With the preponderance of people complaining about the game being hard when they chose to set the difficulty to hard I'm just curious who's tried out Survivor yet? Unlike the other difficulties there is no listen mode and it seems enemies are extremely fast to react to your presence; you basically have to have sections of the game memorized from other playthroughs to succeed. Additionally there's pretty much fuck all for supplies so it basically is a conservation and stealth game except for the handful of forced combat sections. If it was available from the start there'd be even more people bitching about the difficulty, which would be hilarious but also silly. Can't wait to kill 20 people in Barnes and Noble again.

I didn't have a ton of problem playing on Hard, was gonna do a survivor run right after but because I started medium then switched to hard after the first encounter it didn't recognize it as a hard playthrough.

Survivor takes away button prompts when fighting, the hearing thing joel has (seeing enemies though walls", and severely lessens supplies found in the environment. It's, basically, what everyone expected the game to be at first (a survivalist experience). Kind of sad that it's locked behind completing the game once

The game was ruined for me because of the difficulty on hard mode, survivor just sounds like glutton for punishment

I enjoyed Hard a lot. I am curious if they got the balancing right on Survivor, or if it's just impossible. Definitely tempted to give it a go for my second play-through.

I planned to, but because I completed the game amidst the save bug, my completion didn't count so I haven't technically completed the game... . So I've instead gotta complete it again on Hard mode to then finally play it on Survivalist. I unlocked the trophies least... It's no biggie, though, since this second playthrough will at least act as a decent refresher of all the dialogue and the memos and stuff.

It sounded like it would be really rough at first but now thinking it over... limiting my ability to make really rash decisions to throw bombs or molotovs and it fuck it up might make things easier in the long run.

@yummylee: You don't have to beat it on Hard to unlock survivor, game is a lot more fun on normal.

I tried survivor for a bit on my 2nd play through. But was a bit much, after alerting the enemy and getting into a gun fight I was having to use melee to kill and had nothing for supplies left. Ill try it on my 4th play through going through again on hard already did normal and then normal + just to reap the benifits of all my skills and upgrades. I think once i get it down to a science on the stealth segments and just make sure to have a few mollies for the forced fights should be doable on survivor.

I am loving survivor so far. It put's even more stress on ammo conservation and I am pushing through as many encounters as possible before using any first aid. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone who didn't play stealthily their first run. You really need to have a good handle on how those mechanics work to get through survivor, I'm finding this the most rewarding stealth game in years. I've heard a lot of complaints about the stealth mechanics in this game though, so I must play it weirdly.

My first playthrough I'd already turned off button prompts and tagging (what does that do?) so being on hard the only difference between my first time and Survivor has been no listen mode. Which is really fun. Having to take that extra time to scope out an encounter before I head into a room is adding to the experience for me. I'm getting caught, scrambling, then hiding way more than I did the first time around. Makes Joel seem like less of a predator and more of a fighter, always on his back foot.

Also not having to spend supplements on hearing distance is a nice advantage over the other modes.

Looking forward to Survivor+, I haven't wanted to do a new game plus run in anything for years. Really enjoying it.

Im trying to escape the research lab at the college right now. All and all I dont find survivor that hard. Knowing the enemy paths from the first play through has made it all very manageable. Just sucks that everything is ridiculously hard to come by. Hard was much more fun. At this point Im playing just to finish.

Just in case anyone does not know, there is a trick to playing Survivor+ immediately after your first playthrough. You just have to finish the first chapter and then go to chapter select and it will let you choose Survivor as a difficulty option, while maintaining all of your New Game+ bonuses.

I've spent a couple of hours on Survivor, and to be honest, it seems totally fucked. The AI is unbelievably cheap and makes almost every stealth scenario nearly impossible. I like that the lack of supplies encourages me to be more creative in taking dudes out, but that's unfeasible when everyone becomes immediately alerted to you after the tiniest thing. I've even found that the friendly AI is fucking me up. They kept alerting the clickers in the subway mall area, and then the clickers would come after me for whatever reason. I'm not really finding it to be a lot of fun; it's more frustrating than anything. I'll keep pushing ahead, in hopes that it gets easier once you have more stuff available to you.

I played on Normal my first playthrough, and then jumped right into Survivor without trying Hard. It seems like Hard would strike the perfect middle-ground based on others' experiences.

