In the early days of video games, easily accessible game guides didn’t exist. Nintendo Power, one of the earliest video game strategy guide 📖publications, was published monthly. Most strategy guides were simply word-of-mouth. Your friends came over and everyone would take turns failing on the same level over and over again. Back then, there was no hand-holding and no tutorials. Video games in those days felt impossibly hard–your job was to figure out how to beat them.

Those early days had a swinging pendulum of difficulty. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Contra III: The Alien Wars, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, and the Mega Man franchise were intentionally difficult. After all, games in those days relied heavily on their replayability and ⭕by making them intentionally difficult, they were totally worth playi💟ng through to the end. And arcade games? Continues were incentives to slot in another quarter to continue your progress.

But that’s what made these video games so special. The view from the summit is breathtaking when you know how much perseverance and challenge it took up there. You could take pride in being king of the castle–you earned that right–through sore thumbs, 🌼sweat, and late night failings. These are the games that make that extra effort. The games that make the climb worth it. They are truly challenging games on the most difficult sett🗹ing. Oh, you’ll die a lot. But you’ll relish the real challenge ahead of you.

15 Resident Eviౠl 7 – Ethan Must Die Modꩲe

If there was a difficulty mode more aptly named, we have yet to find it. Because that’s what you end up doing the majority of your time playing this difficulty setting. Over, and over, and over again. Resident Evil 7's Ethan Must Die difficulty setting is a stripped down version of the main campaign but challenging n🌼onetheless.

When you start this game mode, you’re given a pocket knife and nothing else. Random loot can be accessed from crates, but you never know what you’ll receive, though each crate hints what may be hidden inside through a colour code and the number of stars floating above it. T♐hough the path to the Marguerite boss fight is relatively simple, the enemies along the way are all powerful and the randomized loot drops will be t♓he only weapons you’ll have for the Marguerite boss. Oh and some of the crates are booby-trapped... You’ve been forewarned.

14 The Last ♊ꦐof Us – Grounded Mode

If you thought that The Last of Us was too easy to beat on hard mode and even more so on normal, and wanted to challenge yourself with its Grounded mode, then you’re in a world of hurt. Accessible through its re-release as The Last of Us Remastered, Grounded mode was meant to♈ challenge the most se💛asoned player.

The disappearance of the HUD and d𒐪isabling Listen Mode means you’ll be playing through the campaign completely blind. You won’t know how much ammo you have left and there’s little to no indication of how you’re doing on health. Enemy AI is more acutely aware on Grounded mode. They pick up on the slightest sounds of movement and without Listen Mode, you don’t know when you’ve aroused their suspicion. There’s also a severe scarcity of ammo and supplies, and enemies damage output is staggering. A truly harsh and unforgiving difficulty mode.

13 Mass Effect 2 – Insanity Mode ✅

Simply put, Mass Effect 2 is one of those titles that pulls you into its orbit and never lets go. It’s that immersive, that much f𒉰un, anᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚd when switched to Insanity mode, that challenging. While not impossible to defeat, Insanity mode is, well, insane.

Enemies now have some form of protection, whether that’s shields or barriers, or something similar they didn’t have in the game’s normal settings. Much like other entries, enemies are the Hulk-version of their past selves. Bullets and damage just bounce off them like tiny mosquitoes, and their Hulk smash will obliterate you. Having an exemplary underst🎃anding of the game’s mechanics will prove to be beneficial in Insanity mode. You’ll need to know what weapons work, which squad mates are most useful in certain conditions, and which upgrades and skills to take. Trial and error is the key to success in Insanity mode, with a heavy emphasis on error.

12 DOOM – Ultra Nightmare Mode🐭

It's been said that 2016's DOOM's Ultra Nܫightmare mode is so difficult tha🎃t developer id Software insists nobody at their company was able to defeat it. In fact, when you first attempt Ultra Nightmare mode, a warning is issued asking, "Are you willing to put yourself through this?"

If you do decide to abandon all hope and enter this modern day Dante's Inferno, after all, you are literally traverse through the gates of hell to face up against literal demon spawns. For those who are up for it, then then be prepared to face a truly Everest challenge. If you die even once, you have to start over from the beginning again. You don't get to pass "GO" and you don't collect $200. Sure there have been diligent players whꦯo have bested this insane gauntlet mere days after its release, but for the average gamer, consider this mode next to impossible.

11 ꦆ Furi – Furier Mode

A stylish boss battle game from French indie studio The Game Bakers, Furi is a fast-moving action game mixing shoot-’em-up action and swashbuckling swordplay. Furi is all about memoriza♌tion and quick reaction time. Boss battles are fast and furious, but as long as you memorize the attack patterns of the boss characters, then you’ll breeze through the game. That is until you play Furier mode.

