On the subject of old adventure games, one of the most absurdly challenging in the genre was Timequest. It allowed you to travel between six locations in ten different time periods. Do the math. What you did in one location in one time could change what happened in other times. Combine that with the fact that you had to bring objects back and forth, and that you had to solve puzzles involving yourself (as in past/future versions), and you have one of the most difficult games ever made.
I never made it past the first two or three puzzles without a walkthrough...
Good ole' UMoria, a roguelike game. I don't know how many times I died on level 1 or 2 ... or worse, level 37 with the character I had spent days or weeks building up only to get wasted by an Ancient Green Dragon, a King Lich, or some other monster.
Never quite finished Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requim. Hard to not love that game, except how mindbendingly tough it can be if you make certain choices (or just miss hidden stuff). Dont choose red. Just. Effing. Dont. Choose green! We've all got spare sanity, right?
@CaloNord actually, you are both missing the most addictive and greatest dungeon-hacking game in the world and saving yourself from losing your social life.
@CaloNord actually, you are both missing the most addictive and greatest dungeon-hacking game in the world and saving yourself from losing your social life.
Are you referring to Nethack, that has destroyed my social life, or Angband, that is depriving me of sleep?
Europa Universalis 3. I'm not sure whether the gameplay mechanics are that difficult, as I've only played it once, but there's just so much of it... the tutorial I watched on youtube lasted 6 hours...
Also any NHL game, but maybe I just suck at them.
Operation Flashpoint and ARMAs, damn difficult, but not unfair. If I die, it's usually my own fault for being stupid.
Europa Universalis 3. I'm not sure whether the gameplay mechanics are that difficult, as I've only played it once, but there's just so much of it... the tutorial I watched on youtube lasted 6 hours...
Also any NHL game, but maybe I just suck at them.
Operation Flashpoint and ARMAs, damn difficult, but not unfair. If I die, it's usually my own fault for being stupid.
If you think Europa Universalis 3 is too difficult try playing Hearts of Iron III
Pools of Radiance : Ruins of Myth Drannor. Not particularly because the game was challenging but because it was very very long, dull, slow and every fight took approximately forever.
I'm not even sure why I wanted to finish it. I just got a bee in my bonnet about wanting to finally get it finished. Even with following a walkthrough it took me over 5 years of on and off (mainly off) gaming before I forced myself through it.
Another one is Rogue (the predecessor to Nethack). I've never quite managed to finish it legitimately. I've even found an iphone version that I've now also failed to finish.
Eye of the Beholder 2 - The Temple of Darkmoon. The puzzles are !@$%.
Stonekeep Level 10 deserves an honorable mention, with one map overlaid on top of another, and you need to shuttle between the two maps by way of levitation and pit-falling to access switches and levers.
Honestly? Straight up Super Mario on GameBoy... No saves... And it was my first ever attempt at gaming. I swear to god, I blew 90+ lives on the airplane level on more than one occasion.
Hardest boss... beating Metal Gear on MGS.
Older games were definitely harder... Especially when the closest thing I had to a walkthrough was my mate Carl Mitchell at the next desk... He thought they were easy, and I secretly hated him for that!
@CaloNord actually, you are both missing the most addictive and greatest dungeon-hacking game in the world and saving yourself from losing your social life.
The Space Quest series. I picked up a compilation disc a few years ago as I love adventure games and had never come across the title. But the puzzles were so ridiculously hard. I'm talking about puzzles where five hours in you'll find out you need an item that you can only get in the first section of the game. It was a laborious task of failure and repeat. Of course the solutions were so obscure you would spend hours playing before figuring out you had hit a dead end.
There was 6 different iterations over the space of ten years and yet this horrible system was never changed. It's a shame because the series had a lot of charm.
For the love of God, @Montressor_SP! I got hooked on Angband, and that game completely takes the p* out of you. I had the same experience as you did in UMoria. Worst ever… Probably the Undead Pit levels. ::Sobs and whimpers in a corner.:: Angels will also kill you superdead.
But all the Gold Box games were hard. Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds were worst, though. They used… code wheels! Later games like Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness just used parts of the manual, which was easier.
@demented I just had to comment that old-school adventure games rules were "Pick up everything" and "Rub random object x on puzzle y until something happens. If nothing happens, use a different object."
@demented I just had to comment that old-school adventure games rules were "Pick up everything" and "Rub random object x on puzzle y until something happens. If nothing happens, use a different object."
