The 10 cruelest gaming challenges of all time
My game diet is simple. I’m going to finish a campaign at the default difficulty setting and play with some multiplayer games before turning my attention elsewhere. I’m rarely drawn to a world long enough to ignore many other games in my Steam library. I don’t get a chance to complete all the side quests in Elden Ring, nor do I collect all the gadgets in Celeste, both of which are games I love!
Having said that, I always like developers baking in a nasty curveball to lure the most ardent members of their community. yes, A generation Probably not interested in the discipline and heartbreak of absurd careers, but I’m always happy to see others conquer the beast. It makes me wonder what I can do if I can reach their obsession level; if I try to climb some insurmountable mountains as well.
Those challenges that make most of us say “no” are what we’ve covered in this list. Below you’ll find 10 of the most brutal, vile or onerous mechanics found in video games. These range from depraved Hardmode and harsh end-game penalties to sinister mini-games and endless, life-draining item grinds. Together, they represent gaming culture at its best and worst; expanding our imaginations while driving us out of our minds.
Be careful trying any of these yourself. They are not for the faint of heart.
World of Warcraft: Madness in the Membrane
Vanilla Warcraft is a grumpy, deformed beast full of finicky, D&D-inspired thematic reservations. Yes, today the game has been domesticated into a thin, efficient mobile game like Overmind, but back in 2005 you could dedicate your life to some truly wasteful pursuit of Azeroth. Honestly, some early World of Warcraft artifacts could make it into this list (the less said about the High Overseer, the better), but we’re focusing on crazy titles because, well, that’s still achievable today.
Basically, there are many factions in World of Warcraft that have no real practical purpose, but you can still gain prestige for them if you want. These factions include: Bloodsail Pirates, Darkmoon Faire, Ravenholdt, and the four goblin cities spread across the map. To reach exalted status (the highest possible prestige level) among these factions, players need to repeat some grim, tedious turn-in quests over and over again, slowly increasing the progress bar like Frodo on the top of Doom. In fact , some of which are run-ins that actively make the game more hostile. Befriending the Bloodsail Pirates will make you the target of several major tourist centers, effectively adding the player to the wanted list. your reward? One is titled “The Insane” so everyone else in the field can know where your priorities are.
EverQuest: XP Death Tax
Player deaths are less and less punishing over time. The devs realize how bad it is to block progress, and the thought of my Warheim camp being wiped out every time I succumb to exposure fills me with horror. But modern generosity isn’t the stuff of old-school EverQuest, with a few tendrils from the raucous frame of the late ’90s. When you die in EverQuest (you will die a lot), a small percentage of your accumulated experience is expected to leak back into the ether. Insult hurts!That low-res kid didn’t just kill you, he actively shaped your character weaker.
Think of us millennials growing up thinking the corpse in Dark Souls runs a little too much.
XCOM isn’t the only game with an Ironman mode, but I’ve always found its particular spin on this format to be outrageous. No save scum, no resets, no mid-campaign difficulty edits; you’re forced to stare at every dice roll and suffer the consequences.After all, what is that actual Commanders must do it on the battlefield. Did Corporal miss a high-stakes 90% shotgun blast that condemns your mission and resource supply to a complete free fall? Hey man, this is the reality of an interstellar invasion.
Europa Universalis 4: The Three Mountains
The Ryukyu Islands are a small landmass off the southern coast of Japan. At the start of the Europa Universalis 4 campaign, they were Ming subjects, with only six regiments to call themselves. The Three Mountains achievement requires you to control the proud Ryukyu people and conquer the world.
Of course, invading China, Japan, or South Korea will result in a certain death, and your remote starting location doesn’t offer any easy way to expand your holdings. In fact, anyone playing EU4 this way is likely to be squashed like a bug in the first few minutes as rival empires mess up and eat you whole.but it were able finished; Let Ryukyu grow from the sea to the bright sea.
