1. Combat is balanced very well on Hard and Very Hard. Enemies hit hard and so do you.
2. I would rather have a satisfying ending than post game. The gigs could have had some more variety though, I will give you that. The bugs and performance are fine for me, and I play on a ps4 slim.
Enemys SOMETIMES hit hard, that depends what kind of weapon they use, and most of the time, they just miss, or react to slowly, , but having a smart smgs that stun lock group of enemys, by just pressing mouse 1 and moving it horizzontally while the gun lock by itself, is not balanced.
Having snipers that lock on target by itself and just 1 shot on body chest, while standing out of enemy range, is not balanced.
Shooting trought 20 walls, while enemys have no way to deal with you, because theyr pathing is totally broken, and theyr AI is non existent, that they just sit behind cover, and wait till you carefully aim on theyr head, while standing on the opposite floor, yes, you can shoot on the ground and hit below.
Contagion perk while properly set, just melt entire group in nano second, with an instant recharge rate.
And so on and on, the forum and everywhere else, is already filled with broken build, but even if you don't set your perks properly, the weapons the game gives you are already broken, more so, when the enemy don't oppose any challenge.
All melee boss can be countered by just jumping over them, all ranged boss can be countered by just glitching theyr weapon.
A part from that, i wouldn't say they hit hard,because they just die before they have any chance to react, they do on the first hour, if you try to approach hight treat encounter as low level, once you get your HP on a certain treshold, armor, ecc.. you are good to go.
The gameplay experience change to much from the first 20 levels to the end game, from being almost balanced, to dyng because the enemy randomly shot at an explosive canister.
I remember approaching The Animals base, with my smgs, without caring of cover or anyhing, at hardest difficulty, while sprayng and prayng, that area itself probably contain more enemys than everything else the game throw at you.Not even the last mission as that many enemys (probably if you compare it to the secret ending)
As you can see by the video below, that's how the enemy TRY to counter my build/weapon, they don't.
The red damage you see? only crit, i overcapped the crit chance, and since NONE of the enemys in the game as a crit resist, they just die, very quickly.
Keep in mind, this is extremely fun for me, i love the sound design, guns ecc..