode manages gameovers differently than Arcade Mode.
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The Hard Mode Of That's Not My Neighbor Is Nightmare Mode
In all ways, Nightmare Mode is the "hard mode" of That's Not My Neighbour, and it rewards players with some fascinating history. Although Nightmare Mode is canonically the Doorman’s literal nightmare, and not reality, it is hard to believe that anything presented in such a complex manner as Operation Trojan Horse is not canonical, especially as the Hooded Man could easily be a representation of a real encounter that the Doorman has had outside of Arcade Mode. All the same, Nightmare Mode presents a novel challenge even for seasoned players of That's Not My Neighbor's Arcade Mode.
Resources: dddsecrets, Chickynuggiesgud/Reddit
