I myself started on Hard mode. I want to eventually try "Purist" but I figured Hard mode would be a good jumping in point for someone like me who is a Hitman veteran. How about the rest of you? I've noticed on Hard there are as advertised far more guards and less checkpoints. The Train Station level was quite a challenge using only the suit with no disguises.

I went for normal as, although I am something of a Hitman veteran, I knew that this game was going to go in some different directions for the series. So I decided I wanted to get to know the levels, and get to understand the new mechanics, before tackling the "Real" game, which for us is playing on harder difficulties and rising to the challenge.

It was a smart move, since I have been fumbling around like a moron, accidently hitting people in the face with bottles instead of distracting them, and shooting people in the spine with a loud pistol instead of taking them out silently. Oops!

Going with my regular practice of playing at 1 notch below hardest... Probably not the best place to jump into this one (going Classic/Ironman on XCOM as a starter was quite the slap in the face) but it's what I do...

Playing on normal and enjoying it so far but i do feel invincible. Will play it again on a harder difficulty after i finished it.

I started off on hard, but soon discovered I wasn't nearly as good at being a hitman as I initially thought. So I bumped it down to normal (with the hints turned off) and am having a much more manageable time. I'm trying to ignore the challenges and such for now, since I feel as if I'd be robbing myself of some great replayability if I started stressing over them my first time through.

Anywho, game's fucking great so far.

just finished normal , probably gonna go straight to expert or even purist , but i might explore a bit more crazy shit before trying to silent asassin it all, oh and challenges should be interesting , its crazy the amount of shit to do on some levels.

I'm just playing on Normal right now, I usually do that on most games on my first play-through and go to the next difficulty on other play-throughs.

since i enjoyed the hitman games i decided to go for hard....just a tad on the hard side :(. I just keep telling myself "hard or go home" and try and push my way through it.

Expert. I will only do purist when I know the Levels good enough. 50 percent through the game & it's getting hard, real hard. The increase of enemies & placement in some Levels, & no mission checkpoints, makes it so tight & not much room for faults if you want Silent Assassin. I have restarted my current mission probably 20 times in just one section because I want the best outcome.

Expert, and I'm so frustrated at the game. Getting spotted and restarting checkpoints has been 90% of the 5 hours I've played so far.

Got Silent Assassin fairly easy on King of Chinatown. But that fucking Hotel.. And trying suit only.. Urgh!

@Demoskinos said:

I myself started on Hard mode. I want to eventually try "Purist" but I figured Hard mode would be a good jumping in point for someone like me who is a Hitman veteran. How about the rest of you? I've noticed on Hard there are as advertised far more guards and less checkpoints. The Train Station level was quite a challenge using only the suit with no disguises.

Did you complete the train station with only a suit? Do you have a video of it? I'm also playing on hard, but damn is it a nightmare to do that stage suit-only once you activate the B-station switch.

I played on Hard up to the 4th stage. I initially thought I could tackle Hard because I've gotten Silent Assassin in every mission in Professional in Blood Money. But damn, Hard is freakin' Hard. I'm considering switching to Normal so that I can increase some of Agent 47's skills before going back to Hard.

I don't think you're meant to play on purist until you know the levels (it says so in the difficulty description, at least), so I started on hard. I didn't want my first run through the game to be frustrating as all hell and/or take forever.

Normal, mainly because I don't really know what I'm doing. I probably should have played on a harder one simply because I restart as soon as I get caught. And when I do get caught, it takes forever to die

Playing on hard. I literally feel sorry for anyone playing purist, it has to be a ball busting nightmare. People playing on normal who think you will just switch up to purist after your first playthrough..... uh, I really really wouldn't do that if I were you. Hard on this game is not called Hard because it is "a little" tougher than normal. I have honestly had to stop myself from switching it to normal just to make the game more fun and less frustrating a couple times now.

@Ghost_Cat: Yes. I did it but it was brutal. Assuming you can get to the switch by yourself. Do this...

