Other games with harsh difficulty

[UltraMantis]

Anyone remember Master of Orion? It's quite challenging, especially the Impossible difficulty which, while not quite impossible, will keep even the most seasoned players on their toes.

I remember that game fondly. All three of the series. Wish MOO III worked, i really liked the macromanagement experiment.

There's an even harder mode in Master of Orion , but it requires a cracked version. Why cracked? Well because the devius folks at Microprose created a hidden check that would only trigger once the game was well under way. If it detected that copy protection has been defeated, it would scale the game so much in the AI favour that it became Ultra-Impossible to win. The AI would basically get free ships at a rate no human could match, so a crushing defeat was inevitable. But hey, thanks for playing our game anyway. Try buying it next time

That's why copy protection cards were later included with digital distribution versions. You can't remove the copy protection from the game even legaly.

[UltraMantis]

I thought i had exhausted my knowledge of difficult games, but it seems i had forgotten one. And it's a real gem. Gems being both nice and hard...

Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

This time i'm not going to ramble on about this strategy game that places you in charge of the US or USSR space program during the cold war. The Docking Module does a better job of it anyway. I will say that if you thought FTL was cruel and loved to deal you a crap hand, just wait until you play Buzz... Everything you build towards is allways, allways placed at higher and higher risk. All the manned missions are heart-stoppers because it only takes a tiny bit of shitty luck to put the succes of the mission and the survival of the crew in question. Failures and setbacks are heartbreaking, esp. when you get so badly derailed there's no hope of recovery. sigh

The great part of the game is that you aren't limited to the US side. Playing the soviets is interesting because for the most part, their space program is lesser known. Not only that, but reaching the moon is an objective that can be achieved in 4 different craft, each requireing a different approach to the final mission. The game also kindly keeps track of your various achievements. And failures. There will be failures.

It's sad sometimes to grab the lead (the way the US did) and see the soviets rush and cut costs (the way they did) and lose so many people. Between the two, the USSR does have a better start on the historical model, but their equipment has lower max. reliability to complement the lower price tag.

The game is old, 20 years now being released waay back in 1993, but fortunately it's well designed and doesn't have a bad or difficult to use GUI. It's a strategy game so you can forgive the outdated graphics, and if you try hard you can forgive the cheesy music as well. It was pretty much the best DOS was capable of at the time. The gamplay and the quality of the product still lives though. You might lose a few nights to it. Enjoy.

Some screenshots here: http://games.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/Race-Into-Space-Screenshot-93401.html

There are three different copies available. Of the originals, the floppy is easier to play because the buzz.bat file can be dragged and dropped onto DOSBox and easily started. The CD-ROM version is superior but a bit of a pita to install. I have attached some install help for those nostalgic nerds who wish to install it. The remake is obviously superior to both since it was released in 2011. Take your pick.

Original DOS floppy version: courtesy of Home of the Underdogs.

Original DOS CD-ROM version: courtesy of ISO-ART (scroll down the page to find the download links).

Open Source remake: courtesy of the SourceForge team.

The Open Source version is free. The Originals are copyrighted but no longer sold. The CD-ROM version may be downloaded/shared legaly as long as it is free. It is NOT released into Public Domain.

[Springy]

Contra, Metal Slug, Blood, Super Meat Boy and Hotline Miami are pretty difficult.

[Nimbostratus]

So, I've been playing XCOM...

General consensus is that it's not as hard as the original two games - your soldiers are actually competent, and there's not quite as much inventory/resource management - but in some ways, it's harder. In the old games, once you got psychic powers, it was pretty much a cakewalk. Not so much in this one. Oh, and if you don't know squad tactics, your sh t will get wrecked. Even on Easy difficulty. I love it. XD

[UltraMantis]

With GoG.com having a summer sale quite a few of the games mentioned in this thread are available for just a few bucks. The one i'd like to namedrop is King of Dragon Pass. A tough crossover game mixing strategy with adventure.

It isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it's a forgotten and underrated game for sure. Check it out.

[richeygator]

I only need 1 word- QWOP

[Iranon]

Roguelikes as a genre.
Nethack. Charming geek classic. Easy for a roguelike, but still takes most people years to win if they avoid spoilers.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Less zany, reins in common excesses of the Genre without losing what makes it special.
Dwarf Fortress. Can be played as a traditional Roguelike, but the main draw is Fortress mode (The Sims meets Dungeon keeper meets utter insanity). Everything is simulated: tectonics and erosion in world generation, societal interaction taking into account different ideals and taboos, the engineering calculations of steel impacting spine. More substance than any other game I know, cute use of ASCII, but a seriously rough interface makes it even less approachable.

Bullet Hell as a genre.
Touhou is very popular series from the 6th game onwards. Cute and whimsical.
Ikaruga is a very tight and streamlined example,
Warning Forever. Minimalist aesthetic, endless boss fights. They adapt to what you do.

Platformers have a few notorious examples.
I Wanna Be The Guy brought nostalgic and unreasonably hard platformers to a mainstream audience. Equal parts of genuine difficulty and gratuitous dickery. In my opinion, the sequel (I Wanna Be The Guy: Gaiden) lost some of the charm.
n: the way of the ninja if you like things clean and stylised.
Super Meat Boy is certainly good, but feels a little forced to me.

If those are too tame, there are IWBTG fangames and Mario romhacks that cater to the discerning masochist.

[A Flaming Pineapple]

Touhou is a bullet hell video game. Think the Flagship stage 3 laser spam, but happening 20 times a second and you have to dodge it. The best ones are anything from 6 and onwards, getting more difficult as you go up. Personally I like 10, 11 and 13, not only cause theyre fun, but they also have amazing soundtrack.

But if its too easy download the ultra mode patch for the game. It basically turns the game into resource management, as you try to learn when to bomb, when to just die.

Or Mushihimesama Futari. *shudder*

[max_torch]

I will suggest as difficult but great:
Dark Souls/Demon's Souls
Galactic Civilizations I and II
Battle for Wesnoth

like ftl you cant save anytime in dark souls and worse there is no pause button and with multiplayer there are random unfair player invasion fights which are intentional.
In galciv it takes all of your focus and determination just to beat the computer, even on the low difficulty and especially if the map is large.
In Battle for Wesnoth the 6th scenario of the main campaign is probably just as hard as it's last two scenarios, and everything in between is just hell, and you will get creamed when you try the multiiplayer, though the people are friendly and willing to teach.

[Dirka]

+1 for GalCiv, the AI there is mindbogglingly smart. Just read this report:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/16 ... /?site=pcg

Personally, I'd like to throw the Independence War series into the ring, two space simulations with actual Newtonian* movement. By default the games offer a sort of auto-compensator mode that makes the ship go roughly where you point it. But when you switch it off, the real fun begins. Then you can pull some crazy stunts, but first you have to master the controls.

Another thing that made the games stand out for me was the fact that ships can't take too many hits. Instead of being and omnidirectional bubble, your shields fuction as point defense, meaning that you can defend against a maximum of two assailants, and your rear is always unprotected. This, and the fact that your main cannon is powerful but slow, means you should pick your fights carefully, since it's very easy to get overwhelmed by superior firepower. You also have to balance your reactor energy between shields, weapons and engines, and have to watch out for overheating. Oh yeah, and dodge missiles, lots of missiles. Battles can get a bit hectic

If I recall correctly, the first installment offers a bit more genuine difficulty, while the second is more complex and polished. Overall, these are two great simulations with a very unique feel and playstyle, and are well worth checking out.


* Even in un-assisted mode, the maximum speed in real space is 9999 m/s , which is still pretty damn fast if you're smacking into a space station or an enemy.