games with hard settings difficulty level that is just right for being challenging without being impossible or requiring repetitive tactics like waiting for life points to fill up to win
fun difficult games
- Thread starter misterwolf999
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I actually found Dark Souls to be very relaxing and fun, and I didn't play it out of obligation.
Died at least 150 times, which is pretty damn bad.
Died at least 150 times, which is pretty damn bad.
I seem to be talking about this game a lot lately but if you like TRPG's and don't want to be coddled, then I can't recommend my 2012 GOTY:
XCOM: Enemy Within [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play]
(Man, it's a shame I'm on break now because I get to pimp my "Let's Play" often these days
)
No TRPG I've played gets the combo of skill, freedom, a pinch of luck, and punishment for mistakes. I have played this through four different times and I have only successfully beaten it once on Normal (to be fair, the other times I've upped the difficulty and have still loved every moment).
XCOM: Enemy Within [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play]
(Man, it's a shame I'm on break now because I get to pimp my "Let's Play" often these days
)No TRPG I've played gets the combo of skill, freedom, a pinch of luck, and punishment for mistakes. I have played this through four different times and I have only successfully beaten it once on Normal (to be fair, the other times I've upped the difficulty and have still loved every moment).
Nethack - a classic roguelike rpg type game. This may not be much to look at but has such depth and completeness in it's mechanics that it coined the trope The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything]. The game has permadeath, and I find that this makes the game incredibly immersive. When you eventually get the hang of it (probably with help from the wiki) and finally start to have a good run it's really easy to become completely absorbed in your character in the desperation to keep them alive. I would seriously consider placing this game near the top of a list of the greatest games ever made.
I Wanna Be The Guy - an insanely difficult platformer that I found to be great fun. To beat it on the lowest difficulty "hard" I died 4568 times. Extremely difficult but not too frustrating due to instant reloads and the lack of a lives system.
FTL - another roguelike, but space themed. Basically what it's like to be a starship captain on Star Trek. It's excruciatingly difficult when bumped up the the recently added hard difficulty.
Disgaea - a turn based strategy game notable for it's insanely high level cap of 9999 and deep stat mechanics. The story is lighthearted and centers around a sort of war between angels, demons, and humans. Could be quite challenging if the difficulty level is increased, or when entering higher level item worlds. This game is fantastic and can be played for hundreds of hours.
Binding of Isaac - once again a roguelike (most roguelikes are hard). This game was inspired by the original Legend of Zelda, and features a delightfully disturbed cartoon art style.
Touhou - a series of bullet hell shooters. Features great music and endless streams of bullets to dodge. Quite a bit of fun, and not too frustrating if you realize that your hit box is smaller than your character sprite.
Spelunky - yet another roguelike, but a platformer. you play a miner gathering loot and rescuing dames/dudes/dogs in infinitely shifting caverns. I couldn't ever get into this one for some reason, but it still seems cool.
Megaman - a platforming series that I doubt I have to describe. I believe many of the games in this series were challenging.
Romhacks - toward the slightly more impossible end of the spectrum are the romhacks. These can pretty much only be beaten with saves states on emulators but can still be fun. Kaizo Mario is probably the most notable example.
If all else fails, just pick a random NES game and chances are it will offer significant challenge.
I Wanna Be The Guy - an insanely difficult platformer that I found to be great fun. To beat it on the lowest difficulty "hard" I died 4568 times. Extremely difficult but not too frustrating due to instant reloads and the lack of a lives system.
FTL - another roguelike, but space themed. Basically what it's like to be a starship captain on Star Trek. It's excruciatingly difficult when bumped up the the recently added hard difficulty.
Disgaea - a turn based strategy game notable for it's insanely high level cap of 9999 and deep stat mechanics. The story is lighthearted and centers around a sort of war between angels, demons, and humans. Could be quite challenging if the difficulty level is increased, or when entering higher level item worlds. This game is fantastic and can be played for hundreds of hours.
Binding of Isaac - once again a roguelike (most roguelikes are hard). This game was inspired by the original Legend of Zelda, and features a delightfully disturbed cartoon art style.
Touhou - a series of bullet hell shooters. Features great music and endless streams of bullets to dodge. Quite a bit of fun, and not too frustrating if you realize that your hit box is smaller than your character sprite.
Spelunky - yet another roguelike, but a platformer. you play a miner gathering loot and rescuing dames/dudes/dogs in infinitely shifting caverns. I couldn't ever get into this one for some reason, but it still seems cool.
Megaman - a platforming series that I doubt I have to describe. I believe many of the games in this series were challenging.
Romhacks - toward the slightly more impossible end of the spectrum are the romhacks. These can pretty much only be beaten with saves states on emulators but can still be fun. Kaizo Mario is probably the most notable example.
If all else fails, just pick a random NES game and chances are it will offer significant challenge.
I like both hardcore strategy games and roguelikes, so I can be a bit of a glutton for punishment really. If you want something light that adheres to both those genre though FLT is a good pick.
Otherwise I always enjoy games like XCOM, Advance Wars, Europa Universalis, and Fire Emblem on their harder difficulties. Games that make me think and challenge me while still giving me time to ponder my move over so things feel a bit more fair if they end up spiraling horribly out of control.
