Hardcore mode is simply bad an unbalanced [detailed criticism]

[DaemonX_HUN]

The main reason why I picked Hardcore mode at the start is because I wanted a really authentic Resident Evil experience. I always liked the Ink Ribbon system because of its ability to deepen the game and general progression in an interesting way. So I wanted to think about each and every one of my moves knowing that I can only save a limited number of times.

By being said that, however, picking Hardcore difficulty was a huge mistake for multiple reasons.

TL;DR at the end

1. Bulletsponge enemies

On Hardcore difficulty, enemies become really big bulletsponges. They eat bullets like candies. There are zombies that can take more than 10 headshots. Aside from the fact that it has a negative effect on the immersion, it also has a critical effect on the gameplay as well. To understand why it's a problem, I give you a simple example.

On normal difficulty, you can slowly move backwards in a tight hallway while you are continuously shooting at a zombie that is getting closer to you and there's a high chance that by the time it would reach you, you'll be able to kill it (or at least decapacitate it a way so it won't present you a real danger anymore).

On Hardcore difficulty, however, most of the time it's just impossible to stop a zombie in a situation like this. Not just because they act like bulletsponges, but because even decapacitating them is harder.

Also, shooting an enemy that many times is just simply not fun, it's tedious, boring, and repetitive.

2. Problematic level design

Bulletsponge enemies wouldn't be that big of a problem if the game would actually give you the proper tools to be able to deal with enemies in other ways effectively. A general mentality about Resident Evil games among fans (especially about 1,2,3 and Code Veronica) is that a lot of times it's just better to run past/away from enemies instead of fighting them.

But the problem is that the level design is not compatible with the type of playstyle that the game basically forces on you on this difficulty. You can't really just get around enemies. Most sections of the world map are extremely narrow and limited, meaning that in these sections, maneuvering between enemies becomes a frustrating and clunky trial and error play... especially where one enemy is just as big and wide as the route you are going on and there's no real way to get around it.

I can only think of one exception from the top of my head: when you find the notebook, you will encounter two zombies on the hallway on the way back to the Main Hall. You can bait them into the room on your right and lure them to the table. Then, you can go around the table and exit through the door, then run to the Main Hall. In this situation, you can actually take advantage of your environment in order to deal with enemies in a smart way and conserve ammo.

There are games that give you the option to play in any way you want (Deus Ex, Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Prey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Of course, these are games from very different genres and Resident Evil is first and foremost about the horror elements and exploration, but the point is that if the game basically expects the player to play in a specific way in order to succeed, than at least the minimum would be to make sure that way of playing was actually feasible and most importantly, fun. Because it's not fun to try to avoid zombie grabbing animations from multiple enemies that are being 0,3 metres away from you in a very narrow hallway. It just feels unnatural and bad. While The Evil Within was maybe a flawed game, it still managed to do this. It gave you options. I don't understand why Resident Evil can't. Hell, even in RE: Revelations 2, you had options in this regard.

3. Too few ink riibbons

I remember that in Resident Evil Remake, the game rewarded me for playing smartly and by saving only when it was necessary. Most save rooms had three ink ribbons so I was able to save after every meaningful event / bigger progress.

But in RE2 Remake, the number of ink ribbons is simply extremely limited and even though I really only saved when it was necessary, multiple times I faced the cold truth that I had used all of my ink ribbons. This is too punishing, especially because of the multiple problematic aspects of this difficulty mode that make the game rather frustrating and unfair instead of tough, challenging, but fun.

4. Enemy damage

The amount of damage a single enemy does in insane. In 90% of the time, the player can die in two hits. The only exception I've found is when a crawling zombie grabs Leon (instead of a walking one). This just brings the healthbar to the middle level (caution).

The problem with that is you always have to use full healing items (G+G, G+G+G, G+R), and also, because most of the time it's impossible to stop enemies in time before they reach you and most of the time it's impossible to get around them thanks to the small environment, you'll die many, many times.

But it just feels cheap and this way the game rather feels like a trial and error game like Hotline Miami where you are supposed to know where each and every enemy is placed, etc.

