I am currently playing through this game for the second time on the "hard" difficulty setting, and it's disappointing. They simply cranked up the damage Batman takes and the hits enemies can absorb to an insane level and it's simply not fun anymore. The A.I. itself is as smart (or dumb) as ever. I managed to get up to the big fight against Poison Ivy, but at this point it's so cheap that it's plain impossible to beat her, even with the armor maxed out and everything. This particular fight was annoying enough on "normal", but on "hard" - ludicrous. Usually I prefer playing games on harder settings, but in this case, it's a real chore. It's frustrating because you know exactly what you need to do and how, but the damage you take with every minor hit is just upsetting, given the somewhat random fighting system.
 
What do you guys think? Have you finished the game on "hard"?

i went through on hard for my first play through, admittedly that particular boss fight did give me a heap of pain - and some of the larger group battles were a nightmare, but apart from that it wasn't too bad

Well it wasn't that bad for me to be honest, at times it definitely seemed cheap but i just retried until i got it.  I did it on my second playthrough and beat it in under two days, just a couple of hours.  The final boss was the hardest for me and it didn't even take me that long because i already knew the strategy and just was careful.  There have been a lot more games that were harder on the hardest difficulty that really pissed me off, but it will always be different for different people.

" i went through on hard for my first play through, admittedly that particular boss fight did give me a heap of pain - and some of the larger group battles were a nightmare, but apart from that it wasn't too bad "

I actually just got this yesterday and being the achievement whore I am started out on hard. The first fight took me about ten minutes just to get a handle on the fighting system. I'm at the next fight after taking down Zsasz and didn't find it tough at all; that being said I'm not far in either so I'm not really a good barometer.

"finding out the timing on running across the floor to not get hit by those balls (hehehe...) and when to throw a batarang and so on.

I recently got Batman and am playing it on Hard. The challenge is decent I think, its cool to get gunned down very fast and not be able to swing in front of their faces from gargoyle to gargoyle and magically vanish. However, the checkpoint/collectible system kind of pisses me off - If I collect some stuff and solve riddler puzzles, and then die - then I lose all the stuff I uncovered. THAT IS TEDIOUS BULLSHIT! Wish PC (at least) had a save function

You wanted to play on hard, you play on hard. 

I hate it when developers decide that's how they'll implement their tougher difficulties.

Yeah, make the Hard mode, how do you say.. Hard? Come on kiddies, learn to play games. 
 
I played it through Hard on my first playthrough and I got stuck at some points. However, once I got my fighting down, I blew through the game easily.

I beat it on normal then went back on hard and beat it without much of a problem but yes, the boss battles are a pain, especially Ivy, and the damage difference is the only real thing that's hard now. Though that being said, I can't think of many hard modes that do anything more advanced than change the damage ratio.

Playing games on hard never seemed that fun to me to begin with...
 
I can't even think of anything else that the devs would do differently to make it a "funner" hard mode.

I hate saying this, because there's no good way to put it without it smacking of a definite pomp, but I don't see what everyone's trouble with the Poison Ivy boss battle is. The battle's a cakewalk if you use the quick-Batarang properly. And, really, the enemy attack animations telegraph their intentions so plainly that not having a counter "Bat Sense" isn't that dramatic a loss.

" i went through on hard for my first play through, admittedly that particular boss fight did give me a heap of pain - and some of the larger group battles were a nightmare, but apart from that it wasn't too bad "

"My experience was the same. "

I play on hard all the time, I just got bored and didn't feel like beating it anymore so i just dropped it. Might pick it up later. I'm at the part...

"I play on hard all the time, I just got bored and didn't feel like beating it anymore so i just dropped it. Might pick it up later. I'm at the part...

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Where Poisen Ivy tells you where the plant is in and you have to locate Croc's Lair

. If anyone can tell me how much more is left cause I'm just about done with this boring game (IMO i've done everything I wanted to do.) "

"

I hate saying this, because there's no good way to put it without it smacking of a definite pomp, but I don't see what everyone's trouble with the Poison Ivy boss battle is. The battle's a cakewalk if you use the quick-Batarang properly. And, really, the enemy attack animations telegraph their intentions so plainly that not having a counter "Bat Sense" isn't that dramatic a loss.

"

Going through hard, it really fucked me up how there weren't any indicators as to when punches were coming. Other than that, I feel like it wasn't too crazy.

Dude! I thought the exact same thing as I played through the game on hard difficulty. A hard difficulty is not simply making the player weaker and the enemies harder! So many games fail to see that, and Batman Arkham Asylum is clearly one of those games.