Hard games have been around since the dawn of gaming — originally, difficulty was a way to fleece coins from the children of the world as they attempted to defeat an impossible challenge. Now, people look upon difficulty as the ultimate test of mastery, birthing the domination of games specifically designed to bring the best out of anyone who plays them.
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But since games no longer need to keep you standing at an arcade machine, there’s no reason for impossible difficulty to be the only setting available to you. For the sake of accessibility, as well as individual choice, many hard games over the years have offered lax settings that deflate them of their punishing nature.
10Halo
The wholeHaloseries can be some of the most difficult experiences you can play to date, offering a brutal difficulty known as Legendary. This difficulty can be further modified with Skulls to improve enemy AI, remove the HUD, upgrade enemies to their highest possible rank, and more.
Despite the intense challenge that Halo can provide, it thankfully also has an Easy difficulty for those looking to enjoy the story or play with a disability. While it’s obvious that hard and easy difficulties would feel different from each other, Legendary and Easy look like two completely separate games when put side by side.
9Crypt Of The Necrodancer
All roguelikes tend to be a bit difficult, given that their gameplay loop involves losing repeatedly to chip away at the challenge until it’s manageable.Crypt of the Necrodancertakes it to another level by linking everything to the beat, requiring intense focus to even finish the main story.
But if you choose to play as the Bard, a huge weight will be lifted off your back. Unaffected by the curse of the Golden Lute, the Bard can be moved without regard to the tempo. All the enemies stay completely still as you make your choices, giving you as long as you need to get the job done.
8Terraria
Terrariahas a cavalcade of settings that’ll make your experience under the watch of Cthulhu that much harder, but even on difficulties where death only deprives you of your coins, Herculean effort is still required to advance throughthe progression of punishing bosses.
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Consequentially, Journey Mode came out to give a much more relaxed experience, allowing you to explore the world with very little pushback from foes. Beyond just making enemies easier, it also allows you to eventually duplicate items and eliminate the need to grind for the materials that make potions and boss-summoning items.
7Minecraft
Even on easy,Minecraftcan still put up quite the challenge if not approached properly, requiring hours of grinding, building, and exploring to deck yourself and your home out completely. Heartbreaking deaths are an inevitability regardless of the difficulty, whether it’s being pushed into a lava pit, a Creeper’s explosion, or the ever-intimidating Warden’s sonic boom.
For players tired of being jumped by strange green monsters, Peaceful mode cuts out all hostile mobs to allow you to explore without fear of obstruction, even deactivating mob spawners and bosses. This means that there’s no way to beat the game due to a lack of blaze powder, but sometimesbuilding a giant golden monument is a reward in and of itself.
6Payday 2
Payday 2is built around making you feel like you’re facing the unstoppable power of a government-funded armed force, which is why you’ll often be tossed to the ground after only a few shots on the typical difficulties. At its worst, you’ll find yourself surrounded by ten Bulldozers with little recourse but to be turned into a Payday purée.
But don’t be fooled by the names for the different levels of challenge — Normal is by all means a tutorial setting that doesn’t even spawn some of the game’s most formidable enemies, making it feel less like cop-themedLeft 4 Deadand more like consequence-freeGTA.
5Project Zomboid
Project Zomboid doesn’t play around with its difficulty — every single run starts with a little splash screen, telling you that you’re not writing a story about your survivalbut your inevitable death. The gameplay backs this up, eliminating your hard-working characters after only one zombie bite, or worse, poorly-tended wound.
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Builder mode is a great way to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of Zomboid’s various systems, allowing you to completely remove the zombie menace and spend your days freely looting houses without the constant fear of getting bit.
4Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising debuted with a unique form of difficulty management known as the Intensity Slider, allowing you to choose from a value between two and nine to represent how hard the level would be. You might actually recognize the concept from Sakurai’s more popular project,Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, which allows you to adjust your classic mode experience in much the same way.
At intensity two, the game is about as easy as they come, replacing the screens filled with deadly projectiles of the harder difficulties with simple shot patterns and low damage values. You’re not going to be getting any great items from playing like this, but it’s still an option that will save your fingers from the game’s complicated control scheme.
3Fallout: New Vegas
Bethesda games and difficulty tend not to go together, with games likeFallout 3tailoring the stats of enemies to your level in an effort to prevent fights from being too easy or difficult. Thankfully, Obsidian Entertainment brought back area-based difficulty inFallout: New Vegas, which once again gives the possibility of encountering deadly areas like the infamous Quarry Junction.
The Very Easy difficulty setting can make the experience far less brutal, though, doubling your damage and halving any and all incoming damage. This won’t stop a Deathclaw, of course, but it will significantly reduce the impact that most enemy encounters would have on you.
2Ultrakill
Ultrakillis a game that can completely batter the unprepared player, punishing sloppy movement and encouraging regular switching between weapons to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. The incredibly fast pace can leave you in the dust, leading to desperate moments where you’re clinging to a health point and running for your life.
But in an admirable attempt to make the game accessible, the easiest difficulty radically slows down enemies and their attacks — this way, players with disabilities can enjoy the incredible experience without needing twitchy reflexes or the ability to click a mouse like a jackhammer.
1Rimworld
TheDwarf Fortress-inspiredRimworldtakes notes from its spiritual predecessor by regularly ruining your attempts to build up a settlement, sending raids and manhunter creatures that will injure, kill, and destroy their way through your various buildings.
But if you just want to build a society without needing to defend it, you’re able to combine the calmer Pheobe Chillax storytelling AI with the Peaceful difficulty to eliminate nearly all possible game-ending threats. People may still be lost to sickness or environmental hazards, but for the most part, not much can topple you once you’re on your way.
