About to start my first play through.  Been spending the last hour or so, tweaking my system settings.  Mostly touching up the audio.  
 
For a game that seems all about the atmosphere, and less about the combat.  What difficulty setting did you use and why?  How did it effect your play through?
 
I was thinking, I would spend some time in the menu of my sound system and monitor video settings to make the environment of Dead Space awesomererer.  Then just set the difficulty to easy, so I can just enjoy the ride and blast aliens.
 
Like a movie.  Aliens to be exact.  I just want to mow down and chop up some necromorphs!  Should Issac be a god or should it be about survival?

I started with normal. I had no issue quickly beating the game in about...5=8 hours. Most likely because i played dead space 1 for the entire week leading up to the release. So I did it with ease and no deaths 

" Zealot. "

I always go with whatever the default is.

Normal is great for a first run, but the higher modes offer a great challenge if you're into that. 
 
@dpedal1: 
 
I thought my scratch zealot run was tougher than hardcore mode. What part did you get stuck on?

I went Survivalist and it was a pretty good balance for me. Ammo was constantly low which made it way more tense.
I wussed out at the very end at the last boss and turned it down to normal cause my loadout wasn't a good set up for it and i was just getting frustrated and wanted to see the end.

" I went Survivalist and it was a pretty good balance for me. Ammo was constantly low which made it way more tense.
I wussed out at the very end at the last boss and turned it down to normal cause my loadout wasn't a good set up for it and i was just getting frustrated and wanted to see the end.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Those goddamn shadow babies were annoying as hell. I liked the setting for the boss but not the actual fight at all.

"

I went normal>hardcore>normal>zealot.

" @audiosnag said:

" I went Survivalist and it was a pretty good balance for me. Ammo was constantly low which made it way more tense.
I wussed out at the very end at the last boss and turned it down to normal cause my loadout wasn't a good set up for it and i was just getting frustrated and wanted to see the end.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Those goddamn shadow babies were annoying as hell. I liked the setting for the boss but not the actual fight at all.

"

I went from normal to easy at the end for the same reason.  That fight was flat out dumb. "

 
i'd say play normal.  easy seems tempting because it allows you to just roll through the game, but having some element of concern over the enemies' ability to take you out is a necessary part of the atmosphere imo.

I went  Survivalist for my first run. Didn't have to much trouble until the last boss as I was low on ammo. Reloaded to start of chapter and brought along the Force Gun *I Think* and totally whooped it. Went onto Zealot after and had no issues. Was doing hardcore, Got to disc 2 without saving and the my 360 crashed during the elavator ride. Might try again over Easter holz.

I bought the original Dead Space the other day (i want to play it before i try DS2) and decided to try it on hard first because i think i'm a badass gamer dude and wanted a challenge. It's really quite tough, hard on dead space is actually hard unlike other games where it's the normal setting for people who play games regularly. 
 
But as i said this is on the original, it might not be the same. I'm definitely going to restart on normal i think.

" @jelekeloy said:

" @audiosnag said:

" I went Survivalist and it was a pretty good balance for me. Ammo was constantly low which made it way more tense.
I wussed out at the very end at the last boss and turned it down to normal cause my loadout wasn't a good set up for it and i was just getting frustrated and wanted to see the end.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

Those goddamn shadow babies were annoying as hell. I liked the setting for the boss but not the actual fight at all.

"

I went from normal to easy at the end for the same reason.  That fight was flat out dumb. "

i went into the final battle with 9 bullets in my plasma cutter and a small med pack. on normal, but still "

normal

" Normal is great for a first run, but the higher modes offer a great challenge if you're into that. 
 
@dpedal1:   I thought my scratch zealot run was tougher than hardcore mode. What part did you get stuck on? "

Normal --> easy --> Hardcore --> Zealot

I played on casual, and it was fun!

"I went Survivalist for my first run. Didn't have to much trouble until the last boss as I was low on ammo. Reloaded to start of chapter and brought along the Force Gun *I Think* and totally whooped it. "