I recently bought Bioshock (something I've been meaning to do for a long time) and one thing really amazed me; the difficulty settings. I first played on medium thinking easy would be too easy and hard being near impossible and soon in found myself dying every few enemies. I switched to easy to see how it went and i found enemies to be no challenge at all, especially the Big Daddies. I switched to Medium and again it was near impossible. Is it just me being bad at the game or do others find this as well?

Sure you die an awful lot, but you respawn pretty quickly so there's not really a huge amount you really lose by dying - the enemies even have the same health you left them with.

GIVE'EM THE ONE TWO COMBO

I started on hard and I got my ass kicked all the time. Especially with the Big Daddies.

Perhaps you were not being resourceful enough? Try fully researching everything with the camera, that helps quite a bit. Anywho, you have the vita chambers if things get ridiculous.

Not for me. I played on Normal (or medium, whatever the second difficulty was), and found the game appropriately tense, but I don't think I died until like 3/4ths of the way through the game. Maybe it's just your play style?

Then again I am awesome incarnate (I keed I keed).

Yeah, I didn't have any trouble playing on medium. Although that could probably be due to the fact that I sit back and spend 10 minutes trying to kill everything from a safe distance before entering a room. An extremely effective, if not boring strategey.

Hard with the vita-chambers disabled. Any less, hand in your testicles at the door.

After a few levels, I was using the Wrench for everything that wasn't wearing a dive suit.

Eh, I found the game a little on the easy side with the constant reincarnation thing. However, it might have taken a 180 and got too hard if it didn't.

I honestly found Bioshock to be fairly easy, even on hard. With or without the vita chambers. Of course, this is on the PC (not sure what you're playing it on).. and a good 16 years of playing FPS's under my belt.

When I played it on the console, it was harder than diamonds.

When I finally got it on PC, it was a breeze. There was even a difficulty mod, which nerfed the wrench (which it deserved) among other things.

But this is coming from a player who played nightmare runs on doom 2 and liked playing 1v1 versus Xan in UT99. Sure, I never did well, but Bioshock was gumdrop frosting compared to THAT kind of difficulty.

Really, I think it was fairly easy. The limited health system means nothing when dying doesn't cost you a thing.

Also, I played it almost exactly like a run and gun shooter. I rarely used plasmids - there didn't seem to be a need when I could just shoot things with any of the guns lying around.

Aardvark:
Hard with the vita-chambers disabled. Any less, hand in your testicles at the door.

After a few levels, I was using the Wrench for everything that wasn't wearing a dive suit.

Did you give'em the ol' one two combo?

May try going on medium and using plasmids more. And another thing, Does anyone really use Plasmids? I try to but find they are really weak. I end up using 8 bars of EVE to kill a single enemy.

I'm not reading anything in this forum I am just going to say this... the only thing easier than beating Bioshock on any difficulty is dieing in the event of head loss

Altorin:
Did you give'em the ol' one two combo?

No need. Tonics turn that thing into a death can... er... wrench.

I'm playing on medium right now, and I find it appropriately hard.
I save and load a lot, though, I don't use Vita-Chamber too much.

TheNecroswanson:

Tip: Take as many photos of Houdini splicers as possible. You get an amazing tonic that makes you invisible if you sty still for a few seconds, very good on the higher difficulties when you may need to duck away from combat for a few seconds, and ALWAYS good if you trip an alarm.

Hehehe...just got that today.

I hadn't played an FPS since perfect dark for the 64 and didn't have any problems getting through Bioshock on Medium. Finished it in one sitting ugh, 15 hours later.

What are you talking about? Everything in Bioshock was just trivial, except for the early few Big Daddies. I'm not just really good at videogames, you were just tripping over health, ammo, and money. GEtting the achievement for never dying(by disabling Vita-Chambers) was just no problem at all.

And when you get revived every 5 feet for no cost at all you can just use your wrench for the whole game, like I did on easy(but I only died once because clipping made me kill myself to get out).

Even with the Vita Chambers having to constantly re spawn with no health packs and only a wrench is really frustrating. I might just play easy on this way through and when i rerun the game i'll do medium. Never gonna tackle hard. Seems impossible in my opinion.

