Is anyone else finding the level of difficulty defending the little sisters to be fucking absurd? Spawn with 25% health and EVE and nearly no ammo and defend yourself against quick moving hordes that can kill you in one or two hits, but take four or five hits with the drill to be downed. I'm afraid I might have to be a pussy and go for the "medium" difficulty setting.

like the first game, headshots are golden. Harder to achieve though, i'd give my left nut for a crossbow in that game.

I don't expect a cakewalk, but the jump in difficulty between the two seems to be serious overkill. In fact, now that I've dropped it down to medium, it's not exactly a cakewalk, either - but at least it feels like the situations are achievable with a little strategy and patience. It'll be interesting to see what strategies people come up with for dealing with the swarms in Hard mode -- especially since the resources afforded you are much less.
 
On the other hand - at least they didn't aim for the "make it dead simple so everyone can see the end, even if they can't tie their shoes" alternative that games all too often do these days.

I'm finding it relatively okay on Hard. It's harder than the first, but Bioshock was pretty easy, I thought. Just gotta get into cover, set good traps, headshots, try not to waste ammo, etc.

I'm glad you were one hard mode cause I was about to make fun of you a bit, I'm having no trouble at all on medium, I took out the first big daddy and big sister on my first try..... I'm going to go for hard the next go around though. great game, so far the only thing I haven't totallygotten used to is hacking, damn those safes! I got them all but damn

Y'know I kinda miss when games didn't have a difficulty choice, now it's so goddamn temping to pick the easy mode. Most of the time you even get the same achievements. 

I hack every single thing in the game, and pick up every god damn item, because this time around I actually needed to get the most ammo i can. I like how easy it is to hack everything. I only fucked up once out of 100+ things hacked, the first game..... i fucked up alot

I'm playing on Hard as well. I've only played the opening couple levels, so I've only had to defend two little sisters and I thought those sequences were challenging, but not ridiculous. I did use up nearly all of my resources though. Set a lot of rivet traps, hacked everything around me so I had some help from bots/turrets and used conveniently placed explosive things to do some damage. Defeating the Big Daddy and Big Sister wasn't too bad either. What has been a kick in the balls though are the random encounters with bullet-sponge splicers (much like they were in the original). I haven't figured out exactly why some splicers go down in a couple shots from the rivet gun and others take five to six...

" @XII_Sniper: Demon's Souls!!!!!  No difficulty setting...or instructions....or an idea of what you are supposed to do.......and its awesome! "

The respawning in this game is a bit off the charts though. I can go into a room, clear it out from splicers, go into an adjacent room and open a box and when I go back to the first room again there's 3 or 4 new splicers there, again... all in the timeframe of a minute.

lol @ people who give a crap about gamerscore. It's a singleplayer game, play it at the difficulty level you'll have the most fun with. Usually, that means normal mode first time through, unless you enjoy dying repeatedly.
 
Also, what I've noticed in 8 years of gaming is that if you play a game the first time through on the hardest difficulty and beat it, there's no incentive to come back a second time around. Whereas if you beat the game on normal mode, you then get to go through it again on a higher difficulty, and it's more of a logical progression of difficulty (hard mode startgame usually feels like normal mode endgame)

Question: Is the aiming reticle the same as the first, where it's just like a big circle? I really hated that circle.

Considering how easy the first was I went for hard straight away. It's been fairly easygoing so far and I'm right near the end. Ammo can be a problem, but health and EVE has been in plentiful supply for the most part. I will say the Little Sister stuff is harder than most, but I just make sure I have enough ammo and health before I begin, if not I'l go and collect some and then come back to it. I think it can also depend on where the body is, since some are a lot easier to defend than others in regard to laying down traps. There's usually quite a lot of bodies in each area so it's probably best to find one in a good area.

Yeah, this is why I always play on Normal/ Medium/Default, because I just know at some point I'll hit a brick wall and not be able to progress on hard. Hard is for second playthroughs, yo.
 
Besides, in most games nowadays, 'Hard' just means "You take more damage" which I don't really consider to be much of an extra challenge. It just makes the game more frustrating.

" Question: Is the aiming reticle the same as the first, where it's just like a big circle? I really hated that circle. "

Spoilers for those upto the Fontaine Industries part:
 

" @xyzygy said:

" Question: Is the aiming reticle the same as the first, where it's just like a big circle? I really hated that circle. "

Yes.  On defending the little sisters, on normal I found once I got access to the mini turrets for the hacking device it made them (so far) very trivial, those little mini turrets can bring down even a brute splicer in little time if you keep them stunned with electro bolt. "

" Y'know I kinda miss when games didn't have a difficulty choice, now it's so goddamn temping to pick the easy mode. Most of the time you even get the same achievements.  "

I'm doing fine on Hard I don't start any harvests until i'm prepared though, with ammo and what not.
 
I'm also on the PC though, so aiming is alot smoother.

Love it when people bitch about max difficulty being hard.

