Think you’ve got what it takes to conquer the most challenging games around? 2023 was filled with tough-as-nails titles that put even seasoned gamers through their paces. We’re talking relentless tests of skill that make you want to throw your controller against the wall – before diving right back in for more punishment.
These are the games aimed squarely at the hardcore crowd – the kind of players who crave prestige for having the fortitude and skill to best them on their most savage settings. The bragging rights are real. Through countless trial and error, these intrepid gamers unlock feats many others would deem impossible…or at least controller-crackingly frustrating!
So let’s dive into the 10 most demanding, controller-cracking games that had players grinding their teeth in equal parts pain and satisfaction during 2023. Think you can handle it? Strap yourself in and prepare for intensely satisfying frustration with this rundown of beastly challenges that truly separated the masters from the rest. We salute all who managed to tame these savage titles – your elite gamer badges await. For those still working up the skill and mental focus required, consider this your fearsome final exam. The ultimate tests await…if you’ve got the guts. Let’s do this!
#10 Dead Space Remake
If you thought slicing up nightmarish Necromorphs was intense enough already, 2023’s Dead Space Remake turns the horror up to 11. This enhanced recreation of the 2008 classic adds plenty of sadistic new enemy behaviors and combat mechanics aimed at pushing your skills and nerves to the very edge.
You’ll be battling through the familiar blood-spattered halls of the USG Ishimura, only this time the ship seems intent on making you scream at every turn. We’re talking ambushes from the vents, tools flying off walls to impale you, floors opening up to swallow you whole…not to mention the Necromorphs themselves, who’ve never looked more grotesquely imposing thanks to the graphical overhaul.
It’s the ultimate nerve-fraying thrill ride – one that will punish every mistake while demanding split-second reflexes. Even familiar enemies feel fresh and terrifying with new weak points to target and techniques required to put them down for good. Top it off with a soundtrack that amplifies the tension of every encounter, and you’ve got a recipe for controller-cracking chaos. The Ishimura doesn’t want you to leave in one piece…can your fraying nerves survive the horrors within?
#9 Darkest Dungeon II
Darkest Dungeon II takes an already steep learning curve and cranks up the pain tenfold. If you aren’t intimately familiar with every intricacy of its turn-based, Roguelike formula, prepare for disaster at every campsite. Randomness stacks the odds overwhelming against you, meaning one wrong move – or just bad luck – can torpedo an entire run, dooming hours of careful planning and progress. Permadeath is the name of the game here.
As if that wasn’t daunting enough, you’ve also got Afflictions to contend with…personality quirks picked up by your party members that can turn your most powerful hero into an unreliable basket case. Keep them stable and you might survive the next blood-soaked battlefield. Let the stress get to them and they may turn their weapons on their own allies!
It’s a relentless test of strategic thinking under extreme pressure as the game actively works to break both your heroes and your own sanity. You’ll claw through desperately hoping this run might be the one…before a single foolish choice pulls the rug out from under you yet again. Barnes & Noble ain’t got nothing on the tests this masochistic game has in store. Be prepared for advanced psychological torture!
#8 Blasphemous 2
If you barely survived your first trip through the hellish world of Blasphemous, steel your nerves for round two! Blasphemous 2 takes the gothic brutality of the original and adds even more ways for you to suffer, including new traversal challenges that complement the refined combat.
You’ll still need frame-perfect timing to survive, with unforgiving enemies primed to punish the slightest mistake. But now you’ve got more tools of destruction to experiment with in putting them down for good, like spears allowing for greater reach or warhammers packing devastating close-range force. The key lies in mastering each weapon’s unique moveset – and knowing which to whip out when foes gang up for an unfair beatdown.
Boss battles undergo a similar upgrade, testing both your patience and precision over longer, multi-phase encounters thick with attacks to avoid. We’re talking screen-filling behemoths and swift assassins working in tandem to tag team you into oblivion. Embrace the pain these spectacular battles offer though, and you’ll wear your hard-fought victories as badges of honor.
#7 Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Brainiacs and number crunchers rejoice – Armored Core VI offers the ultimate mechanical playground for optimizing your perfect death machine. The only catch is that one tiny miscalculation, and it’s back to the scrapyard for your fallen mech.
Piloting your Armored Core to victory means finding the ideal loadout balance between weapons, power draw, armor, sensors – with dozens of options in each category. Missions continuously task you with split-second tactical decisions about which tools and stats help conquer the threats ahead. There are no pre-built “best” setups either as objectives and environments change – so be prepared to continually tweak your mechanical monster.
The battles themselves move at a furious pace, demanding precision command of your customized controls. When death comes swiftly (and often brutally), you’ll head straight back into the garage to create a new and improved build based on hard lessons learned. It’s a addictive loop that cannot be rushed…unless you savor the taste of scorched mech wreckage of course!
#6 Sons of the Forest
Just when you thought The Forest pushed the boundaries of survival horror, its savage sequel Sons of the Forest laughs in the face of your innocence. By comparison, the first game now feels downright hospitable…yet even seasoned veterans may not survive a week within this world filled with unspeakable horrors.
You’ll contend with new mutant abominations around every tree, unsettling occult rituals, advanced AI behaviors that force you to constantly reconsider defense strategies, and some of the most intense VR gameplay yet for those foolish enough to plunge in first-person. Death comes swiftly for the unprepared, and even hardy bunkers won’t save you from the psychological torment of this forest.
Progress hinges on skill progression done the hard way as you unlock new building options and equipment better suited for long-term survival. But nothing fully prepares your fragile human form for the horrors ahead. Your choices boil down to dying tired, dying scared…or somehow clinging to sanity long enough to uncover dark secrets underlying the endless madness.
