35 Hardest Games For PC and Consoles in 2026

If you are tired of overly forgiving games where it is almost impossible to fail, this article is for you. We have put together some of the hardest games across different genres — from soulslikes and hardcore action titles to punishing survival games, roguelikes, platformers, tactical strategies, and puzzle games that truly test your reflexes, patience, attentiveness, and ability to stay calm under pressure.

This list features titles where a single mistake can cost you an entire run, and victory almost always comes only after dozens of failures, plenty of pain, and a gradual mastery of the mechanics. If you are looking for hardcore games on PC and consoles, enjoy difficult bosses, parries, “ironman” modes, realism, and brutal endurance tests, you will definitely find something here that can drive you mad — and that is exactly why it becomes so captivating.

This section includes games inspired by the legendary Demon's Souls. In projects like these, every fight demands attention, composure, and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. Precision attacks, reading enemy patterns, managing stamina wisely, and understanding that even a regular foe can quickly send you back to the last checkpoint all matter here.

Let us begin with the very embodiment of hardcore gaming. By now, even people far removed from the gaming industry know that Dark Souls is fully capable of destroying your mental stability.

Dark Souls is the ideological successor to the no less challenging Demon's Souls, released in 2009. The man responsible for the destruction of millions of players’ nerve cells is Hidetaka Miyazaki. He was the one who created the soulslike genre, which at the time felt like a breath of fresh air amid interactive movies and heavily scripted shooters that rarely challenged players in any meaningful way.

If, for some reason, you have missed the Souls games, we strongly recommend giving them a try. Believe us, the series will seem truly difficult only during your first playthrough. After that, you will begin to understand all the nuances, and playing will become much easier.

Miyazaki was not in charge of the second game, which is why many fans of the franchise consider it the weakest entry in the series. Even so, Dark Souls 2 still stands head and shoulders above many other action RPGs, even if its level and enemy design falls short of FromSoftware’s gold standard.

As for Dark Souls 3, many gamers consider it the strongest game in the trilogy. A lot of players appreciate its faster pace — not quite on Bloodborne’s level, of course, but noticeably quicker than the first and second games.

Despite its bone-crushing difficulty — especially in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion — Elden Ring has become FromSoftware’s most popular and successful game, with more than 30 million copies sold so far. Judging by Steam statistics, the high difficulty has hardly scared players away: more than 44% of players have spent over 100 hours in Elden Ring. That is an impressive figure for such a punishing adventure.

Part of Elden Ring’s brutality is softened by its nonlinear structure and its impressive variety of builds. Stuck somewhere? Move on to another area of the map. It is one of the best modern open-world games. The title offers plenty of powerful weapon, spell, and item combinations — you just need to find the right one for the problem in front of you.

We decided to mention all of maestro Miyazaki’s major hits. Why not? Yes, these games have been worn threadbare by lists like this, but that does not make them any worse.

Bloodborne was released exclusively for PS4 in 2015. The game includes everything we love about the Souls series — the need to memorize enemy placements and attack patterns, and to constantly sharpen your skills. On top of gameplay that, despite what some players claim, is no easier than in other FromSoftware games, Bloodborne also has an oppressive, immersive atmosphere. So much so, in fact, that it even earned a place in our list of the best horror games of all time.

The gothic mood of Victorian England, endless night, werewolves, and other abominations. Wandering through this world in a dark cloak with a massive axe in your hands, you really do feel like a local Van Helsing. And while your Hunter may be highly questionable at first, over the course of the game you will learn to cut down monsters with ease. Bloodborne is still among FromSoftware’s finest games.

Naturally, the success of the Dark Souls series was bound to inspire other developers to create something similar. One of the most notable representatives of the soulslike genre is Nioh.

The developers at Team Ninja, who are also responsible for the Ninja Gaiden series, could not ignore FromSoftware’s success and delivered their own response. They chose medieval Japan as the setting. Instead of inventing original bosses, the creators decided to introduce players to figures drawn from the myths of that era.

