Top 30 Hardest Modern Video Games To Beat

Modern video games often provide accessible experiences for casual players but some developers specifically design titles to test human limits. These games require lightning reflexes and deep strategic planning alongside immense patience. The satisfaction of overcoming these digital trials drives players to spend countless hours mastering complex mechanics. This list explores the most punishing and demanding releases from the last two decades.

‘Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time’ (2020)

This platformer presents a deceptively colorful aesthetic that hides a brutal difficulty curve. Players must navigate intricate levels filled with precise jumps and unforgiving enemy placements. Completing the game at a basic level offers a significant challenge while achieving full completion requires perfection. The developers included a mode that tracks death counts to remind players of their repeated failures.

‘The Witness’ (2016)

Jonathan Blow created an open-world puzzle game that refuses to hold the player’s hand. You explore a mysterious island filled with hundreds of line puzzles that evolve in complexity. The game teaches its rules through observation rather than text tutorials. Solving the final challenges requires a deep understanding of perspective and environmental clues.

‘Alien: Isolation’ (2014)

Survival horror reaches new heights of tension in this adaptation of the classic film franchise. The player must evade a single Xenomorph that uses advanced artificial intelligence to hunt them down. Weapons provide only temporary relief rather than a permanent solution to the threat. The constant need to hide and manage scarce resources creates an incredibly stressful experience.

‘Doom Eternal’ (2020)

This first-person shooter demands constant movement and resource management during frantic combat encounters. Players must juggle different weapons and abilities to regain health and ammunition from fallen enemies. The sheer volume of demons onscreen requires split-second decision making to survive. Higher difficulty settings transform the game into a test of pure endurance and reflex.

‘Remnant: From the Ashes’ (2019)

This third-person shooter blends distinct elements of the soulslike genre with procedurally generated worlds. Players face hordes of enemies and challenging bosses that scale with the number of participants. The randomization ensures that no two playthroughs feature the exact same layout or enemy encounters. Mastering the dodge mechanic is essential for survival against the relentless attacks.

‘Monster Hunter: World’ (2018)

Capcom brought their long-running series to a wider audience without sacrificing the depth of its combat. Hunters must track and slay massive beasts using oversized weapons and tactical items. Each monster behaves differently and requires specific strategies to defeat effectively. The battles often last almost an hour and demand sustained concentration from the player.

‘XCOM 2’ (2016)

Turn-based strategy becomes a high-stakes gamble in this tactical game about resisting an alien occupation. Soldiers can die permanently during missions which forces players to live with their tactical errors. The timed objectives in many missions add a layer of pressure that punishes overly cautious play. One wrong move can cause a cascade of failures that ruins an entire campaign.

‘Frostpunk’ (2018)

City-building meets survival mechanics in a frozen post-apocalyptic world where heat is life. The player acts as the ruler of the last city on Earth and must make excruciating moral choices. Managing resources while keeping hope alive among the citizens is a constant balancing act. The game frequently forces you to sacrifice the few to save the many during brutal storms.

‘Sifu’ (2022)

This martial arts action game features a unique aging mechanic that punishes defeat with lost years of life. Players must master a complex combat system that emphasizes parrying and structure management. Each death makes the character stronger but reduces their maximum health for the remainder of the run. Reaching the final boss before dying of old age requires near-flawless execution.

‘Returnal’ (2021)

Housemarque combined bullet-hell arcade gameplay with a roguelike structure in this third-person shooter. The protagonist traverses a shifting alien planet where death resets progress and rearranges the world. Enemies unleash curtains of neon projectiles that require precise dodging through three-dimensional space. The fast pace and lack of mid-run saves demand total focus for hours at a time.

‘Spelunky 2’ (2020)

The sequel to the indie hit expands on the roguelike platforming with even more dangerous traps and enemies. Procedurally generated levels ensure that players can never memorize a safe path through the caves. Everything in the environment interacts in chaotic ways that can end a run instantly. Progress relies entirely on the player learning how systems interact rather than character upgrades.

‘The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth’ (2014)

This top-down roguelike shooter explores dark themes through randomized dungeon crawling. Players collect items that stack in bizarre ways to create powerful or detrimental effects. The sheer number of variables means that luck plays a huge role alongside skill. Achieving the true ending requires beating the game multiple times against increasingly difficult bosses.

‘Hotline Miami’ (2012)

Top-down action moves at a breakneck speed where both the player and enemies die in a single hit. You must clear floors of armed guards using a variety of melee weapons and firearms. The game encourages a trial-and-error approach where you restart instantly after death. Success comes from memorizing enemy locations and executing a perfect choreography of violence.

‘Devil May Cry 5’ (2019)

Stylish action reaches its peak with deep combat systems that reward variety and precision. While the lower difficulties are accessible the higher settings demand mastery of three distinct characters. The Dante Must Die mode remixes enemy encounters and increases their aggression significantly. Achieving high style rankings requires players to avoid damage while maintaining a constant offensive flow.