5. Boss encounters

Multiple reviewers had already pointed out that the overall low points of the game are the boss fights that are designed in a specific player moveset / gameplay style in mind that the player / RE2 simply does not have.

To give you an example: in the first boss fight, you have to shoot the yellow eye on the shoulder of the boss to deal a good amount of damage. The problem is that the environment is a mini "maze" with very narrow corridors so you don't have the option to properly move around and get a good position / look on the boss' weakness.

Especially because when he is approaching you, most of the time his eye on his shoulder will be hidden from your sight. You'd have to face the boss from the left side to see the eye, but you can't really get to his left side because he is constantly chasing you through the corridors and the corridors are narrow so you can't get to his side.

There are small times when he stops for a second to do 3-4 swings with his arms, and then you can shoot his eye on his shoulder, but most of the time it's not really possible either because his hands moves too fast and the eye on his shoulder jumps in and out of your view.

Also, if you do enough damage to him, he will constantly run after you and he won't stop until he gets you. So you can't bait him into doing 3-4 hits anymore. But if you actually stop and turn around to try to shoot him, by the time you would do that, he will reach you.

I managed to do this boss fight after many tries, but I felt like it was extremely cheap and I basically had to 'exploit' the fight to succeed in it. It wasn't a greatly designed bossfight like RE7's Jack Baker bossfight that was actually fun and interesting, for example.

Of course, this is a problem on lower difficulties too, but this gets enlarged on Hardcore mode whre you basically have to use nearly all of your ammo to stop the boss, regardless of how precise you were with your attacks.

TL;DR

Also, I'm sure there will be people who will comment something like this: 'gitgud', or 'you are basically compaining because the game is hard'. No, I'm complaining because the game is challenging but not in the right ways and not for the good reasons. The difficulty truly shows the limitations of the controls and level design, while it also shows that there's a huge discrepancy between how the developers want you to play the game versus how the game can actually be played. It feels frustrating and annoying rather than being, you know, fun and enjoyable.

If the devs would have implemented a dodge option like in RE: REV2 or in RE3, than the whole experience could have been different. Bossfights could have been good instead of being frustrating and getting around enemies would have been a much more feasible option as well.

[Amritadyne]

Stopped reading when you said zombies taking a lot of shots breaks immersion. They're zombies, they don't feel pain, their organs don't work. Why would bullets drop them as fast as a living human?

[AmazingChocobo]

Originally posted by Ghasto:

Stopped reading when you said zombies taking a lot of shots breaks immersion. They're zombies, they don't feel pain, their organs don't work. Why would bullets drop them as fast as a living human?

In story telling. Even Resident Evil zombies die with 1 shot to the head. And the protagonists never get bit.

The zombies taking more than 1 shot to the head is only for gameplay purposes. So stop making up all this crap to defend the game.

Obviously we're not asking for 1 hit headshot kills in this game. We just dont want them to take 10+ shots. Bullet sponging is one of the factors that turned people off from the division.

[DaemonX_HUN]

Originally posted by Ghasto:

Stopped reading when you said zombies taking a lot of shots breaks immersion. They're zombies, they don't feel pain, their organs don't work. Why would bullets drop them as fast as a living human?

... and it even seems like you are proud of the fact that you stopped reading but you cared enough to make a troll comment instead of forming a valid counterpoint.

They are zombies, but 10 shots to the head is on the very end of the spectrum. I mean from 10 shots, every head would come into little pieces. Even from 5 (and generally zombies die from 5 headshots at the most on normal). But it was just a single little thing that I mentioned, it's almost irrelevant in the context of the other things I mentioned after that. Because the main problems of Hardcore mode are related to the difficulty and gameplay balance.

[Amritadyne]

Originally posted by AmazingChocobo:

Originally posted by Ghasto:

Stopped reading when you said zombies taking a lot of shots breaks immersion. They're zombies, they don't feel pain, their organs don't work. Why would bullets drop them as fast as a living human?

In story telling. Even Resident Evil zombies die with 1 shot to the head. And the protagonists never get bit.

The zombies taking more than 1 shot to the head is only for gameplay purposes. So stop making up all this crap to defend the game.

