Before anything else, you should decide which difficulty you’re going to play on. There are major changes in the game if you choose to take on a higher level, and they aren’t as simple as enemies have more health, you have less, etc. Lara has to gather more materials to survive. Upgrades cost more. Enemies sometimes get to fight back instead of being taken down by surprise.
If you want a very exciting experience and aren’t afraid of the extra work up front, choose Survivor right off the bat. The game still won’t punish you brutally for deaths, so it’s not a frustrating experience even when you need to take a couple of tries to complete a given section.
Major Gameplay Changes
» Lara’s healing is heavily restricted in higher difficulty modes. She stops regenerating during battle, and then she stops regenerating health altogether (meaning that you need to use healing items to restore any damage that you take).
» Some Base Camps require Hardwood to light the fire in Survivor Mode.
» Takedowns sometimes require a quicktime event and a couple of more seconds to complete in Survivor, allowing other enemies a chance to see what’s going on.
» Lara drops quickly from enemy damage in the higher difficulty modes. You can’t afford to charge people down if they see you coming.
» Weapon and equipment upgrades cost more resources, ensuring that Lara has to spend more time and go further into the game before getting things that she really needs.
» Aim Assist is turned off for all modes above Adventurer.
» Enemies are more aware on the higher two difficulty levels, making it trickier to stay in stealth and pick off your opponents before triggering a real fight.