Hardest computer games you played.

[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.

[DemetriusVVV]

That will be WoW Classic. At the end of Sept. I started to pass the Ny'alotha raid in WoW Classic. I don't know how you can actually go through it on your own. It's very difficult. In the raid you need to fight 12 bosses and defeat N'zoth. I decided to take the help of a team of gamers and bought Visions of N'zoth carry. I hope that the veil will be destroyed and concepts and nightmares brought to the world as we know it.

Confirm WoW Classiс was one of the hardest games I have ever played. I remember I spent tons of time trying to defeat the 12 bosses of Nyalotha and eventually did it. I was on cloud #9 after that

[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.

[catflap]

Re: Hardest computer games you played.

Jet Set Willy - 1984, ZX Spectrum.
Hungover man collects glasses in house designed by Salvador Dali. This game was sadism masquerading as fun. Each screen was full of enemies that would kill you, objects that would kill you and falls that would kill you. Platforming has to pizel perfect and timed to the milisecond. I played it in 1986, when I was 10, and after months with the damn game, I never came close to finishing it.

Seriously. This screen still gives me anxiety now just thinking about it:

Shadow of the Beast 1 & 2 - 1989 / 1990, Amiga
When I got my Amiga back in 1992, the 'Beast' games were some of the first ones I sought out. I mean, they looked sublime and the music was just like listening to a CD. However, the developers have been so obsessed with jerking their own graphical prowess that they forgot to put anything like a fair game inside. The difficulty was punishing, with leaden combat, situations where there was no way to avoid damage and situations where, if you missed something random, the game could no longer be completed. You had to play, learn, memorise, die, restart...repeat for weeks...months...on end.
I had to use a cheat in the end to see the completion of these games. Wholly not worth it. All that effort for one crappy 'well done' screen?

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

[Disco_Puppy]

Re: Hardest computer games you played.

Jet Set Willy - 1984, ZX Spectrum.
Hungover man collects glasses in house designed by Salvador Dali. This game was sadism masquerading as fun. Each screen was full of enemies that would kill you, objects that would kill you and falls that would kill you. Platforming has to pizel perfect and timed to the milisecond. I played it in 1986, when I was 10, and after months with the damn game, I never came close to finishing it.

Seriously. This screen still gives me anxiety now just thinking about it:

Shadow of the Beast 1 & 2 - 1989 / 1990, Amiga
When I got my Amiga back in 1992, the 'Beast' games were some of the first ones I sought out. I mean, they looked sublime and the music was just like listening to a CD. However, the developers have been so obsessed with jerking their own graphical prowess that they forgot to put anything like a fair game inside. The difficulty was punishing, with leaden combat, situations where there was no way to avoid damage and situations where, if you missed something random, the game could no longer be completed. You had to play, learn, memorise, die, restart...repeat for weeks...months...on end.
I had to use a cheat in the end to see the completion of these games. Wholly not worth it. All that effort for one crappy 'well done' screen?