In Furier mode, everything you’ve understood about ﷽the game flies directly out the window. Boss attack patterns drastically change and the game shifts, giving the odds in the favour of your AI opponents. Bosses in Furier mode drop fewer health bars to rejuvenate yours and their attack patterns add 🍌additional layers of attacks to catch you off guard. Poorly time a moment of evasion or forget an attack pattern and say goodbye to your health.

10 𓆉 Hyper Light Drifter – Normal Hard Mode 🔴

A successful Kickstarter campaign led to the release of Hyper Light Drifter. Inspired by old-school action games, Hyper Light Drifter is a stylish video game that’s part 2D action role-playing, part slash-and-dash, and all around difficult. Put simply, it’s an exceedingly difficult game. Roadblock after roadblock offers no easy way out and there are no cheats or exploits to avoid its difficulty. Hyper Light Drifter demands one th💫ing from its gamers, practice, practice, practice.

Most players who have ever tried their hand at Hyper Light Drifter have walked away from the game frustrated at their inability to play it. Just how difficult was it in its original normal mode? When the game received an update from developer Heart Machine, they had to introduce a new difficulty option called “Newcomer” mode. That’s right. It was so challenging and intense that they had to release an update𓂃 to water it down for the mass market.

9 Metro: 2💎033 Redux – Ranger Hardcore Mode

Appearing in both Metro Last Light and Metro 2033 Redux, Ranger mode is the difficulty setting the player is allotted if the three standard difficulties are child’s play. Dubbed as “the ultimate challenge for the player,” Ranger Hardcore mode attempts to make the Metro games much more realistic. But considering that the Metro ꦕgames are post-nuclear-apocalyptic Rusꦬsian horror games, realistic is loosely defined.

Regardless, Ranger Hardcore mode challenges the player by removing theജ all-important HUD, ammo caches are scarce, and your health is massively diminished. But Ranger Hardcore mode ups the ante with one shot-one kill methodology, making stealth your only option of survival. If you’ve depended on run-and-gun methods up to this point, you’re going to have an impossibly hard time defeating this game. Be prepared to die, a lot.

8 Sniper Elite 4 – Aut🦂hentic Mode 🌳

Much like the Metro franchise, Sniper Elite 4’s Authentic mode attempts to make the game realistic by removing all the trappings that would make🌞 the exp൩erience video-gamey.

With no assist or aim interface, you’ll have to rely on your senses and capabilities as a Sniper Elite series veteran to survive. Environmental factors have been introduced to this gameplay mode. Gravity now affects a bullet’s trajectory at long ranges meaning you’ll target enemies with only the wind gauge a𒅌nd crosshairs. Enemy AI is as sharp as a German bayonet and their location senses are as uncanny as a German shepherd. Understanding your weapon’s capabilities also play a major factor as you need to factor in target’s distance and current weather conditions. Your ability to stealth through levels play a major role in the success of your campaigns as killing is recommended only when necessary.

7 ꦺ Battle Garegga – Normal Mode

At a glance, this 1996 2D scrolling shooter feels and plays much like its predecessors, Raptor: Call of the Shadows and Gradius. But similar to Hyper Light Drifter, Battle Garegga is difficult from the get-go. And much like God Hand, Battle Garegga ad🍷apts to the way the player plays, punishing the player as a reward. Increasing the difficulty level quickly turns the gameplay into an impossibly manic🌊 shooter.

To play Battle Garegga and succeed, means constantly playing on the edge. Great Battle Garegga players understand the balance of “suiciding” or losing lives on purpose to decrease the game’s difficulty se🌺tting. Understanding the fine balance between keeping your life stock low and conserving weapon power-ups is the defining difference between success and total failure. What makes gameplay even more difficult is that bullets are realistically coloured, and exploding enemies and objects camouflage incoming fire.

6 ꦍ BioShock Infinite – 1999 Mode

BioShock Infinite’s 1999 mode is a subtle reference to developer Irrational Games first game, the critically acclaimed System Shock 2, which was released in 1999. While there are two ways to unlock the 1999 mode, the funnest way of the two is perhaps 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:entering the infamous Konami Code while on the game’s main menu. But be forewarned, 1999 mode is no walk i✅n the park.

Even Irrationa𝕴l Games creative director Ken Levine emphasizes that the 1999 mode wasn’t made for the average gamer, but rather, but as a throwback to retro-difficult games of old. There’s no auto aim, ammo is greatly reduced, the navigation arrow is complete gone, and enemies now inflict greater damage on the “glass cannon” Booker. Respawn points are also hard to come by in 1999 modeဣ, and you better save your money because respawning now costs $100, which means if you don’t have enough money, it’s game over.