Wintermute difficulty [spoilers]

[fauxjargon]

Okay, first of all I know games companies stay in business by making games people like, not the most hardcore 5% of their fans.  I played through Episode 1 last night and Episode 2 this morning and had a blast - aside from some minor glitches it was one of the most fun single player story driven experiences I've had in years.  However, even on the Hardened Survivor difficulty setting, at no point (except maybe the bear fight at the end) did I ever feel remotely in danger.  I get it that I have played more than my share of TLD and the main point of story mode was that it is interesting to play, but allow me to recount my experiences with a part of Episode Two as I played them the first time vs. the second time.

I'm talking about the quest where you have to go to Broken Railroad to repair the bearkiller rifle / obtain the spear.  When I first did this, even surviving 20 days on Voyageur felt like an accomplishment for me.  My journey was a bloody, cold, supply poor and wolfy slog, where, arriving at the Maintenance Shed near death, I recovered for a day or so until scarcity pushed me out the door to the Hunting Lodge, where after getting wolfed AGAIN on my way, I made it there to recuperate before a similarly challenging return trip featuring a desperate pre-dawn departure from the Poacher's camp - I was out of fuel.

This time around, I dropped part of my massive supply of food so I could carry some emergency fuel in case I got stuck at Poacher's.  I walked all the way from Trappers at first light to the Maintenance Shed, barely stopping to muse at the vast coal reserves of the Poacher's camp, sipping a few coffees to keep my stamina up.  Then I dropped more food and fuel at the Hunting Lodge so I could  carry the spear at a reasonable pace, and again, after spending the rest of the day at the Maintenance Yard messing around, I walked back in one day.

Maybe in a few months when the story will feel 'fresher' I will play Episode 2 again with a 'no manmade food' rule.  But as fun as the story was, I felt invincible the entire time except for during the fights with the bear.

[Serenity]

There is just way too much food and loot around. In Ep 1 I can understand it as your only reliable and renewable source of food would be rabbits. And you can't expect newbies to reliably steal deer from wolves. Storywise it also makes sense that the houses would be stocked relatively well. But there is no incentive to hunt or fish in Ep 2. There is no incentive to craft anything.

Weather could be worse. It's not completely sunshine as even with almost the best clothing I could find I found I was sometimes at one arrow down during the day (and I could have improved my temperature from clothing a little). But that still leaves a lot of time to explore given how slow your temperature drains.

Wolves do a good amount of damage on Hardened, but it seems like they aren't all that aggressive and/or their detection radius is fairly low.

The only time I was in deep trouble was after a fight with the Old Bear in FM. He mauled me good, left me with frozen feet and maybe 10% health. I just barely made it to a cave in heavy fog. That was very intense

[melcantspell]

I agree. Even on the hardest difficulty level, the game feels really easy. I do die sometimes, but it's only because I play way riskier than I would do in Survival Mode on Voyager. On the other hand, I don't think it's a big deal - it's about the story after all, and without permadeath, nothing will ever feel like a real threat. 

So yes, feels easier than Survival Mode, but it's whole different gameplay, and I'm ok with that

[cullam]

I agree that the hardest difficulty could stand to be a little more challenging. I usually play on Stalker, but have some experience with Interloper. This felt closer to Voyager, to me. The first couple hours were still a little tricky, but after that, not so much. Except for the bear fight; that was freezing AWESOME! And really, I loved the whole story. I just mostly didn't have to make any effort to keep my various needs met. 

[Critical switch]

I've played Wintermute and found that despite really enjoying the experience, I prefer the gameplay of Survival much, much more. I love having interactive human characters in the game and I like having other things to worry about other than surviving. I don't want to sound harsh, but I feel that Wintermute isn't really using the game's potential. 

Here's a few things that i found to be weakening the experience. Simplified language as much as possible for quick read : 

• Save at any moment removes consequences of your actions. "Save station" style system IMHO better. Example: scripted checkpoints, plus use charcoal to save (charcoal obtained same as in Survival but max amount of charcoal in inventory limited). 
• Excess of resources affects how you play. Examples: Too many matches and flares, why carry storm lantern? Excess of medicine, all affliction non-issue, natural medicine pointless. Enough food most if the game, harvesting carcass, cooking meat and going out hunting usually waste of time. Too many flare shells, dealing with wolves too easy. 
• Unlocking schematics counterproductive. Probably done to get player involved with games mechanics, achieves exact opposite. Little incentive to craft, decent clothes and equipment available early on. Crafted clothes an insignificant upgrade over available ones, unlocking schematic first and then going hunting for resources doesn't seem worthwhile. 
• Map system kills gameplay elements, reduced visibility during bad weather and at night non-issue. I would change the map so that you cannot see where you are during storms and fogs, and would remove indication of direction during night time.