Changing difficulty later on?

[Kennedy]

I finished the first playthrough on normal. Now, I made a new save to start on hard right from the beginning, but the intro section is so annoying, because you have to play it all over again if you die and I died in a chat-sequence where I couldn't move and got hit by energyballs.

Is it possible to play the intro on normal and change the game to hard once I reached the bunker and saved, or are there any penalties?

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

You can change difficulty whenever you want, no penalties for changing, nor are there any bonuses for playing at higher difficulty either.

[Kennedy]

Ok, thanks.