Summary
There are many titles that test a player’s skill or tactical prowess, and plenty that fall into the strategy game genre. However, some are so difficult to learn, or simply so unforgiving, that it can lead to a test of resolve.
Be it a steep learning curve, a slow-burning loop, or harsh punishments for small moments of weakness, these titles often push the patience and determination of the player. They aren’t always the most challenging of games, but instead hold a certain bite that’s missing from more forgiving titles.
Wildfrost
WHERE TO PLAY
Build your perfect deck unique to you!Recruit cute card companions, elemental items and equip powerful charms to aid in your fight against the WildfrostChoose your Leader from a variety of tribes, each with different playstyles and statsMaster a dynamic ‘counter’ system to put your strategic skills to the testExpand and develop the hub town of Snowdwell between runsUnlock new cards, events, customisation options and more!Endless replayability with daily runs and challenges!
Wildfrostis a roguelike deck-builder with a charming cartoon art style that’s tremendously light-hearted. However, despite its buoyant tone,Wildfrostremains a surprisingly challenging title that cantest both patience and resolve.
This difficulty comes primarily fromWildfrost’sswift and often brutal punishment of mistakes. While this deck-builder provides plenty of open information, a miscalculated move on its chaotic battlefields can put a blunt end to any run. It’s also horribly easy to develop a build that’s weak to specific enemies and bosses, which can be more than a little frustrating. Counterbalancing this difficulty, however, is a generous rewards system that gives each new run a veritable rocket boost, propelling players forward with gusto as if they hadn’t just lost to an unfortunate misread.
Mount & Blade: Warband
In a land torn asunder by incessant warfare, it is time to assemble your own band of hardened warriors and enter the fray. Lead your men into battle, expand your realm, and claim the ultimate prize: the throne of Calradia!Mount & Blade: Warband is a stand alone expansion pack for the game that brought medieval battlefields to life with its realistic mounted combat and detailed fighting system.Graphical overhaul: Support added for HDR, FSAA, depth of field, soft particles, tone mapping, and many other effectsNew models with greater detail and high-quality texturesMultiplayer battles with up to 64 players. Multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle, and SiegeA campaign allowing you to become the ruler of a faction and convince lords to become your vassalsThe ability to upgrade your companions to vassals by granting them landsThe ability to marry a lady of the realm for romance or cold political gain. Try to win a lady’s heart through poetry or braveryImproved mechanics for soldier morale: Soldiers will break and run away if their morale gets too lowPick any projectile off the battlefield for use as additional munitionsNew motion-captured combat animationsNumerous improvements to the combat system: Your shield will still stop arrows even if you are not actively defendingThe ability to play multiplayer matches on random maps as well as hand-designed onesMultiplayer equipment system: Earn money by fighting opponents or accomplishing goalsThe ability to use most throwing weapons in close combat: Switch to using a javelin as a short spear when the enemy gets closeSpend gold on more powerful equipment, using a carefully balanced system that will make combat more exciting without giving too much of an advantage to the leading team
Mount & Blade: Warbandis an open-world RPG with a focus on large-scaleand strategic combat. Rather than controlling armies from a bird’s-eye view, players must command their troops from the ground, in the boots of their own character. This makesMount & Bladea particularly unique experience, but also a difficult one.
This is especially so in larger battles, where planning and preparation are key to survival. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to get cut off or ambushed by enemies in the game’s open overworld, and fighting when outnumbered can quickly result in countless deaths. This, or even a particularly grueling battle, can test resolve, especially when the stakes are high.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
XCOM: Enemy Unknown will place you in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM. As the XCOM commander, you will defend against a terrifying global alien invasion by managing resources, advancing technologies, and overseeing combat strategies and individual unit tactics.The original XCOM is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made and has now been re-imagined by the strategy experts at Firaxis Games. XCOM: Enemy Unknown will expand on that legacy with an entirely new invasion story, enemies and technologies to fight aliens and defend Earth.You will control the fate of the human race through researching alien technologies, creating and managing a fully operational base, planning combat missions and controlling soldier movement in battle. Defend against a worldwide threat as combat spans the globe in more than 70 unique missions with tactical combat and use of deployable air units.Will you be able to withstand the alien invasion?
