Is this game difficult?

[Yūrei]

Are there different difficulty levels? Looking to play with my wife and we like games that have a challenge to them.

[rarestMeow]

hello,

there are three difficulty level: easy, medium and hard - and the latter one isn't hard at all. overly I found all games in the series being trivial, but you can always make your own artificial challenge, like do not upgrade weapons or buy more health/ammos, which will in return make game very challenging

so, by default it is easy even on the hardest setting, but you may find ways to make it harder by limiting yourself, if you wish

[Carpe x Noctem]

The three difficulties are actually Casual, Normal, and Hardcore.

You can make the game more challenging for yourself by learning beforehand about the Upgrades and Abilities.

Almost every weapon or ability has four levels. You don't need to get your weapons fully upgraded to where your SMGs have incendiary rounds or your pistol has shock bullets -- or upgrade yourself to the point where you don't take any damage from bullets or fire. You also don't need to be 100% safe from car damage or from taking fall damage. You are not even required to activate Dual Wielding for your pistols and SMGs. You also don't need to purchase Infinite Ammo as this makes visiting Friendly Fire to stock up and refill ammo pointless.

If you max everything, the game won't present any challenge at all as you have effectively turned on "god mode". Enemies will shoot at you but you won't even be hurt and you be unaffected by fire traps in Professor Genki's arenas. The only thing that could kill you would be melee damage. While on the topic of melee, you also don't need Melee Muscles. This isn't Saints Row IV where your boss acquires superpowers.

You can also choose to not buy any of the properties and only purchase the main stores so you don't make income as much and as rapidly to be tempted by overpowered upgrades. There are also some mods which raise the prices of properties and stores and make earning money more difficult as well as other things.

I myself play this game on Hardcore difficulty without maxed out upgrades and weapons and no Dual Wielding. My HP is 1000 by comparison to standard Homies such as Pierce who has 5000 HP and Oleg who has 18000.

In short, if done properly you can make the game as easy or as difficult as you want if you pay attention to what upgrades are actually doing.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by 𝒞𝒶𝓇𝓅𝑒:

You can also choose to not buy any of the properties and only purchase the main stores so you don't make income as much and as rapidly to be tempted by overpowered upgrades. There are also some mods which raise the prices of properties and stores and make earning money more difficult as well as other things.

you need ALL properties and events to get the final ending. the game already throws barely any money at you until you have most of the map.

[Carpe x Noctem]

Originally posted by Chad "The King" ThunderC○ck:

Originally posted by 𝒞𝒶𝓇𝓅𝑒:

You can also choose to not buy any of the properties and only purchase the main stores so you don't make income as much and as rapidly to be tempted by overpowered upgrades. There are also some mods which raise the prices of properties and stores and make earning money more difficult as well as other things.

you need ALL properties and events to get the final ending. the game already throws barely any money at you until you have most of the map.

The OP never mentioned anything about completion, only if the game was difficult. I never said anything about not doing Activities. I also never said to NOT do everything. I just made some suggestions based on my own playstyle and experience on how to make the game more challenging and difficult. Side properties found throughout the map such as Havemayer Estates and Snooky's Sundries and More can be skipped for the time being. I have playthroughs where I have skipped purchasing those. But yes if you're going for 100% completion you need all of that done. You should also do all Assassinations and Vehicle Thefts before you begin to remove the presence of gangs (and STAG) from the city.

For example, to complete all City Takeover gameplay in the Downtown District you must complete the following:
- Complete 16 Activities
- Purchase 10 Stores
- Purchase 8 Properties
- Eliminate 8 Gang Ops

For the purpose of a playthrough though, you can easily get by with just owning all of these stores; Friendly Fire, Rusty's Needle, Rim Jobs, and Image as Designed. Also own the main shopping stores: Planet Saints, Nobody Loves Me, Leather and Lace, and Let's Pretend. This is also useful since you get a discount and for losing notoriety. Choices made during the campaign will earn you plenty of income and three of the Cribs can be upgraded to Strongholds which also brings income.

Also, even after completion, Activities can be replayed at any time since they don't disappear from the map. I myself often play the Medium and Hard instances of Professor Genki's S.E.R.C. and that ends up making me quite a bit of money.

I have save games where I still have gangs present in Steelport because once you do accomplish 100% City Takeover, the gangs will be removed and all you have left to fight is police and the military and zombies.

Also for a few Steam Achievements, you do need to fully upgrade a weapon in each slot and get the Flash Bang to Level 4 so it becomes the Fart in a Jar. I hate this and use a save editor to revert any unwelcome changes I needed to do to unlock these achievements.