Games That Try Too Hard To Be Hard
There’s a difference between challenging and hard. A math test is challenging. A math test while someone slaps you in the face is hard. The latter is more difficult than the former, but it doesn’t teach you anything new about math.
Hard Games
Hard games will turn enemies into bullet sponges, they’ll create bottlenecks to force you to play a certain way, or they’ll deliberately make puzzles inaccessible. Those aren’t challenges. They’re artificial obstacles that developers injected into the game to slow your progress. It’s a cheat, a shortcut, and it makes the player feel shortchanged.
I’m not talking about games that are notorious for being difficult, like Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Super Meat Boy. Those games present the player with systems and mechanics that need to be mastered in order to progress. They may be unforgiving, but they’re not unfair.
Games With Hard Parts
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Human Revolution is not hard, except for one aspect: the bosses. If you want a more in-depth analysis of why the HR bosses suck, read this:
