We Play Games – The Hard Stuff

Welcome to We Play Games, where we ask members of the team to ponder an important gaming question, one that either delves into their best gaming memories or shows everyone their true colours. So, Team Ready Up: What’s the most difficult game you’ve ever played?

James: When asked the question, “What’s the most difficult game you’ve ever played?”, I immediately go as far back as I can and think about the older games that beat me. Because of course, games were harder in the old days… at least that’s a fairly popular standing on the subject. I think about those Command and Conquer games, though they weren’t really hard, I just can’t multitask so fail miserably. There probably aren’t many games that have managed to completely beat me to point of just being unable to finish them.

In reality it’s actually a recent game that I would consider the most difficult. That game is Demon’s Souls. While probably being one of the obvious choices for a tough game, this one has beat me well and truly. From the start Demon’s Souls makes no attempt to hold your hand. A few messages tell you the controls. The introductory level ends with you dying, one way or the other, you have to die. While typically a single player experience, you can interact with other players so you can sometimes get useful tips; you need all the help you can get.

I managed a few bosses, poured hours and hours into the game, but didn’t achieve anything else, this game truly beat me. I rarely resort to game guides, I’m the kind of player that thrives on difficulty, and I consider it a challenge. I enjoy the feeling of achievement you get from overcoming great challenges. With this game I had the wiki page set as my home page for a period of time, but I would still struggle.

I’m faring slightly better in the spiritual successor Dark Souls (though still not beaten… yet), but this is no doubt down to the hours of training spent in the world of Demon’s Souls. Maybe one day I’ll go back and try to beat Demon’s Souls, but it is one game that has beaten me more than anything other game I’ve played.

Gemma: The most difficult game I’ve ever played would have to be Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Difficult in both senses of the word!

I remember being so excited to play AoD as I love Lara Croft and everything to do with her! The controls were poor and there were serious game breaking bugs but I thought hey I can power through, I’m sure it gets better!

It didn’t.

Paris was where I stayed, as the nightclub became home to my frustrated screams. I remember standing on a bunch of coloured spotlights thinking ‘I can’t watch her die again or my head is going to implode!’ And that bloody stamina bar! Attempting to jump over and over depleted the bar so I ended up having to walk Lara off an edge to retry the level again. And again, and again… -sob-

It was easier to see where to jump in the previous PS1 games even with poorer graphics! I even consulted Internet guides and walkthroughs to see where I was going wrong. Nothing helped. Cue the utter rage.

So after I switched it off in rage that first day, I left it for a few months until I couldn’t resist going back to it thinking I was just being stupid the first time.

Nope.

Another hour spent in futile attempts resulted in skinned knuckles after I punched a wall, not wanting to damage my PS2 controller by throwing it at the TV (because you know, priorities).

It’s the only game that sticks in my mind as being completely frustrating and not at all what I was expecting when I bought a Tomb Raider game. Oh Lara, at least you redeemed yourself to me in Legend!

Thom: I’d have to say the most difficult game I’ve ever played wasn’t a game, it was Equinox on the SNES. Me and my brother got it in a big pile of Super Nintendo games that our mum’s friend from work lent us when we were kids, there was about 25 games there, some of which became all-time favourites like Secret of Mana and others which were simply baffling. Like Equinox.

It opens with an isometric view of a world map, a little guy in an Aladdin costume is running about until a Pac-Man Ghost flies into you and you start a battle with it where you have no way to defend yourself and die in one hit. I never got further than the first 30 seconds of that game and even when I downloaded it on an emulator a few years ago the exact same thing happened and I just deleted it. Some things are best left unknown.