While many of today’s games are designed to appeal to a broad audience of players with diverse backgrounds and experience levels, all of that goes out the window when playing on the hardest difficulty. Typically reserved for passionate fans that demand more of a challenge from their favorite titles, these difficulty modes will outright punish you for even the slightest mistake.
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This applies to not only purposefully difficult games like Dark Souls but also easier games you wouldn’t expect to have a hard mode. While these deceptively simple games might be a breeze on a normal playthrough, crank up the difficulty and you’ll see how cruel they can truly be.
10God Of War: Ragnarok
Compared to earlier entries in the series, 2018’sGod of Warand its sequelRagnarokoffer more methodical gameplay that’s relatively easy to master on the default difficulty. Those looking to restore the chaotichack-and-slash combatof the original trilogy need to look no further than Give Me God of War mode.
On this difficulty, God of War: Ragnarok’s cinematic storytelling takes a backseat to excruciatingly tough enemy encounters. The monsters you’ll be facing are not only stronger but can also turn into Elite variants during fights. To top it off, Kratos is much weaker in this mode, making every battle feel like a struggle to survive.
9The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Like many of the best Nintendo games,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis meant to be played by a wide range of players, including those that prefer easygoing experiences. While there’s plenty of creative fun to be had with the game’s open-ended design, the same can’t be said ofMaster Mode.
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This is due to it making several changes to the combat and save systems that punish you for messing around. On Master Mode, enemies are more powerful, regenerate health over time, and spawn in larger numbers across the map. To make matters worse, you only have one autosave and one manual save file, increasing the likelihood of getting stuck in a bad spot.
8Mario Kart 8
There are many ways to turn the iconic family-friendly racing gameMario Kartinto a stone-cold challenge that will leave your palms sweaty and your spirit broken. From racing against truly skilled players to increasing the CPU difficulty, altering which items spawn, or just starting up a race on 200cc.
Positioned as Mario Kart 8’s highest difficulty setting, 200cc increases the speed of all vehicles, forcing you to pump your brakes during tight turns or risk crashing. Combine this with more aggressive AI racers and the game’s friendship-ruining qualities start to pale in comparison.
7Undertale
While it may not be an official difficulty option you can outright select from the game’s menu,Undertale’s ‘Genocide Route’ is definitely the hardest way to play the beloved indie game. This entails killing every enemy in every region, including those you may have developed a certain fondness for.
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As such, it’s not recommended for a first playthrough of Undertale, as you’ll likely miss out on pivotal moments in the story. With that said, a ton of new content gets introduced during a genocide run, including new battles against Sans and Undyne.
6Hitman 3
Despite casting you as an assassin venturing into enemy waters, theHitmangames are pretty laidback affairs with plenty of room for goofing off as you don wacky disguises and set up the most ridiculous kill sequences ever conceived.
To give you a bit more to chew on, IO Interactive first introduced Master difficulty in Hitman 2, which carried over toHitman 3. This setting throws a ton of new obstacles into the mix, including extra surveillance cameras and enforcer enemies, more ruthless and demanding combat, limited saves, and no mission story guides whatsoever.
5Batman: Arkham Knight
While playing as Batman comes with its own set of unique challenges, most of the Caped Crusader’s foes can be dealt with relatively easily onArkham Knight’s default difficulty. However, things quickly start to ramp up on Knightmare setting, which only unlocks after beating the game for the first time.
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The changes introduced with thisNew Game+ modeare fairly straightforward but can be taxing for even experienced players. This is due to stronger enemies, a weaker Batman, and the removal of the counter indicator above Batman’s head. All in all, this is a much more immersive way to play an otherwise easy game.
4Fallout 4
Fallout 4is regarded as one ofthe easiest RPGswhen stacked against other games in the series. In fact, the greatest challenge you’ll likely face is trying to navigate the game’s obtuse dialogue system. To make up for the lack of challenge, Bethesda went out of its way to adda Survival modesoon after the game’s launch.
This removes the option to auto or manually save from the menu, meaning you’ll have to find a bed to save your progress each time. Fast travel is also disabled, forcing you to travel on foot, likely encountering tougher enemies and sustaining more injuries on the way that require specific remedies.
3BioShock Infinite
Another game that’s considered relatively easy compared to its predecessors,BioShock Infinitedrops you into the floating steampunk city of Columbia. Like manystory-driven games, it prioritizes characters and narrative events over gameplay, resulting in more manageable combat encounters with, at most, a decent level of challenge.
With that said, Infinite becomes a whole different ballgame when playing on 1999 mode, which can only be enabled by inputting the Konami Code from the game’s menu. Doing so removes several features that affect combat and progression, such as weapon aiming and checkpoint gates. Additionally, enemies will be more precise when targeting Booker during shootouts.
2Punch-Out
Punch-Outis another classic Nintendo game that perfectly demonstrates the company’s dedication to catering to a wide demographic of players. However, those looking to put their skills to the ultimate test can step up to the challenge of completing Champion’s mode in the Wii version of Punch-Out.
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To unlock it, you must first win ten times in Mac’s Last Stand. While playing on Champion’s mode, Mac can get knocked down by just a single hit. This isn’t too bad of a change until you realize that boss attacks are no longer telegraphed by colored indicators, forcing you to rely on body language while reacting quickly.
1Guitar Hero: Metallica
Some of thebest rhythm gamescan be an absolute nightmare to play depending on how musically inclined you are. At the same time, the genre is known for being designed around simple controls and forgiving gameplay that can be fine-tuned based on your preferred difficulty setting.
For manyGuitar Herofans, that would be Expert mode, which turns the easygoing rock concert experience into a hellish ordeal by requiring you to use all five fret buttons to play ridiculously fast notes. Guitar Hero: Metallica takes this even further with Expert+ mode, which layers bass drum notes onto the game’s notoriously fast-paced tracks.
