It took me way over 40 hours to beat.
I'm an OCD wall-kisser and a sucker for environment art, if you ever wondered if someone actually reads those random posters on walls or look inside all those dumpsters, well that's me.
I still managed to somehow miss a couple of collectibles.
I started on HARD but switched to SURVIVAL after Chapter 1 feeling the game is too generous allowing me to make it through alive when I shouldn't.
I loved TLOU on GROUNDED and what I wanted from part 2 is this kind of similar more realistic experience. Always low on resources and vulnerable.
I restarted encounters A LOT when things were going to shit or when I wasn't happy with myself recording gameplay, some took me way over half an hour.
One main problem was always the same - my aim is utter shit, has always been. Then there is weapon sway. I was getting stuck, feeling like it's way too much for me to handle.
This is is when the eureka moment came and the gameplay landed for me as a masterpiece of the genre - I discovered the Lock-On Aim under controls/options.
Lame you think? Hear me out.
In my opinion, this should really be the default way to play the game. SURVIVAL with "soft" lock-on ENABLED, with most of the hud OFF.
If you haven't already - do yourself a favor and switch to it immediately. Find a sweet spot Strength setting - "mild" 6 out of 10 still gives you a lot of room to work.
Don't worry - the lock will not make it too easy here, you will still be getting wrecked.
All it does is support the no-mistakes-allowed gameplay, making it not only possible to kill everyone on your path, always have just the right amount of supplies, but also encourages you to play way more aggressively than you normally would.
It all boils down to what you're seeing on screen - enemies on SURVIVAL are fast, perceptive, tactical, and deadly. Will snipe you, flank and surround you.
Switch to normal for a moment and have a laugh at how inept and blind they get. Then switch back.
Infected require WAY more dodging and precision maneuvers in melee.
The action gets so much more exhilarating and deliberate and the carnage so much more satisfying.
You need to be a surgically precise killer and constantly navigate the environment taking advantage of all your skills and arsenal to defeat what the game throws at you and you will, and it feels amazing.
But there is more. I am now replaying on SURVIVOR+ having an ABSOLUTE BLAST.
I ditched the lock-on (which sadly comes with an extra hud element you can't seem to disable) and replaced it with Slow Motion set to WHILE AIMING from combat accessibility menu.
It's ridiculous, basically a bullet-time whenever you pull the left trigger to aim. I'm at the end of chapter one and I haven't died even once. It turns you into a John Wick in combat and holy shit it ZOOMS IN whenever you shoot so you get a better look at epic model damage gore system. TRY IT.
This game is so fucking good it just blows my mind.
