Hard Mode, Enemy AI & No More I-Frames (Mini Review)

[Leonesaurus]

Has anyone tried beating the hidden hard difficulty mode yet?

I'm in the process of trying to beat it myself, and irregardless of this post, I will beat this before the main game releases. However, two things became very clear to me about this remake that I didn't notice on my first and subsequent normal playthroughs. The enemy AI is very, very, very aggressive and they have little to no downtime in between attacks. I think part of this may have to do with the new knife mechanics and the fact you can move and shoot now, among other factors.

It doesn't feel fair and balanced like the original game was in that regard for a few reasons. I want to hold judgement until I beat the main game and 100% it, but I'm just wondering what others feel after playing the demo overall, specifically after playing the hard mode several times? Does everyone else feel it's pretty much perfectly tuned, or does anyone else feel the AI is a little ridiculous in the fact you can get hit, then while you're in the recovery animation get immediately hit by another melee attack?

Normal difficulty is much better tuned to perfection for the game's mechanics and overall flow, since you can at least land a shot or two to trigger melee attacks, but on the harder difficulty, it'll sometimes take 4-5 shots just to trigger the same thing on one enemy all the while dealing with an encroaching swarm surrounding you that is simultaneously throwing out attacks, grabs and weapon throws.

I understand the main game will help with this by giving you more weapons and the ability to upgrade them with ammo crafting, but it seems over-tuned on the harder difficulty. If the knife had no durability mechanic, this would help more with enemies using weapons, but bare-handed enemies would still highlight this issue since you can't parry a grapple attack or a punch. You can stab them if you want, but wouldn't a bullet just be better in that scenario?

I've seen one particular Ganado punch me in the head while running diagonal to him, and then immediately trigger a grab attack right after connecting his punch. This is problematic especially when other Ganado can now chase from behind and tag-team with grapples resulting in you getting impaled as you're being held. Chainsaw is an instant-kill in this scenario, per usual.

Again, I'm creating this post just to highlight some potential issues with the game that I've noticed after my time with the demo. Curious if anyone else feels anything similar after tackling hard mode.

The part that blew my mind is that when you climb ladders now, you can be attacked and will fail the climb animation. I'm not kidding. Leon feeling so slow when all the Ganado feel like they equally keep up with him makes this worse. By the time you reach a ladder or a window to interact with to escape, there's a swarm building up around you.

A quarter into the climbing animation any hit that connects with you from an enemy will deal damage and make you fall down. On professional, you're finished. Taking ladders now is not the safe move as it was in prior games. And trust me, I remember a lot of ladders being in this game. Mercenaries in particular is going to be a lot harder if this enemy AI stays this jacked in the future content coming our way.

This game on professional is going to be rough, but again, at least in the main game you'll have more weapons and upgrades like you would in the original RE4. I just don't know how fun and balanced it's going to be when it feels like BS right now in the early-game with this demo exclusive difficulty. But again, this difficulty is still using the main games rules, mechanics and AI.

I've just never seen any mainline or spin-off RE game introduce these new rules, whereas before it used to be a safe series of I-frame animations that bought you some time to get away from the enemy and re-engage. We'll see how the full release handles this, but it's a little worrying seeing how it's handled in the demo. The normal difficulty experience felt amazing in comparison and didn't bother me at all. That's why I came here to see what others thought.

Anyway, back to hard mode.

[DemoNeZz]

Автор сообщения: Leonesaurus

Автор сообщения: ZiggyPanda

i regret now trying it and no doubt coming back in an hour and ranting with you lol but i am going to so lets just get this done haha

I cheated a little a finally decided to watch a Youtube video showing a clear. What you have to do is kill the chainsaw guy using 3 grenades, all your shotgun shells, and light him up with your handgun/TMP. The important thing to take away here is after you do successfully kill him you HAVE TO pick up his dropped item, which is money, for the bell to chime.

You don't have to kill anyone else besides him. 1 grenade is on a ledge to your right when you first enter the village, behind that house. The second is past the cow shack, inside a bedroom you can jump into. The 3rd grenade is upstairs next to the shotgun. I don't think any other grenades are on the map, but I could be wrong. RNG may play into what items you get also sometimes.

Well, it's definetly not about picking up pesetas from Super Salvador, it's still timer thing or kill count. I killed him rather quickly and looted 10000 in the first 2 minutes

[Tarzan]

Skill issue

[ZiggyPanda]

Автор сообщения: Leonesaurus

Автор сообщения: ZiggyPanda

i regret now trying it and no doubt coming back in an hour and ranting with you lol but i am going to so lets just get this done haha

I cheated a little a finally decided to watch a Youtube video showing a clear. What you have to do is kill the chainsaw guy using 3 grenades, all your shotgun shells, and light him up with your handgun/TMP. The important thing to take away here is after you do successfully kill him you HAVE TO pick up his dropped item, which is money, for the bell to chime.

You don't have to kill anyone else besides him. 1 grenade is on a ledge to your right when you first enter the village, behind that house. The second is past the cow shack, inside a bedroom you can jump into. The 3rd grenade is upstairs next to the shotgun. I don't think any other grenades are on the map, but I could be wrong. RNG may play into what items you get also sometimes.

