How hard is it really? Is it over the top or manageable?

Depends on what youve unlocked really.

I don't know about single player but it's not very hard to beat playing coop, even starting from scratch without any weapon upgrades.  Professional mode on the other hand is really hard unless you cheat and use infinite ammo.

Professional mode is harder then Veteran mode.

With infinite rockets and hydra... it's easier then normal starting from scratch.

Fully depends on what you have unlocked.  With infinite magnum and rockets it took me 2 hours 54 minutes on Veteran, compared to 9 hours for my first play-through on Amateur and 4 hours 45 minutes for normal.  Remember you can always go back and replay specific missions to reduce your overall time for a difficulty to unlock the infinite rocket launcher.

I did Veteran first. It's do-able if you play co-op with a competent person. Otherwise, you can just play on Normal, get some infinite ammo and stuff, then do the trick to unlock Professional without actually beating it on Veteran. To do the trick you join a person's game on Professional, get to a save, save of course, then quit.

The difficulty is amped, not through sheer numbers of enemies, but by lessening the damage you dole out and increasing the damage they do. It's all a matter of being aware of your surroundings.

I'm playing through Veteran with a buddy of mine, and as long as the two players communicate and divvy responsibilities wisely, no threat is a truly indomitable one.

Manageable.

A hit from a regular infected may take of 1/3 of your life. Nothing too hard.

Now professional...whew.

"Manageable.A hit from a regular infected may take of 1/3 of your life. Nothing too hard.Now professional...whew."

"How hard is it really? Is it over the top or manageable?"

Not that hard once you get use to it. Professional mode is pretty damn hard though. Good luck beating the Ndesu boss. Freaking unbelievable.

So far, i've found Veteran pretty fine though I do have the infinite Lightning Hawk and Rocket Launcher. That being said, now those things that come out of the pods have arrived, Sheva seems to get impaled all the time which is quite annoying so I suggest doing it in co-op if possible.

"With infinite rockets and hydra... it's easier then normal starting from scratch."

Well for an experienced gamer its a good challenge but nothing where you die several times in the same spot. Should take you 10-12h from scratch and i plowed through it in 3h34min whit inf. hydra, rocket launcher, AK47 and some handcun think it was the SIG and died one time but Sheva died 3-4times dont really remember.
If you have played RE4 i think Veteran should be your starting diffeculty for a decent challenge other wise Normal is good. Easy is WAY to easy.
I myself am playing on pro now whit chapter six left and clocked around 3h. Whit all infinite wapons of course.
I played through Easy for fun whit the infinite rocket launcher and made it through in 2h 03min :), i didnt stop for nothing and only used a herb once and that was because i stood next to the fence when the dude whit the big axe came and knocked it down in 1-2. Every boss took less then 3 shots(some neede two or three to first get knocked down and then killed) some died on the first shot but *small spoiler* Wesker took around 10+ becuase he was blocking that sob.

I found it stupid easy. Then again, I had an infinite ammo Desert Eagle. And my mate had an infinite ammo Man Cannon. But even without those... it wouldn't be very hard.

(Also, me and my mate both got the infinite ammo RPG in this playthrough, so yeah. It's quick)

"I found it stupid easy. Then again, I had an infinite ammo Desert Eagle. And my mate had an infinite ammo Man Cannon. But even without those... it wouldn't be very hard.(Also, me and my mate both got the infinite ammo RPG in this playthrough, so yeah. It's quick)"

"So far, i've found Veteran pretty fine though I do have the infinite Lightning Hawk and Rocket Launcher. That being said, now those things that come out of the pods have arrived, Sheva seems to get impaled all the time which is quite annoying so I suggest doing it in co-op if possible."

Also, on a final note about the ease of Veteran Mode:

Like the past Resident Evils, the trick to the harder difficulties is the simple act of knowing what the game is going to throw at you. Once you know what puzzles any particular act has, where to position yourself, where to position your partner, and where the enemies spawn (since, like Gears of War, the difficulty doesn't up spawn counts but fudges with damage counters), you're pretty much set to roll.

Like others have said it depends on what you've done with your upgrades. 

Anyways, thanks to my friend the infinite rocket launcher I managed to beat it on Pro today.  1000 achievment points get!

For me, it was just slightly harder than normal. Having upgraded nothing but the MP5.

Veteran is pretty easy as long as you have one weapon with infinite ammo (preferably the magnum), especially if you play through on normal first. Knowing what you can expect helps make it a pretty quick playthrough.

I started on Veteran it wasn't hard at all. If you've played RE4 a lot on Professional then its nothing.