should I play ranger hardcore or just hardcore?

Ranger hardcore. Seriously, this game is so much easier than 2033... *sigh

 

Personally I played RH on my first playthrough.. and it was easy as fuck

 

On my first playthrough, I did "Hard" without killing any humans except for:

Spoiler

the flamethrower and riot shield guys at the end of the game.

Some of the levels were incredibly difficult (just imagine doing The Chase and Red Square without killing anyone), but the rest of the game was enjoyable enough to not be frustrating yet difficult enough to provide a fair challenge. As long as you use stealth whenever you can and always keep your distance when fighting mutants, "Hard" should be great for any veterans of Metro 2033 (unless you plan to not kill any humans, because then the challenge increases immensely in the few levels where direct combat is forced on you). I haven't played "Ranger Hardcore" yet as I've reserved that for my second playthrough. Once I'm done with that, I'll let you know how it compared to the hard difficulty of original mode and that of M2033.

 

I personally prefer Normal Hardcore for being able to carry more weapons and ammo and being able to check your inventory (something I can't stand about Ranger in LL), although I wish it was more challenging.

Fighting mutants seems slightly tougher since you still seem to die pretty quickly in melee combat yet mutants seem tougher than in Ranger Mode, but human enemies are the biggest joke ever and I am practically tripping over needed supplies.

If we could remove the HUD and hitmarkers (but keep inventory), give us a third weapon, raise the ammo cap, drastically decrease the amount of ammo you find, and make enemies tougher, then I probably wouldn't have much to complain about.

 

See, those tips are perfect example when people break the game for themselves and later they complain the game is too easy.

First of all, gas mask glitch is breaking the game and is grossly against realism and immersion. It obviously let you stay on surface much longer, which is obviously not intended and removes any tension and stress. I did it few times in heavy fire fights, e.g. Red Square brawl where you are in danger that your mask will break, however, it should always be done as a last resort.
Your second example illustrates how you exploit lacking AI but you complain about such AI in earlier paragraph. Also note that mutant AI was purposefully toned down from original Metro because there those mutants were too aggressive, usually doing straight line to you whenever you were spotted. In Metro LL these mutants try to flank you or circle around you but there are obvious deficiencies because at times mutants don't attack or have problems effectively close distance to mobile targets.

 

I think this has very little to the thread to do. Please keep yourself to the subject. (I feel like an ass for saying that, just because I have no "rights" to it. though sometimes it feels like we need more mods. Sometimes.)

Anyway, I recommend to play on RHC; I did my first run on RHC, and I died perhaps 10 times? But I also restarted alot of missions from the checkpoints when I got caught in Stealth, just so I could figure out how to go all the way through the room without getting caught.
Im now on RHC trying to get all the Achievements. I dont think RCH is a problem, but perhaps just too easy.

 

I have not answered the OP question because the choice was already made by the poster.

If I got to the topic in time, or doing it now, I would recommend normal difficulty play-through first and then Ranger normal setting for other ending.

There are little differences in the actual difficulty of the game between those 2 difficulty settings--the game is a bit too easy and binary, you either do it or you fail, no hard choices, no situations where mistake early would punish you later. The difference is that normal play-through let you fully enjoy the game, the plot, the scenery/graphics and still not be too hard pressed to clear everything in silence, guess how much ammo you have or how much air is left.

Once you are done with acquainting with the game, you can pop Ranger normal for a bit more survival test and more immersion. 2nd play-through on this difficulty will be sufficiently different from first one and you can aim for the other ending you did not get the first time through. Ranger normal is adding fresh elements to the game but it is not so obnoxious and limiting as Ranger hardcore. The biggest draw still remains though, two weapons are just too restrictive and limits effective weapon load outs.

I personally did as I suggest above, normal difficulty first time, Ranger normal second time through and now I'm clearing this game third time on hardcore. 3rd time through I will try to minimize stealth and engage in gun fights. Once done with third clear, I hope first DLC wont be too far away

On the gas mask trick, it is not helping immersion and realism but it was understandably ignored by 4A Games because preventing such behavior would be very restrictive. My idea would be that once you pop in the filter, a membrane is broken when it is mounted into holder, and such filter would be effective only for the set duration. Such modification would prevent the trick but could lead to a situation where a player would have to replay a level because he/she was advancing too slow or just did not approximate correctly how much total filter time is left (mostly for Ranger hardcore where you can see the total time).

 

I finished my second playthrough today (the Ranger Hard one) and here's what I have to say: Original Hard makes fighting humans more difficult whilst Ranger Hard makes fighting mutants more difficult. I actually had some minor trouble with lack of ammo on Ranger Hard, but that's because I didn't play all that stealthily as I did on Original Hard. Also, it was more due to the fact that there was a very strict limit to how much I can carry and nothing else, as there are only a few sections in the game where ammunition is not easy to come by. Either way, awesome game.

