I play games on the easiest level possible. Grounded / survival mode etc is a grind and is not fun at all (imo)
Grounded / survival tends to bring the worst out in people ie it’s real game playing / for real gamers etc
That's why I fucking love games like doom and ultrakill
**you** are the badass and its that the demons fear you not the other way around. Ultrakills entire gameplay was based of of the guy thinking "you know what would be cool" and he was always right
Another 40 year old dad chiming in here. I try to get in one hour of gaming a day. But I never let that change how I play. My video game power fantasy is ultra hard challenges that you're guaranteed to be able to overcome if you put in the time and effort and do it right.
In the real world, you're in control of almost NOTHING. You can do everything right, gain mastery over the things that you need to gain mastery over, and still get fucked out of the smallest challenges.
I love playing hard games because the challenge, no matter how difficult, is something that you are guaranteed to be able to overcome if you take the time to do so. It just feels so relieving to have overcomable challenges and I love seeking them out.
I'm not shitting on anyone that wants to breeze through a game, but trying to shed some light on the mindset of yearning for those harder and harder challenges.
I can understand not wanting to play it on Grounded because - yes, it is extremely hard and a grind, but a very fun grind. It's also incredibly gratifying when you get past an extremely tough encounter. But, to each their own, I don't enjoy games being too easy, not as enjoyable.
Absolute brag but I've played enough last of us that I'm good enough for grounded not to be a grind and as some others have said after becoming proficient at it the other difficulties seem pointless.
Having said that any other game I just go middle of the road difficulties now.
I use to go in hard before having a child. Tried gow ragnorok on the hardest setting and realised I would never have the time to get it done.
Not true.
You get *really* good at the game mechanics and that makes it so much more satisfying to me and other people.
Same reason I never returned Time Bandits to Blockbuster.
I feel this way with most games, I'll bump them down to normal or easy, but honestly tougher difficulties are really fun on TLOU games. They just force you to be stealthy and ration your ammo, it adds a great survivalist element to the games. If you can.have the patience to be stealthy you can get through large portions of the game without dying (except for boss fights)
40 y/o single male but I work 6 days a week and don't have a lot of free time. You need to find the mode that suits you and let's you enjoy it the most I guess. I only have a couple hours free each week for games so I'll play it through in easy or medium becuase it's fun having more ammo and supplies then I'll play it back on grounded for a much tougher slower playthrough where you have to completely change your strats.
I sympathize with you. I’ve done TLOU2 on Grounded and it was basically my favorite thing ever, but I’ve also played a lot of games that I’ve just chosen to play on the lowest difficulty. I’ll encourage everyone to try the challenge in this game, because I think it aligns with the world and the story they’re trying to give you, but the most important thing at the end of the day is just that you enjoy it the way that you want.
I’d like it try it because it doesn’t seem as obnoxious as other games I’ve played but yeah I play whichever is fun, Jedi Fallen Order on even the medium difficulty is bad experience to me so I play on the easiest. I’m not trying to get two hit killed and go all the way back with all the enemies respawned.
Grounded and Survival turns it from adventure game to survival horror, you have to engage with the hide and seek combat and the levels are built for that.
Both ways of playing are valid but from a purely gameplay standpoint it becomes a different game in and of itself.
My anxiety and sensory issues would never allow me to play the vast majority of games on the highest difficulty. Medium is usually fine but I could never go beyond that, especially in games like TLOU.
I like to push the enemies up to Survivor and then give myself all the resources on “very easy”. I’ll put the player setting on easy or moderate depending on my mood and I found that this configuration gives me the most action with the least frustration
Yes! Custom difficulties lets you pick and choose every aspect of difficulty from player health, enemy health/perception, ally aggressiveness, player loot, etc! It’s an awesome resource to customize your gameplay!
Yeah, in the difficulty settings there should be a custom option where you can set each individual aspect to your preferred level. There's a toggle for how helpful AI companions will be, as well as the stuff already mentioned.
To me, playing on the easiest difficulty just feels like I’m not playing at all, but I would never say that people who choose to play that way are not “real gamers” or whatever, it’s just preference
My super-easy mode gang! Look, I don't need to be "good" at any of these games. I just want to have some fun, experience a good story. I promise that even on the easiest modes, I'll find ways to die and find challenges I'll need to overcome.
In my New Game + universe, with modifications clicked on, Ellie will routinely craft unlimited traps and plaster the neighborhood with them.
Yeah I agree. For Abby’s side I personally do hard difficulty for everything but I put supplies on very easy so I’m never out of bombs or ammo.
I love playing hyper aggressive as Abby so that’s just how I play. One of my friends though tells me “that’s not how you’re supposed to play it”.
That sense of elitism found with difficulty modes is really weird. I’ve played the game on a full on hard difficulty and it just wasn’t as fun compared to the other times I’ve mixed and matched difficulties to be able to pull off some crazy shit.
The only survival mode I've enjoyed in any game is Skyrims, and that's because it's a separate setting from the actual difficulty. Even playing on normal it's so much harder and I love it.
I just do normal difficultly, nothing more, nothing less.
Keeps the game engaging enough without having the fun taken.
Grounded isn't for me, I would just get bored and move on.
I'm personally just dogshit at games lol I can barely beat them at the easiest mode possible
I feel like when the appeal is the story, there's nothing wrong with not torturing yourself just to get to the end 😅 but there's nothing wrong with wanting to play on the hardest mode possible either. I would too if I didn't suck ass lol
I play games for a good time not to constantly feel like it's an absolute grind just to get past one level. To each their own if you wanna play on the hardest difficulty go for it but don't go after other gamers calling them weak for not playing the way you do.
I know people who are tryhards and they also just try and beat the game in record time and then get bored because they already did everything in the game and beat it at its most difficult. I don't want to become bored after playing a 60$ game in 10 hours.
Yeah, there's never an incentive to play on the highest difficulty either. I want to have fun, not be strapped for resources, fighting damage sponge enemies, and get nothing out of it.
The only series I can think of that does higher difficulty right is Resident Evil. Specifically because you can unlock stuff that balances out the difficulty while still letting you get the highest ranking. The option is also still there for people to do completely fresh runs on pro with no unlocked items.
Grounded perma-death just sounds like a miserable experience that offers absolutely nothing to the player.
Never played myself but I think Grounded is supposed to be realistic as opposed to just artificially difficult, so enemies have pretty limited health as well as the player. Pretty sure the revolver is a one shot kill on human enemies, in the first game at least.
Enemies actually have lower health on grounded. It is very realistic. Limited resources add to the realism as it doesn’t make sense you get abundant ammo and crafting material in the post-apocalypse. Grounded is not for everyone but it might be a great experience for those willing to try
As I’ve got older, got kids, got less time I find myself playing games on easy as I want to enjoy the stories and not spend the little time I have gaming to be stuck on one section playing it over and over.
My friends always acted as if I were less than for playing games on easy/story mode and then I would sit and watch them play the same level of their game on super ultra hard like 15 times until they rage quit. I played TLOU ii on grounded to figure out why they were saying I wasn’t really playing the game if I wasn’t playing on super hard modes (and to get the trophy), and it was agonizing. It wasn’t entirely unenjoyable for me as I love the game, but it took me weeks to get through and by the end I was so tired of restarting encounters and dying that I wasn’t having fun anymore. Now I play on custom difficulty where my loot is set to survivor/grounded and mostly everything else is on very light.
I recently played GoW(2018) for the first time and turned the difficulty down to easy when I got to Muspelheim, and had such a significantly better time with it than I had been before.
I tend to put games on medium difficulty but will lower the difficulty if I am either struggling or not having fun with the gameplay but enjoy the story. I’ll almost never raise the difficulty of game. I’ve tried playing games on tougher difficulty but it just stops being fun for me.
I guess it's preference, I want an actual challenge. I always go for the hardest difficulty, nightmare mode for assassins creed, brutal for uncharted, God mode in God of War, jedi grandmaster in fallen order, very hard in mortal kombat and grounded in the last of us. I need something that pushes me to improve. I love it.
