Summary
Difficulty balancing is a supremely subjective topic, with different players finding challenges in all manners of gameplay mechanics and systems. What some players may find difficult, others may find trivial.
Soulslikes such asDark Soulssoon become extremely difficult for newcomers to the genre and feature plenty of difficulty spikes throughout, requiring players to have quick reactions and well-timed dodges or deflections if they want to stay alive. On the other hand, strategy games such asXCOM 2don’t require quick reaction speeds, but they do demand well-thought-out strategy, as the difficulty will soon crank up to the point that even the slightest mistake is punished.
This colorful run-and-gun platformer is known for its beautiful art style and variety ofdistinctly challenging bosses. What starts as a fun action-platformer quickly spirals into a variety of challenging bosses that require constant attention.
Thankfully,Cupheadnever reaches impossible territory, and the game’s wonderfully realized, cartoon aesthetic makes continuing in the face of adversity a little easier. DespiteCuphead’s high difficulty curve, however, it remains a game that’s easy to learn. As a result,Cupheadis more accessible than most other games with high levels of difficulty.
Getting Over Itcertainly won’t be for everyone, as is the case for manyso-called rage games, but it’s a tremendously rewarding experience for those who manage to climb its horrendous difficulty curve.Getting Over Itgives players the simple task of scaling a dastardly-designed mountain of trash from inside a cauldron, with naught but a hammer. What makesGetting Over Itso infamous is its lack of manual saves and the variety of intentionally-designed places to go tumbling back to the start of the game.
This creates an incredibly steep difficulty curve, requiring players to truly master the movement controls of their character in order to progress. However, as players progress up the mountain, the game introduces mischievous new obstacles that require the player to figure out new techniques. This results in a difficulty curve that never stops climbing, just like the player needs to if they want to succeed.
XCOMas a seriesis known for high difficulty curves and challenging, tactical combat that rewards strategy and punishes blunders with reckless abandon. As a result, many players often bounce off ofXCOM, especially as it begins to reveal how unforgiving it truly is.XCOM 2may not begin as a particularly difficult game, but as withXCOM: Enemy Unknown, the difficulty can ramp up quickly.
The main factor ofXCOM 2’s high difficulty curve is how it’s structured; as enemies begin to scale and missions get more difficult, players are expected to keep the pace with upgrades and levels, which comes naturally with success. As a result, players who fail a lot early or make poor decisions in the early-to-mid game will likely experience a steep difficulty curve. This, however, is part of theXCOMexperience, and learning its many systems over repeated campaigns is part of the fun.
This first game inthe iconicDark Soulsseriesis notorious for its steep difficulty curve. However, this difficulty can depend on all manner of variables; a player’s starting items, chosen build, and path through the game can have a dramatic impact on their experience. Regardless of what build players choose, most will find that the game’s difficulty is initially modest in the Undead Asylum but starts rapidly rising the moment they leave, especially if they head down to Blightown straight away.
Bosses like Ornstein and Smough, Gwyn, and Artorias have been known to give players a tough time. Bosses aren’t the only threat to players, though, with many enemies making even simple exploration a challenge.
This sandboxspace simulation gamefeatures deeply simulated physics and gameplay that centers around constructing rockets and launching successful missions in outer space. Though the game’s iconic mascots, the Kerbals, are far from reality, the game’s mechanics are rooted in it. This results in a game that provides a steep learning curve that only gets steeper as players attempt more daring missions.
Unlike many games with high difficulty curves,Kerbal Space Program’s difficulty is centered around player knowledge or lack thereof. As such,Kerbal Space Programis extremely rewarding to learn, as once players have managed to surpass the first hurdle of simply getting a rocket out into space, the possibilities are various.
Developed by FromSoftware, the same studio behind the notoriously difficultDark Soulsseries,Sekiroprovides an experience that focuses on mastery. In the game, players are given just one weapon, immediately replacing the multitude of builds and RPG systems thatDark Soulsis known for with pure, skill-based combat.
Sekirois by no means a cakewalk at the start of the game, and yet it keeps cranking up the challenge throughout. Many of the later bosses in the game are extremely tough to beat and force players to practice and perfect their skills. The final boss of the main ending is notoriously difficult but also tremendously rewarding, as defeating them requires the player to have mastered the combat mechanics.