Yes, but so often in Space Quest it's rub random object x on random object y, then put x into z and mix with a. Spin round three times then rub random object x on random object y again. Then nothing happens because you didn't pick up that small small scrap of paper in chapter 2
Space Quest took abstruse puzzles to a new frustrating level.
Dating myself here, but probably Renegade for the NES, or some similar old action or platformer type game. Don't remember at all how hard it was exactly, but you could take the wrong door and basically have to redo the whole level and remember that that door was the wrong choice. Somehow the game was tolerable back then, but today it would be almost impossible to beat without smashing the controllers.
Chuckle. Nethack obviously, but I never tried hard enough to really stand a chance.
I used to play Civilisation 1 on Prince (3) or occasionally King (4) out of 5, which stroked my ego enough to think I kinda knew what I was doing. Civilisation 2 Kept that scale, but added Deity (6). Hm. Also whenever I played on King I generally got owned. Now I have Civilisation 4, the levels have expanded to 9, and I can just about hold my own on Prince (5). With quite a lot of luck, and some reloads. Grumble.
I have a similar history with the Total wars. I got Shogun 1, played it to death, loved it, and grabbed Rome 1 when it came out. I even tried Rome with some difficulty mods. Empire 1 & Napoleon were great too, but now I have Shogun 2, and I'm also somewhere on the left of the difficulty slider.
However, for your entertainment, I bring you BOATMURDERED:
I can't remember how I stumbled on this thread, but go and read it. There's a fair chance you'll head off to download dwarf fortress afterwards, I got one with a shiny GUI overhaul to make it pretty, but never really got into it.
I can't remember how I stumbled on this thread, but go and read it. There's a fair chance you'll head off to download dwarf fortress afterwards, I got one with a shiny GUI overhaul to make it pretty, but never really got into it.
Oh, Dwarf Fortress... yeah, loosing is fun, but I really never got into it and yet I haven't lost even once.
Comments
I never made it past the first two or three puzzles without a walkthrough...
MAY THE RATS EAT YOUR EYES!
Its hard to fit in a game of BG around here...
Also any NHL game, but maybe I just suck at them.
Operation Flashpoint and ARMAs, damn difficult, but not unfair. If I die, it's usually my own fault for being stupid.
I'm not even sure why I wanted to finish it. I just got a bee in my bonnet about wanting to finally get it finished. Even with following a walkthrough it took me over 5 years of on and off (mainly off) gaming before I forced myself through it.
Another one is Rogue (the predecessor to Nethack). I've never quite managed to finish it legitimately. I've even found an iphone version that I've now also failed to finish.
Stonekeep Level 10 deserves an honorable mention, with one map overlaid on top of another, and you need to shuttle between the two maps by way of levitation and pit-falling to access switches and levers.
Straight up Super Mario on GameBoy... No saves... And it was my first ever attempt at gaming.
I swear to god, I blew 90+ lives on the airplane level on more than one occasion.
Hardest boss... beating Metal Gear on MGS.
Older games were definitely harder... Especially when the closest thing I had to a walkthrough was my mate Carl Mitchell at the next desk... He thought they were easy, and I secretly hated him for that!
;-)
There was 6 different iterations over the space of ten years and yet this horrible system was never changed. It's a shame because the series had a lot of charm.
But all the Gold Box games were hard. Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds were worst, though. They used… code wheels! Later games like Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness just used parts of the manual, which was easier.
Space Quest took abstruse puzzles to a new frustrating level.
Very trial and error, but they had lots of charm and character. Some have been updated to run on more modern machines.
I used to play Civilisation 1 on Prince (3) or occasionally King (4) out of 5, which stroked my ego enough to think I kinda knew what I was doing. Civilisation 2 Kept that scale, but added Deity (6). Hm. Also whenever I played on King I generally got owned. Now I have Civilisation 4, the levels have expanded to 9, and I can just about hold my own on Prince (5). With quite a lot of luck, and some reloads. Grumble.
I have a similar history with the Total wars. I got Shogun 1, played it to death, loved it, and grabbed Rome 1 when it came out. I even tried Rome with some difficulty mods. Empire 1 & Napoleon were great too, but now I have Shogun 2, and I'm also somewhere on the left of the difficulty slider.
However, for your entertainment, I bring you BOATMURDERED:
http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/
I can't remember how I stumbled on this thread, but go and read it. There's a fair chance you'll head off to download dwarf fortress afterwards, I got one with a shiny GUI overhaul to make it pretty, but never really got into it.