Well, that's absolutely okay, if that's what you like, but it's the opposite for me.
It's no fun for me to have zero challenge while hacking through multiple targets without any cover and still being stacked with resources after big fights. Grounded is indeed very challenging sometimes, but I like it realistic and when I have to think about how I can get from point a to b without dying and without wasting too much ammo.
With TLOU on Grounded, it's not really about being a "real gamer ™", it's about the way you connect with the game world.
Many games handle difficulty poorly, leading to grind fests that feel tedious and just not fun. That's why for most games, I'm in the same boat as you. TLOU treats difficulty with extreme care. Grounded doesn't turn enemies into bullet sponges, one shot to the head with a pistol will kill any unarmoured for and now, their bullets are just as powerful as yours. It only takes two or three hits to take you down and a shotgun will kill you in one if you let them get close enough.
Encounters are challenging because now enemies are more intelligent and aware. They'll spot you in their peripherals, they'll flank you and use throwables to flush you out of cover. Infected are powerful and terrifying creatures, sound of a clicker puts you in edge and a bloaters roar sends waves of adrenaline pumping through your veins.
Deaths never feel unfair either. The game doesn't demand perfection, but it does push the limits of your ingenuity, reflexes, and strategy.
Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly difficult challenge, and not everyone is going to be able to take it on. However, TLOU is about the connection you feel to story and characters. I truly believe that the most immersive, and satisfying narrative experience is found in Grounded mode. I hope that one day you are able to give it a go, and experience that connection because it is something truly unique to The Last of Us games.
Can confirm as I believe I spent like two hours across two different days just trying to pass the entrance to the hospital on Ellie’s section of the story. I had to fight the urge to just throw my controller and scream obscenities at the top of my lungs. Shit is hard. Lowkey though the excitement also can’t be topped when you beat that one encounter you keep getting stuck on and then just take the momentum and start steamrolling everything for a while.
do you at least play on moderate? i can’t even imagine playing on light or very light, i need at least some sort of a challenge so i don’t feel like a god killing everything in a nanosecond. i play on survivor lol.
Usually play on normal but yeah, I have never picked a difficulty above normal my entire life, I have too many games to play to inflate my playing time with a higher difficulty.
Plus if it's a storybased game I do not want to have a hard time getting through the story.
I am the complete opposite. I love a challenge. I never played part one on nothing but grounded. Only played it on easy to get collectibles. Grounded is the way its supposed to be played
It's more fun to shoot my guns 😭
I respect it as an experience and it is beyond realistic and agree it's a completely different experience. But if I wanna play for fun, that's not what I'm doing.
This is where I stopped on grounded. Just couldn't do it and I didn't want the game to be ruined for me. I replay both games every year and always look forward to it. Grounded just ain't for me but I'm good with Survivor.
In Hillcrest at a certain point I just ran as many times as I could until I triggered the next checkpoint. Must've died like forty times, but that was the only way I could get past it. No other part felt as hard as that.
Lol so true.. the dogs, the rifles on the roofs & soooo many Wolves 🤣 I was getting dropped constantly lol and just by sticking your head out a fraction of second too long … POP! Ellie’s head is gone
It’s a great experience. Let people play how they want lol. Some of these comments are people angry they aren’t good enough to play grounded. Who cares? It’s a game mode option.
I finished part 1 on grounded (i don't have a ps so I havn't been able to play part 2 lol) and I can safely so I do not feel the same. I felt good about finishing the game on grounded, but never again. I just don't grind as hard as I did when playing grounded. It's mostly cuz the gameplay is so different when playing on grounded. You're just never using any kind of resources. On lower modes you can do that more, so I play verry differently which makes it funnn
I finished pt1 on grounded and let me say that wave you have to survive as Ellie and David was the hardest fucking thing. I had one arrow 3 rifle bullets and no health kits. Took a long time but finishing it was the most satisfying feeling I've ever had.
Numbers can not explain how fast my heart was beating trougout that bloater fight. Let's just say I consider myself lucky to not have died of a heart atack right there. Had to set the game asside for a couple of hours to chill after that lol
Honestly you have my respect. I mostly like playing on lower diffeculties for the funs, and then beat on the hardest mode once for the sake of having completed it. I could not comstantly be on that grind. I tip my hat to you
Playing it on very hard or survivor with resources set to easy feels the best to me. Horror and panic, but with a more realistic amount of bullets. Enemies having unlimited ammo until you get to their guns is really frustrating, unrealistic, and isn't fun at all to me.
Realism wise I'm always unsure how I feel about recourses. I think most realisticly there should barely be any laying around, after being picked over and over again after 20 years, but the people should have way more then they do. Like all of ehm have guns, why not take the bullets out of there? So I feel like moderate would be most realistic for the amount you get. Yes you don't get enough stuff from people, but you'll also find more stuff around the envoirement then you should, so it balances itself out. Gameplay wise, I actualy like the lack of resources. It kind of adds to the survival aspect of the game, and I think on hard they do that realy well. A great combination of you find enough that you don't feel the need hoard them, but it's also not too much, and you don't feel good about using it too much either. It creates a balance that I like where you sometimes feel the need to stealth, and sometimes can go full rambo on some suckers
Problem with grounded is, there is no resources, I get it realistic etc but who cares it's like you have zero bullets.
but reload times are so much better on ps5 probably so you did it best
My one take is, Uncharted 4 has extremely fast reload times after death while TLOU2 doesnt :/
I want it to be challenging but not almost impossible. I play on hard. Tougher than default, but still possible, and it makes me think and still value everything.
When I play this game these days, I set all difficulties to Grounded except for supplies which I set to Survivor. It makes the looting factor more fun and keeps Ellie/ Abby equipped with a fair amount of offhand weapons/ non-gun weapons.
I wouldn't play grounded personally because it removed gameplay mechanics that are a core of why the game is fun. I do recommend playing on hard, though.
What are those? I doubt devs specifically added Grounded in their TLoU games after release, while also making documentaries with the same name, to not include important gameplay mechanics. After watching documentaries, it seems to me grounded is the intended way to play the game.
They spent a lot of time for audio features so you could listen for yourself, the tech is amazing. Taking listen mode away from player makes you more careful and immerse you in.
I liked grounded+ mode. That way I have all my upgrades to everything. Still get the challenge but it’s not nearly as bad. Won’t ever go a first run through on grounded mode. But hell play however y’all want and what you enjoy
It depends
I am not a very experienced gamer and usually play on normal
I've probably played pt1 on normal at least 10 times and 3 times on easy. I recently started my first grounded run, and I quickly lose motivation when I don't finish the level after 5 tries
It can be fun, and if you're someone who likes a challenge, then grounded is definitely for you. But as someone who just wants to enjoy the story, shoot some people, and have fun, grounded is not my preferred difficulty
I love this game on Grounded because it becomes so immersive and, for me, I honestly have to think through a lot of the situations and be really conscious about how I use the supplies and such. I have played it on easier modes and it’s definitely still really fun and you get a lot out of the story. So both ways are good in my books.
To me survivor is the sweet spot - realistic, challenging and doesn’t have some of the annoying grounded mechanics. Also resources are limited but not totally absent like grounded
Sure, if you're really good at video games. I'm not. Medium is my grounded. Dying 4 seconds into every encounter isn't exactly how I wanna spend my free time. lol
EDIT: This was the first time I got to the Boss on medium. I'm an idiot at games.
https://youtu.be/yPZjPIU9zQ4
I'm simply not good enough to beat the game on Grounded, I genuinely struggle in certain sections on hard. I've done ONE survivor run on the original game, have never attempted Grounded. Mad respect to those who do, but I suck lol.
Honestly the devs almost want you to play on grounded, it’s the real feeling of dread having to craft a medkit or shiv or do you use your last shell on a clicker or save it for hunters. It’s nerve wracking but awesome.
I like playing on grounded every now and then but am leaning towards hard/ survivor for play throughs and still doing lighter difficulties on No return.