Nioh is no slouch when it comes to difficulty, either. Enemies kill the main character quickly and brutally. The urge to quit will come up often. But if you gather the strength to finish it, the sweet taste of victory will stay with you for a long time.

The sequel, Nioh 2, is worth trying for its even deeper combat system with stances, ki management, and yokai abilities, as well as its robust character creator and dark fantasy reinterpretation of Japanese history.

As for the third game, as we wrote in our review of Nioh 3, it stands out by evolving the series formula through instant switching between samurai and ninja fighting styles, along with larger-scale locations.

Many people call Salt And Sanctuary a two-dimensional Dark Souls. The game earned that nickname for a reason.

The main thing you will be doing in Salt And Sanctuary is collecting salt dropped by enemies and carrying it back to sanctuaries. The challenge is that your opponents are often at least twice the size of the main character, and they have no intention of giving up that precious salt without a fight.

You will die often while trying to reclaim this valuable resource. That is why you should pay special attention to your equipment and character progression, since some enemies can only be defeated with the right gear.

Games in this category revolve around precision, reflexes, and the ability to catch the perfect moment for an attack, block, or parry. Simply mashing buttons is not enough here — you need to feel the rhythm of combat, read enemy animations, and stay focused even in the most intense encounters.

Another game from the great and terrible Hidetaka Miyazaki. The situation here is similar to the previous entries on the list: crushing difficulty at first, followed by genuine satisfaction once you understand what you actually need to do to win. Not many games can deliver emotions like that.

Despite the similar core concept, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice differs from Dark Souls in several ways. It has a more cinematic presentation, a full and accessible story, and elements of vertical gameplay. At any moment, you can not only dodge or jump away from an enemy, but also use your grappling hook to leap onto the roof of a nearby building. Because of this seemingly small change, the game becomes dramatically more dynamic.

Keep in mind that beating Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice requires almost lightning-fast reflexes. Then again, if you manage not to smash your controller against the wall after a few failed boss attempts, your reaction speed may start improving on its own.

A gripping action game about a kung fu master with a complex combat system built around parries, dodges, and counterattacks. What makes it especially interesting is that the protagonist ages after every death. As he grows older, he loses health but starts dealing more damage. That does not make Sifu much easier, though: even on normal difficulty, its mechanics demand near-perfect timing. Otherwise, you are done for.

This is an example of a game that seems relatively casual at first, yet turns into the nine circles of hell on the highest difficulty setting. Here, that mode is called “Give Me God of War.”

The game cranks up enemy health and damage output; status effects like poison and fire become far more dangerous for Kratos while dealing less damage to his enemies. Enemy defenses are strengthened as well: you can only pin them against a wall if they are airborne. Opponents can also counterattack immediately after taking a hit or blocking one of yours.

All of these changes become fully apparent during the battles against the Valkyries — the optional bosses of God of War. After thirty attempts against the same boss, it becomes easy to look like Kratos yourself, having torn all the hair out of your head.

A defining feature of Monster Hunter: World, just like the entire Monster Hunter series, is its prolonged battles against dangerous bosses. Even when going on hunts with friends, these fights tend to last a while — though that has not stopped MHW from being considered one of the best co-op games available today. But if you hunt monsters solo, a typical fight can easily stretch to a full hour. Throughout all that time, you need to watch the enemy closely and react to every action at exactly the right moment. It ends up being not just a test of reflexes, but of patience and endurance as well.

This category brings together games where everything depends on precision movement, quick reactions, and the willingness to repeat a difficult section over and over again. Hardcore platformers and arcade classics punish mistakes instantly, but that is exactly what allows them to deliver that rare sense of pride when you finally clear a brutal section perfectly.

Arguably the harshest game of 2025. Overall, its balance stays on roughly the same level as a typical soulslike: the challenges are difficult, but fair. That said, Hollow Knight: Silksong also has a few absurd spikes in difficulty that can hardly be called fair at all — take, for example, the fight against a large boss and his annoying flying companion in a tiny cave during the first act. As we wrote in our review of Hollow Knight: Silksong, this is the sequel’s only serious flaw, though hardcore fans will most likely count that drawback as a positive.