I played on normal and now im on survivor and I did feel the spike in difficulty but not to the point where it's not fun. It forces you to play a bit smarter which I found a bit more gratifying.

Just finished it on Survivor, first playthrough was on hard. I have to say I really struggled during the first half. The sections with both clickers and runners totally screwed me over, and the larger areas with human enemies were difficult without hearing mode.

It definitely gets easier during the second half as most of the areas are cases of just remembering where the guys are and how to get past them from your first playthrough. I found the hospital really difficult on hard, but did it first go on Survivor because I knew where to go straight away.

Loved how the lack of resources make you tackle the game in a totally different way. That snowy section with Joel was a total bitch this time around, lots of distracting and hostage-taking.

Playing through survival at the moment, as long as you're smart it's really not that bad. Some of the biggest combat sections can be avoided entirely by sneaking past them, the lack of resources force you to be pretty creative in some parts.

Survivor sounds like it's going to be a pain in the ass for me. I'm not much of a stealth guy...

I'm saving survivor for a third playthrough, if I do that much. Currently playing on Hard right now, but I want to get all the collectibles and not get too frustrated if I'm finding it too difficult.

Pass. If there's one post-apocalypse game that I would play on a harder difficult it would be Metro: Last Light

Please clarify this comment, i need more information.

He means if you finish the game on normal and start a new game plus, you just have to change the difficulty to survivor after the first chapter. Then you'll retain all your perks from the old game for the hardest mode. Sounds like a plan to me!

How to get Survivor+

1. Start "New Game Plus", it will ask for a new save. Make a new save.

2. Complete the prologue; Pause the game at The Quarantine Zone (save should say "20 Years Later")

3. Exit to main menu, go to chapter select.

4. Choose Hometown

5. Select Survivor, it will ask for a new save. Make a new save.

6. Good luck

I just finished Hard and started Survivor tonight; bought the game used (Online code still works!)

Bottles & bricks are your friend. Don't waste shivs on enemies. Don't engage enemies unless forced. If you have any questions, message me because I've put 20 hours into this magnificent bastard over the weekend.

I'm thinking about starting out a survivor run, as I want all the unlockables; but the whole difficulty spike has me worried I'll just suck at it :P

I will manage to play it someday, that I know! :D

Im in the middle of my Survivor+ run right now and for me i got used to the limitations pretty easily. I am really into the slow and steady approach but about half the time im also going in using bricks and bottles and almost all my ammo on every encounter. Its really a fun game. But yea, patience is key in this game.

Finished Survivor + yesterday. My First run on hard took 15 hours 15 minutes, my second run, which was on Survivor took 3 minutes less than on hard. I finished Survivor + in about 10 hours, and I had plenty of ammo at the end. For anyone who completed it on hard, and has had worries about survivor because of the lack of listening mode, I had the same worries myself and I had no problems whatsoever with it.

As for the unlockables, I was pretty disappointed, it's nice to have different looking clothes when you play through it a few times, but if you want to do it just to unlock a few extra bits, in my opinion, it's not really worth it.

I beat the game on Survivor, it was positively punishing in spots, specifically the bigger shootouts such as the ones in the sewer.

While supplements and scrap metal for weapon upgrades are the exact same (I think) - resources for making molotovs etc are seemingly reduced by 80% or so. I think, in the 15 hours it took me to beat the game, I MAYBE crafted 15 to 20 items in total. It definitely has that director's cut/"how it was meant to be played" feeling, in that regard. You will think twice, three times, maybe more before you craft that shiv. This might be your last time to make one for a few hours. It's real scavenging/survival horror at its most intense. During the bigger set piece battles, they do throw you a bone occasionally, with some enemies dropping a few rounds, but on your average encounter it's super stingy. Enemies drop next to nothing, and cupboards and shelves are super bare.

Enemy AI is also brutal. I constantly alerted clickers and walkers while trying to stealth through sections, and human AI almost always out-reflexed me. The millisecond they'd stick their head up from cover, they'd nail me with perfect accuracy.

If the game's difficulty on the other settings was aggravating for you at all, I'd give this mode a miss unless you're a die-hard trophy hunter. If the increased challenge and harsher conditions sound like fun (they do make for an awesome, more intense playthrough) then go for it.

Conversely, by the way, I just finished a NG+ game on normal and I was able to Rambo my way through many, many levels. That mode is a blast.