Hardcore not that fun?

[Bullett00th]

So after toying with the idea for a while I decided to restart my Normal playthrough on Hardcore despite already being on my way to the factory.

I'm in Dimitrescu's wine cellar and contemplating going back to Normal. It's just not half as fun. The notorious werewolf onslaught in the beginning actually didn't bother me that much. It succeeds at creating tension and when you know you just have to hold out it's actually a fun challenge.

But fighting enemies later on is just a slog. They're all way too tanky. It's not an issue in games like RE2R because there it's all about avoiding zombies, removing their limbs or staggering them to navigate around.

In Village, just like in RE4, I feel the need to kill every enemy I encounter, and all Hardcore did for me was just make fights more dragged out and having to dump more resources in them.

Maybe it gets better once new weapons and upgrades start rolling but so far I'm not feeling Hardcore. Can't imagine VoS.

[Xyes]

They are 2 very different experiences. I did hardcore, then Village of Shadows. I haven't played standard mode, but I'm watching a couple of people play standard on youtube and not only do you decimate the enemies, but they give you so much extra ammo that you're basically walking army.

Hardcore is a lot more methodical. With the exception of the intro survival scenario, you have enough resources to kill every enemy, but you have to make everything count.

[eglepe]

You don't have to kill every enemy. VoS speedrunners kill almost nothing

[Bullett00th]

I know you don't HAVE TO kill every enemy, but I'd hate not to. It's a game that rewards you for killing enemies and doesn't really encourage avoiding them IMO.

Not on Hardcore at least, I understand it may be a necessary approach in VoS though.

[Pnume]

Hardcore is well balanced.

VoS is a dodge simulator unless you use infinite ammo and turn the game into Doom. I'm not a fan of that design.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Pnume:

Hardcore is well balanced.

So what's the supposed balanced approach to the tankier enemies? Do I just dump ammo into them? Should I use my knife more? What's the deal?

Because again the fights just became longer, wouldn't say they're more fun or anything.

[JohnTravoltage]

Aside from the start, I could barely tell a difference between standard and hardcore. maybe because they are so tanky on standard, I didn't notice them being a bit quicker to kill. On my first standard run I knifed almost every zombie to save as much ammo as possible, yet on hardcore I shot most enemies and had MORE ammo at the end. Not really sure whats up with that, guess theres some heavy enemy drop modification based on what you are doing.

By the time I entered the castle I didn't feel like anything was different except that enemies did more damage which is more just annoying than anything else.

[Howyoudoin']

For players like me who enjoy with limited resources to overcome the odds then Hardcore and VoS is the way to play, for others who just want to play this game like First Person Shooter then stay at normal and easy.

[Pnume]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

Originally posted by Pnume:

Hardcore is well balanced.

So what's the supposed balanced approach to the tankier enemies? Do I just dump ammo into them? Should I use my knife more? What's the deal?

Because again the fights just became longer, wouldn't say they're more fun or anything.

Usually the tankier enemies can be avoided. Sometimes it's worth killing them for the rewards though. Apart from the giant with the axe, no enemy was crazy tanky.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Pnume:

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

So what's the supposed balanced approach to the tankier enemies? Do I just dump ammo into them? Should I use my knife more? What's the deal?

Because again the fights just became longer, wouldn't say they're more fun or anything.

Usually the tankier enemies can be avoided. Sometimes it's worth killing them for the rewards though. Apart from the giant with the axe, no enemy was crazy tanky.

I'm talking the cellar enemies with swords and whatnot.

They're not crazy tanky, no, but I just find fighting them is kinda tedious

[Comrade Pickles]

Originally posted by eglepe:

You don't have to kill every enemy. VoS speedrunners kill almost nothing

A day later and you still havent climbed off speedrunners ♥♥♥♥♥

[eglepe]

Originally posted by Haha Spitfire Go Brrr:

Originally posted by eglepe:

You don't have to kill every enemy. VoS speedrunners kill almost nothing

A day later and you still havent climbed off speedrunners ♥♥♥♥♥

Speedrunners illustrate what's possible in a game. Who else am I supposed to cite, the guy who thinks VoS can only be beaten in NG+?

[Greb]

I mean, I didn't enjoy the game much regardless of difficulty but I don't think it was the difficulty that really affected my level of enjoyment much all the same. Bullet spongeness was obviously increased by Hardcore so I didn't complain about it too much in my review / criticisms since it was "self inflicted", I was more annoyed by the fact everything died in the same amount of hits instead I.E eight headshots for the ghouls in the Castle with a (for the time) fully upgraded LEMI, etc.

I became quite frustrated for a while during the lycan attack, though. Hardcore pretty much puts you into dying status with one or two hits, I don't know how the other difficulties work...I assume Casual probably takes like 5+ hits before you enter dying status, which would have made the initial Lycan survival section more fun I guess by virtue of you not suffering multiple deaths until you figured it out?

I'd love to have Hardcore enemy damage with Casual / Normal enemy health, and (potentially) Village of Shadows ammo and health pick ups. Then it feels like skill based gameplay, you're reward for being accurate and quick on your feet, punished for missing shots or wasting supplies, and enemies can still mess you up really fast if you taff about. That's my personal idea of good fun, anyway.

But yeah I can definitely agree that their tankiness is in the extremes in Hardcore, especially minibosses. I've only got experience with Hardcore so I don't know if they're the same on say, Casual, but shooting one in the face 120 times with a handgun is a little too extreme for my taste lol.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Greb:

I'd love to have Hardcore enemy damage with Casual / Normal enemy health, and (potentially) Village of Shadows ammo and health pick ups.

I'd have loved this

[BassChamber]

For the lesser enemies (Lycans, Moroaicas) a shotgun blast and a few pistol bullets will be enough. Try to hit them in the head to get a lucky headshot critical with shotgun.

Hardcore is the way to go. Normal is too easy. I killed everything in my first HC fresh run.

Also, you can sell the starting weapons once you get better ones. No point into wasting money on them.

[Hash]

Originally posted by BassChamber:

For the lesser enemies (Lycans, Moroaicas) a shotgun blast and a few pistol bullets will be enough. Try to hit them in the head to get a lucky headshot critical with shotgun.

This. Sure, enemies are quicker and stronger on hardcore but a single shotgun blast leaves the standard foes with just a little more health than they'd have on casual. If you want different weapons to truly matter hardcore is the way to go. Casual can be beat using only the pistol to kill everything or maybe even the NG+ knife. In VoS killing is a sin tho.