How fun is Ironman/Hardcore?

[Lurker]

Maybe compared to JA2, last xcom, any rogue game?
I mean how fun is this particular game with HC approach, since I can remember Fallout Tactics wehere total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ becasue of constant errors and bugs.
I assume you can fackup game process only by finishing the battle - it auto saves "on battle end" isn't it?

[Jonas]

It autosaves at the end of the event, so if you want to get really cheaty, you can alt-F4 out of the game after the battle and try again - but that kinda defeats the point of Iron Man.

It's worth noting that the game is designed so you can keep playing after losing battles or failing quests. Have you played it without Iron Man mode yet? The first couple of times you start on Hispaniola you're likely to get in trouble quickly and may have to restart the game. It's very important to get off to a good start in this game, but once you've got the hang of the game systems, you're less likely to be heinously screwed over by a couple of nasty random events.

It's only at the very end of the Mexico campaign that you'll encounter some battles where losing them will prevent you from getting one of the "real" endings - you'll be forced to just go back to Spain without achieving anything. That's an ending too though, with a little slideshow cinematic of its own and everything.

There's one battle in the whole game that will literally kill your entire expedition including yourself, triggering a game over, if you lose it - and that's made pretty clear up front. It's the final battle for one of the endings, and it's completely optional.

[Lurker]

Thanks for such detailed answer :)
I was actually tanking about buying the game. But for some reason I want to play only HC version.

[Jack Dandy]

I think it's far, far more fun on Ironman. Makes your decisions count, and the battles feel more tense that way. I enjoyed Xcom a lot with that mode turned on as well.

[Jonas]

Yeah I think Iron Man is the best way to experience the game, and to be honest some of the events in Mexico work best with Iron Man on, since they gain a lot of tension if you don't know the "right" decisions to make. Also remember you can change your difficulty level at any time during the game, irrespective of whether you're playing in Iron Man or not, so you can still make the game easier if you hit a difficulty spike or harder if you're getting too good ;-)