Great game, but honestly you have to play Naughty Dog games on Hard (i.e. most difficult setting minus 1) to feel like you're properly challenged. At least people who consider themselves to be good at playing video games should. If you play any of the Uncharteds, for instance, on normal first time through it will be like sleep walking through the game.
Normal difficulty is for relative noobs, hard difficulty is for competent gamers, though the best of the best gamers will find hard difficulty a too easy most likely. I didn't die as often as I thought I would on hard, but I died enough for me to feel like the tricky sections of the game were a good challenge.
I thought the pacing was near perfect. This game would have been pretty terrible if it was a full throttle game.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix
