I read a PC Gamer article, in which the author said that hard mode was the proper way to play the game if you are experienced at first person shooters. He made the case that the challenges presented the hard mode forced players to use tears, vigors and the skyline more often and more strategically.
After playing through the whole game on hard, and hearing Jeff's comments on the last Bombcast regarding hard difficulty, I think the PC Gamer guy is correct. Jeff said that he didn't use the skyline much, because he felt he didn't need it to clear out each "arena" of enemies. I felt like I depended on the skyline. Whenever I was getting in a tough spot, I needed to either find some quick cover or get the hell out of there, and tears were often a way to accomplish the former, while the skyline was a great way to accomplish the latter. I found myself using perks that increased my accuracy while on a skyline so that I could use the Bird's Eye Sniper Rifle to headshot dudes while flying past them - which was made easier by slowing down, changing directions, and using the skyline in ways that maybe I would have felt I didn't have to use, had I played in a lower difficulty. I also found myself dependent on using the Possession vigor to get temporary allies, I found myself dependent on turrets and other tears that Elizabeth could bring in, and stuff like that. I had to come up with stuff constantly. The challenge made the combat richer.
To be fair, I have to admit I found the beginning to be overwhelmingly hard, and lost probably way too much money there. But by the time I got to the second half I had already been thoroughly enjoying the combat, and felt that most of the times I died it was my own fault, and the result of my own carelessness and lack of strategic planning. On the podcast Jeff said that he only died a few times, always due to thinking he could essentially just Rambo a section but being wrong about that.
Also I'm definitely not a fan of the penalty for dying in this game. Taking money away from you only means you'll have less to spend on upgrades, which means the game is going to be even harder for you. At one section I kept dying over and over, and lost hundred of silver eagles. I couldn't upgrade my weapons and vigors after that, which means that, had I been better at the game, the game would essentially have been easier? Also sometimes you might be thrown on loops of dying over and over because you are spawned with less ammo and less health than when you came into that same specific challenge, which is really frustrating. But I found that generally, the more I progressed into the game, the rarer those situations became, and they never did come up more than two or three times throughout my playthrough.
Overall, I feel like I had a better, richer, more complete and varied experience with the combat in BioShock Infinite than what I would have had if I had played through it on medium or easy difficulties. Even if there were some occasional seriously frustrating encounters, I had some really great and exciting moments fighting dudes and half dudes-half machines in that game.
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