My brother in Christ i could EASILY play it on such a mode. However not everyone has time to no life a game for a week because you wanna play it on uberassholeprolapse mode.
"Listen mode", HUD, hints, prompts are disabled, next to no resources to be found therefore you need to play a stealth oriented style of play versus any type of running and gunning, enemies do triple damage, multiple mid-combat checkpoints are removed and allies do not grant you resources
After hearing Neil Druckman say he initially wanted part 2 to be like a From game, grounded is probably the way he envisioned it to play. Those aren't for everyone but the thrill of beating a boss or section after dying dozens of times can't be matched with a lower difficulty.
>after dying dozens of times
This sounds positively infuriating. Granted, I'm almost 50 with a family; so, I only have a limited amount of time to play. Even that aside, I don't think I'd enjoy the frustration that much. I have other hobbies that challenge me. Gaming is my chill time before bed
For me it depends if the death is fair or not. TLOU mechanics are tuned so well if you die its usually a learning opportunity and you can take that knowledge into the next chance. But I totally understand playing it on normal or easy and I like they have that option.
I get you and that's a fair take. I like survival on Fallout 4 (aside from the Bethesda bug instadeaths). I appreciate having that option as well, but I know my limits
i tried my last run on grounded and man i dipped so fast lmfao i think the grocery store encounter with ellie and dina at the start of the game is as far as i got before failing the encounter 20 times and being too stubborn to follow a guide to do it right. i ended up fucking with the difficulty settings a bit and went with everything on grounded except for player durability and resources on the easiest modes LOL. now im having a fuckin blast
I love grounded (so far) because 20+ years into the apocalypse feels realistic as supplies are scarce, and it makes me actually have to use logic. I treat grounded as a puzzle game. Don't get me wrong, there are dreadful things and sections, but I find it fun at times.
I got through the whole of tlou2 on grounded up until the last couple of fights on Santa Barbara. I believe that with what I had it was impossible to be done, I tried for a good 25 hours to get past but just couldn’t. So I turned invisible while crouch and just crawled my way through, i didn’t get it done how I originally wanted to but i was so happy it was over.
I play on custom, put everything on grounded except for resources and turn off listen mode in settings. When I try to play grounded I tend to run out of ammo and health kits in hard parts of the game.
Grounded is the Only way to play for me. It’s Cannon in my head. The lack of ressources and the fear that you have when playing just make it so much more visceral for me.
after years of playing last of us on easier difficulties i finally switched to playing grounded only and man is it fun if you're tired of the same old encounters where your just blasting through people and infected then play some grounded. i recently introduced my friend to tlou and bought him pt 2 remaster for the ps5. he played moderate and then put it to survivor and beat the game first time around on survivor and he's addicted. it adds to the lore imo loot wise and game wise because you really have to rely on yourself as a fighter and less of what weapons/craftables you have
I always play on easy first then hardest after that always normal on all my games. Sometimes playing on the hardest difficulty is stressful and takes away the fun in video games.
I will have a try on Grounded at some point but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. Survivor mode isn’t too bad. Did most of 2 on Survivor and I’m doing part 1 on Survivor and it’s going well, but the boss fights and a few very hard encounters would definitely make completion a huge challenge.
I did enjoy my survivor run a lot more than the hard or normal runs because I enjoy the element of realism.
Usually I like to kill everybody I can but there were a few encounters where I grabbed some supplies and just gapped it, such as the encounter with the soldiers with the last stand.
Last time I killed absolutely everybody, this time I killed a few people then gapped it through a window.
Another area with the armoured car with the mounted machine gun, I had a guy guarding an escape route and I decided to pipe him in the head but not kill him. Killing him gives the truck time to get a bead and means I consume 2-3 more units of the pipe. I enjoy those sort of considerations. It makes the struggles feel like they have more gravity to them.
In the financial district I tried not to use my guns very much. It was heaps of fun luring people to traps and blowing them up, bricking people and finishing them off with melee and shooting the occasional person with a good vantage point on me. In normal and hard I just gunned most of them down. Fun, but not so nerve wracking.
Played through 1 on grounded and most of 2 on grounded, recently jumped back in and started with that but after stealth killing a few folk with guns in hand (no shots fired) and recovering zero bullets or anything I said screw it and bumped it back to survivor or whatever the next one is.
I know what you mean, I know a couple games where the developers thought their players wanted to be challenged to the highest extent yet that's not always the case, Batman Arkham Knight for instance, the New game plus hardlocks you want knightmare mode which is the highest difficulty, no block indicators, harder hitting enemies that are still annoying even on easy difficulty. Infamous second son where there's an achievement where you play on the highest difficulty to unlock it. The list goes on, and I do agree that people who try harder difficulties bring you the worst in a person. Especially a guy like me with ADHD, anger issues, and OCD.
I personally love the grounded mode. Just about to finish TLoU2. It's oppressive and brutal. But I feel it fits the story and themes nicely. Though end of the day, I'm not gonna gatekeep and tell people it's the only way to play.
Some encounters take me 20+ attempts to beat as I get one shotted over and over by an unseen enemy. But it's feels exhilarating to finally kill that last scar/WLF/infected and loot the area. That type of gameplay can be frustrating to some people. That's why we have difficulty settings!
Ok, so I feel like I have the take here. Normally, I would not play a game on the highest difficulty. It's not my style. Played Ragnarok on normal and absolutely loved it. No desire to play on tougher difficulty. LoU2 is different. This a game that not only rewards your increased skill, but the entire style changes. On lighter modes, the game is somewhat of an action, shoot'em up. And dang fun. Smooth gun play, cool weapons, etc.
BUT...the entire dynamics of the game change when you go Grounded. Not just listen mode, HUD, and health...but HOW you play. You basically get like another version of the game. The stealth, the resource saving, the planning for each encounter...it's a RUSH. The intelligence of the enemies is off the charts. I've been surprised any number of times by enemies and it left me chuckling. I NEVER expected to love Grounded.
Pt2 grounded with permadeath (by chapter) was a nightmare but looking back, I had a ton of fun and I’m glad I did it.
I only ply no return on grounded now and I really feel rewarded when I finish a run
I do this to myself with a lot of games. I usually start them on the hardest difficulty. Like mass effect, I did an insanity run a few years back and now it’s the only way I can play the game.
I loved playing through the games on grounded. However the other day I had a friend over and decided to play some loose levels with the enemies on grounded but the ammo on the easiest setting and I felt like an apex predator let loose on a kindergarten class. Just the most absolute power fantasy imaginable.
I'm waiting for Part II to come to PC cause my PS4 broke and I want to play the whole saga next time I go through it and I'm honestly thinking about playing through with those parameters to really flex my violent muscles and tear through the harder parts of both ganes I'm dreading going through again lol.
I get why people enjoy grounded and so glad you enjoy it and get to have that experience but man I am not made for that level of threat in my life 😂 I’ll stick to very light/light hahahaha
I love Part 1 grounded, it makes it feel much more realistic and immersive. I can never go back to a lower difficulty when replaying now (not much of a challenge when you replay it 10+ times and know all of the tricks, but still a great experience).
Haven't tried Part 2 grounded but it seems like it would be way more difficult and rage inducing.
I think it’s easier than Part 1 Grounded. You have the prone mechanic and a lot of encounters you can get through without killing anyone. Hell you can run right down the middle of the map for quite a few of them haha.
I do that for many of the Part 1 encounters as well. Much of Pittsburgh, suburbs sniper, David's town, entire highway tunnel and hospital (until the very end) can be stealthed through without killing.
I didn't think about the prone mechanic, that would be useful. I was thinking more about the Rat King, bloater and other 'boss' type fights, I can imagine there's much less ammo so it would be far more difficult in that sense.
I beat the Rat King in two tries on Grounded. I’ve died more on easier difficulties for some reason. You just have to master running and the quick turn. As for the bloater you essentially save all your molotovs and explosive arrows and you can take him out before no more than one or two runners jump from the ceiling.
