If that’s appealing to you, you’re probably as much of a sucker for punishment as we are, and are going to love the ones that are on this list. Each one of them is going to test you in its own way, but the journey is certainly worth it as they are experiences you’d not want to miss.

Let’s dive in, and let the battles begin.

1. Bionic Bay

If you’re raising your eyebrows at the thought of a 2D platformer being among the hardest games of the year, allow us to warn you that this one comes with a lot of moments where you’re going to be feeling despair at the seemingly impossible challenge in front of you. That’s a sentiment that never fully leaves you as you try to navigate the complex pathways to your character’s ultimate escape that serves as the narrative framing for this adventure.

It takes a determined player to get to the end of this one, and if that’s you, strap in for a hell of a good time.

2. Elden Ring: Nightreign

Although I’d personally recommend you bring a couple of friends along to Limveld, playing with complete strangers might just be a natural part of the challenge on offer in this roguelike debut from FromSoftware. From planning the perfect route and being as efficient as possible when you take on the many threats you’re going to find along the way, this one is a rush through risky lands that can get quite addictive.

Of course, the bosses at the end of each run are going to be absolute walls that require multiple runs before you can even begin to formulate a strategy to take them down that can work with different combinations of weapons. We could go on, but you get the point.

3. Haste

While its premise, gameplay loop, and control scheme are deceptively simple, Haste is so unpredictable and reliant on precision for the best rewards that it becomes quite challenging to play it the way it wants you to. For a game that’s about running as fast as you can before you try to stick a perfect landing to preserve your momentum, it sure brings a myriad of ways to bring you to a sudden halt.

But if you’re the type to keep getting back up and trying again, you’re going to have a lot of fun (and digital concussions) with this one.

4. Escape From Tarkov

No matter the mode you pick on this extraction shooter, things are going to be challenging as you begin to trade damage with enemies and pick up a few injuries along the way. That’s thanks to the game’s emphasis on being a realistic tactical shooter, requiring you to be very cognizant of your presence in the world, and ever on the lookout for signs of life from your enemies, too.

Things can get tense with this one, especially against players who know what they’re doing with it. Approach it with caution and pay attention to its mechanics, as they could mean the difference between life and death.

5. Wuchang Fallen Feathers

This fantasy, based on the end of the Ming Dynasty, is a great example of a game that encourages you to try different approaches to insurmountable challenges until you find one that works. Its combat mechanics are sublime, with each of its weapon types coming with distinct mechanics that make them very special.

Its enemies and bosses are all excellent adversaries, while some of its harder enemies had us grinding our teeth in frustration at the errors they forced us to make. For a visually stunning world teeming with difficult fights to pick, this one is a no-brainer.

6. AI Limit

Life as a Blader isn’t easy, and Arissa is no stranger to the challenges that come her way in this sci-fi ARPG. But she’s only as good as the player guiding her actions, and the combat loop on offer makes things quite challenging to stay on top of. This game’s Soulslike trappings are proudly on display, and its enemy types make it quite hard to predict potential attacks and form strategies.

The result is an experience that needs you to think on your feet, and comes off all the more rewarding as a result.

7. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

Henry’s adventure in this sequel can get quite challenging if you don’t make good use of its excellent combat mechanics. While you can make things easy for yourself by exploring as much as you can, things are designed to remain a challenge throughout the experience in this title.

Its Hardcore mode takes the realism it presents to a whole other level, removing a lot of important assists that you might otherwise rely on. You’re going to want to master the basics of this game’s combat system and practice as much as you can to make the most of it.

8. Hollow Knight Silksong

As a worthy sequel to the original game, this one’s expanded size and scope make both exploration and combat work very well together to present a gameplay loop that constantly has you on the back foot if you’re prone to making errors in combat. Hornet’s improved agility and new moveset are a valuable addition to a game that brings a very troublesome rogues’ gallery to its levels.

You’re going to want to be precise and attack with intent if you want to survive this one’s toughest battles. To hesitate is to die, and this game does not let you forget that.

9. Blue Prince

This one is a great test of your wits for those among you who prefer that kind of a challenge. Finding the hidden 46th room in a mansion whose layout is ever-changing is going to have you thinking about potential solutions even while you’re at work. It’s maddeningly simple and yet quite hard to nail down.

When considered alongside a gameplay loop that’s designed to keep you bamboozled, this is a game that can send you in circles before you find that a solution was right in front of you all along.