Yeah man it'd be so much better if you could just kill all the zombies in the game with a well placed headshot, that's sure to keep them threatening.

Go kill a different franchise.

[DarkFenix]

I'm sorry but the answer to most of your points is somewhere between you missing the point, and you just being bad. But I'll elaborate because I didn't actually come here to insult you.

On 1, you're missing the point. This is not an FPS game, you're not supposed to be using bullets to pop the head off every zombie you meet. Also, if you hit them in the head or leg repeatedly, they fall over, this makes it really easy to keep them back.

2. The reason you could run past in previous games was technical and mechanical limitations. The zombies had very fixed animations and it was almost comically easy to run round them given a very specific (but small) amount of space. Now you need to work for your run-by, maybe shoot the zombie in the head to stun it for a moment before you run past, maybe kneecap it so that it's busy picking itself off the floor.

3. From what I've heard there are loads of ink ribbons, something like 20 in a playthrough, which is about the number of times I ended up saving on normal anyway.

4. You chose hardcore, high damage is what you get. What did you expect?

5. Here you're just being bad. There is plenty of time to put a few shots into the eye then run away again. The fact that it's a mini-maze means you can do this ad perpetuum.

Every step of the way you seem to be pressing your assumptions on the game, assumptions about how it 'should' be played. Stop doing that and you'll have an easier time, the idea of a game is that you adapt to the conditions imposed by its rules, you're not supposed to stubbornly insist that the game's rules conform to your expectations.

[Maxaemon]

I am very early in my playthrough but some of the things you mention do bother me. However, I think that these are not the real problem. The real problem is that there are very few ways of fighting off the enemies. A simple thing as being able to "out-muscle" a zombie with rapid button presses (like it was before btw) would significantly improve the experience. I died so many times in first few minutes because I was so sure there has to be a dedicated button for tussling zombies, but sadly there isn't one and your only choice to run away which I think is bad design.

[V I D A L]

I don't own the game and didn't even read your wall of criticism text but I'm sure is just you being bad at the game. Everyone I know played it on Hardcore and loved it. Said it was an authentic Resident Evil experience and they all beat it without too much trouble. Hardcore is Hardcore. If you are casual, stick to the standard mode. Don't blame the game.

[thefollowingcharacters]

Hardcore is the hardest thing in the game. As its supposed to be. Its supposed to be frustrating, a high likelihood of failure if you don't do everything well, and even if you DO.

Its supposed to test your limits of the game's systems. You should know when you can dodge a zombie down to the frame. You should know the layout of the game like the back of your hand. You should be planning and managing like a man on an abandoned island.

Mindsets must be changed. "I'm not supposed to kill things. That's a waste, and should only be done as a last option. I should use shots as CC, like a quick head stun to run by, or leg shots to knocke them down."

"The game is not about me feeling powerful. It is about me feeling POWERLESS. And despite that, I will triumph over everything the game throws at me."

That's what real difficulty is. Now is it fun? Different strokes for different folks.

[DaemonX_HUN]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

I'm sorry but the answer to most of your points is somewhere between you missing the point, and you just being bad. But I'll elaborate because I didn't actually come here to insult you.

On 1, you're missing the point. This is not an FPS game, you're not supposed to be using bullets to pop the head off every zombie you meet. Also, if you hit them in the head or leg repeatedly, they fall over, this makes it really easy to keep them back.

2. The reason you could run past in previous games was technical and mechanical limitations. The zombies had very fixed animations and it was almost comically easy to run round them given a very specific (but small) amount of space. Now you need to work for your run-by, maybe shoot the zombie in the head to stun it for a moment before you run past, maybe kneecap it so that it's busy picking itself off the floor.

3. From what I've heard there are loads of ink ribbons, something like 20 in a playthrough, which is about the number of times I ended up saving on normal anyway.

4. You chose hardcore, high damage is what you get. What did you expect?

5. Here you're just being bad. There is plenty of time to put a few shots into the eye then run away again. The fact that it's a mini-maze means you can do this ad perpetuum.

