Just beat it on casual...have just one complaint...i feel like the ch 10 boss and laura shouldn't be able to kill you in one hit/grab...i'm at full health and i get caught off camera and i instantly die...so stupid...one more complaint is now i've started nightmare and i can't get past ch 2 because the zombies with the nails going through them can instantly kill you as well...that is one thing i don't understand otherwise this game would get a 10/10 that whole one hit kill (no matter how full your health is) crap is rediculous

This game is meant to be REAL hard, realistic, thats what makes it scary. I breezed through casual, died several times on Survival, but after learning what I did from them. Nightmare mode is personally my fave. I love the changes, and the change in enemies, Chapter 3 took me two evenings to get past, but I loved every moment. I was nearly browning my pants most of the time, having no ammo, having to force myself to go hunting for parts to use.... even getting the agony crossbow was a mission. That was even before the Sadist was out... I think it all it took me 2 hours and 38 minutes as I had to redo it the other night as I forgot to save, but then I only died x2 as I walked straight into laura's arm lol.
I think this is how the game is intended to be. You really have to be patient, work out routes, which traps to take parts from, which to leave up to help. Its not a game for people that have never played old school survival games.. its a bit like dark souls in the toughness ranks. I did swear outloud several times on chapter 3, like I said its scary. The HAUNTED are are RUNNING after you, the AI is about 60x better,
I am up to the part where I have to save Kidman.. It was late so didn't try it anymore after.. but I last 20 seconds once those haunted started coming in lol. to be fair it was Joseph that died on me, got to stick closer to him I think. on the other modes you can pretty much leave him be, I am not too bad with laura.

My tip