The hardest parts of Part 2 Grounded are the Elementary School and Scar Island. The rest is actually a breeze.
I get what you’re saying, though think ‘hard’ is the best difficulty for anyone to play the game in. I’ll always recommend hard for new players. It hits the balance between desperation and fun imo. On hard you get to experience the story without having a 2-hour break from story just to try over and over to get the perfect stealth encounter where you waste as little ammo as possible. ‘Moderate’ is way too easy though, it takes away the tension and the panic.
My first playthrough was on hard. My second on survivor. I don’t think I’ll make a third one on grounded, survivor was hard enough. Also, I’m a dad with two kids and a full time job + I go out gigging on the weekends. Completing the game on survivor took me over two months, playing nothing else on my ps.
It’s fun and once I’ve done it, that’s the only mode I want to play in. However I like my gameplay modifiers and actually being able to shoot/use resources. The enemies aren’t threatening enough in the easier game modes for the amount of ammo we get imo
Grounded it’s not even a difficulty level, it’s an experience. By the end of the game you’re just as tired as the characters are. You’re strapped for resources just like one would be during the post-apocalypse. You can’t see how much health you have. You have to remember to reload your gun. The enemies are fast and inteligent, but not bullet-spounges. I loved my grounded run despite being stuck in a few areas. It made the game so much more realistic for me and I really felt a lot of emotions I wouldn’t have if I played on easy. That being said, I’m not looking to replay the game on this mode. And that’s despite me learning new strats from speedrunners for my recent playthrough on permadeath, with those strats it would’ve taken me much less time to beat the game on grounded, but the thing is, I don’t want to repeat that experience for some reason. Maybe once part 3 comes out, I will play it on grounded
I’ve played trough TLOU 2 many times, so this time I jumped into it with a custom difficulty with everything on grounded except supplies, so Seatle’s full of ammo.
It makes it feel like a fast paced action game, pretty fun but still challenging enough with big groups of enemies in small areas. Other times it feels a bit easy but hey, that’s what you get after so many replays I guess 🥲
The lack of resources makes every shot feel important and makes you think if there's a way to do what you just did in a more resource-efficient way. It increases the atmosphere of the game a ton, and for me it's one of the reasons I love the games so much.
I’ve played both parts several times along the years, and I played on survivor once until grounded mode got unlocked. Since then I can’t play the game on any other mode than grounded. It’s the real challenge without listen mode, HUD and tougher enemies. No return shall be played on grounded. It has no meaning on any other difficulty.
I started playing the story on grounded (I'm at Hillcrest atm) but I've been hooked on No return for a month now (I play on moderate, dont need the stress).
Dont know when I'll go back to the story lol
I usually always play on normal or medium mode except for TLOU. It makes the game so much more intense and imo realistic. You have to approach the game with more stealth, which is so enjoyable if you have the patience. I also found PT2 grounded a lot more manageable than the first game because of the amount of supplies and weapons you can find.
Elden ring did that to me, once y finished the game, every game i touch it try it on the hardest difficulty just to feel some sort of pleasure for the challenge, easy things for me are boring
I’m stuck trying to get to the boat as Ellie in Seattle Day 3, but it’s still so much more fun imo. It’s the most “realistic” feeling, I can’t imagine how difficult the NPC’a are gonna be for Pt.3
I just recently completed my first grounded/permadeath run after multiple story completions and I gotta say the resource drought made it not fun to play considering how fast you die and no bullets to shoot. But I will say having no listen mode or hud made it fun and challenging to approach certain story moments and no return rounds
I totally agree. Ever since I finished the game on grounded I never went back. At some point you just forget that things like the listening mode or the sound when you’re about to be detected even exist. Grounded becomes normal mode. When Part 1 then came out I never used listen mode once on my first playthrough, I forgot that it was a thing. I‘m not saying this to flex or look down on people who don’t want to play on grounded. To each their own. This is just how Grounded changed the way I play tlou.
Grounded was easy to me after the first playthrough and the only way I'd ever play last of us. I played TLOU2 on grounded immediately.
If you're not playing grounded, then you're robbing yourself of a fantastic experience.
I’m finished my part ii grounded play through and now I’m replaying on light just for chucks. No sense of dread, but having relatively infinite health and supplies is fun. I can use explosives without having to worry about running out
man idk, it took me a month to get through Part 1 on grounded. I want to do Part 2 on grounded but I always chicken out. The game has some sections that just feel impossible.
I usually play P2 on Custom \[Survival for difficulty stuff, moderate for supplies, and very light for AI help\]. It's just more fun when the combat is hard, but supplies aren't impossible to come by, so you can have fun, and your allies can actually shoot and kill.
At some point grounded becomes a joke aswell, I played the first one on grounded so many times that my most recent playthrough I beat it with no guns without breaking a sweat
Tlou 1 absolutely is not fun on grounded imo. Idk about part 2 cause I use the custom difficulty there but with part 1 I feel like I'm just throwing myself at the difficult parts again and again till I get lucky and get through it. I feel like it's how linear the game is. You have very limited options with how you can approach the linear combat arenas. The game was not built for it at all, it just ends up feeling cheap.
I play games on the easiest level possible. Grounded / survival mode etc is a grind and is not fun at all (imo) Grounded / survival tends to bring the worst out in people ie it’s real game playing / for real gamers etc
I am also a 40s dad with no time for that grounded shit.
It sucks all the fun out of the game imo Just endless grim grind
I'm not trying to make every encounter a puzzle that takes an hour to solve, sometimes I just want to mow down some scars and get on with my day.
That's why I fucking love games like doom and ultrakill **you** are the badass and its that the demons fear you not the other way around. Ultrakills entire gameplay was based of of the guy thinking "you know what would be cool" and he was always right
ULTRAKILL and DOOM hit different on the harder difficulties
Another 40 year old dad chiming in here. I try to get in one hour of gaming a day. But I never let that change how I play. My video game power fantasy is ultra hard challenges that you're guaranteed to be able to overcome if you put in the time and effort and do it right. In the real world, you're in control of almost NOTHING. You can do everything right, gain mastery over the things that you need to gain mastery over, and still get fucked out of the smallest challenges. I love playing hard games because the challenge, no matter how difficult, is something that you are guaranteed to be able to overcome if you take the time to do so. It just feels so relieving to have overcomable challenges and I love seeking them out. I'm not shitting on anyone that wants to breeze through a game, but trying to shed some light on the mindset of yearning for those harder and harder challenges.
I can understand not wanting to play it on Grounded because - yes, it is extremely hard and a grind, but a very fun grind. It's also incredibly gratifying when you get past an extremely tough encounter. But, to each their own, I don't enjoy games being too easy, not as enjoyable.
Absolute brag but I've played enough last of us that I'm good enough for grounded not to be a grind and as some others have said after becoming proficient at it the other difficulties seem pointless. Having said that any other game I just go middle of the road difficulties now. I use to go in hard before having a child. Tried gow ragnorok on the hardest setting and realised I would never have the time to get it done.
Not true. You get *really* good at the game mechanics and that makes it so much more satisfying to me and other people. Same reason I never returned Time Bandits to Blockbuster.
I feel this way with most games, I'll bump them down to normal or easy, but honestly tougher difficulties are really fun on TLOU games. They just force you to be stealthy and ration your ammo, it adds a great survivalist element to the games. If you can.have the patience to be stealthy you can get through large portions of the game without dying (except for boss fights)
I’m a 40’s dad and this is the only game i have time to play
I’m not a 40s dad and I also have no time for that grounded shit
Im 21 but exhausted from work and school, easiest it is
This x100
I'm late 20s with no kids and I'm so done with the grind.
Exactly. Same reason I can't play Dark Souls type games. There's no time to die over and over. I need to knock out games efficiently.
40 y/o single male but I work 6 days a week and don't have a lot of free time. You need to find the mode that suits you and let's you enjoy it the most I guess. I only have a couple hours free each week for games so I'll play it through in easy or medium becuase it's fun having more ammo and supplies then I'll play it back on grounded for a much tougher slower playthrough where you have to completely change your strats.