Miss those old-school platformers that force you to study every inch of a level? Cuphead is perfect for you.

Cuphead is a classic side-scrolling platformer in which you travel through a wide variety of locations, shoot ordinary enemies, and most importantly, fight bosses. Every encounter with these “big bads” is a memorable challenge. Despite its cartoonish visual style, the game can burn through most — if not all — of your nervous system.

Speaking of the visuals, the game is styled after classic Disney cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s. Even the main characters are essentially nods to Mickey Mouse and the equally famous Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The developers also deserve credit for the fact that they drew the entire game by hand. Every frame was first brought to life on paper by professional artists. These days, not even all creators of actual animated films approach 2D animation with that level of dedication.

Super Meat Boy has a lot in common with I Wanna Be the Guy, which we will mention later in the article. Here too, you are faced with levels packed with saws, spikes, knives, and other instruments of death.

You play as a chunk of anthropomorphic meat. Every time you die, a huge pool of blood is left at the scene of the “tragedy.” This visual choice is meant to show you clearly just how much effort it took to complete the level. At times, nearly the entire surface of a stage ends up covered with a crimson “blanket,” so once you finally clear it, you genuinely feel that it cost you real blood, sweat, and tears.

Thought indie games were all about repetitive melancholy walking sims? Not quite.

In N++, you step into the role of a ninja. As in Super Meat Boy, the game’s main objective is to overcome dangerous levels. The slightest mistake means death and an instant restart. That is why you need to memorize every obstacle in detail, respect the timing, and stay as careful as possible.

The original Battletoads was released in 1991 as a competitor to the hugely popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The “battle toads” gained cult status almost immediately, thanks not only to their addictive gameplay, but also to their incredible difficulty. Its cartoonish style does not stop Battletoads from demanding lightning-fast reflexes and truly battle-hardened patience from players.

If you decide to give it a try, expect sweaty palms, a sudden urge to see a therapist, and possibly even bufonophobia — the fear of toads.

Just like the 1985 original, Ghosts 'N Goblins: Resurrection is a game for masochists. Many reviewers and players openly admit that it is nearly impossible to beat on the highest difficulty levels. The hero can only withstand two hits, while enemies attack nonstop from every direction.

What makes it so hardcore? The high difficulty in Ghosts 'N Goblins: Resurrection originally came from the commercial logic of the arcade era in the 1980s, when games were intentionally designed to be brutally hard in order to force players to keep feeding coins into the machine.

This section brings together games where the price of a mistake is especially high, and every new run can end a second before triumph. Roguelikes and bullet hell games thrive on constant tension: you need to make decisions quickly, keep track of dozens of threats on the screen, and adapt to changing conditions on the fly. The main strength of games like these lies in their blend of chaos and control. They may seem merciless, but step by step they teach you how to navigate combat more effectively.

The story of The Binding of Isaac is based on the biblical tale of the Binding of Isaac. At times, playing it really does feel as if you have ended up in hell. You will have to replay the same level over and over again just to finally kill a boss or clear yet another challenge. For a roguelike, which Isaac very much is, that kind of structure is perfectly normal, but for an unprepared player, getting through it may well require a full rehabilitation course afterward. Returning to normal life after all the bosses and challenges in The Binding of Isaac is not necessarily easy.

Another representative of the roguelike genre, this time wrapped in the style of a two-dimensional platformer.

Levels in Dead Cells are procedurally generated, as are the stats of the weapons scattered across its locations. As is typical for roguelikes, there are no checkpoints at all. If your character dies, you have to start the entire run from the beginning, no matter how far you have already progressed.

Interestingly enough, the developers originally wanted to make a classic tower defense game in which you would defend your fortress from hordes of zombies. Those plans changed after the release of another game from our list — The Binding of Isaac. Inspired by Isaac’s adventures, the studio decided to turn its new project into the game we eventually got.