‘Dead Cells’ (2018)

This action platformer blends Metroidvania exploration with roguelike permadeath mechanics. Combat is fast and fluid but enemies hit hard and punish sloppy play. Players must adapt their playstyle based on the random weapons and scrolls found during each run. Reaching the final boss requires navigating through multiple biomes filled with distinct hazards.

‘Nioh 2’ (2020)

Team Ninja built a complex action RPG that demands mastery of the Ki pulse stamina mechanic. Players control a half-yokai warrior who can transform and use supernatural abilities in combat. The enemies are aggressive and capable of draining your stamina to leave you vulnerable. Boss fights require learning intricate attack patterns and exploiting elemental weaknesses.

‘Furi’ (2016)

This boss-rush game consists entirely of one-on-one duels against powerful opponents. The combat combines dual-stick shooting with precise swordplay and parrying. Each boss has multiple phases that introduce new mechanics and bullet-hell patterns. There are no minions to fight so the only path to victory is mastering the duel mechanics.

‘Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy’ (2017)

This physics-based climbing game is designed to frustrate and test the emotional resilience of the player. You control a man in a cauldron who must scale a mountain using only a sledgehammer. The controls are intentionally awkward and one mistake can send you falling back to the start. It is a psychological test of patience as much as a game of skill.

‘Darkest Dungeon’ (2016)

This turn-based RPG focuses on the psychological stresses of adventuring in Lovecraftian dungeons. Heroes can develop permanent quirks and mental afflictions that affect their performance in battle. The permanent death of characters means that dozens of hours of investment can vanish in moments. Managing the stress levels of your party is just as important as managing their health.

‘Super Meat Boy’ (2010)

Precise platforming is the core of this game where players control a fragile cube of meat. The levels are filled with buzzsaws and lasers that require pixel-perfect jumps to avoid. Respawning is instant which encourages a rapid cycle of death and retrying. Reaching the end of the dark world levels is a feat reserved for the most dedicated players.

‘Celeste’ (2018)

This platformer tells a touching story about anxiety while delivering brutally difficult gameplay. The main campaign offers a stiff challenge but the optional B-Side and C-Side levels are punishing. Players must utilize advanced movement tech like wave dashing to navigate screens of spikes. The assist mode exists because the developers knew the base difficulty would wall many players.

‘Cuphead’ (2017)

The 1930s cartoon aesthetic disguises a ruthless run-and-gun game focused almost entirely on boss battles. Each boss transforms through multiple phases that require memorization and quick reflexes. There are no checkpoints during battles so you must execute the entire fight perfectly. The expansion content ramps up the difficulty even further with faster and more complex enemies.

‘Hollow Knight’ (2017)

Exploration and combat merge beautifully in this sprawling insect kingdom. The game starts slowly but eventually demands precise pogo-jumping and spell usage to survive. Optional bosses and the true ending path present some of the hardest challenges in the genre. The Godmaster expansion adds a boss rush mode that stands as a pinnacle of difficulty.

‘Demon’s Souls’ (2020)

The remake of the game that started the soulslike genre retains the punishing difficulty of the original. Levels are long and treacherous with very few checkpoints to offer respite. Players must manage World Tendency which can make the game harder if they die repeatedly in human form. The bosses often require puzzle-solving elements alongside combat prowess.

‘Dark Souls III’ (2016)

The conclusion to the trilogy features the fastest combat in the series and some of its most iconic bosses. Enemies are aggressive and often attack in groups to overwhelm the player. The multi-phase boss fights demand endurance and the ability to read subtle telegraphs. The downloadable content areas introduce difficulty spikes that challenge even veteran players.

‘Dark Souls’ (2011)

This landmark title redefined modern difficulty with its interconnected world and lack of hand-holding. Players are dropped into a dying world where every enemy poses a lethal threat. The combat is slower and more deliberate than its sequels which requires patience and observation. Learning the layout of the world is essential as there is no map to guide you.

‘Bloodborne’ (2015)

FromSoftware removed the shield and forced players to adopt an aggressive playstyle in this Victorian horror RPG. The rally system encourages you to attack immediately after taking damage to regain health. Bosses are terrifyingly fast and scream constantly to unsettle the player. The Chalice Dungeons offer procedurally generated challenges that scale to absurd difficulty levels.

‘Nioh’ (2017)

This samurai action game punishes players who try to play it like a traditional Souls game. The stance system adds a layer of complexity that is mandatory for survival against tougher foes. Enemies can kill the protagonist in one or two hits throughout the entire campaign. The speed of combat requires reflexes that rival pure action games like Ninja Gaiden.

‘Elden Ring’ (2022)

The open-world structure allows players to explore freely but the major bosses remain formidable barriers. Late-game areas feature a significant spike in enemy damage and health pools. The sheer variety of bosses forces players to adapt their builds and strategies constantly. Malenia stands out as one of the most difficult boss encounters in gaming history.

‘Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’ (2019)

This action-adventure game removes the ability to summon help or grind for traditional stat upgrades. Combat revolves around a deflection mechanic that requires rhythmic precision and nerves of steel. You must stand your ground against massive attacks to break the enemy posture. The final boss is a multi-phase duel that tests every single skill learned throughout the game.

Please describe your most frustrating gaming experience in the comments.