it is definetly hardcore, if this isn't hardcore, what the hell is?
and on top, there's no quest log. though the story is much less than say skyrim, it is still a problem for those who don't have constant days and hours to continually play the game. play the game 2 hours one eve, more very little, have various tasks to do in your own life, come back 1/2 weeks later, you'll have nothing to tell you what to do. zero log.
my advice, find a youtuber that's done a play through and watch that. i watched otzdarva play it in the end as the game wasn't for me, and enjoyed seeing him explore at the start of the game. towards the half way point i was losing interest, the game required too many hours of exploring and repeated attempts to do one thing, that i ended up skipping lots of the video to get to the end of the boss fights.
certainly an amazingly great game, but definitely not for anyone looking for a game that has any remote sense of being casual.
really From should have made this game have difficultly settings. there's no good reason why they should not cater to those that just don't have the time that hardcore difficutly requires.
wh