New details about Horizon: Zero Dawn have leaked on NeoGaf, thanks to people who have already given the game not only a look but an early play as well. According to few guys, who have played it extensively, it’s almost a “Souls game” at the highest difficulty level, meaning that it’s pretty hard to beat if you’re not playing it on the Normal difficulty.

Although, “if you’re not careful”, “the game can be difficult even in normal mode”. Talking deeper about the difficulty settings, it is reported that “enemies change damage depending on” it. The difficulty can be switched on the fly, but items you can gather don’t change when it comes to the amount (herbs aside) and requirements to craft them don’t change as well.

So, it doesn’t look like you’ll have an easy time while playing Horizon: Zero Dawn if you do it on the highest difficulty level, but also when it’s normal, well, you’ll need to be careful in order to avoid surprises, especially during boss fights. Horizon: Zero Dawn is releasing for PS4 on February 28/March 1.

Here is the complete impression of the early player on the difficulty setting of Horizon Zero Dawn:

Ok I tested difficulty modes with the same save doing the same things. It seem to only change some stats. So on very hard when you gather herbs you get 7% or 14 % depending on the roll. On hard it’s 9% or 18% on normal it’s 12% or 24%.

Enemies change damage depending on the difficulty. So a light melee attack on a scrapper on very hard is 28 damage, on hard it’s 32 and on normal its 37. Heavy attack is 68 on very hard, 78 on hard and in the 80s for normal. A scrapper lunge attack on v hard takes two whole bars of life, on hard it’s a bar and a half and on normal it’s one bar. All attacks scale about the same way. I can’t tell this for certain but it seem to me that on normal enemies are less aggressive and don’t notice you as much. On hard and v hard I can’t really tell the difference on their behavior. They don’t seem to stun or lose parts of their bodies any more or less due to difficulty.

There are no changes at all to the amount of enemies, the amount of loot, exp gained, and resource gathering outside the herbs. The requirements to create objects do not change. The difficulty can be switched on the fly and the stats all change accordingly, so I believe it’s nothing more than a stat adjustment.

Oh and I tested the robot taking loot thing, once they take itbits gone, they don’t carry it. This maybe a scrapper only thing as that’s what they are designed for, gathering scraps. A watcher did not take the loot of it’s dead partner.