XCOMis a notoriously challenging series of strategy games, andEnemy Unknownis no different. While it may be more accessible than its old-school predecessors, it has no less of a bite. This is thanks in large part to the addition of permanent death, which can makethe overall gameplay loop rather unforgiving.
This is especially so if players experience the game in Ironman mode, which prevents the player from saving manually. In this case, losing a soldier can test the player’s resolve, especially if they were an experienced member of the team. The seemingly unpredictable accuracy of squad members can also test resolve; it’s particularly frustrating to watch a soldier miss a 99% chance to hit at point-blank range, especially when their buddy just hit their target from halfway across the map.
Battle Brothers
Battle Brothers is a turn based tactical RPG which has you leading a mercenary company in a gritty, low-power, medieval fantasy world. You decide where to go, whom to hire or to fight, what contracts to take and how to train and equip your men in a procedurally generated open world campaign. Do you have what it takes to lead them through bloody battles and to victory?The game consists of a strategic worldmap and a tactical combat layer. On the worldmap you can freely travel in order to take contracts that earn you good coin, find places worth looting, enemies worth pursuing or towns to resupply and hire men at. This is also where you manage, level up and equip your Battle Brothers. Once you engage a hostile party the game will switch to a tactical map where the actual fighting takes place as detailed turn based combat.Manage a medieval mercenary company in a procedurally generated open world. Fight complex turn-based tactical battles with historical equipment and brutal injuries. Permadeath. All characters that die in combat will stay dead – unless they return as the undead. All characters come with their own background stories and traits. Want a stuttering ratcatcher, a greedy witch hunter or a drunkard disowned noble?
Battle Brothersis a strategy RPG with brutal turn-based combat. Permanent death or injury is commonplace inBattle Brothers, and making it through any battle unscathed is rare, especially early on. As a result, this title can be an unforgiving experience that tests the player’s resolve.
It can be difficult to keep going after losing a particularly valued member of the team or entering a downward spiral after several losses. Running out of food, tools, and cash can put a constant dampener on spirits; however, this makes each victory all the more triumphant, and the game does get more consistent as players progress.
Darkest Dungeon 2
Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within…Gather your courage and ride out into the chaos of a world undone.Four heroes and a stagecoach are all that stand between darkness and salvation.Tried and True Turn-based Combat, ImprovedThe ground-breaking genre-defining combat from Darkest Dungeon returns, but everything from stats to rules has been refined and improved. The all new Token System helps make your decisions impactful while adding even more depth of play.
Darkest Dungeon 2, like its predecessor, is a brutal turn-based strategy game with a dark fantasy setting. Eldritch horrors, infighting between squad members, sheer darkness, everything works against the player in this title.
Darkest Dungeon 2does feature meta-progression tied to classes rather than specific characters, so permanent death need not be worried about. However, each run, structured as a lengthy road trip, is likely to test the player’s resolve in more ways than one. Unlikethe tight dungeon-crawlsof the first game,Darkest Dungeon 2’s runs are long and arduous, and it’s not uncommon to get worn down by the environment and otherwise trivial encounters before arriving at any meaningful combat.
Quasimorph
Quasimorph is a mix of classic turn-based roguelike RPG with an unique extraction twist:If you die, you lose everything you took on the mission.If you survive, you keep everything you looted.No exceptions. No excuses. No mercy.Nothing in this Endless Space belongs to you.Far into the future, the space itself is privatized. Corporations actively seize control of the Solar System and trying to extend their reach far beyond its boundaries. It will be up to you to uncover the truth and the unforgivable things humanity has committed in the deep, dark depths of spaceLevel the playing field. At any cost.Become the boss of your own Private Military Company: carry out orders from corporations, earn reputation with your blood and sweat. Explore planetary bases, secret labs, and wreckage of spaceships to find new technologies, abilities, and other items that will help you level the playing field during operations.Overcome, adapt and become better.Remember that you have an advantage: clone the best employees and send them to certain death to probe the weaknesses of your opponents. There is no need to risk valuable human assets and expose your PMC to unnecessary legal risks, but nobody cares about the fate of a clones.Unravel the mystery of Quasimorphosis.A strange disease is spreading on space stations. Crew members are getting sick with an unknown fever, and the rifts are opening the way to demons from Bramphatur to our dimension. Find out the dark secret behind this threat to all life and pile up the bodies of your clones to overcome anyone standing in your way.
