Be it a game that’s difficult in its entirety, or a particular challenge in a game that you just couldn’t complete.
For me, there are three that come to mind:
- Super Hostile: Waking Up (Minecraft Custom Map, Hard difficulty). That damn water section…
- Terraria Zenith Mode. Coming from someone to whom Master Mode is fairly easy, this was rough.
- Calamity Death Mode (Terraria). I beat DoG (this was back when a headshot was an automatic death), but I just could not click with the Yharim fight. I also think burnout was at play here because that was a LONG playthrough.
I couldn’t get past the second area(I think?)of Cuphead, there was a dragon boss that was just a wall for me.
That boss was indeed tough but also one of my favorites from that game. I even have a shirt of it (that is suffering from some wear and tear at this point). I probably spent several hours each trying to beat both that dragon and the game’s robot boss as well.
It’s a really hard game but I have to say learning to speedrun it was super fulfilling. Time consuming though haha
Dark Souls and souls games in general. But the difficulty is just half of it. I have beaten hard games before. The problem is that everything is so bleak I can’t even feel motivated to try. I’ll do a thing only for some NPC to go “it doesn’t matter, everything is pointless and you’re so insignificant”. Inevitably being spoiled I know that even the single optimistic NPC is not getting it great. Y’all can mope, I’m gonna put my effort where it’s appreciated.
If I picked Wolfenstein: The New Order back up today, I’d probably have a better time with it, since it’s been a decade since I touched it last and my gaming abilities have improved since then, but for whatever reason this game was ridiculously difficult for me, even on the easiest setting. It finally came to a point where I just couldn’t finish it, and I’m not sure if I ever will.
I remember it being probably the most difficult shooter I had ever played up until that point. The campaign was genuinely so hard. I (barely) managed to beat it and the boss fight at the end took me real life months.
Jedi Fallen Order. I’ve tried a couple times because I really WANT to like the game. But I just can’t stand the fucking souls style of everything comes back when you save. And the boss fights are just too punishing (for me). It’s so frustrating to get stuck on a boss or lost in a zone and come to the realization that I WAS having fun and then the game got in the way of that.
Elden Ring. I had a lot of fun with the game restarting and playing through the first zone on like 6 different characters to try different styles and see what I like. But at some point in the second zone I realized I was just stressed out all the time. It wasn’t fun, it was stressful. I can appreciate the game and I don’t regret spending the money on it, but I realized it just wasn’t for me.
I think I’m done with souls games. They’re just not for me. I really wanted to play Jedi Survivor but I suspect the new cool stuff will just make me more frustrated with the souls aspects, Oh well.
Hollow Knight. I love that game but I am in my mid 40s and my reaction time isn’t what it used to be. And it’s not even the bosses. I just can’t make it past the spike section where you have to air-dash all over the place and can’t be a millimeter off or you die.
In the fighting game scene, reaction time is studied, and the 40+ year olds can hang with the kids at the highest level. Your reaction time is a function of your focus. If you put your mind to it, yadda yadda yadda. Then it’s just up to you to decide if it’s worth sticking to it or getting to bed so you’re well-rested for work in the morning, because that’s what will separate you from beating Hollow Knight in your 40s.
I’ve just moved on to other games. I have a wife and a small kid. I can’t afford to spend hours and hours stuck on a game.
Right, that’s my point. Those things are keeping you from finishing the game, not your reaction times. Those tend to not drop off until far later in life.
Back in my teens one summer, I was playing Resident Evil Code Veronica by day at my friend’s house and Doom 3 alone in my basement at night, got about halfway through both but quit because of the constant nightmares. Lost to the psychological damage I guess.
Gave up on gaming in general. Moved to Linux back in October. Had issues getting my games to play because of various issues between Nvidia 535/545 and Wayland, Xorg, or the steam/proton/lutris/aagl/hgl things I tried. Then work got too busy and I’ve put gaming on the back burner 'til I have more time to troubleshoot it (hopefully with new Nvidia/Wayland packages).
This.
This is unfortunately why I have not switched to Linux as a daily driver
You might give it a try – it may just work for you. Not everybody has the same issues, and I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out later when I have time to troubleshoot it. This is just a busy time of year for me, so as long as my work stuff works, I’m good, and gaming has to sit on the backburner for a bit.
So so so many. Right off the top of my head:
- Guild Wars Season 2, one of the later missions. It was stealth gameplay. I hate stealth. Paid someone 100g to run it for me.
- FTL’s boss.
- Warframe’s Glassmaker season fight with Nihil.
- Currently, Ace Combat 7’s Pipeline Destruction.
If Hades didn’t have God Mode (which actually works in a pretty interesting way and isn’t just invincibility or whatever), I would have given up incredibly quickly.
Once I enabled it, shit started to actually feel fun for me.
Now it’s one of my favourite ever games.
Diablo IV: Uber Lilith. I did just about everything else, got my character up to Level 100. Then the first season ended (which I didn’t even do) and somehow my character got nerfed – even basic enemies were suddenly much harder for no apparent reason. I was considering changing and upgrading my gear for this final challenge but I couldn’t even fight my way around the map anymore. Screw that.
I tried replaying the Kingdom Hearts games leading up to playing KH3. Got all the way to the final boss sequence in KH1, but I just couldn’t get past the second phase, and I didn’t have any good saves for going back and leveling up. Gave up. Already beat it as a kid when it first came out. No need to kill myself in my late-30s for it.
2 very recent ones on PS5
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God of War Ragnarok: I did the story and as much f the side missions and challenges as possible. But there are a few Berserker Graves, and the final Valkyrie Gna that no matter how many times I tried it would just get absurd. I almost threw my controller through my TV a few times when trying to roll-dodge to the side for an attack after they’ve already jumped at you and, i shit you not, they change direction in mid-air.
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Spider-Man: I did 100% the main game, all the side-quests and collectibles just not all the skills. Did all but the last DLC, but finally ragequit when trying to do the base tokens. Interior with tight corners. and you have to take out a dozen enemies including the whip-enemies attacking you from all directions…while rockets are being fired at you in the middle of 5 enemies.
Oh yeah, I hated the God of War reboot. It was so cool for like 15 minutes. Then I got to the actual combat and I couldn’t stand it. It was nothing like the original, it was hard AF, it used button combinations I’ve never seen before (I think it’s based on Souls games?), etc. It was so disappointing.
I don’t mind Souls games, but I kind of hate how so many games lately (especially sequels) have been trying to low-key fit the genre when nobody asked them to. God of War, Darksiders 3…
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