• Open door and walk out to nearest crowd, stay here until the cop turns around.
• Head to the arcade claw machine use the "Run" button to "fast walk" to get there
• Two more cops will pass, wait for them then proceed to the next crowd then the next after that.
• there will be one visible cop right away and a second cop down near the stairs once stairs cop gets close fast walk by both of them
• walk down the stair tunnel but DON'T go all the way down.
• sort of "wait" for people in the crowd to start walking down the steps
• They will eventually make a big enough "crowd" that you can get into the larger one without being spotted.
• Once in the large crowd head to a safe spot near where the train will arrive.
• DON'T MOVE stay put and wait for the train
• wait for the crowd to move THEN get on the train

I hope that helps some. I've done Suit Only for every mission so far and its getting rough now but I hope that helps.

Hitman game without manual saving on hard is so fucked.

In the worst missions I retry checkpoints douzens of times.

Frustrating as fuck

@MildMolasses said:

Normal, mainly because I don't really know what I'm doing. I probably should have played on a harder one simply because I restart as soon as I get caught. And when I do get caught, it takes forever to die

Um, there's a restart from last checkpoint option...

I just started on hard, I'm one hour in, and I'm already regretting it. Not because it's tough, but because it always fucks me up in the end. I'll regret it!

Normal, cuz I'm a shmuck and I don't like to lose.

@Demoskinos: Thanks, that helped me out a lot (I forgot you can fast walk instead of normal walk). I love how, before, people thought this was going to be an easy game. I can only shudder at the thought of doing suit only for all levels on purist mode.

Started on easy figuring im going to be replaying it a few times at the very least so might as choose the path of least resistance first and work my way up the difficulty chain as i get better and more familiar with things. 
 
Then i beat the prologue and saw i wasn't unlocking challenges and then made the switch to normal.

I guess I will ask here. I'm going to pick this up Friday and I want to know what difficulty to play on. I've finished all the previous games. I got Silent Assassin on every level of Blood Money on the hardest setting. Normal looks too easy to me, but you guys are making hard sound like it is a bit too unforgiving for someone's first time through. So, what should a Hitman veteran do?

Christ just got to the orphanage. Getting all the items you need to progress is a real bitch. So many dudes everywhere.

Started on Hard. Could not figure out how to complete the King of Chinatown mission without alerting a bunch of cops. Bumped it down to Normal and some of the extra cops disappeared, making a clean kill possible.

So I've decided to tough it out on Hard for a bit longer to gauge how difficult the game would get as I get further in the story. Just finished the strip club mission and it seems like the game is getting a bit easier. I did have to restart the in between assassinating parts a few times though.

@IBurningStar: I suggest that you play it on Hard. And if you find it a bit too difficult and frustrating, drop it down to Normal. You can change the difficulty in between levels, so you won't have to start over if you've gotten far in Hard.

Just beat it on Normal, and holy crap, the last section was frustrating as hell trying to go through w/out a low score. Restarted the level like 20 times. I'll replay some of the levels after I get through my new purchases, mainly Walking Dead, Spec Ops, and Sleeping Dogs.

I started on hard as well. I found the King of Chinatown mission to be especially difficult, almost annoyingly so.

@pyrodactyl: I know that. What I meant was that in games of this type, usually when I fuck up, by the time I'm done cursing at whatever went wrong, the character is dead, and the checkpoint has already reloaded. It was its own natural cycle. In this game, he seems far too resilient for the odds he's facing, more like a character from a fps/tps, rather than someone skulking around trying to avoid being noticed.

Christ just got to the orphanage. Getting all the items you need to progress is a real bitch. So many dudes everywhere.

Playing on hard and planning to stick with it.

I haven't gotten too far (I just finished Terminus a few minutes ago) because I'm playing and replaying missions for the sake of uploading videos at the same time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zCvkKkSGAc&feature=plcp)

Usually always play on hard, since I want to get the most out of a game that I purchased, but now I'm not enjoying it that much... so I might bump it down to normal, then do a second, harder play through

i'm no hitman veteran, do played blood money and contracts but haven't finished them. Now i started on purist, i'm having a hard time trying to get past the cops after the explosion on the hotel. Guess i'll have to tone down the difficulty soon.

Hard, but considering turning it down to normal. I haven't played a hitman game in quite some time on the consoles and I've been messing up so frequently that it's getting annoying.