Every step of the way you seem to be pressing your assumptions on the game, assumptions about how it 'should' be played. Stop doing that and you'll have an easier time, the idea of a game is that you adapt to the conditions imposed by its rules, you're not supposed to stubbornly insist that the game's rules conform to your expectations.

1. How would I miss the point? I completed nearly every main RE game and I played a bunch of horror games as well (all Silent Hills, Condemned 1-2, The Evil Within 1-2, etc.). I know how these games should be played, I didn't say that I want to kill every enemy, I stated that enemeies take TOO MUCH damage before they finally die, AND you don't really have proper options to play differently on the top of that (in order to deal with them).

2. Again, the level design doesn't support that kind of playstyle.

3. The number ink ribbons is not much considering the many other aspects of the Hardcore mode.

4. I expected a well balanced and fair experience, that is tough, but never frustrating or cheap. You know, like how a hardcore mode should be.

5. Then you are just a troll.

[DaemonX_HUN]

The sad thing is that everyone here automatically assumes that I'm bad just because I had something negative to say about something they love.This type of mentality is harmful and cancerous. It looks like the way I formed my criticism and the things I said are completely irrelevant in a discussion on the internet, the only thing people here see is that 'lel, this guy said bad things about my fav game, so he must be bad". You can't argue with people who have this 2-bit mentality.

[Jesterofgames7712]

I’ll just answer one and two since I can’t judge everything else.
Granted I may be early in my playthrough but,

As a great game (even if it wasn’t really a horror game said.) once said
“ Listen, forget about shooting them in the body, you gotta cut off the limbs. Grab a cutter anything like that. Cut them apart!”

Just replace body with head here. If you shoot off a zombies leg they are easier to dodge, shoot off there arms and you can dodge them even in the narrowest of hallways due to how slow they are.

[Lynfinity]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

The sad thing is that everyone here automatically assumes that I'm bad just because I had something negative to say about something they love.This type of mentality is harmful and cancerous. It looks like the way I formed my criticism and the things I said are completely irrelevant in a discussion on the internet, the only thing people here see is that 'lel, this guy said bad things about my fav game, so he must be bad". You can't argue with people who have this 2-bit mentality.

And what you're saying is that "You disagree with me? Then you're just a troll". You're not better than these "trolls" because of that.

You posted your OPINION on a public forum, you can't expect anyone to blindly agree with you. Some people wiil agree with you, some will not, it's simply how things are.

[KeathalKrisom]

The criticism is that Hardcore mode is too Hardcore for you. It's supposed to be "unbalanced" to tip the favours not towards you, but towards the game and its enemies. The mode is designed to overwhelm you and force you into trying to be as efficient as possible so if you find yourself slipping up in the next encounter, you'll have something to compensate for.

This is a core design of old Resident Evil games, minimize resources spent by clever decisions, the entire game is a puzzle in how much ammo you choose to dispense, how many enemies you decide to kill, damage taken, defensive items used, routes taken and avoidence of enemies. You don't have enough ammo to take out every enemy and you most certainly don't have enough health to take every hit. It's very addictive to play the game more efficiently next time, when you die and lose an hour of progress, there's a good chance you'll be able to catch up in twenty minutes because the game is inherently short.

The number of Ink Ribbons in this game is around the same as Hard Mode on REmake , and you get them before bosses, and before major events that could throw you under the bus. See: Crocodile.

[MrQun]

Originally posted by DaemonX_HUN:

The main reason why I picked Hardcore mode at the start is because I wanted a really authentic Resident Evil experience. I always liked the Ink Ribbon system because of its ability to deepen the game and general progression in an interesting way. So I wanted to think about each and every one of my moves knowing that I can only save a limited number of times.

By being said that, however, picking Hardcore difficulty was a huge mistake for multiple reasons.

TL;DR at the end

1. Bulletsponge enemies

On Hardcore difficulty, enemies become really big bulletsponges. They eat bullets like candies. There are zombies that can take more than 10 headshots. Aside from the fact that it has a negative effect on the immersion, it also has a critical effect on the gameplay as well. To understand why it's a problem, I give you a simple example.

