Hi all, I already talked about my experience of playing trial of iron on hard on my first ever playthroughs and the reasons why I did it in the following thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71530-i-challenge-you-you-only-get-one-chance/page-3

Now, although I loved the experience, I've given up on it because, simply put, I failed and real life time constraints wouldn't permit me too many retries, and therefore I'm playing on hard mode non-trial of iron. I want to write the differences I experience between playing these two modes:

1 - General feeling: first off, although I take the same pleasure playing through the game, there is definitely less concentration and positive stress going into battles and my general attention level during them is lower.

 

2 - Battle-planning: I'm definitely playing more casually, not thinking too much before engaging enemies and not planning tactics as much as I tried to do in ToI.

 

3 - Risk-taking: my risk taking and risk aversion are also different. While I played much more safely during my trial of iron, for example by hiring custom chars as soon as I could afford to beef up my party, I don't do that so much now. Also, in my trial of iron playthroughs I was heavy on deflection, hatchets and shields, especially for my main char, while now I'm going two-handed sword on both my fighters.

 

4 - Now, for the odd thing, although I play by taking more risk and more offensively, I still didn't die, and encounters generally seem to have become easier. So it looks that for me playing offensively rather than defensively made me...survive more easily. xD

 

5 - Death counter: I still didn't die or load a game in non-trial of iron, which is a little depressing.. xD

 

6 - Role-playing: for the dialogs, path choices and general role-playing there are no differences.

 

Of course it's a little ironic that now that I'm playing non-ToI I just don't die or load the game...damn logic!! xD

Edited March 28, 201510 yr by Macrae

There should be a mode that is like iron man but less insane.Example is when you enter a new map the game autosaves and that is the only save so you can screw up and have to do it all over again.Or another way could be to save only when main character levels up.

Edited March 28, 201510 yr by wolfstriked

I played Trial of Iron/Hard for my first try too, just for lulz. Did not try again after this. There are just too many cool ways to get pwned if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong.

 

I will very likely do a Trial of Iron run later at some point, but not before I know what's where.