I'm probably going to be starting this up soon,any impressions of survival mode.I've heard the game is not that hard even on hard mode so would like to know if survival would be ok for a first playthrough.
I played the game on normal and got the platinum, then started it again on Survival and I've put in a substantial amount of time in the first act (somewhere between 5-10 hours).
Survival, for my money, is absolutely the way to play this. Especially if you've played something like RE2 this year and are clamoring for more "survival horror".
The game is more difficult, but very fair. It plays a lot more like RE in that freakers absorb a lot more damage (headshots being the only surefire way to take them down in one hit to conserve ammo or melee weapon durability). Ammo is in shorter supply but I've yet to run out completely. Human enemies do seem a bit smarter and have more in the way of tactics. They still have moments where the AI goes completely dumb and stands around or calls out that the coast is clear immediately after someone in their group has been downed, but overall I'm finding them way more engaging and they're forcing me to really think through my approach and take cover constantly.
Deacon takes heavy damage and can go down after a few hits (initial health bar without the upgrades can probably lose 3-4 chunks before you're dead). Crafting supplies are much harder to come by, giving it a real TLOU flavor in terms of harder gameplay (think of the resource management in the harder difficulties of TLOU; it's almost exactly like that).
I love the immersive HUD. I like trusting my sense of direction and just following the open road to my destination. I rarely ever get lost or feel the need to open the world map constantly.
Overall, I'd say if you like RE type of resource management and more challenging gameplay, this is absolutely a great way to play.
Although...I haven't taken on a Horde or a swarm yet and whenever there's more than 3 freakers coming after me I usually nope the fuck out and run my ass off to give them the slip. It's also the very first time in my hundred hours of playing the game that I ducked into a trash bin to hide. LOL