My first run of it i almost didn't make it out the damn basement let alone get to the village haha jesus THREE of them to begin with and in the dark AND with less staggering AND with a grab attack that normal mashing to break out of leaves you in the red. Thank god its exclusive to the demo. I got to the rusted truck and as someone said they may count total kills so i thought i'd take em down, one down and twitching so knife him... it broke, for real, wtf haha so i downed the second, he too twitched, got up and 5 shots no stagger grabbed me and.... well nice to see the cool death animation.

Second attempt i made it out the basement with one grab and a knife escape, managed to book it past the two guys, perfect parried the guy in the shack to get the flash grenade and red herb, something else i just panicked mashed 'A', village time...
Sneak around the left, knife the worker, smash crate and grab thing. sneak into house and get other things, go past where worker was into shack, grab that thing...far as i'm aware that's my sneaking options exhausted. Run straight into house, huh, that's a neat new skin Dr, time to barricade and run upstairs. Get all the things and foolishly run at guy and ladder rather than break window to the right (this is all before knowing i have to kill chainsaw guy btw), shoot a few times and no stagger, get grabbed, use knife, didn't see another had climbed ladder and second grab, knife, now broken. kick ladder. jump down. RIGHT ONTO CHAINSAW GUY AND A GROUP, fml i assumed he was behind me upstairs.
So running around and occasionally turning to pop anyone a couple times, not working well, run all the way to where i guess would be the ledge grenade at the end of the path you mentioned... grab it and go to jump over fench but just as the prompt appears to vault i am killed by sonic the chainsaw wielding hedgehog who i guess sprinted after me and thats the end of that.

[DemoNeZz]

The pain in the ass in this mode are Ganados, not Chainsaw guy, LOL. For my runs I can consistent deal with Super Salvador by 2 nades, almost every shotgun and TMP shots and fire damage. But Ganados with a LOW CHANCE to stagger in the head is pure RNG. You can one-shoting with blowing head off. You can waste your ammo like a maniac in their head and they don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about it. So the strat for passing this mode is to kill Salvador and survive by running

[Plank]

The stunlocking was an issue in the RE4, RE2R and 3R but the potential for it is much higher here because of a number of things. More enemies, they are more aggressive, they are faster and a number of basic actions having a sort of startup and recovery.

It's not insurmountable of course, but when you end up in a situation where you take damage for already taking damage it can feel pretty unfair. I personally hate anything that takes control from a player.

[DAWN OF THE DEAD]

ok hard mode is crazy, as i understand to try challenge again i just need to wait for rng?

[ZiggyPanda]

Автор сообщения: TheCaptainGhost

ok hard mode is crazy, as i understand to try challenge again i just need to wait for rng?

i started a new game, quit to menu, then the next time it came up again, so i guess if it doesn't keep starting and quitting to menu, new game

[lackesis]

Just cleared Mad Chainsaw mode. Killing mad chainsaw guy isn't problem. The problem is how to deal with those fast and aggressive villagers and you don't have ammo to kill 20 of them, so no choice but run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_CN9r9qtM

[DemoNeZz]

Автор сообщения: Kazuya's bicep

The stunlocking was an issue in the RE4, RE2R and 3R but the potential for it is much higher here because of a number of things. More enemies, they are more aggressive, they are faster and a number of basic actions having a sort of startup and recovery.

In original 2005 release of RE4 stunlocking definetely wasn't an issue, it was guaranteed with hitting head or leg. Almost the same thing in normal mode of demo but legs not so consistent and very rarely shot in the head cannot stagger.

[DAWN OF THE DEAD]

Автор сообщения: ZiggyPanda

Автор сообщения: TheCaptainGhost

ok hard mode is crazy, as i understand to try challenge again i just need to wait for rng?

i started a new game, quit to menu, then the next time it came up again, so i guess if it doesn't keep starting and quitting to menu, new game

does hard mode works with tmp ? because i still didn't try to get it

[DemoNeZz]

Автор сообщения: TheCaptainGhost

does hard mode works with tmp ? because i still didn't try to get it

Yes, it does

[ZiggyPanda]

Автор сообщения: TheCaptainGhost

Автор сообщения: ZiggyPanda

i started a new game, quit to menu, then the next time it came up again, so i guess if it doesn't keep starting and quitting to menu, new game

does hard mode works with tmp ? because i still didn't try to get it

Yep, defo get it in normal mode first before trying is my advice

[Many asi nomas]

:yay:

[lackesis]

Автор сообщения: TheCaptainGhost

Автор сообщения: ZiggyPanda

i started a new game, quit to menu, then the next time it came up again, so i guess if it doesn't keep starting and quitting to menu, new game

does hard mode works with tmp ? because i still didn't try to get it

It works, you can go TMP route too.

[Leonesaurus]

Alright, I just beat it on stream. Took 10mins and only killing Dr. Salvador. After killing him and collecting his money drop it takes about a min or so before the bell tolls.