A whirlwind action game born from the fusion of roguelike and bullet hell design. In Returnal, the player races through procedurally generated levels, picks up random weapons and upgrades, and fights off hordes of agile enemies that, in most cases, attack with all kinds of ranged abilities such as plasma projectiles and energy beams. Reaction speed is crucial here: not every player can make sense of the screen-filling light show and respond in time to the next incoming attack.

Another retro game on our list. This time, we are dealing with a representative of the classic top-down shooter.

Hotline Miami resembles the early Grand Theft Auto games. Crime, gallons of blood, and a superb soundtrack make sure the experience never gets dull for a second. Enemies die quickly, but the challenge lies in the fact that the main character also drops dead from almost any hit. Every death means clearing the entire level all over again.

This section is devoted to games where defeat comes not from poor reflexes, but from a single wrong decision made ten minutes — or sometimes even several hours — earlier. In tactical and management games with punishing modes, what matters is calculation, discipline, the ability to think several steps ahead, and the willingness to live with the consequences of your choices.

A tactical game that forgives even the smallest mistake only once — and often not even that. XCOM 2, especially in Ironman mode where manual saves are disabled, is not just difficult but also extremely unpredictable. There is no way to know in advance which mission will become fatal for your squad, which is why every deployment feels like stepping into the unknown with your fingers crossed.

Even when things seem to be going relatively smoothly, there is always a chance that something will suddenly go wrong: a soldier will miss a shot, the last surviving alien will get absurdly lucky, and before you know it you are back at base without your best operative. Gone forever, because in XCOM 2 every death is permanent.

Some may be surprised to see Baldur's Gate 3 on this list. But if you have played this masterpiece of a CRPG on Honour Mode, you understand perfectly well that it absolutely deserves to be called one of the most demanding games around.

Without serious preparation and at least a few prior playthroughs on lower difficulty settings, BG3 on Honour Mode is not something you beat on your first attempt. Losing a battle means the end of the entire campaign. Manual saves are disabled. Enemies have more health, deal more damage, and gain access to new abilities that do not exist on lower difficulties. On top of that, they apply debuffs more often, break concentration more aggressively, and make active use of AoE spells, while the AI does a fairly good job of identifying weak targets in your party.

It is a magnificent RPG, but unfortunately, it is also quite demanding not only for the player on higher difficulty settings, but for the PC itself. So if you are using a budget build, you may want to look for alternatives to BG3 in our list of the best RPGs for low-end PCs.

Once you understand how to play it, Darkest Dungeon becomes surprisingly meditative. But that is the key point — once you understand it. In the early hours, it will wear your nerves down without mercy.

Most brutal games demand fast reflexes. Here, however, the entire challenge comes from the need to make difficult decisions. Which mission should you choose? Who should you take with you? Will you have enough supplies and money? Should you touch that strange object, and what do you do if a hero touches it on their own? How do you preserve your party’s sanity? And yes, just like in the best Lovecraftian games, there is a full mental health system for your characters here.

The hardest dilemma that comes up in Darkest Dungeon on a regular basis is always the same: push forward, or retreat.

Darkest Dungeon 2 is generally rated somewhat lower than the first game, but it is still worth trying if you enjoy grim roguelikes with a strong visual identity and tense tactical combat. The game is praised for its atmosphere of a doomed journey, its stressful turn-based battles, its relationship and stress systems within the party, and for turning each run into not just a fight against monsters, but an exhausting psychological marathon.

This section includes games that lean heavily into plausibility, scarce resources, and constant environmental pressure. Here, you have to keep track not only of enemies, but also of hunger, cold, exhaustion, injuries, illness, and dozens of small details that other games usually leave off-screen. And if the games listed here are still not enough for you, do not miss our extensive list of the best survival simulators on PC.

Sometimes, making a game difficult does not require adding giant monster bosses that attack the protagonist a thousand times per second. There is a more elegant way — add more realism.

And Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has realism in abundance, especially on Hardcore Mode, which was added in one of the updates. It disables fast travel and autosaves, significantly reduces the number of interface prompts, and removes the hero’s precise position from the map, so you have to navigate by the terrain, the roads, and NPC directions. Combat becomes less forgiving as well and demands more attention. On top of that, at the start you have to choose three permanent negative perks that make the playthrough harder — for example, they can intensify hunger or slow your progression.

A fairly typical survival game, but with several important differences from others in the genre.

In SCUM, the focus is on making everything feel as realistic as possible. If you have to cross a river on the way somewhere, be prepared to dry your clothes afterward. Otherwise, your character will start freezing and may die of hypothermia.

And it is not just nature and the character’s physical needs that constantly get in your way — other players do too. Naturally, in a multiplayer game no one is going to let you calmly wander around and explore the surroundings. You always have to stay alert.

If you think war works more or less like it does in classic 1980s action movies, Arma 3 will knock that idea right out of you.

The main highlight of Arma 3 is its multiplayer. That is where all the hardcore challenge is concentrated. Ideally, you should play Arma with friends, because that is the best way to fully appreciate the project’s deep tactical side. You cannot just charge across the map head-on. The game punishes that kind of recklessness harshly. In Arma 3, coordinated teamwork is everything.

The ballistics in this shooter are also done at the highest level. When firing, you need to account not only for the enemy’s position, but also for wind speed, your character’s stance, and your weapon’s characteristics. Hip firing will never lead you to victory here.

This section is for those who love games where the main enemy is not a monster or a timer, but logic itself. Here, you have to search carefully for details, uncover hidden connections, make sense of strange world rules, and solve problems that may refuse to give way on the first, second, or even tenth try.

This is a game that will not force you to replay each level ten times. The protagonist does not die from a stray bullet or a sword slash. The difficulty lies elsewhere.

Instead of sharpening your reflexes and memorizing enemy attack patterns, Day of the Tentacle Remastered asks you to solve puzzles that are far from simple. Legendary game designer Tim Schafer made sure players would spend hours staring at the screen and clicking their cursor into every corner of the visible area.

Without guides and online hints, finishing this adventure game may take you dozens of hours. So if your friend keeps bragging about getting platinum in Dark Souls or Bloodborne, recommend Day of the Tentacle instead. Believe us, it will put them in their place.

As you have probably already realized, action games are not the only ones that can be difficult. Another good example is the adventure game Deponia.

The plot revolves around Rufus, a lovable screw-up who, by a twist of fate, meets a mysterious princess named Goal. Together, they go through a funny and genuinely engaging adventure.

The puzzles here, much like in Day of the Tentacle, can easily cost you hours of your life. Some of them are so absurd that they feel mind-breaking, yet you still want to keep playing, because the developers wrote a story that is genuinely funny and interesting, and almost impossible to put down.

This category includes games that test not so much your skills as your endurance. They may be deliberately awkward, merciless, slow, or built around a single mechanic where any extra movement instantly wipes out all your progress.

In I Wanna Be the Guy, the hardest part is the levels themselves. Every inch of the game’s locations is packed with different obstacles. Knives and other sharp or deadly objects fly at the protagonist, The Kid, from all directions as he tries to become The Guy. The path to that goal is not merely thorny… it is bloody and brutal.

As with most of the games on this list, get ready to replay every level dozens of times. Without memorizing where all the traps are placed, you simply will not get any farther. Despite its apparent simplicity, I Wanna Be the Guy really can make you convulse with frustration, especially when a knife comes flying out of nowhere and kills you just a couple of inches before the finish line.

Pain and suffering are not limited to major platforms. Back in 2013, the internet was blown apart by a “simple little” game about a bird flying between pipes. Sounds like something out of a children’s cartoon, does it not? Not even close. Flappy Bird made people smash their phones with hammers, throw them against walls, and spiral into full-blown hysterics. So what caused all that madness?