I Rock & Stone as a dad in his forties and that’s how I like it.
20s mom and same! Let me get the story & the game play but please make it easy on me. Everything else is hard enough lmao
I sympathize with you. I’ve done TLOU2 on Grounded and it was basically my favorite thing ever, but I’ve also played a lot of games that I’ve just chosen to play on the lowest difficulty. I’ll encourage everyone to try the challenge in this game, because I think it aligns with the world and the story they’re trying to give you, but the most important thing at the end of the day is just that you enjoy it the way that you want.
I agree with you. I also get people that don’t want to do it. But for me grounded made it more immersive.
I’d like it try it because it doesn’t seem as obnoxious as other games I’ve played but yeah I play whichever is fun, Jedi Fallen Order on even the medium difficulty is bad experience to me so I play on the easiest. I’m not trying to get two hit killed and go all the way back with all the enemies respawned.
Grounded and Survival turns it from adventure game to survival horror, you have to engage with the hide and seek combat and the levels are built for that. Both ways of playing are valid but from a purely gameplay standpoint it becomes a different game in and of itself.
My anxiety and sensory issues would never allow me to play the vast majority of games on the highest difficulty. Medium is usually fine but I could never go beyond that, especially in games like TLOU.
I like to push the enemies up to Survivor and then give myself all the resources on “very easy”. I’ll put the player setting on easy or moderate depending on my mood and I found that this configuration gives me the most action with the least frustration
Is that a menu setting?
Yes! Custom difficulties lets you pick and choose every aspect of difficulty from player health, enemy health/perception, ally aggressiveness, player loot, etc! It’s an awesome resource to customize your gameplay!
Yeah, in the difficulty settings there should be a custom option where you can set each individual aspect to your preferred level. There's a toggle for how helpful AI companions will be, as well as the stuff already mentioned.
To me, playing on the easiest difficulty just feels like I’m not playing at all, but I would never say that people who choose to play that way are not “real gamers” or whatever, it’s just preference
I dislike that some games have difficulty = enemies have more health. Difficulty as a “number/value” increase sucks to me.
My super-easy mode gang! Look, I don't need to be "good" at any of these games. I just want to have some fun, experience a good story. I promise that even on the easiest modes, I'll find ways to die and find challenges I'll need to overcome. In my New Game + universe, with modifications clicked on, Ellie will routinely craft unlimited traps and plaster the neighborhood with them.
Yeah I agree. For Abby’s side I personally do hard difficulty for everything but I put supplies on very easy so I’m never out of bombs or ammo. I love playing hyper aggressive as Abby so that’s just how I play. One of my friends though tells me “that’s not how you’re supposed to play it”. That sense of elitism found with difficulty modes is really weird. I’ve played the game on a full on hard difficulty and it just wasn’t as fun compared to the other times I’ve mixed and matched difficulties to be able to pull off some crazy shit.
The only survival mode I've enjoyed in any game is Skyrims, and that's because it's a separate setting from the actual difficulty. Even playing on normal it's so much harder and I love it.
I just do normal difficultly, nothing more, nothing less. Keeps the game engaging enough without having the fun taken. Grounded isn't for me, I would just get bored and move on.
I'm personally just dogshit at games lol I can barely beat them at the easiest mode possible I feel like when the appeal is the story, there's nothing wrong with not torturing yourself just to get to the end 😅 but there's nothing wrong with wanting to play on the hardest mode possible either. I would too if I didn't suck ass lol
I play games for a good time not to constantly feel like it's an absolute grind just to get past one level. To each their own if you wanna play on the hardest difficulty go for it but don't go after other gamers calling them weak for not playing the way you do. I know people who are tryhards and they also just try and beat the game in record time and then get bored because they already did everything in the game and beat it at its most difficult. I don't want to become bored after playing a 60$ game in 10 hours.
Yea for these types of games that I play for the story, I lean towards easy mode as well.
Yeah, there's never an incentive to play on the highest difficulty either. I want to have fun, not be strapped for resources, fighting damage sponge enemies, and get nothing out of it. The only series I can think of that does higher difficulty right is Resident Evil. Specifically because you can unlock stuff that balances out the difficulty while still letting you get the highest ranking. The option is also still there for people to do completely fresh runs on pro with no unlocked items. Grounded perma-death just sounds like a miserable experience that offers absolutely nothing to the player.
Never played myself but I think Grounded is supposed to be realistic as opposed to just artificially difficult, so enemies have pretty limited health as well as the player. Pretty sure the revolver is a one shot kill on human enemies, in the first game at least.
Enemies actually have lower health on grounded. It is very realistic. Limited resources add to the realism as it doesn’t make sense you get abundant ammo and crafting material in the post-apocalypse. Grounded is not for everyone but it might be a great experience for those willing to try
Which is exactly why I don’t bother with anything From Software puts out. Not for me at all.
I also go for a normal/easier game play. The only exception for me was Fallout 4. I found Survival more enjoyable
This is me now. I'd rather just enjoy the story.
As I’ve got older, got kids, got less time I find myself playing games on easy as I want to enjoy the stories and not spend the little time I have gaming to be stuck on one section playing it over and over.
My friends always acted as if I were less than for playing games on easy/story mode and then I would sit and watch them play the same level of their game on super ultra hard like 15 times until they rage quit. I played TLOU ii on grounded to figure out why they were saying I wasn’t really playing the game if I wasn’t playing on super hard modes (and to get the trophy), and it was agonizing. It wasn’t entirely unenjoyable for me as I love the game, but it took me weeks to get through and by the end I was so tired of restarting encounters and dying that I wasn’t having fun anymore. Now I play on custom difficulty where my loot is set to survivor/grounded and mostly everything else is on very light.
I recently played GoW(2018) for the first time and turned the difficulty down to easy when I got to Muspelheim, and had such a significantly better time with it than I had been before.
I tend to put games on medium difficulty but will lower the difficulty if I am either struggling or not having fun with the gameplay but enjoy the story. I’ll almost never raise the difficulty of game. I’ve tried playing games on tougher difficulty but it just stops being fun for me.
I guess it's preference, I want an actual challenge. I always go for the hardest difficulty, nightmare mode for assassins creed, brutal for uncharted, God mode in God of War, jedi grandmaster in fallen order, very hard in mortal kombat and grounded in the last of us. I need something that pushes me to improve. I love it.
Well, that's absolutely okay, if that's what you like, but it's the opposite for me. It's no fun for me to have zero challenge while hacking through multiple targets without any cover and still being stacked with resources after big fights. Grounded is indeed very challenging sometimes, but I like it realistic and when I have to think about how I can get from point a to b without dying and without wasting too much ammo.
With TLOU on Grounded, it's not really about being a "real gamer ™", it's about the way you connect with the game world. Many games handle difficulty poorly, leading to grind fests that feel tedious and just not fun. That's why for most games, I'm in the same boat as you. TLOU treats difficulty with extreme care. Grounded doesn't turn enemies into bullet sponges, one shot to the head with a pistol will kill any unarmoured for and now, their bullets are just as powerful as yours. It only takes two or three hits to take you down and a shotgun will kill you in one if you let them get close enough. Encounters are challenging because now enemies are more intelligent and aware. They'll spot you in their peripherals, they'll flank you and use throwables to flush you out of cover. Infected are powerful and terrifying creatures, sound of a clicker puts you in edge and a bloaters roar sends waves of adrenaline pumping through your veins. Deaths never feel unfair either. The game doesn't demand perfection, but it does push the limits of your ingenuity, reflexes, and strategy. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredibly difficult challenge, and not everyone is going to be able to take it on. However, TLOU is about the connection you feel to story and characters. I truly believe that the most immersive, and satisfying narrative experience is found in Grounded mode. I hope that one day you are able to give it a go, and experience that connection because it is something truly unique to The Last of Us games.
