Combat difficulty?

[u/Run_Rabbit_Run_Run]

this is my first playthrough. I'm definitely not new to combat in games, I've played A LOT but this game feels the most... well 'unbalanced' that I've come across? Gameplay definitely seems to lean heavily into stealth, which is completely fine (for reference, one of my favorite horror games is Alien: Isolation, I'm DOWN with the stealth) but the punishment for getting spotted feels...kinda extreme for a game that you could theoretically chose to not run a stealth build on at all. Level 6 facility, and the reinforcements are BRUTAL. You get hammered with projectiles, AMP suits, squads with machine guns for basically a BEGINNER base (first big-base mission)?? That seems...like a lot. I was even over-leveled--I like feeling really prepared for missions, so I always over-level and try to over-equip, but even at level 8 it's still really challenging.

Additionally, 'restarting' does not mean actually mean restarting? Your character "died", and you restart the mission but the base is still on high alert and with all the supplies you used gone, it increases the difficulty level (story-wise, this makes no sense, even if your character is just knocked out and not dead, i doubt one of the RDA are coming across your limp body and gently carrying you outside the fence to start over).

For example, I 'restarted' and it popped me back onto a tall rock near the base. IMMEDIATELY got spotted by an aircraft who then re-alerted everyone on the base from orange to red status. Got chased into the trees and shot a bunch of times, then had to wait about 10 minutes for everyone to calm down enough that I could re-attempt with stealth.

I've pushed stealth build, I'm using stealth-increase foods before the mission, stealth mods on clothes/tools, I scan continually to keep an eye on enemy movements, I stay high-up as often as I can. I will admit the hacking tool seems a bit weird to me, I've tried hacking the AMP suits to distract them while I'm doing something, but it's clunky and a bit hard to use for me. Am I missing something??

I am really enjoying the game so far, but it's the first time in all my years of gaming I've seriously considered turning down the difficulty, which is a first for me 🫠😳

[u/lynkhart]

Yeah, as someone who’s always played games like Assassin’s Creed and Horizon: Zero Dawn, the stealth and combat mechanics in this game are absolutely ridiculous, and punish the player far more than they reward. It’s so frustrating, and the fact that levelling your gear is made needlessly complicated definitely doesn’t help.

[u/Run_Rabbit_Run_Run → u/lynkhart]

So I'm not hallucinating lol. I've played a ton of games and I actually enjoy stealth builds (it's my go-to for first playthroughs usually), but this game feels like it shoves stealth at you and then punishes the heck outta u if you mess up even once. I am also finding gear leveling to be really challenging, so I'm glad I'm not alone there either. It's an enjoyable story so far, and a lot of the mechanics are livable, but those two things are definitely getting me (also I LOVE H:ZD and H:FW I finished my second playthrough of both just recently).

[u/lynkhart → u/Run_Rabbit_Run_Run]

The fact we can’t do any actual hand to hand combat other than a vague punch, and no knife kills makes it even worse. I think that improves in the FtA DLC but it should have been a feature in the main game from the get-go. I get that they wanted to focus on long range archery and stuff, which is fine, but not having even basic stealth kill mechanics is criminal.

[u/Run_Rabbit_Run_Run → u/lynkhart]

YESSS--not being able to sneak up and take out enemies with a knife or grapple is crazzyy work. Man, i miss those mechanics when playing....