Otherwise I always enjoy games like XCOM, Advance Wars, Europa Universalis, and Fire Emblem on their harder difficulties. Games that make me think and challenge me while still giving me time to ponder my move over so things feel a bit more fair if they end up spiraling horribly out of control.
FTL, because you never know how things will work out. Each time you attempt it turns out meaningfully differently, and its unpredictability makes it challenging and addicting. Even on Easy, this game kicks my ass.
VVVVVV is another one that I had a hard time with. This game has its fair share of challenge (I died over 1100 times on my first playthrough, when I didn't really know what I was doing), but is remarkably forgiving, with very frequent respawn points (generally at least one on each screen) and a very quick turnover time between dying and respawning. It also has some great pumping chiptune to keep you going through the harder parts, and is the right difficulty to be just on the right side of being frustrating, for me anyway.
Braid, as well. It's quite easy to just get through the game, but if you want to get all the collectible puzzle pieces that you need to unlock the real ending you'll need to try harder and solve some ingenious time-based puzzles. And then, if that isn't enough, you can restart and try to go for the eight secret stars, which are in fact so secret that I didn't even know about them until well after I'd completed the game. (Seriously, there's nothing in the game to indicate that these exist. Not even a Steam Achievement for getting all of them.) You need to do some really cryptic sh!t to get these, including getting one before completing the World 3 puzzle, and letting one of the levels sit for two hours until a slow-moving cloud is in the right place to get it.
VVVVVV is another one that I had a hard time with. This game has its fair share of challenge (I died over 1100 times on my first playthrough, when I didn't really know what I was doing), but is remarkably forgiving, with very frequent respawn points (generally at least one on each screen) and a very quick turnover time between dying and respawning. It also has some great pumping chiptune to keep you going through the harder parts, and is the right difficulty to be just on the right side of being frustrating, for me anyway.
Braid, as well. It's quite easy to just get through the game, but if you want to get all the collectible puzzle pieces that you need to unlock the real ending you'll need to try harder and solve some ingenious time-based puzzles. And then, if that isn't enough, you can restart and try to go for the eight secret stars, which are in fact so secret that I didn't even know about them until well after I'd completed the game. (Seriously, there's nothing in the game to indicate that these exist. Not even a Steam Achievement for getting all of them.) You need to do some really cryptic sh!t to get these, including getting one before completing the World 3 puzzle, and letting one of the levels sit for two hours until a slow-moving cloud is in the right place to get it.
If you have an Xbox or Ps3 I'd give Catherine a recommendation. One of the best puzzle games I've ever played.
The puzzles essentially come down to pushing and pulling blocks to scale massive towers. The blocks slowly fall from the bottom of the tower so you need to reach the top before it falls away.
It's a simple concept, but the strategies and techniques you have to use are surprisingly deep. You also never know what exactly is above you so you often need to change your plans on the fly. It's also very challenging, I have no idea what I would have done without the undo button on the second hardest difficulty.
If you feel like a hard puzzle game that doesn't get boring you should give it a shot
The puzzles essentially come down to pushing and pulling blocks to scale massive towers. The blocks slowly fall from the bottom of the tower so you need to reach the top before it falls away.
It's a simple concept, but the strategies and techniques you have to use are surprisingly deep. You also never know what exactly is above you so you often need to change your plans on the fly. It's also very challenging, I have no idea what I would have done without the undo button on the second hardest difficulty.
If you feel like a hard puzzle game that doesn't get boring you should give it a shot
The Souls series no doubt I got tons of enjoyment out of, especially it's bosses... except for a majority pre-DLC Dark Souls 2.
*flame shield up, fire infused, stability at 1,000*
God Hand has this knack for being gut punchingly hard, even on easy, but boy does the ability to change your combos keep you kicking and experimenting till you get that sweet victory while looking cool doing so.
You know what, ANYTHING made by Clover Studios/Platinum with a high difficulty setting, you will almost always get a rise out of.
And SMT: Nocturne. Strays from the norm of most jrpgs, does it well in that regard while being a blast, features Dante from the Devil May Cry Series, and will make you it's slave.
Specifically this finely dressed fellow.... you will be his slave...
*flame shield up, fire infused, stability at 1,000*
God Hand has this knack for being gut punchingly hard, even on easy, but boy does the ability to change your combos keep you kicking and experimenting till you get that sweet victory while looking cool doing so.
You know what, ANYTHING made by Clover Studios/Platinum with a high difficulty setting, you will almost always get a rise out of.
And SMT: Nocturne. Strays from the norm of most jrpgs, does it well in that regard while being a blast, features Dante from the Devil May Cry Series, and will make you it's slave.
Specifically this finely dressed fellow.... you will be his slave...
Playing Spacechem while suffering an OCD attack. Dark Souls has NOTHING on that.
This probably isn't what you're looking for, but hey, I had fun...
This probably isn't what you're looking for, but hey, I had fun...
Are we talking "hard" or "hard, unfair, and completely f@#$ing random?"
If we're talking Hard and Fair, then you need to check out any of the Souls games, as well as XCom. They've both been stated.
