Right now, I'm on Chapter 6, last level but have been unable to progress because most of the time, I almost never get a weapon that can give me any breathing room which usually ends up with me getting surrounded. Around a good 90% of the weapons are useless in the harder levels which makes me wonder why they should even be spawning at all. When I do get a decent weapon, I can't always get to the power ups because the swarms of enemies move almost as fast as my character leaving me unable to manouver and the decent weapons usually have long reload times making it impossible most of the time to cut your way through (with the ion or plasma cannon, it's only really difficult most of the time). This usually results in either A) getting backed into a corner, or B) taking damage while I move along the maps perimeter. Is there actually a tactical way to do this because the way I see it, it's only possible if you get lucky with your power up and weapon drops.

If anyone has been able to clear this level, is it really worth the effort? While Hardcore difficulty is doable for the most part, some of the levels are just plain developer screw. I'm mostly refering to the levels with the spawning spiders that move as fast as you leaving you no room to manouver. In this scenario, if you have one of the crappy weapons, it's all but certain you'll be redoing the mission. I can deal with hard if it's skill related but luck related, not so much.

If I say "After unlocking close to all of the perks and weapons in normal quest mode, the only part of the game worth playing is the blitz survival mode", would anyone be inclined to agree / disagree? Just wondering if I can consider this game finished.

Personally I like the Quest better... So I guess to everyone its own. What is your problem? Just try few hardcore levels, if you feel stale go Blitz.

However I agree that all the : --start a level, get the first weapon, (crap weapon), restart-- Is quite bad.

I'm inclined to agree. At least in blitz, your character moves at a decent speed and if you get a crap weapon, you still have some breathing room to get a better one before the swarms come in. It's not that the hardcore levels are stale, it's just certain missions don't seem to be beatable except under certain circumstances that are completely beyond your control. Getting a cruddy gun is a real problem as even if you refuse it and hang on to the pistol in hopes of a better weapon spawning, you will get swarmed before that second weapon appears. Sometimes, you can't even get to the gun (or other drops for that matter) because theres already a wall of enemies that can match your speed between you and the weapon and you just can't manouver around them to get it. I can understand a crappy weapon dropping and you have to rely on manouvering to stay alive until a better weapon drops but that isn't always possible. WIth the speed and sheer numbers of the enemies, you need a weapon to give you breathing room but most of them aren't up to the task. This makes certain missions in quest mode luck based missions which really get tedious. I really hope the devs fix this, increasing the player characters speed will make a big improvement.

I finished the game on normal without getting a scratch on every level but the only thing I unlocked was an achievement. I was hoping that would unlock one of the last 2 weapons or the last perk but that wasn't the case.
What I'm really wondering is if anyone has finished the higher difficulty levels and if so, did they use any tricks that could help. Right now the way I see it, some of these missions are entirely luck based and I really don't want to deal with them. Are the last two weapons and perk worth that kind of effort?

I'm currently struggling with last mission (6.10) on hardcore difficulity and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish it only with rocket launcher and certain amount of luck with bonuses (shields, freeze, etc.). Some levels are beatable only with certain weapons (rocket ones), but some luck is also necessary. Give it a try :)

I might be biased because in Grim difficulty level I decided to play with Perks to change a little bit. However, I felt really frustrated only on 6.10 Grim; here I think one has hope only with the Ion Cannon (but only if you you get Regression Bullets), plasma shotgun, or rocket weapons (overall with rocket swarmer). Besides the shooting/shielded spiders become faster and faster and usually they kill you when you think "Spideroids out, level almost over"...

So yes, it is quite annoying that you have to restart all the time you get a wrong weapon or it appears in an unreachable place. It is more so annoying since this could be solved easily allowing the player to decide the first weapon appearing and making a small wave of weak enemies before the real action.

I got past 6..10 Hardcore a few days ago, went through grim difficulty and now I'm at 6.10. The headache starts all over again. I got past Hardcore 6.10 because I had a spiffy weapon and spiffy perks. I had the swarmers with long distance runner, angry reload and some other perk I forget. Hardcore 6.10 was a breeze with that setup but anything else was a nightmare. Hoping I can get that setup again on grim. Did you ever finish grim 6.10? what was your weapon and perks (if any)?

I finished 6.10 Grim with the Rocket Laucher.

I don't think perks helped too much, but definitely it helped the shield and the breathing space you get on level up. Anyhow I remember I got Poisonous, Toxic Avenger and Regression Bullets.

Just finished Grim 6.10, god that was rage inducing.

I had the plasma cannon, fast reload, bloody mess, hot tempered and angry reload. Not the greatest perk setup but I got lucky with lots of shield, freeze and nuke drops.

Now that I've done it, I AM NEVER FUCKING PLAYER HARDCORE / GRIM 6.10 EVER AGAIN!!!!!!