Quasimorphis a grittyturn-based strategy gamethat combines the loop of extraction shooters with a roguelike feel. Hardcore survival mechanics and simulated injury makeQuasimorpha particularly brutal experience; it’s easy to step through a doorway, get shot, and bleed out before anything can be done about it, all in a handful of turns.
Fans of old-school roguelikes may be accustomed to this brutality, but for anyone else, it’s likely to test their resolve. Thankfully,Quasimorphis more focused on loot than RPG character progression, and building a stash of powerful equipment can help to give players a head start.
Kenshi
A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals.Research new equipment and craft new gear. Purchase and upgrade your own buildings to use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business. Aid or oppose the various factions in the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh desert.Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors. Carry your wounded squad mates to safety and get them all home alive.FEATURESFreeform gameplay in a seamless game worldin the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers. The game will never seek to limit you or restrict your personal play style.Custom design as many characters as you wantand build up a whole squad to fight for you. Characters will grow and become stronger with experience, not just in their stats but their appearance too.Build a basewhere you can research new technologies, upgrade your defences and craft new gear.Original take on the RTS-RPG hybrid genre.No “hero” characters with artificially stroner stats than everybody else- Every character and NPC you meet is potentially an equal, and has a name, a life.You are not the chosen one.You’re not great and powerful. You don’t have more ‘hitpoints’ than everyone else. You are not the center of the universe, and you are not special. Unless you work for it.Purchase and upgrade your own buildingsto use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business.Variation and possibilities of gameplay.Be good, be evil, be a businessman, be a thief, live in a town, live in the desert, travel alone, travel in hordes, build a fortress, raze a city. Devote yourself to freeing slaves, or maybe end up a slave yourself.Dynamic, ever changing world.Support or hinder whoever you wish, or keep to yourself, the world won’t stop moving. This is not just a “game”, you are living and surviving in a simulated world.Get captured by cannibals and eaten alive, or sold off by slavers and forced to work in the mines. These are not scripted events, just a regular part of this chaotic world that ruins your life by chance. Anything can happen, yet anything can be overcome if you have the strength.Absolutely no Level-scaling.The world does not level up along with you, and the shops don’t change their inventory to only items matching your level. At the start of the game almost everyone will be stronger than you, and survival will always be a struggle. The game won’t hold your hand or help you when you’re down.Realistic medical system that affects gameplay.A character with a wounded leg will limp or crawl and slow the party down, wounded arms means you must use your sword one-handed or not at all. Severe injuries will result in amputees needing robotic limb replacements. Blood loss means you can pass out, and the blood will attract predators. A character’s stats are affected by equipment, encumbrance, blood loss, injuries and starvation.Intelligent AIthat allows for characters to reason and work towards long-term goals and desires. Squads work together and carry their wounded to safety. Characters can be setup to take care of micromanagement for you and run production in your base.Aid or oppose the various factionsin the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh environment.Independently developedwith no design influences, or alterations dictated by men in gray suits who have never played a game before in their lives.Original game world.There are no fantasy-knock-off cliches. No magic.
Players who enjoy setting their own goals andplaying in their own wayare more than likely to enjoyKenshi. This open-world sandbox is packed with things to do, places to go, and people to meet, and it’s all backed by sturdy RPG systems. Best of all,Kenshi’sworld is simulated,offering a living, breathing space to explore. This also leads to a great deal of emergent gameplay.
However, while this can be immersive, it also makes the world a dangerous place to be, and the harsh and hostile nature ofKenshi’senvironments can test the player’s resolve. This is especially so early on, when the player is relatively defenseless against most threats. That said, players who stick out the initial hurdles will be better equipped to handle the hostile nature of the world.