In the game, your task is to help the bird fly between vertically placed pipes. Every time you tap the smartphone screen, the bird flaps its wings. Tap too early, and it hits the upper pipe; too late, and it crashes into the lower one. At first, having to start over constantly is only mildly annoying, but once you get the hang of it and manage to fly through, say, one hundred pipes, losing that record can genuinely drive you into a rage.

According to its developer, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy was created purely for suffering. That alone guaranteed its place on this list.

In the game, you have to climb upward through the level using a huge hammer while sitting in a cauldron. Does that sound absurd? Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy feels exactly that absurd. It has both a strange sort of realism — because in real life it would also be hard to move around with a cauldron and a hammer — and deliberate hardcore design in the form of brutally demanding stages.

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy lets you fully experience both the difficulty of climbing upward and the pain of falling back down.

If you want to start with hardcore classics right away, begin with Dark Souls Remastered, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Cuphead, XCOM 2 in Ironman mode, and Darkest Dungeon. These games punish mistakes in very different ways, but each one perfectly shows why difficult games can be so addictive.

The first ones worth looking at are Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Nioh, Nioh 2, Nioh 3, and Salt and Sanctuary. All of them are built around difficult combat, a high price for mistakes, learning enemy attack patterns, and the gradual growth of player mastery.

Yes. The most obvious examples from this list are Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Sifu, and God of War on high difficulty. These are games where simply attacking is not enough: you need to feel the rhythm of combat, block and dodge at the right moment, and punish the enemy for every mistake.

In that case, it is best to look toward Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, N++, and Ghosts 'N Goblins: Resurrection. These games demand precise jumps, strong reflexes, and the willingness to replay the same section dozens of times.

From this selection, The Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells, Returnal, and Hotline Miami stand out most. What unites them is a fast pace, very little room for error, and the need to adapt quickly to constantly changing situations on the screen.

Yes. XCOM 2 in Ironman mode, Baldur's Gate 3 on Honour Mode, as well as Darkest Dungeon and Darkest Dungeon 2, are exactly about that. In these games, defeat often comes not from poor reflexes, but from a single wrong decision that comes back to haunt you much later.

If you are interested not in fantasy-style hardcore, but in more grounded challenges, pay attention to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, SCUM, and Arma 3. In these games, difficulty grows out of realism, limited resources, harsh conditions, and the constant need to account for many different variables.

The best choices here are Day of the Tentacle Remastered and Deponia. These are adventure games where the challenge is tied not to reflexes, but to logic, attentiveness, and the ability to find non-obvious solutions.

The clearest examples are I Wanna Be the Guy, Flappy Bird, and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. These games may seem simple mechanically, but they very quickly turn into a real test of self-control and your ability not to give up after a series of infuriating failures.

Good options include Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, N++, and Battletoads. They are still very difficult, but they deliver that hardcore challenge through bright visuals, arcade energy, and a lighter outer shell than grim soulslikes or punishing survival games.

What about you? Which games have caused you the most trouble? Tell us in the comments.

In truth, hardcore games are everywhere — from 1990s classics to modern indie projects. The titles in our list are only some of the very best, but they are far from the only difficult games worthy of attention.

Demon's Souls — the 2020 remake. Even in its updated form, Demon's Souls remains a game where every mistake is punished quickly and brutally, and every dangerous section demands maximum concentration.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 — an excellent CRPG that, on Honour Mode, does not forgive mistakes and can easily turn one failed fight or one bad decision into the end of the entire playthrough.

Helldivers 2 — a co-op shooter that, on higher difficulties, turns into a chaotic meat grinder where only teams with strong coordination, quick reactions, and a willingness to live with constant friendly fire survive.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide overwhelms you not only with enemy hordes, but also with the frantic pace of its battles, where you need to stick together, react quickly to threats, and avoid falling apart under the constant pressure of its ruthless AI director.

Lies of P hooks players for the same reasons as the best soulslikes. It demands precision in almost every fight: you need to feel the timings, parry at the right moment, and patiently learn from your own mistakes.