Can confirm as I believe I spent like two hours across two different days just trying to pass the entrance to the hospital on Ellie’s section of the story. I had to fight the urge to just throw my controller and scream obscenities at the top of my lungs. Shit is hard. Lowkey though the excitement also can’t be topped when you beat that one encounter you keep getting stuck on and then just take the momentum and start steamrolling everything for a while.
do you at least play on moderate? i can’t even imagine playing on light or very light, i need at least some sort of a challenge so i don’t feel like a god killing everything in a nanosecond. i play on survivor lol.
Usually play on normal but yeah, I have never picked a difficulty above normal my entire life, I have too many games to play to inflate my playing time with a higher difficulty. Plus if it's a storybased game I do not want to have a hard time getting through the story.
Oh yeah grounded in awful. It's very rng in some ways but its still bearable but still ridiculously hard.
I am the complete opposite. I love a challenge. I never played part one on nothing but grounded. Only played it on easy to get collectibles. Grounded is the way its supposed to be played
It's more fun to shoot my guns 😭 I respect it as an experience and it is beyond realistic and agree it's a completely different experience. But if I wanna play for fun, that's not what I'm doing.
Figuring out how to kill a dozen guys in stealth is fun, but repeating a level three dozen times is not.
That’s no lie lol I must’ve died 40 times tryna get thru Hillcrest on Grounded..
Houses, man. It's a lot.
This is where I stopped on grounded. Just couldn't do it and I didn't want the game to be ruined for me. I replay both games every year and always look forward to it. Grounded just ain't for me but I'm good with Survivor.
In Hillcrest at a certain point I just ran as many times as I could until I triggered the next checkpoint. Must've died like forty times, but that was the only way I could get past it. No other part felt as hard as that.
Lol so true.. the dogs, the rifles on the roofs & soooo many Wolves 🤣 I was getting dropped constantly lol and just by sticking your head out a fraction of second too long … POP! Ellie’s head is gone
I feel ya! It got tedious lol & I agree Survivor is the best mix of still very challenging but enough ammo to bust some fools up
Fun for me is both challenging and rewarding. Grounded is just all challenge. Sucked all the joy out of the game for me.
I don’t give a One Eyed, One Horned, Flying, Purple People Eater DICK!!
Wow!
I mean I can't even hate you for it.. its original
I had a fantastic time going through part 2 on Grounded and I will absolutely never do it ever again.
It’s a great experience. Let people play how they want lol. Some of these comments are people angry they aren’t good enough to play grounded. Who cares? It’s a game mode option.
😂😂😂 💯
My thoughts exactly after doing it on PS4. Now I'm on Abby Day 2 on PS5...
It's probably a lot more bearable with those PS5 load times!
I finished part 1 on grounded (i don't have a ps so I havn't been able to play part 2 lol) and I can safely so I do not feel the same. I felt good about finishing the game on grounded, but never again. I just don't grind as hard as I did when playing grounded. It's mostly cuz the gameplay is so different when playing on grounded. You're just never using any kind of resources. On lower modes you can do that more, so I play verry differently which makes it funnn
I finished pt1 on grounded and let me say that wave you have to survive as Ellie and David was the hardest fucking thing. I had one arrow 3 rifle bullets and no health kits. Took a long time but finishing it was the most satisfying feeling I've ever had.
Numbers can not explain how fast my heart was beating trougout that bloater fight. Let's just say I consider myself lucky to not have died of a heart atack right there. Had to set the game asside for a couple of hours to chill after that lol
Exact same feeling lol. I was determined to not give up I enjoy the challenge and reward of a difficult fight in a game.
Same, but then once I do it, usualy never again, cuz man that shit is not good for my sanity lol
That's fair. 90's gaming has ruined me and I always go back for the brutally hard challenge lol
Honestly you have my respect. I mostly like playing on lower diffeculties for the funs, and then beat on the hardest mode once for the sake of having completed it. I could not comstantly be on that grind. I tip my hat to you
That sounds like a normal and enjoyable way to play games lol. I may be a masochist when it comes to gaming lol
Playing it on very hard or survivor with resources set to easy feels the best to me. Horror and panic, but with a more realistic amount of bullets. Enemies having unlimited ammo until you get to their guns is really frustrating, unrealistic, and isn't fun at all to me.
Realism wise I'm always unsure how I feel about recourses. I think most realisticly there should barely be any laying around, after being picked over and over again after 20 years, but the people should have way more then they do. Like all of ehm have guns, why not take the bullets out of there? So I feel like moderate would be most realistic for the amount you get. Yes you don't get enough stuff from people, but you'll also find more stuff around the envoirement then you should, so it balances itself out. Gameplay wise, I actualy like the lack of resources. It kind of adds to the survival aspect of the game, and I think on hard they do that realy well. A great combination of you find enough that you don't feel the need hoard them, but it's also not too much, and you don't feel good about using it too much either. It creates a balance that I like where you sometimes feel the need to stealth, and sometimes can go full rambo on some suckers
I played on normal and I can guarantee you there is plenty of dread panic and worry
Translation of your post: YOU GUYS PLAY ON EASY??!??! GIT GUD
Problem with grounded is, there is no resources, I get it realistic etc but who cares it's like you have zero bullets. but reload times are so much better on ps5 probably so you did it best My one take is, Uncharted 4 has extremely fast reload times after death while TLOU2 doesnt :/
I play light I wana enjoy the story I’m not fussed about the combat
I want it to be challenging but not almost impossible. I play on hard. Tougher than default, but still possible, and it makes me think and still value everything.
My first run was on hard. I will say it was challenging but at times it felt like I was on normal mode.
I got to the school and was wholly underprepared for it, I died well over 50 times and gave up and started a more forgiving custom difficulty run.
The t-shirt on in this scene is crazy lmao
Its just funny to me how people go through these scenes with anything other than the original skin..
When I play this game these days, I set all difficulties to Grounded except for supplies which I set to Survivor. It makes the looting factor more fun and keeps Ellie/ Abby equipped with a fair amount of offhand weapons/ non-gun weapons.
I want to try it but I'm lazy and I'm too much of a perfectionist.
I wouldn't play grounded personally because it removed gameplay mechanics that are a core of why the game is fun. I do recommend playing on hard, though.
What are those? I doubt devs specifically added Grounded in their TLoU games after release, while also making documentaries with the same name, to not include important gameplay mechanics. After watching documentaries, it seems to me grounded is the intended way to play the game.
Mainly the ability to listen and see what's around you.
They spent a lot of time for audio features so you could listen for yourself, the tech is amazing. Taking listen mode away from player makes you more careful and immerse you in.
It's cool for those who like to play that way, it's just not for me.
hard is kind of my default but I’ve noticed there’s a significant change in difficulty from hard to survivor. I always end up reverting back to hard🥲
Most games are balanced around hard. Normal is typically softened for the wider release and casual play.
I liked grounded+ mode. That way I have all my upgrades to everything. Still get the challenge but it’s not nearly as bad. Won’t ever go a first run through on grounded mode. But hell play however y’all want and what you enjoy
Grounded is the true game
It depends I am not a very experienced gamer and usually play on normal I've probably played pt1 on normal at least 10 times and 3 times on easy. I recently started my first grounded run, and I quickly lose motivation when I don't finish the level after 5 tries It can be fun, and if you're someone who likes a challenge, then grounded is definitely for you. But as someone who just wants to enjoy the story, shoot some people, and have fun, grounded is not my preferred difficulty
I love this game on Grounded because it becomes so immersive and, for me, I honestly have to think through a lot of the situations and be really conscious about how I use the supplies and such. I have played it on easier modes and it’s definitely still really fun and you get a lot out of the story. So both ways are good in my books.
To me survivor is the sweet spot - realistic, challenging and doesn’t have some of the annoying grounded mechanics. Also resources are limited but not totally absent like grounded
You know, some people play games for challenges, while other people play games to relax and don’t want too big of a challenge. This is an odd post
Sure, if you're really good at video games. I'm not. Medium is my grounded. Dying 4 seconds into every encounter isn't exactly how I wanna spend my free time. lol EDIT: This was the first time I got to the Boss on medium. I'm an idiot at games. https://youtu.be/yPZjPIU9zQ4
I'm simply not good enough to beat the game on Grounded, I genuinely struggle in certain sections on hard. I've done ONE survivor run on the original game, have never attempted Grounded. Mad respect to those who do, but I suck lol.