On normal difficulty, you can slowly move backwards in a tight hallway while you are continuously shooting at a zombie that is getting closer to you and there's a high chance that by the time it would reach you, you'll be able to kill it (or at least decapacitate it a way so it won't present you a real danger anymore).

On Hardcore difficulty, however, most of the time it's just impossible to stop a zombie in a situation like this. Not just because they act like bulletsponges, but because even decapacitating them is harder.

Also, shooting an enemy that many times is just simply not fun, it's tedious, boring, and repetitive.

2. Problematic level design

Bulletsponge enemies wouldn't be that big of a problem if the game would actually give you the proper tools to be able to deal with enemies in other ways effectively. A general mentality about Resident Evil games among fans (especially about 1,2,3 and Code Veronica) is that a lot of times it's just better to run past/away from enemies instead of fighting them.

But the problem is that the level design is not compatible with the type of playstyle that the game basically forces on you on this difficulty. You can't really just get around enemies. Most sections of the world map are extremely narrow and limited, meaning that in these sections, maneuvering between enemies becomes a frustrating and clunky trial and error play... especially where one enemy is just as big and wide as the route you are going on and there's no real way to get around it.

I can only think of one exception from the top of my head: when you find the notebook, you will encounter two zombies on the hallway on the way back to the Main Hall. You can bait them into the room on your right and lure them to the table. Then, you can go around the table and exit through the door, then run to the Main Hall. In this situation, you can actually take advantage of your environment in order to deal with enemies in a smart way and conserve ammo.

There are games that give you the option to play in any way you want (Deus Ex, Dishonored, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Prey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Of course, these are games from very different genres and Resident Evil is first and foremost about the horror elements and exploration, but the point is that if the game basically expects the player to play in a specific way in order to succeed, than at least the minimum would be to make sure that way of playing was actually feasible and most importantly, fun. Because it's not fun to try to avoid zombie grabbing animations from multiple enemies that are being 0,3 metres away from you in a very narrow hallway. It just feels unnatural and bad. While The Evil Within was maybe a flawed game, it still managed to do this. It gave you options. I don't understand why Resident Evil can't. Hell, even in RE: Revelations 2, you had options in this regard.

3. Too few ink riibbons

I remember that in Resident Evil Remake, the game rewarded me for playing smartly and by saving only when it was necessary. Most save rooms had three ink ribbons so I was able to save after every meaningful event / bigger progress.

But in RE2 Remake, the number of ink ribbons is simply extremely limited and even though I really only saved when it was necessary, multiple times I faced the cold truth that I had used all of my ink ribbons. This is too punishing, especially because of the multiple problematic aspects of this difficulty mode that make the game rather frustrating and unfair instead of tough, challenging, but fun.

4. Enemy damage

The amount of damage a single enemy does in insane. In 90% of the time, the player can die in two hits. The only exception I've found is when a crawling zombie grabs Leon (instead of a walking one). This just brings the healthbar to the middle level (caution).

The problem with that is you always have to use full healing items (G+G, G+G+G, G+R), and also, because most of the time it's impossible to stop enemies in time before they reach you and most of the time it's impossible to get around them thanks to the small environment, you'll die many, many times.

But it just feels cheap and this way the game rather feels like a trial and error game like Hotline Miami where you are supposed to know where each and every enemy is placed, etc.

5. Boss encounters

Multiple reviewers had already pointed out that the overall low points of the game are the boss fights that are designed in a specific player moveset / gameplay style in mind that the player / RE2 simply does not have.

To give you an example: in the first boss fight, you have to shoot the yellow eye on the shoulder of the boss to deal a good amount of damage. The problem is that the environment is a mini "maze" with very narrow corridors so you don't have the option to properly move around and get a good position / look on the boss' weakness.

Especially because when he is approaching you, most of the time his eye on his shoulder will be hidden from your sight. You'd have to face the boss from the left side to see the eye, but you can't really get to his left side because he is constantly chasing you through the corridors and the corridors are narrow so you can't get to his side.

There are small times when he stops for a second to do 3-4 swings with his arms, and then you can shoot his eye on his shoulder, but most of the time it's not really possible either because his hands moves too fast and the eye on his shoulder jumps in and out of your view.