For the average Joe, I recommend Original Normal for a first playthrough. For those who are looking for a challenge, I recommend Original Hard at first and maybe Ranger Mode Hard as a second playthrough. For those who want a lot of challenge, I recommend Original Hard + no human kills for your first playthrough (it seems easy at first, but it gets much more difficult later on).

Regardless of what you do, I do not recommend Ranger Mode Hard for your first playthrough. It's not broken - it's just designed to be a second or third playthrough. If you don't know where the QTEs appear and what the controls of the game are, then you will fail. If you completed Metro 2033 on a higher level of difficulty AS WELL AS Last Light, only then will you succeed and find the whole game more entertaining rather than frustrating.

One last thing: it doesn't matter who you are or what games you like; don't play Last Light with crosshairs. Just go into options and turn that shit off. Screw Ranger Hard - the way it was meant to be played is in whatever difficulty mode you prefer, as long as it is without crosshairs! In all seriousness though, I always play the game without crosshairs and whenever I see a video of someone playing with it enabled... a part of my soul dies. :lol: It just looks so ugly and is so immersion breaking for me.

 

You sir are the voice of reason.

Literally every issue I have with the game, you just listed. It would be really nice for 4A to patch the game, giving players more options and 'fixing' Ranger mode.

 

I don't get it, if you want a harder game, why do you want to raise the ammo cap and an extra weapon slot? That makes no sense to me.

 

Better/smarter ai, but more bullets to fight them with?

 

Maybe it is because being limited to tiny amount of ammo and just 2 weapons is not increasing the difficulty but instead is increasing annoyance factor of the game.

Now, lets look at those 2 case:
1. Raise ammo cap -- You can carry very limited amount of ammo in Ranger difficulties in order to raise the challenge. This is perfect example of lazy approach game developer has chosen, or lack of time/money to make it better. The problem is over-abundance of ammo in this game. Instead of properly re-balancing dropped amounts for each difficulty, the developer opted for cheap trick with limiting maximum amount of ammo you can carry. You will be at max ammo count most of your play time. I even dare to say you will be at max 99% of the time in levels where you fight human opponents.
Now, the situation is very different in mutant-only levels where you can run into problems if you are not careful. You can be careful and efficient in previous levels as much as you want, it will not help you in your current mutant-only level due to fact you capped very quickly on ammo and any additional found or saved ammo will be wasted. Another side-effect of this cheap-ass solution.
Lastly, certain weapons are grossly penalized by ammo cap. Low amounts of ammo for certain weapons--Tihar (45), Valve & Preved (20) or even Revolver 46)--makes them very dangerous or inefficient load out. You will simply resort to carrying assault rifle with silencer and shotgun--two weapons that use most frequently used or found ammo. Another side-effect of artificial ammo cap.

Raising ammo cap but reducing abundance of ammo drops would greatly benefit game play--it would add incentive to scavenge and explore levels to find spare ammo. it would reward those that play carefully in order to save ammo as well and would increase weapon load outs choices.

2. Extra weapon slot -- This is also another cheap solution to artificially increase challenge because you are effectively reducing amount of usable ammo.
Side effect of this approach is that it severely limits options a player can make in this game. Two weapon slots will cause you to pick weapons that can carry most ammo and has the ammo abundance/kill ratio. You will also want to carry at least one weapon with silencer capability, even if it is not completely necessary due to throwing knives and ease of stealthiness.

Increasing weapon slots to 3 while properly balancing ammo would allow for more flexibility in weapon load outs, increase modding possibilities and let you effectively use dropped weapons in case you run into ammo problems.

 

This. The only point in the game where I ran low on ammo was where I bought a bunch of good gear in the shop and forgot to buy ammo for it. However, I always had enough gear in the level I played. There's no sense of preparing to go into dangerous areas, and scavenging is hardly essential since ammo is everywhere. Most of the time, all I use ammo for is to trade it in for MGR's which are better than any other bullet in just about every way. A silenced AK will practically hold your hand throughout the game.

2033, on the other hand, had no cap but insanely limited ammo. Unless you're Komodo and/or sold DLC weapons, you really had to prioritize what ammo you wanted. It didn't use some ridiculous static ammo cap because it didn't need to; if you wanted to carry nothing but 20 bandoliers for the auto shotgun, you could. It was hardly the best idea, but it was the freedom to balance your inventory that was fun. It never really made the game imbalanced IMO (unless, you meet the already-listed criteria). No amount of shotgun shells will save you from being lifted off the ground by a demon, all it does is annoy you slightly. It's like having to push a certain key every 30 seconds or else you instantly drop dead; does it make the game slightly more difficult? Sure! But not in a really fun or effective way.

So yeah. Throw us a few bones to make things differ from the usual AR/Shotgun, cut down on all ammo scavenged (why does every single soldier need to have a pipe bomb on them?) and definitely trim way down the amount of ammo you get from hidden caches. (I distinctively remember finding 50 MGR's in a box at some point. 50!) Give us the challenge of having to really know our way around the metro, while giving us the tools to have fun along the way.