10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Last Of Us
6. How Much Grounded Difficulty Is Practically A Different Game
Many games have harder-than-hard difficulties. Take BioShock Infinite’s 1999 mode, for example. Less checkpoints, less money, less ammo. Simple tweaks stacked on top of more enemies with more health, dealing more damage.
Unsurprisingly, The Last Of Us’
DLC difficulty, Grounded,
doesn’t stray from this formula. Enemies now do three times more damage and
their AI becomes incredibly tight. Ammo is scarce, as it should be in an
apocalypse, meaning you better get good at lobbing bricks and bottles.
These are all standard hard mode practices, though. What makes Grounded so insane, even compared to the lesser difficulty, Survivor, is the extras.
For starters, you have no HUD. That means no ammo count, for the odd bullet you do happen to find, no health bar, nothing. Listen Mode, which lets you see through walls is also disabled, obviously.
Let’s break that down. You're righting enemies that do three times more damage, which you won’t know how much you’ve taken, nor will you be able to unload shots because you will always be low on ammo. Add in that you’ll be fighting countless infected, such as Clickers and Bloaters who can one-shot you. You’ll rarely come across shivs, let alone scraps to craft. I’ll say it again, you better get good at throwing bottles.