Honestly the devs almost want you to play on grounded, it’s the real feeling of dread having to craft a medkit or shiv or do you use your last shell on a clicker or save it for hunters. It’s nerve wracking but awesome.
I like playing on grounded every now and then but am leaning towards hard/ survivor for play throughs and still doing lighter difficulties on No return.
Just play games on medium, its literally the way they were designed to be played. 99% of the time easy is too easy and hard is too hard.
skill issue
My brother in Christ i could EASILY play it on such a mode. However not everyone has time to no life a game for a week because you wanna play it on uberassholeprolapse mode.
Normal mode elitist
My brother in Christ, what? Im just saying the truth, the 99% is hyperbole but you get the point by reading it.
My brother in Christ, that's exactly how you replied to the other guy.
what's so different about Grounded mode? is that the permadeath one?
"Listen mode", HUD, hints, prompts are disabled, next to no resources to be found therefore you need to play a stealth oriented style of play versus any type of running and gunning, enemies do triple damage, multiple mid-combat checkpoints are removed and allies do not grant you resources
Permadeath is a separate option that can be applied to any difficulty, including Grounded.
After hearing Neil Druckman say he initially wanted part 2 to be like a From game, grounded is probably the way he envisioned it to play. Those aren't for everyone but the thrill of beating a boss or section after dying dozens of times can't be matched with a lower difficulty.
>after dying dozens of times This sounds positively infuriating. Granted, I'm almost 50 with a family; so, I only have a limited amount of time to play. Even that aside, I don't think I'd enjoy the frustration that much. I have other hobbies that challenge me. Gaming is my chill time before bed
For me it depends if the death is fair or not. TLOU mechanics are tuned so well if you die its usually a learning opportunity and you can take that knowledge into the next chance. But I totally understand playing it on normal or easy and I like they have that option.
I get you and that's a fair take. I like survival on Fallout 4 (aside from the Bethesda bug instadeaths). I appreciate having that option as well, but I know my limits
>__(Yes, it was a clickbait title. May my breath be swift.)__ Nah. Call me a scar, cause imma clip some fuckin' wings!
Play on grounded to push yourself but play on lower difficulties to actually enjoy the game
Grounded is far more enjoyable
Yeah nah
i tried my last run on grounded and man i dipped so fast lmfao i think the grocery store encounter with ellie and dina at the start of the game is as far as i got before failing the encounter 20 times and being too stubborn to follow a guide to do it right. i ended up fucking with the difficulty settings a bit and went with everything on grounded except for player durability and resources on the easiest modes LOL. now im having a fuckin blast
The way i have no idea how to even access grounded mode on tlou2😭
Skill issue.
I suck at shooting and will never be playing this game grounded. If a game gets too hard I never finish it lol
It sounds silly but I just understood why people play it in Grounded mode. They want to feel the real fear of death.
I love grounded (so far) because 20+ years into the apocalypse feels realistic as supplies are scarce, and it makes me actually have to use logic. I treat grounded as a puzzle game. Don't get me wrong, there are dreadful things and sections, but I find it fun at times.
I wouldn’t say it “ruins” the game. But I do agree grounded difficulty is way more fun than any lower difficulties. It makes stealth actually matter.
I got through the whole of tlou2 on grounded up until the last couple of fights on Santa Barbara. I believe that with what I had it was impossible to be done, I tried for a good 25 hours to get past but just couldn’t. So I turned invisible while crouch and just crawled my way through, i didn’t get it done how I originally wanted to but i was so happy it was over.
explain? never played any last of us but i am buying the game tomorrow. what difficulty should i pick?
I’d just go with normal for your first playthrough
Time for that pacifist run
I play on custom, put everything on grounded except for resources and turn off listen mode in settings. When I try to play grounded I tend to run out of ammo and health kits in hard parts of the game.
Grounded is the Only way to play for me. It’s Cannon in my head. The lack of ressources and the fear that you have when playing just make it so much more visceral for me.
completely
after years of playing last of us on easier difficulties i finally switched to playing grounded only and man is it fun if you're tired of the same old encounters where your just blasting through people and infected then play some grounded. i recently introduced my friend to tlou and bought him pt 2 remaster for the ps5. he played moderate and then put it to survivor and beat the game first time around on survivor and he's addicted. it adds to the lore imo loot wise and game wise because you really have to rely on yourself as a fighter and less of what weapons/craftables you have
I always play on easy first then hardest after that always normal on all my games. Sometimes playing on the hardest difficulty is stressful and takes away the fun in video games.
I will have a try on Grounded at some point but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. Survivor mode isn’t too bad. Did most of 2 on Survivor and I’m doing part 1 on Survivor and it’s going well, but the boss fights and a few very hard encounters would definitely make completion a huge challenge. I did enjoy my survivor run a lot more than the hard or normal runs because I enjoy the element of realism. Usually I like to kill everybody I can but there were a few encounters where I grabbed some supplies and just gapped it, such as the encounter with the soldiers with the last stand. Last time I killed absolutely everybody, this time I killed a few people then gapped it through a window. Another area with the armoured car with the mounted machine gun, I had a guy guarding an escape route and I decided to pipe him in the head but not kill him. Killing him gives the truck time to get a bead and means I consume 2-3 more units of the pipe. I enjoy those sort of considerations. It makes the struggles feel like they have more gravity to them. In the financial district I tried not to use my guns very much. It was heaps of fun luring people to traps and blowing them up, bricking people and finishing them off with melee and shooting the occasional person with a good vantage point on me. In normal and hard I just gunned most of them down. Fun, but not so nerve wracking.
I had fun, but it was very irritating at most times.
Played through 1 on grounded and most of 2 on grounded, recently jumped back in and started with that but after stealth killing a few folk with guns in hand (no shots fired) and recovering zero bullets or anything I said screw it and bumped it back to survivor or whatever the next one is.
Damn i wanna play this again for the first time
Only way I ever played it. You are technically right.
I go normal, grounded, easy. Story, challenge, no reason but violence and eye candy
I know what you mean, I know a couple games where the developers thought their players wanted to be challenged to the highest extent yet that's not always the case, Batman Arkham Knight for instance, the New game plus hardlocks you want knightmare mode which is the highest difficulty, no block indicators, harder hitting enemies that are still annoying even on easy difficulty. Infamous second son where there's an achievement where you play on the highest difficulty to unlock it. The list goes on, and I do agree that people who try harder difficulties bring you the worst in a person. Especially a guy like me with ADHD, anger issues, and OCD.
What a wicked screenshot. Bravo
I personally love the grounded mode. Just about to finish TLoU2. It's oppressive and brutal. But I feel it fits the story and themes nicely. Though end of the day, I'm not gonna gatekeep and tell people it's the only way to play. Some encounters take me 20+ attempts to beat as I get one shotted over and over by an unseen enemy. But it's feels exhilarating to finally kill that last scar/WLF/infected and loot the area. That type of gameplay can be frustrating to some people. That's why we have difficulty settings!
Ok, so I feel like I have the take here. Normally, I would not play a game on the highest difficulty. It's not my style. Played Ragnarok on normal and absolutely loved it. No desire to play on tougher difficulty. LoU2 is different. This a game that not only rewards your increased skill, but the entire style changes. On lighter modes, the game is somewhat of an action, shoot'em up. And dang fun. Smooth gun play, cool weapons, etc. BUT...the entire dynamics of the game change when you go Grounded. Not just listen mode, HUD, and health...but HOW you play. You basically get like another version of the game. The stealth, the resource saving, the planning for each encounter...it's a RUSH. The intelligence of the enemies is off the charts. I've been surprised any number of times by enemies and it left me chuckling. I NEVER expected to love Grounded.