Hollow Knight: Hallownest Pantheon
Hollow Knight is already a difficult game, so when the developers added a 40-minute Boss rush mode, the secret final boss was finally remixed—he’s already the toughest in PC gaming history One of the encounters – I know I’m going to… watch other people try to beat it on Twitch. Yes, the Pantheon of Hallownest was explicitly added to satisfy the biggest Hollow Knight patients in the universe, because only those people are willing to repeatedly try to overthrow a challenge, say, a stupid death of the Grimm masters sending you back to the first party.
The ending you get isn’t even that interesting! I shudder to think of what betrayal Cherry’s squad has prepared for Silksong.
Max Payne 3: The New York Minute
God bless Rockstar Games. Who else wants to turn an icy black epic like Max Payne 3 into a cheeky arcade shooter? The “New York Minute” mode, unlocked after completing the campaign, pits Payne against the most vile villains he’s ever faced; a timer that runs out quickly. Your goal is to pass each level while keeping adding precious seconds. (Headshots add 6 seconds, melee kills add 10 seconds, and so on.) It’s one of those maddening achievement hunts you’ll endure, but at least it adds some extra to Max Payne’s signature bullet time function. Minutes turn into hours whenever you are in a swan dive.
Overwatch: The Floor Is Lava
It should be said that Lucio is a supporting role. He can increase the team’s speed or restore health, depending on the polarity of his magic amp settings. He’s also able to run around walls, mostly to distract players from the grim reality that they could play a more exciting hero. But Blizzard did include a diabolical challenge for Lucio to keep us awake at night: To get an achievement called “The Floor Is Lava,” players must kill three people in one life, while also ride the wall.get justice one kill in ground, Rare as Lucio is, so the trio needs some real expert play.
Your best choice? Camp at enemy team spawn points and hope to push a party over the edge with Lucio’s sonic blast. This tends to come into play every 2 billion games, so you better start.
Nethack: old school permadeath
The definition of permanent death has become confusing. Yes, in Hades you’re sent back to the Styx River every time you run out of health, but then you’re standing in front of the mirror, draining your attack power, and flirting with Meg in the bar. The same comfort mentality applies to all other millennial roguelikes. Into Dungeon, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, all of which pale in comparison to the funeral stench of floppy-bound first-generation roguelike games. Nethack, (or Cataclysm, or, hell, the Rogue itself) never blessed the player in any light way meta progress. No, death just bounces you back to the title screen; that’s all, that’s all. You know the deal when you sign.
That’s why grognards turn their noses up at us interlopers. They come from a generation where brutish ganks didn’t bring much movement speed at the home plate.
Final Fantasy 10: Dodging Lightning
Final Fantasy 10’s Lightning Dodge has no advanced metagame; no clever cheese to unlock the nuances hidden beneath the surface. Instead, as long as the screen flashes white, you’ll be asked to wander to the Thunder Plains and press the “A” button. Do it 200 times in a row—continuous!– You’ll get an achievement and a crucial celestial weapon. It’s a horrible, twitchy Flash game that sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of one of the most beloved RPGs of all time. I have many fond memories of dodging lightning, but I’m also only 10 years old and have more time on my hands.
Spelunky: Eggplant Run
Derek Yu brings back the eggplant in 2020’s underrated Spelunky 2, but we’ll focus on the original’s unrelenting trials. I would guess that about 98% of people who ever enter Spelunky never make it through the second biome, but for a group of diehard elites, Hades’ betrayal barely scratches the surface. To really take advantage of Spelunky, you must first acquire a delicate eggplant item and carry it with you through each of the game’s many boob trap hallways. Once you’re in the final room, throw the eggplant in Yama’s face. He’ll transform into a peaceful purple creature, and your name will live on in Spelunky lore forever.
I can’t underestimate how challenging this is. In a solo eggplant run, sometimes you need to trust an AI character with a fragile, luscious eggplant. If they end up in a spike? game over. Honestly, I think every developer should include some esoteric experiments designed to piss off their most loyal players.Can you imagine What does the eggplant run equivalent in Elden Ring bring?