10. The First Berserker: Khazan

For an exhilarating combat system backed up by a great story and some very unique visuals, Khazan’s battle is going to hit all the right notes and then some. The combat system gives you all the tools you need to face down any threats standing in your way, but makes each of those threats so memorable and challenging that you can’t help but get up and try again when they take you down.

This one’s so good that giving up on it isn’t an option, as you’re going to find out when you dive in.

11. DOOM: The Dark Ages

The Slayer might be feared by the forces of Hell, but he’s only as good as the one who wields his mighty arsenal of weapons. This prequel can get overwhelming if you don’t take full advantage of its new mechanics, and even that might not save you on its harder difficulties.

This is a game that needs you to be quite tactical as you take on enemies, planning a bloody path through their ranks with the brutal efficiency that only Earth’s mightiest defender can wield against the forces that threaten his world. The Slayer’s latest adventure is a deadly one, but it’s totally worth it if you’re up for the challenge.

12. Warriors: Abyss

Although the massive roster and a great combat system are the main draws of this one, it can get quite difficult to take on the armies it throws at you in the heat of battle. You’re going to have to master your moves to get the most out of your build, and the game’s enemies are no pushovers, ready to slice and dice you into oblivion if you allow the momentum of a battle to slip away.

While the story could have been better, it does manage to give you a reason to take on as many enemies as you like with almost reckless abandon, provided you earn your mastery through practice and perfection.

13. Ninja Gaiden 4

The new Ninja Gaiden does very well to preserve the franchise’s trademark challenge, with both Ryu and Yakumo having their abilities pushed to their limits over the course of the story. Taking on enemies with its combat system might be familiar if you’re a returning veteran, but it can get a tad challenging to master for a newcomer.

Either way, this is a game where you need to use all of the skills you learn in order to stay on top of everything it throws at you. Oh, and of course, you have to do it all with style. Otherwise, what’s the point?

14. Hell Is Us

While this game’s combat might not be too much of a challenge, it’s in how the game’s very design is aimed at making it all as opaque as possible that gets you. Hell is Us can get quite complicated if you’re not paying attention, with so much of its content hidden away behind a veil of obscurity that seems to cover its world.

Uncovering it all is going to require the best of your sleuthing skills, and of course, a bit of talent with your blades whenever the need arises. Even that might not be enough to see all it has to offer in a single playthrough. Approach this one with a suitable notepad in hand.

15. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Joe Musashi’s fight against the ENE is a great action-platformer that can have you retrying portions of it more often than you’d like to admit. While you do enjoy Musashi’s agility and a solid arsenal of skills and tools to make fights easier as the adventure goes on, its enemies ensure that you’re always kept on your toes and that no victory feels cheap.

It’s a deadly dance of attacks and dodges that can have you spending hours just enjoying its balance between simplicity and depth.

And that’s a wrap on the hardest games of 2025 that caught our attention. We can only wonder what the year ahead has in store for us, but no matter what, know that we’re going to be there for it all alongside you!

In this environment, a title like Warriors: Abyss feels like a sucker punch in the best possible ways. To put it quite simply, the title melds all of the core gameplay aspects you expect from a Dynasty Warriors game, and mixes them up with a roguelite gameplay loop. The end result is what feels like a surprisingly natural evolution for the franchise.

"The end result is what feels like a surprisingly natural evolution for the franchise."

The premise of Warriors: Abyss is quite simple; you take on the role of one of many available characters from throughout the Warriors franchise and try to fight your way through what is essentially hell. In your travels through various levels – referred to in-game as tiers – you will face hundreds of enemies, with most objectives revolving around killing anywhere between 30 and 150 enemies to proceed. On finishing a tier, you get rewards, which range from items that improve your character in some way, to the ability to recruit more warriors to your cause. Completing a certain number of tiers allows you to get into a boss fight, where your current build will be put to the test.

While an incredibly simple gameplay premise, Warriors: Abyss manages to have plenty of depth to it thanks to the absurd roster of playable characters. It features more than 100 playable characters, each equipped with their own weapons and abilities, which also means that each one of them has their own unique movesets. These same characters can also be recruited to join you in a run, summoned by pulling off a simple combo. Doing so has the character show up to the battlefield, do a massive attack, and leave.