" Play on whatever difficulty you feel like. If someone legitimately derives their sense of shame or pride from video game accomplishments than they probably have bigger issues in life other than which level to play Bioshock on. "

Yeah, I found it very hard at first before I got used to the fact than you really have to prepare yourself by laying turrets and traps every time you put your sister down to harvest.
 
Liberal use of the drill dash also helps you from getting swarmed. God, I love that move!

Honestly, first thing I bought when I had the chance? Wind Trap. Then I upgraded it as soon as possible. Why? COMBO TRAPS. They have saved me a ton of grief in defending Little Sisters. They're oneshot, like the trap rivets and trap spears, but it's really REALLY nice to hear screams from out of sight as they hit the flame and electric traps simultaneously. Honestly though, I think I just kept getting lucky with my gathers, because half the time a lone Big Daddy walked by and took some flak from a Splicer I just dodged and decided he wanted to rip somebody a new one. It's fun when you don't have to fight your own battles - best part is, Big Daddy just walks away after he's done murderfying the Splicers as long as I keep my distance. Perfect.

I thought the game was easier than the first one

This game was definitely more challenging than the first.  I rescued all the little sisters and harvested adam twice with each of them, on the hard difficulty.  It was definitely challenging.  I think one thing that really helped me out was getting head shots with the rivet gun, considering I had the gene tonic that makes head shots more deadly.  Just shock with electricity, and then you have time to aim for the headshot.  
 
The spear gun works great for this too!  Also, I recommend the decoy plasmid for those times when you're completely surrounded by 5 or more splicers.

"Love it when people bitch about max difficulty being hard. "

I regret not choosing hard in the beginning. I play hard now and so far it's been very nice, it's hard but not frustrating .(except when I forget to save)

just finished the game and tried some multiplayer. kinda surprised how well it turned out (multiplayer) As for playing the game on hard i think il start that tomorrow. i also want the BIG BRASS BALLS achivement... maybe i should just get that one on easy and save my self the headache? Also if you really really want you could just save/harvest the little sisters with out taking them to get more adem. I dont know how well that work out for you but its a thought.

But with the vito-chambers your basically invincible right? Its just a case of:hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn. 
Right?!

" @Pie: Not if you want some kickass achievements. "

gonna have to agree with this whole thread, i'm only about an hour or two in at this point but wtf?   maybe my expectations are all out of whack here but seriously, you're a big daddy, the biggest, baddest enemy from the first game, you're supposed to be this great legendary thing but any cracked out splicer can hit you twice with a stick and kill you.  i don't feel like a big daddy at all, not empowered in any way.  i'm making it through but dude is seriously wimpy.  maybe it'll get better with upgrades, but it just doesn't seem right.  i'm wearing big tough armor with a helmet.  i'm huge.  i'm a total fucking pussy.  strategy so far is to have max health potions at all times.  WAY harder than the first one.  

" gonna have to agree with this whole thread, i'm only about an hour or two in at this point but wtf?   maybe my expectations are all out of whack here but seriously, you're a big daddy, the biggest, baddest enemy from the first game, you're supposed to be this great legendary thing but any cracked out splicer can hit you twice with a stick and kill you.  i don't feel like a big daddy at all, not empowered in any way.  i'm making it through but dude is seriously wimpy.  maybe it'll get better with upgrades, but it just doesn't seem right.  i'm wearing big tough armor with a helmet.  i'm huge.  i'm a total fucking pussy.  strategy so far is to have max health potions at all times.  WAY harder than the first one.   "

" Is anyone else finding the level of difficulty defending the little sisters to be fucking absurd? Spawn with 25% health and EVE and nearly no ammo and defend yourself against quick moving hordes that can kill you in one or two hits, but take four or five hits with the drill to be downed. I'm afraid I might have to be a pussy and go for the "medium" difficulty setting. "

" @Branthog said:

" Is anyone else finding the level of difficulty defending the little sisters to be fucking absurd? Spawn with 25% health and EVE and nearly no ammo and defend yourself against quick moving hordes that can kill you in one or two hits, but take four or five hits with the drill to be downed. I'm afraid I might have to be a pussy and go for the "medium" difficulty setting. "

I didn't realize playing the game at the acceptable difficulty was being a "pussy". "

" But with the vito-chambers your basically invincible right? Its just a case of:hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn, hit some splicers with drill, die, respawn. Right?! "

I chose to play through it the first time on Hard. I didn't find it too difficult as long as you strategize your fights before gathering ADAM. The hardest part for me was the Big Sisters, and they aren't too bad if you know how to deal with them. Although you take quite a beating from them.

I just turned it down to easy. One shot takes off 90 percent off your health? THE CHARACTER IS A BIG DADDY FOR CHRISSAKES! I'm not saying it should be a frigging cakewalk but make it a fair fight.

" Is anyone else finding the level of difficulty defending the little sisters to be fucking absurd? Spawn with 25% health and EVE and nearly no ammo and defend yourself against quick moving hordes that can kill you in one or two hits, but take four or five hits with the drill to be downed. I'm afraid I might have to be a pussy and go for the "medium" difficulty setting. "

" like the first game, headshots are golden. Harder to achieve though, i'd give my left nut for a crossbow in that game. "