Is this game worth playing on Very Hard?

[EyeGod]

Title.

I generally play games on their hardest difficulties as I find the challenge thrilling.

But so far, on my second play-through as a melee build with some sneaking but NO netrunning, I'm finding the game difficult to the point of frustration.

My pride has prohibited me from turning the difficulty down, but right now it's more frustrating than fun; is there really any benefit to playing on this difficulty? I really feel like a netrunner build would be way easier.

[TneX]

Try using the Militech "Apogee" Sandevistan with a melee build if you are having trouble. I'm using that, and sometimes even very hard feels too easy, it's like the game can't keep up with you.

[Larco]

It's a game. If you're not enjoying it on very hard, turn it down. If you're finding it tough to start, set it to normal / hard then turn it up as you get more abilities. More generally, very hard in this game in particular seems to turn enemies into massive bullet sponges. It's doable but - as far as I've gotten - it seems to force you into using pretty optimized builds / particular play styles. It's fun but some fights feel a bit silly, others just get tedious and I suspect it's going to be a bit limiting build wise longer term. I'm seriously thinking about just putting it back down to hard and taking my armor off to balance things a bit.

[Fyk0]

Melee probably starts weak and gets very strong as you progress.

With shotgun build you become a god around level 50, so I assume it's the same for melee as I'm almost always in enemy melee range and I have so much damage mitigation and health regen I can clear fights sometimes without even needing to use a single heal item. The game was quite challenging until around level 30, after that it got gradually easier as you scale pretty hard. Just don't go full monke brain and think cyberware that has highest armor gives the best defense, but look at the damage mitigation and other defensive stats at well.

I wouldn't play this game easier than very hard. The progression felt satisfying as the game started quite challenging and as you build your character it becomes easier, as RPG always tends to do.

[Sith Lord Seyz]

just fyi:

you can adjust the difficulty at any point and there are no penalities for it.
if your build is crap atm you can tone the difficulty down and increase it again once you have a proper build setup.

[black]

You need to optimize gear and skills, thats what the max diffculity is about. On lower settings game allows you to ingore many mechanics

[Major Fletcher]

For me "hard" is the best difficulty as i like challenges but won't be frustrated too much. Mostly i play stealth and I also skilled V like that. I had to turn down difficulty to normal once so far in a boss fight because i was forced to attack directly and for me this fight was completly unbalanced because i was one shotted in seconds...

[Ásgeirrfinnbjornsdottir]

At the beginning, it can be a bit tedious but once you get some of your cyberware upgraded and better perks, game gets pretty easy. Atleast that is what I felt when running shotgun, monowire and hacks.

From midway to the end, I also made a decision to cripple myself and not to run OP-hacks like suicide, memory wipe, system collapse, synapse burnout and not to use COX-2. Netrunner with those is basically god-mode even at very hard.

In the other hand, if you're not into grinding sidestuff for money, upgrades and XP or you're not familiar with the combat system, you're probably better off on lower difficulty, it's all subjective.

[Bathory]

Originally posted by SaiColors:

What exactly difficult you encounter with melee build? It should be durable and fairly easy even in very hard.

At low level against some enemies you are dead before being able to reach them if you are trying to bum rush them.

[comatosedragon]

The difficulty levels just delay the point at which you become an all-powerful deity. (In my opinion).

In my experience, becoming OP seems to happen around level 20 on normal, 30 on Hard on 35 or so Very Hard.

The early levels on Very Hard (like the first 10 character levels) are indeed; for the most part, Very Hard.

[Tokenn]

Unlike most of the people responding here, I am not a god-level gamer, and I'm finding playing on hard satisfyingly challenging. Previous to 2.0 I would play on Very Hard but it was by no means 'too easy'...at least for me. So...do turn down the difficulty if you find your current level frustrating. Nothing really changes in terms of the story or the action except you don't die a lot.

[mcdcecil]

Very Hard. V needs to learn her lesson. I on the other hand took some time to learn how to play. Now V mops up the whole game all but one or two car gun fights on very hard. It took her many hours to teach me how to play. I should feel bad for all the times V has died. V beat Hansen last evening she made me so happy. It was not easy. She is lvl 50 and mostly cyber decked to the max.

[Callirgos]

No. Turn aim assist off to find the fun.

[Kak]

Early game on Very Hard is rough and you'll likely find yourself relying heavily on stealth until you get some levels under your belt. That said, stealth is a very powerful play to play.

You said you aren't using netrunning, but stealth with the "Distract Enemies" quickhack that every cyberdeck has can carry you through the early game. Netrunning as a whole is pretty weak early on and is more of a companion to other playstyles than something you can use on its own.

Melee builds probably have the roughest time early game because on Very Hard enemies deal extremely high damage and you don't have a whole lot of options to increase your survivability until later. And if you aren't particularly dedicated to increasing V's bulk, that problem will continue into the later stages of the game because of level scaling.

My pseudo-stealth netrunner V is pretty great in the mid-game but if I enter combat I have to play extremely carefully as even low-tier enemies can blast me from full health to zero in a handful of hits. Keeping your cyberware upgraded and making the most of your capacity is an absolute must.

[A]

I like it. I'm not using quickhacks on this playthrough, so I've found myself zipping around the battleground with sandevistan and dash. Supposedly, Sandevistan makes the game easy, but Sandevistan is my lifeblood as I'll die if I don't get my small window to retaliate freely.

It's kinda cool to zip around the map and only hiding/stopping to reload all three guns before going around enemies again.

[SaiColors]

Originally posted by Bathory:

Originally posted by SaiColors:

What exactly difficult you encounter with melee build? It should be durable and fairly easy even in very hard.

At low level against some enemies you are dead before being able to reach them if you are trying to bum rush them.

You can use everything early game, binding yourself with melee early game is pointless cause you don't have level or point for the key perk.

From my experience any sniper or shotgun, throwing knife is enough for early game, and you have the strongest combo Nehan+Satori for melee early gameplay too.