If you want games that are hard because they are random and you could lose simply because of "random," then FTL is the game for you.
Personally, I don't think random is an excuse for failure. To me, it's a bad game design, so I personally despise bullshit like FTL. Others love it. That's great, and I'm glad they enjoy it and support the development of games like that. I'm just not on board.
Other than that, it's a pretty shallow pool for truly challenging games these days. You either go with games like those I mentioned or the current glut of indie rogue-likes.
If we're talking Hard and Fair, then you need to check out any of the Souls games, as well as XCom. They've both been stated.
If you want games that are hard because they are random and you could lose simply because of "random," then FTL is the game for you.
Personally, I don't think random is an excuse for failure. To me, it's a bad game design, so I personally despise bullshit like FTL. Others love it. That's great, and I'm glad they enjoy it and support the development of games like that. I'm just not on board.
Other than that, it's a pretty shallow pool for truly challenging games these days. You either go with games like those I mentioned or the current glut of indie rogue-likes.
Metro 2033 in Ranger Mode. By far the most immersive game I've played, the difficulty is challenging but reasonable...
But aside from that it was great.
When you have to protect Ulman from those swarming acid ameboa things. I swear that bit is literally impossible on Ranger. You've got so little ammo and the damned things just straight up ignore you and gang Ulman, who seems incapable of fighting back.
The Souls games are the obvious choice but they've already been mentioned, so I'm going to say Ys Origin. It's a third-person action platformer JRPG hybrid. Imagine The Legend of Zelda meets Dark Souls meets anime and you'll have a pretty good picture of it. Alternatively you could just watch the trailer below.
I've only played a few hours of it so far but I'm loving it. There are two playable characters initially, a warrior and a sorcerer, with a third you can unlock later. The regular enemies aren't too tough, but what makes the game great are the boss fights. They are very challenging and amazingly fun, they are very Souls-like in that regard. So far the story is pretty bland and cliche but it's not terrible.
It's available on Steam for around $20 and you can try the demo for free to see if you'll enjoy it.
I've only played a few hours of it so far but I'm loving it. There are two playable characters initially, a warrior and a sorcerer, with a third you can unlock later. The regular enemies aren't too tough, but what makes the game great are the boss fights. They are very challenging and amazingly fun, they are very Souls-like in that regard. So far the story is pretty bland and cliche but it's not terrible.
It's available on Steam for around $20 and you can try the demo for free to see if you'll enjoy it.
Try playing some games you already have and enjoy but put some restrictions on yourself. Like going through unarmed, only using melee or something.
As for just regular hard games... other than souls I don't really know. No game I know of remains hard unless its unfair. Even the Souls games get easy enough with a little practice aside from a few blatantly unfair bits.
As for just regular hard games... other than souls I don't really know. No game I know of remains hard unless its unfair. Even the Souls games get easy enough with a little practice aside from a few blatantly unfair bits.
Shank felt like it should have been played on hard in the first place.
Arkham Asylum was really fun on hard difficulty.
Heavenly sword became much better on hard. You didn't really have to learn the different stances and enemy guard breaks on normal.
DmC really changed up the game on hard. They completely change the enemy waves and it takes a ton more strategy to get through on whatever hard was called.
MGR:R is another great example.
And lets not forget Ninja Gaiden/Sigma and Sigma 2.
Mostly I think it is games that have spot on controls where if you master them you really have the tools to become invincible.
p.s. isn't Rayman:Origins the definition of fun and difficult
Arkham Asylum was really fun on hard difficulty.
Heavenly sword became much better on hard. You didn't really have to learn the different stances and enemy guard breaks on normal.
DmC really changed up the game on hard. They completely change the enemy waves and it takes a ton more strategy to get through on whatever hard was called.
MGR:R is another great example.
And lets not forget Ninja Gaiden/Sigma and Sigma 2.
Mostly I think it is games that have spot on controls where if you master them you really have the tools to become invincible.
p.s. isn't Rayman:Origins the definition of fun and difficult
I've been getting back into X-COM: Enemy Unknown, and it's still oh-so addictive despite its tendancy to bend me over its knee.
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Well maybe it's because I'm not that good at shooters but I found Spec-Ops: The Line to be really hard, the bullets are pretty limited if you want to stick with your preferred guns, which I did because I'm not a fan of machine guns or assault rifles, but anyway it makes you decide between sticking with your preferred guns or using the most common ones and if you choose to stick with your preferred guns you have to take advantage of the Execution mechanic, which is basically to injure an enemy but not kill them, this can be done by both shooting them or punching them but in any case you have to know when to risk it for extra bullets (Every execution gives you bullets of whatever guns you currently have equipped) or to remain in cover and run out of bullets, which can get you killed anyway if there are no other guns to grab in a safe place.
In any case I thought it was really hard but didn't feel unfair, I played it in whatever the name of the normal difficulty is so I know there's 2 even harder modes, in any case the story is also pretty damn good so I'd recommend that.
In any case I thought it was really hard but didn't feel unfair, I played it in whatever the name of the normal difficulty is so I know there's 2 even harder modes, in any case the story is also pretty damn good so I'd recommend that.
