Best Gears of War Reloaded Difficulty Settings and…

Gears of War: Reloaded features four difficulty settings. Although it is technically possible to change after their initial selection, players won't be able to do so on the fly like they can in most modern video games, which makes choosing the right difficulty setting at the start of the game somewhat important.

Gears of War Games Tier List

Over nearly 19 years, the Gears of War series has featured numerous games that can be ranked by their story and gameplay innovations.

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By Eric Warner

Thankfully, unlike in the original release, players won't need to complete the game on Casual or Hardcore to unlock the Insane difficulty setting. There's a Normal option now as well, making it easier for players to find the perfect Gears of War: Reloaded difficulty setting to match their skill level and circumstances.

All Gears of War: Reloaded Difficulty Settings and Differences

For the most part, Gears of War: Reloaded's difficulty settings remain true to the original's, with harder difficulty settings giving enemies more health and playable characters less. There is some slight variation from enemy to enemy, though, so we'll be using a selection of Gears of War enemy types to calculate an approximate damage scale for each setting, with Normal serving as the baseline. There's a Trophy / Achievement available for completing the game on each setting, so completionists may want to keep this in mind.

Difficulty Setting	Damage Scaling	Recommendations
Casual	0.85	Casual serves as the game's easy mode and is recommended for those who are new to the franchise or genre. Players will be able to survive most explosions head-on while playing on Casual, which may be appealing to those playing solo. For most players, though, casual will likely prove to be far too easy.
Normal	1.00	Normal is recommended for those looking for a moderate challenge. Although it's a bit more forgiving than Hardcore and Insane, players will still need to be aware of their surroundings and avoid rushing into areas infested with enemies. However, while playing with a friend in co-op mode, Normal is still pretty easy.
Hardcore	1.15	For most players, Hardcore will likely prove to be the sweet spot, particularly if they're playing in co-op mode. It's challenging, but for those who have experience playing cover shooters and can pick out a headshot, it's arguably the most fun way to experience Gears of War: Reloaded.
Insane	1.42	Even for experienced Gears of War players, Insane can be incredibly hard. Expect to die a lot if you choose this difficulty setting, especially if you're playing through the campaign solo. For that reason, Insane is only really recommended for those playing in co-op mode, and only if both players are really good at the game.

Although players can't change the difficulty setting on the fly in Gears of War: Reloaded, it's possible to use the chapter select menu to restart any unlocked chapter using any of the four available difficulty settings. However, to unlock the difficulty-related Trophies / Achievements, players will need to have completed every chapter using a specific difficulty setting or higher, meaning they can't just play through the first 35 Gears of War: Reloaded chapters on Casual and then switch to Insane for the final chapter.

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