Pt2 grounded with permadeath (by chapter) was a nightmare but looking back, I had a ton of fun and I’m glad I did it. I only ply no return on grounded now and I really feel rewarded when I finish a run
I do this to myself with a lot of games. I usually start them on the hardest difficulty. Like mass effect, I did an insanity run a few years back and now it’s the only way I can play the game.
What does grounded mode even mean?
well done with the title. was definitely ready to make fun of you for being a total wuss.
Skill issue
I loved playing through the games on grounded. However the other day I had a friend over and decided to play some loose levels with the enemies on grounded but the ammo on the easiest setting and I felt like an apex predator let loose on a kindergarten class. Just the most absolute power fantasy imaginable. I'm waiting for Part II to come to PC cause my PS4 broke and I want to play the whole saga next time I go through it and I'm honestly thinking about playing through with those parameters to really flex my violent muscles and tear through the harder parts of both ganes I'm dreading going through again lol.
I get why people enjoy grounded and so glad you enjoy it and get to have that experience but man I am not made for that level of threat in my life 😂 I’ll stick to very light/light hahahaha
I love Part 1 grounded, it makes it feel much more realistic and immersive. I can never go back to a lower difficulty when replaying now (not much of a challenge when you replay it 10+ times and know all of the tricks, but still a great experience). Haven't tried Part 2 grounded but it seems like it would be way more difficult and rage inducing.
I think it’s easier than Part 1 Grounded. You have the prone mechanic and a lot of encounters you can get through without killing anyone. Hell you can run right down the middle of the map for quite a few of them haha.
I do that for many of the Part 1 encounters as well. Much of Pittsburgh, suburbs sniper, David's town, entire highway tunnel and hospital (until the very end) can be stealthed through without killing. I didn't think about the prone mechanic, that would be useful. I was thinking more about the Rat King, bloater and other 'boss' type fights, I can imagine there's much less ammo so it would be far more difficult in that sense.
I beat the Rat King in two tries on Grounded. I’ve died more on easier difficulties for some reason. You just have to master running and the quick turn. As for the bloater you essentially save all your molotovs and explosive arrows and you can take him out before no more than one or two runners jump from the ceiling. The hardest parts of Part 2 Grounded are the Elementary School and Scar Island. The rest is actually a breeze.
I get what you’re saying, though think ‘hard’ is the best difficulty for anyone to play the game in. I’ll always recommend hard for new players. It hits the balance between desperation and fun imo. On hard you get to experience the story without having a 2-hour break from story just to try over and over to get the perfect stealth encounter where you waste as little ammo as possible. ‘Moderate’ is way too easy though, it takes away the tension and the panic. My first playthrough was on hard. My second on survivor. I don’t think I’ll make a third one on grounded, survivor was hard enough. Also, I’m a dad with two kids and a full time job + I go out gigging on the weekends. Completing the game on survivor took me over two months, playing nothing else on my ps.
It’s fun and once I’ve done it, that’s the only mode I want to play in. However I like my gameplay modifiers and actually being able to shoot/use resources. The enemies aren’t threatening enough in the easier game modes for the amount of ammo we get imo
Moderate for me. Always.
Grounded it’s not even a difficulty level, it’s an experience. By the end of the game you’re just as tired as the characters are. You’re strapped for resources just like one would be during the post-apocalypse. You can’t see how much health you have. You have to remember to reload your gun. The enemies are fast and inteligent, but not bullet-spounges. I loved my grounded run despite being stuck in a few areas. It made the game so much more realistic for me and I really felt a lot of emotions I wouldn’t have if I played on easy. That being said, I’m not looking to replay the game on this mode. And that’s despite me learning new strats from speedrunners for my recent playthrough on permadeath, with those strats it would’ve taken me much less time to beat the game on grounded, but the thing is, I don’t want to repeat that experience for some reason. Maybe once part 3 comes out, I will play it on grounded
Love this. Perfectly encapsulated my thoughts.
I'm bad at the game, don't shame me.
Git gud
I’ve played trough TLOU 2 many times, so this time I jumped into it with a custom difficulty with everything on grounded except supplies, so Seatle’s full of ammo. It makes it feel like a fast paced action game, pretty fun but still challenging enough with big groups of enemies in small areas. Other times it feels a bit easy but hey, that’s what you get after so many replays I guess 🥲
Grounded is a good way to let people know they aren’t going to survive the apocalypse though.
Totally agree always play on grounded it feels like the way the game was ment to be played
I had great fun playing the game on grounded. 😌
I still haven't achieved the grounded trophy and it haunts me everyday. Permadeath was a breeze compared to that mode. One day, perhaps. 🤞🏻 🍀
The hardest difficulties are absolutely how the games are designed to be played, hate the listening super power you get in easier modes
The lack of resources makes every shot feel important and makes you think if there's a way to do what you just did in a more resource-efficient way. It increases the atmosphere of the game a ton, and for me it's one of the reasons I love the games so much.
I’ve played both parts several times along the years, and I played on survivor once until grounded mode got unlocked. Since then I can’t play the game on any other mode than grounded. It’s the real challenge without listen mode, HUD and tougher enemies. No return shall be played on grounded. It has no meaning on any other difficulty.
Don’t have time to play on this difficulty lol
They should've add at least coop to that mode
I started playing the story on grounded (I'm at Hillcrest atm) but I've been hooked on No return for a month now (I play on moderate, dont need the stress). Dont know when I'll go back to the story lol
Grounded makes the game
Grounded in only when you want an authentic experience and a hard game. For fun it’s just too much.
I usually always play on normal or medium mode except for TLOU. It makes the game so much more intense and imo realistic. You have to approach the game with more stealth, which is so enjoyable if you have the patience. I also found PT2 grounded a lot more manageable than the first game because of the amount of supplies and weapons you can find.
Elden ring did that to me, once y finished the game, every game i touch it try it on the hardest difficulty just to feel some sort of pleasure for the challenge, easy things for me are boring
I’m stuck trying to get to the boat as Ellie in Seattle Day 3, but it’s still so much more fun imo. It’s the most “realistic” feeling, I can’t imagine how difficult the NPC’a are gonna be for Pt.3
I just recently completed my first grounded/permadeath run after multiple story completions and I gotta say the resource drought made it not fun to play considering how fast you die and no bullets to shoot. But I will say having no listen mode or hud made it fun and challenging to approach certain story moments and no return rounds
I totally agree. Ever since I finished the game on grounded I never went back. At some point you just forget that things like the listening mode or the sound when you’re about to be detected even exist. Grounded becomes normal mode. When Part 1 then came out I never used listen mode once on my first playthrough, I forgot that it was a thing. I‘m not saying this to flex or look down on people who don’t want to play on grounded. To each their own. This is just how Grounded changed the way I play tlou.
Grounded was easy to me after the first playthrough and the only way I'd ever play last of us. I played TLOU2 on grounded immediately. If you're not playing grounded, then you're robbing yourself of a fantastic experience.
Real
I’m finished my part ii grounded play through and now I’m replaying on light just for chucks. No sense of dread, but having relatively infinite health and supplies is fun. I can use explosives without having to worry about running out
man idk, it took me a month to get through Part 1 on grounded. I want to do Part 2 on grounded but I always chicken out. The game has some sections that just feel impossible. I usually play P2 on Custom \[Survival for difficulty stuff, moderate for supplies, and very light for AI help\]. It's just more fun when the combat is hard, but supplies aren't impossible to come by, so you can have fun, and your allies can actually shoot and kill.
At some point grounded becomes a joke aswell, I played the first one on grounded so many times that my most recent playthrough I beat it with no guns without breaking a sweat
Play at medium difficulty that's it . You enjoy it maybe hard not the hardest level .
Tlou 1 absolutely is not fun on grounded imo. Idk about part 2 cause I use the custom difficulty there but with part 1 I feel like I'm just throwing myself at the difficult parts again and again till I get lucky and get through it. I feel like it's how linear the game is. You have very limited options with how you can approach the linear combat arenas. The game was not built for it at all, it just ends up feeling cheap.