Hardest computer games you played.

[Andrew Difrau]

Those who had a speccy might remember Jack and the Beanstalk. Pure hell and I think it wanted you to be pixel perfect when moving/jumping.
like others, I got bored of the megagames (Elite, Dun Darach etc), if Robin Candy didnt have a map or a few POKE's to offer - that was me gone....

Haha, Jack and the Beanstalk was brutal, one mistimed pixel and it was straight back to square one. Those jumps felt like the game was actively rooting against you. I’m with you on the megagames too, Elite was impressive but after a while it felt more like work than fun. If there wasn’t a Robin Candy map or a cheeky POKE to take the edge off, my patience vanished fast. Still, we kept coming back for more punishment, didn’t we

[kane45]

Honestly, one of the toughest games I’ve played has been dragon city. It looks pretty chill at first, but once you get deeper into raising dragons and battling, it really makes you think about your strategy and resource management. It sneaks up on you and gets pretty challenging!

Dragon City on PC surprised me with how difficult it gets. What starts as a relaxed dragon-raising game slowly turns into a real challenge, where smart planning, careful use of resources, and strong battle strategies actually matter.

[kane45]

Honestly, one of the toughest games I’ve played has been dragon city pc. It looks pretty chill at first, but once you get deeper into raising dragons and battling, it really makes you think about your strategy and resource management. It sneaks up on you and gets pretty challenging!

[Cartimand]

Witcher 3

Brilliant game - probably my all-time favourite RPG!
Wouldn't say it was enormously difficult, but it took me around 4 months to complete. Was definitely worth the time spent.
Skyrim had quite a similar vibe was was almost as good.
Amongst more recent games, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which I'm currently playing, has almost recaptured that Witcher 3 magic and has absolute tons of content.

[Katarina]

Witcher 3

[Entervilan]

Those who had a speccy might remember Jack and the Beanstalk. Pure hell and I think it wanted you to be pixel perfect when moving/jumping.
like others, I got bored of the megagames (Elite, Dun Darach etc), if Robin Candy didnt have a map or a few POKE's to offer - that was me gone.... playhop has some challenging games to try

oh yes i rememer, it was hell to play

[leonnelson]

Those who had a speccy might remember Jack and the Beanstalk. Pure hell and I think it wanted you to be pixel perfect when moving/jumping.
like others, I got bored of the megagames (Elite, Dun Darach etc), if Robin Candy didnt have a map or a few POKE's to offer - that was me gone....

[Flash Gordon]

I recently did a nostalgia tour of old Spectrum games - we were so mesmerised by them at the time - and they are sooooo annoying! Almost impossible.

[Cartimand]

Recently finished Bard's Tale IV Director's Cut on Xbox One.
Overall it was quite an enjoyable old-school D&D-style game, but one mission near the end is almost impossible and ruined the experience for me.
You travel to an isolated island, have to explore some ruins and save a king, which I accomplished after a couple of days of grind.
When though you try to leave the stronghold, you are ambushed by a virtually invincible enemy.
If you hadn't selected the optimum team for this particular enemy before starting the mission (which I hadn't), then it is impossible to succeed.
My only option was to abandon hours of gameplay and go back to a previous save so I could continue with the main quest.
That is really, really bad game design.

[Cartimand]

Back in my Spectrum days, it wasn't the norm for games to have selectable difficulty levels (the brilliant Dark Star being an exception).
Nowadays pretty well every game can be configured to suit all levels of player.
I recently completed the new Halo Infinite campaign on the second-highest level (Heroic), but baulked at cranking it up to legendary level.

[JaySmith]

The hardest PC game Ive ever played is dark souls I think.

[Semi42]

It was a classic!
As hero Cuchulainn you get to visit the Celtic/Druid afterlife, seeking 4 (I think) magical artefacts. The map was huge for a 48k Speccy game, the puzzles were fiendish and the graphics were amazing for the time.
It was though immensely difficult and, although there was no permadeath ('cos you're already dead natch!) you would lose all your carried objects if one of the sídhe touches you.
I invested many hours on this and the follow up game Dun Darach, but never managed to complete either.

Someone did a complete walkthrough on YT, if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKJZrKX6-7E

A lot of the screens looked the same so I never pursued it, much like lords of midnight and that was supposed to be colossal.

I remember some of the text adventure games that came out in the speccy/ c64 days were frustrating in the way that sometimes you had to use exact wording to progress

but in more modern times , I had a go of my daughters switch and played cuphead. Even on easy mode I found it insanely difficult

[Cartimand]

Re: Hardest computer games you played.

Tir na nog on the speccy looked great at the time but what was it all about??

It was a classic!
As hero Cuchulainn you get to visit the Celtic/Druid afterlife, seeking 4 (I think) magical artefacts. The map was huge for a 48k Speccy game, the puzzles were fiendish and the graphics were amazing for the time.
It was though immensely difficult and, although there was no permadeath ('cos you're already dead natch!) you would lose all your carried objects if one of the sídhe touches you.
I invested many hours on this and the follow up game Dun Darach, but never managed to complete either.

Someone did a complete walkthrough on YT, if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKJZrKX6-7E

[LeviHardman23]

Re: Hardest computer games you played.

Punch-Out!!, originally titled Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, is a boxing sports fighting video game.This Game published by Nintendo in 1987.You can enjoy it.

[Disco_Puppy]

Re: Hardest computer games you played.

I remember Shadow of the Beast games being called Shadow of the Bast because they were difficult.

I only played Manic Miner, not JSW, but that screen doesn't look so hard - which is probably why it's so irritating

I used some different words when I was playing Beast 1 and 2. Most of them were gynaecological in nature.

Also, the deceptiive horror of Jet Set Willy was that the screens looked easy. You planned a route and you watched the patterns of the enemies. But, if your jumps and timing were not perfect, you would die. Literally perfect to the pixel. Modern gamers whine about how difficult the Dark Souls games were, but they should spend some time with these '80s home computer games.