Also, if you do enough damage to him, he will constantly run after you and he won't stop until he gets you. So you can't bait him into doing 3-4 hits anymore. But if you actually stop and turn around to try to shoot him, by the time you would do that, he will reach you.

I managed to do this boss fight after many tries, but I felt like it was extremely cheap and I basically had to 'exploit' the fight to succeed in it. It wasn't a greatly designed bossfight like RE7's Jack Baker bossfight that was actually fun and interesting, for example.

Of course, this is a problem on lower difficulties too, but this gets enlarged on Hardcore mode whre you basically have to use nearly all of your ammo to stop the boss, regardless of how precise you were with your attacks.

TL;DR

Also, I'm sure there will be people who will comment something like this: 'gitgud', or 'you are basically compaining because the game is hard'. No, I'm complaining because the game is challenging but not in the right ways and not for the good reasons. The difficulty truly shows the limitations of the controls and level design, while it also shows that there's a huge discrepancy between how the developers want you to play the game versus how the game can actually be played. It feels frustrating and annoying rather than being, you know, fun and enjoyable.

If the devs would have implemented a dodge option like in RE: REV2 or in RE3, than the whole experience could have been different. Bossfights could have been good instead of being frustrating and getting around enemies would have been a much more feasible option as well.

For me, the Zombies being bullet sponges does kill the immersion a bit. What I think that they should have done was to allow Zombies to be felled by one shot to the head and for bosses to take substantially less shots if you hit them in their week spot(s). But they should have also greatly reduce the amount of ammo and gun powder. Also I think that a few slashes to the face with a knife should take out a Zombie as well, but at a cost of reduced durability. But that's me.

[M'aiqLuvsSkooma]

Hardcore is not unbalanced. Yeah it's hard but not unbalanced by any means. I'll explain why.

1.Bullet Sponge Enemies: A common sentiment is that enemies just take waaay too many shots. You mention how on Normal you can backpedal and send rounds down range in hopes it drops before it gets to close, while in Hardcore they'll more than likely close that gap before they go down. Fun fact: Standing still and letting your crosshair shrink gives you a damage buff. So try standing still, letting that crosshair shrink and go for headshots. They will drop in about roughly 4 shots rather than 12. Quite the difference, it'll save you loads of ammo if you just allow yourself to get that damage buff. Also after they go down from them 4 shots, run up and finish them with the knife. The knife is stupid strong in this game so use it when they are down. You save even more ammo by allowing yourself to get this damage buff combined with knifing them while they are down.

2. The level design is fine. Yeah it's cramped but one of the newest additions is that zombies can enter other rooms. Now plenty of rooms have loops to loop the zombie on so you can skate by without getting hurt. Examples are the long row of desks in the West Office, the bench in the locker room upstairs, the lockers in the armory, and the list goes on. The halls are tight and cramped, but they will follow you into certain rooms allowing you to loop them safely.

3. This is simply you not doing a good job at managing your ink ribbons. There's more than enough to get you through a run, I tend to end up with about 9+ ink ribbons by the time my runs are over. It does require you to go through long stretches of not saving and dying after 30 minutes of gameplay sucks but hey, you'll learn and improve.

4. You can go through a run without getting destroyed and having to waste healing items. Like I stated earlier, wait for your crosshair to shrink and you get free extra damage. Combining that with your knife and that makes combat much quicker and saves you resources. Also I mentioned luring them into rooms to loop them if you just wanna skirt past them and not fight them at all. It's Hardcore for a reason. They are supposed to be extremely deadly and you need to be careful.

5. I won't really defend this. The bossfights in this game suck. However in the first example you give there is a way to beat him pretty efficiently. Since he is really fast you need to bait swings and it's easy to do funny enough. While you're running away just tap the aim button while continuing to retreat. This will cause him to attack and while he does you are already out of his range. Immediately aim your gun, let the crosshair shrink and get that one shot in. Yes the damage buff also really helps on bosses and makes them go down much faster imo.

That's my response to you. Hope you can try adapting this into your playstyle and lemme know if it helps. Hardcore is fun and it's a shame you are not enjoying the mode. But maybe that will change.