It really wasn't too hard for me at all. My first play was on normal and I was only occasionally killed because I was careless and angered too many splicers at once (pre-explosives) or because I didn't prepare well enough for a Big Daddy. I do admit I burned through health packs like crazy, but they were everywhere so I still didn't die much. I was uber-powerful near endgame (and really cut down the med pack use) Pyro powers forever!

I found it very easy, and I was playing on hard.

oni565:
I found it very easy, and I was playing on hard.

Do you happen to have beaten every other FPS ever known to human kind? If not you are incredibly skilled.

I would say it's impossibly difficult, but that's just because despite the fact that my computer's stats are up to par, Bioshock had a steady 1 second lag at least, even on the lowest graphical settings. I made it all of 20 minutes before I decided it was unplayable.

just get wrench jockey 1 and 2, the sport boost (or whatever it is called that makes you swing your wrench faster) and then frozen wrench upgrade and you can kill anyone, i beat almost the whole game using only my wrench on medium, oh and freezing plasmid

I got that game the day it came out and I beat it no problem on the hardest difficulty.

May I just add that I am not an expert at FPS. I don't suck but I'm in the middle somewhere on a scale.

I found medium difficulty to be challenging. Nothing too hard though. Splicers were really no problem. Big Daddies could be tough.
BioShock isn't really like regular FPS's. I wouldn't say it's totally twitch or skill based.

Dkozza:
I recently bought Bioshock (something I've been meaning to do for a long time) and one thing really amazed me; the difficulty settings. I first played on medium thinking easy would be too easy and hard being near impossible and soon in found myself dying every few enemies. I switched to easy to see how it went and i found enemies to be no challenge at all, especially the Big Daddies. I switched to Medium and again it was near impossible. Is it just me being bad at the game or do others find this as well?

i have the ps3 version on the hardest difficulty and let me say this: You cannot move an inch without vaudeville psychopaths shooting you, big daddies can damn near kill you with a glance (i call this the chuck norris effect), and fighting bosses is like handcuffing yourself to a tether pole and lying face up in a mosh pit after spitting on a bunch of hardcore skinheads. the point I'm trying to get to is that When you beat BioShock, you feel like you beat it no matter how many times you die. it's worth it.

wow i played that game on hard first time through it was ok but the vitachambers made the gameplay too simple, and watered down i mean my 10 year old brother could beat that game on survivor WITH vitachambers. the real challenge is disabling the vitachambers and playing on either survivor or hard depending on you of course.

I actually thought bioshock was kinda lame until i found out i could turn those god awful chambers off.

and this may surprise you and you may not believe it but bioshock is only the second FPS i have had the patience to finish.

Fineldar:
What are you talking about? Everything in Bioshock was just trivial, except for the early few Big Daddies. I'm not just really good at videogames, you were just tripping over health, ammo, and money. GEtting the achievement for never dying(by disabling Vita-Chambers) was just no problem at all.

And when you get revived every 5 feet for no cost at all you can just use your wrench for the whole game, like I did on easy(but I only died once because clipping made me kill myself to get out).

haha seems that you have watched yahtzees review on this game you should at least cite him for using his quote exactly.

I've been playing on my PS3 set to Hard, without problems. I reload if I don't like my performance, but rarely use Vita Chambers. Be sure to pick a good environment to fight Big Daddies. Twice, I've taken a Big Daddy out without using a Chamber once.

A fistful of lightning is probably all you'll need. That and the ability to shoot bees from out of your hand. The wrench is a great weapon here. Combine with sneaking and wrench lurker tonic and you've got yourself a winner.

Haven't tried it on hard though. In my playthrough (medium), I only had difficulty at the beginning. Ammo and money was scarce, and the first Big Daddy encounter was really a balls-to-the-wall experience. By the time I got near the end, everything I invented got doubled (hack tools, ammo, etc.) and my coffers were always full. As for Big Daddies: Shock, then incendiary rounds to the face. Lather, rinse, repeat until dead.