Hard II vs Survival II

[Sticky White Stuff]

Alright, let me state this upfront. I own this on a PS4 (Playing on PS5), bought the game today because it's on sale and i doubt my old 1060 GTX OC would do the job with constant 60 frames on PC at max. (So no Mouse Icon), i can prove if for some weird reason people want to think i got it in a different way.

I went with Survival II, but just in a few missions changed my mind. Because i love the no hud elements, yet i hate to tap R3 to get some information. It would be nice if the game had a dynamic HUD system, like when in combat you see your health and stamina and flashlight, etc, and a different way to show markers (Like Ghost of Tsushima had).
This was my take on it, i thought it would be cool. Now playing on Survival II was fun, and it was actually pretty darn easy. You dodge, melee, shoot in the head or craft bombs and if push comes to shove, stealth kill. Sure it's spongy a bit, but headshots count as headshots. There is also not too much ammo, but other things are plentiful.

Thing is, there is no trophy for Survival II unless you play it on NG+ (PS4/5) just Survival.
Apart from no fast traveling and less resources (There were so much resources in Survival II i couldn't believe it, apart from gasoline, that bugged me a little. It would be nice if i could tie one on my Motorcycle like a package.

So is Hard II actually a good replacement for Survival II for a first time playthorugh (I always play at the hardest difficulty if i can) But this might be a special case.

And if you are wondering why do i ask here, it's because i am mostly in the PC community and Steam community. While yes, i also play Console games, i play PC games more.

[blackvoid]

Survival is just removal of "un-realistic" features. Like you said, fast travel, mini map, waypoints etc. I finished the game on Survival and it was just right, except I hated manual travel.

I started New game+ on Hard 2. It is much pleasant to play, don't have to constantly mash focus button to navigate, can fast travel. Having stupid amount of money, full health/stamina and all the best firearms makes the game much easier. I think I will just do a fast run to get 2 Days 2 Gone achievement.

For new players I'd recommend Hard 2.

[Sticky White Stuff]

Originally posted by blackvoid:

Survival is just removal of "un-realistic" features. Like you said, fast travel, mini map, waypoints etc. I finished the game on Survival and it was just right, except I hated manual travel.

I started New game+ on Hard 2. It is much pleasant to play, don't have to constantly mash focus button to navigate, can fast travel. Having stupid amount of money, full health/stamina and all the best firearms makes the game much easier. I think I will just do a fast run to get 2 Days 2 Gone achievement.

For new players I'd recommend Hard 2.

Thanks for the response. Survival II wasn't really hard, but it was just more tedious overall. And if the game doesn't have a proper challenge overall, might as well play it with the HUD elements if i am going to replay it on Survival II on NG+ anyway.

[jacobvandy]

I agree it's kind of awkward the way they implemented it, but that can happen when you slap in a "realism mode" post-release without designing the game to support it. Should have put more signage on the roads to let you navigate without the GPS and then disabled the minimap entirely rather than just hide it. Maybe even give you a physical map you can take out and look down at while you're riding. Make it so you can look down at the bag to check your supply of ammo, meds, and scrap (floating numbers like on the bike) when you use non-combat focus, visible injuries would be nice to give a idea as to your HP level, etc. And I actually felt the way fast-travel was implemented is really fair and not too unrealistic compared to a lot of other games, so disabling that was a bit much...

AFAIK Hard II is identical to Survival II as far as the changes that actually affect how hard combat is, so it should still be plenty challenging. But that's what I ended up doing, too, just bee-lining through the story on Survival for the NG+ cheevo.

[sh3riff]

what .. survival counts only in NG+ as a trophy count? Well .. that sucks .. guess i am gonna start over right now to keep the hud because to see anything i also hate to spam the focus

[Sticky White Stuff]

Originally posted by jacobvandy:

I agree it's kind of awkward the way they implemented it, but that can happen when you slap in a "realism mode" post-release without designing the game to support it. Should have put more signage on the roads to let you navigate without the GPS and then disabled the minimap entirely rather than just hide it. Maybe even give you a physical map you can take out and look down at while you're riding. Make it so you can look down at the bag to check your supply of ammo, meds, and scrap (floating numbers like on the bike) when you use non-combat focus, visible injuries would be nice to give a idea as to your HP level, etc. And I actually felt the way fast-travel was implemented is really fair and not too unrealistic compared to a lot of other games, so disabling that was a bit much...

AFAIK Hard II is identical to Survival II as far as the changes that actually affect how hard combat is, so it should still be plenty challenging. But that's what I ended up doing, too, just bee-lining through the story on Survival for the NG+ cheevo.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know Hard II and Survival II were roughly the same difficulty wise apart from the Non-Hud/No-Fast Travel. I am certainly enjoying the game more now.
It's still not easy (for someone who doesn't know the locations) to find fuel all the time for example. I will complete Survival II on NG+.

Originally posted by sh3riff:

what .. survival counts only in NG+ as a trophy count? Well .. that sucks .. guess i am gonna start over right now to keep the hud because to see anything i also hate to spam the focus

I don't know about PC, but PS4/5 has 3 separate trophy lists (Which is not uncommon). You can get platinum by completing the normal set, aka the game set, but it still won't count to 100%. You will be left with around 80% completion with the platinum trophy if you don't complete the mini-lists.

Same like Horizon Zero Dawn. I finished the game at the most difficulty way possible, got the platinum and everything. But then there was a separate trophy list which said "Complete the game on NG+ on the most difficult setting" So it wasn't 100%, and not to mention my save games were somehow lost when using PS+, along with a lot of Bloodborne 43BL twinks.

Even Ghost of Tsushima has a separate trophy list for Legends Mode and NG+ (Which is just complete NG+ on any difficulty).

[sh3riff]

I am PC player so i havent played other games, HZD I only watched movie :) Tsushima should be on PC later hopefully.
But yeah .. the achievements are for NG+ .. so gotta start over, this would be waste of time. Shame, I hate doing things over and over .. still, better now than 60 hours later