I played & completed dead space 2 on hardcore, it was really good and fuck me did i spend like some time dying on the last 20-30 minutes up to the last boss' save point, only to go back like 3-4 hours. My xbox got real hot too from leaving it on pause for days/nights until i felt up to giving it another go.
For people worrying about guns, try focusing your attention to criticals with the plasma cutter, cut as many limbs off as you can account for with as little amunition as you can, and use the limbs to kill other enemies, ammo is precious and expensive. Also if you see something spiky, make sure your'e always picking it up and carrying with you for the next enemy you see, you dont pay for spiky things, but you pay out of the arse for ammo.