Players with experience in the Warriors franchise will find the main hack-and-slash gameplay quite familiar. You get variations: a light attack, a charge attack, and a musou attack. A combination of light and charge attacks will be your bread and butter as you take down hordes of enemies and slowly fill up your musou gauge. When this gauge is full, you can pull off a devastating musou attack that deals an enormous amount of damage in a large area around you. When it comes to defensive options, the game limits players to a simple dash which can be used to quickly move out of the way of heavily-telegraphed attacks.

While the core gameplay is incredibly simple, and even promotes button mashing to quite an extent, most of the depth comes from the decisions you take with regards to your build. A character’s build is simply a combination of their core abilities, attribute boosts they pick up align the way, and most importantly, other heroes they can recruit and what formations these heroes are then arranged along. Warriors: Abyss does a great job of letting you know just how powerful you’re getting with a simple numerical value that goes up by varying degrees depending on your choices. If you’ve been focusing primarily on the Speed and Bolt attributes, for instance, recruiting a hero that buffs the Fire attribute won’t really give you much of a boost.

Thankfully, just about every character has multiple attributes they benefit from, and players will often end up picking their preferred heroes through a combination of their skills, and the type of weapons they use. The choice of weapons isn’t a light decision either, since every weapon has a different moveset. While some deal excellent single-target damage, others are better for killing bigger hordes over a larger area, and others still might be more comfortable at range, focusing on stunning their enemies and letting recruited heroes finish the job.

"Thankfully, just about every playable character has multiple attributes they benefit from"

The most important thing to keep in mind with Warriors: Abyss is that the entire game runs on the philosophy of higher numbers being good. None of the choices you make will ever make you weaker, and even just the simple act of making use of the meta-progression currency to unlock new characters will give you a slight boost in power with a permanent bonus to some attribute or another.

While the gameplay is rather excellent, it does falter quite a bit when it comes to its story and overall presentation. Presented as a fictional tale where a legendary warrior was summoned to the afterlife by King Enma in order to do battle with hordes of tormented souls, Warriors: Abyss takes its sweet time before letting you actually start enjoying yourself. The first hour of gameplay is an exercise in frustration thanks to constant interruptions to give you either some overbearing tutorial that uses way too many words to explain simple things, or King Enma and their annoying voice yelling at you about why you should continue to kill things and why they can’t handle these problems themselves.

The story in Warriors: Abyss is just an excuse, and even the game seems to be well aware of this aspect since it doesn’t really bring the story up again until you start hitting some milestones, like killing the boss. Thankfully, there’s always the skip dialogue button, and I’d recommend making heavy use of it since there really isn’t anything of value in the story. The main gameplay and how it lets you mix-and-match heroes and weapon types to take down hordes of enemies is, on its own, more than enough reason for you to keep playing.

"The entire game runs on the philosophy of higher numbers being good"

Visuals are also a weak spot for Warriors: Abyss, but this does seem to be an intentional choice. The game prides itself on giving you massive hordes of enemies to take on, and readability was obviously a major concern for the developers. While the game’s graphics might not be the best, the visuals at least do a great job in letting you fully understand what kind of attacks are coming your way, as well as other things like a boss’s weak points.

Warriors: Abyss is an incredibly fun title, with the genre-bending experimentation having paid off quite well for Koei Tecmo. The core gameplay is a solid base for the new roguelite gameplay loop, and the simple meta progression of unlocking new characters to get stronger goes a long way in keeping things simple, while also providing an immense amount of depth. The game is an easy recommendation, and it doesn’t even need the caveat of players needing to be already invested in the Dynasty Warriors franchise. While being a fan might obviously come in handy when it comes to recognising characters, the game does a good enough job of letting you know the gameplay benefits of picking one character over another anyway.

If there was one change I could make to Warriors: Abyss, I would simply scrap the entirety of the story, and re-write some of the tutorials. Aside from that, it’s an excellent hack-and-slash roguelite with the perfect amount of Dynasty Warriors flavour.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Proudly proclaiming itself to be “Warriors X Roguelite”, the trailer for Warriors: Abyss shows off a new isometric take on the classic formula we’ve seen in titles like the Dynasty Warriors franchise. Alongside the hordes of enemies one would expect from a game with the word Warriors in the title, Warriors: Abyss will also feature epic boss fights.

Since it’s a roguelite, dying isn’t the end. Players will be able to get right back into the thick of battle and make use of various abilities channelled from various figures from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story to take on enemies. The trailer claims that, by making use of unique combinations of these characters, players will be able to make use of 16 billion different battle styles.

Warriors: Abyss is available now on PS4 and PS5.