#5 Resident Evil 4 Remake
Capcom’s 2005 masterwork still stands the test of time, as this 2023 remake proves in sadistic fashion. While certain modern concessions like over-the-shoulder aiming and dodge mechanics make your survival odds ever-so-slightly less hopeless, the enemies and environments seem bound and determined to counter any sense of empowerment.
Swarms of parasite-infested villagers thirst for your blood at every turn, employing just enough strategy to keep you from ever feeling safe. And when you’re not facing bloodthirsty hordes, you’ve got screen-filling beasts and towering monsters testing your limits in one-on-one duels, with the odds firmly against you. Brief victories only open the door for further brutality until the final credits roll…if you even live to see them.
Sharpen those reflexes and prepare to run through the ultimate RE4 gamut of slashing, blasting, cursing and praying your skills hold up against this classic cranked to maximum carnage. Parasites aren’t the only things out for blood – the game itself seems possessed by a vengeful spirit!
#4 Lords of the Fallen
Lords of the Fallen pulls no punches in its mission to crush Soulsborne veterans under iron boots. We’re talking potential party wipeouts even veterans call unfair at points…but isn’t that why we play these sadistic games in the first place?
While LOTF eases new players in gently, don’t let that fool you – the kid gloves come off quickly for savage ambushes and relentless pounding from gangs of enemies exploiting your every weakness. We’re talking damage sponges wielding screen-filling weapons playing bumper cars with your corpse. Bosses mostly disappoint compared to the average area’s chaos, but hotzones of hell throughout will leave you questioning your life choices.
If you crave the ultimate test of pattern recognition and nerves of steel, LOTF may finally push you over the edge of sanity. Some claim certain sections borderline unbeatable without cheese tactics. Whether you feel masochistic pride for conquering the madness or simply ragequit forever – your skills face an unwinnable war of attrition here to rival even the towering legend of Elden Ring at its most brutal. Persevere and prove your elite status!
#3 Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty pulls zero punches while forcing you to pull off countless flawless parries just to survive most encounters. Heavily inspired by Sekiro and Nioh, WLFD takes the challenging formula of those classics and pumps up both the pace and punishment.
Expect no tutorial and even less guidance as you’re tossed straight into the deep end against lethal human and supernatural foes. Combat moves at a furious clip thanks to combo-driven offense/defense demanding every input be timed perfectly if you hope to prevail. A single mistake means grunts skewer you without mercy while towering demons splatter you across walls and cliffs.
Even longtime Souls masters may balk when stacked odds trigger frictionless difficulty spikes late in the game. We’re talking ambush gangbangs, multi-phase bosses adding nasty new attacks out of nowhere mid-fight, and glass cannon builds ultimately too frail to stand up to WLFD’s Sadist of the Year Edition encounters. Embrace the abuse though, and victory grants bragging rights rivaling FromSoft’s finest flagships on full tilt. How much punishment can your hollowed gamer soul endure?!
#2 Remnant 2
If you pride yourself as a crackshot who can blast through waves of monsters without breaking a sweat, the multidimensional insanity of Remnant 2 awaits to blast holes through that smug confidence. As a worthy sequel built upon 2019’s cult favorite formula fusing third-person shooting with Soulsborne savagery, Remnant 2 finds plenty of clever new ways to test your limits – no matter the weapon or playstyle.
A huge variety of biomechanical monstrosities across four apocalyptic realms all vie to shred you molecule by molecule, employing just enough strategy and unpredictability to ensure you never feel truly safe. Even with friends joining the fray, chaos constantly challenges how well your squad adapts and coordinates on the fly as threats reshape to counter your current advantage. Prepare to run gauntlets of grafted flesh, chitinous jaws and searing plasma while overcoming environmental hazards threatening dismemberment or worse.
Boss and mini-boss battles take the insanity up ten notches as mobile arenas force movement and pattern recognition simultaneously. Towering eldritch deities break sanity with reality distortions, projectile storms and devious trickery before unveiling even more sadistic secret forms. Remarkably though, Remnant 2 incentivizes throwing yourself back into the meatgrinder thanks to roguelite elements remixing environs and keeping progression ever-rewarding.
Suffer well and often here, and triumph ultimately tastes twice as sweet. Say goodbye to complacency though – once you think you’ve mastered Remnant 2’s mayhem, newspectral surprises await around the next corner with a thirst for your blood. Welcome to Valhalla!
#1 Lies of P
Topping our list of most punishing experiences of 2023, Lies of P proudly embraces its Bloodborne lineage while confidently evolving the formula into something uniquely its own. This Soulslike gem surprised many expecting a paint-by-numbers imitation, instead delivering a masterclass in enemy design, adaptive combat and endurance-testing boss battles to satisfy the inner masochist in all of us.
The setting itself provides endless opportunities to highlight Lies of P’s strengths – a twisted landscape where humanity and machinery blur, innocence festers into cruelty, and existence itself seems devoted to tormenting any would-be heroes. Foes run the gamut from plague-ridden peasants to chimera mechanical monstrosities several stories tall, with each encounter mélange demanding ever-shifting strategies or weapon loadouts to overcome. Even basic grunts can quickly overwhelm the careless, relentlessly aggressive in exploiting any perceived advantage. Elites and horrors take punishment just as well as they dish out.
Boss battles form the crowning achievements though, with at least a handful likely requiring dozens upon dozens of failed attempts from even seasoned veterans. We’re talking intricate attack patterns, randomly-timed instant-death blows, multiple health bars and forms…these are multi-phase puzzles where a single misstep spells doom after countless minutes of grueling battle. Some may abandon all hope of victory and simply move on. But true gamers persevere against all odds, ultimately offering each foe the bittersweet release of a hard-fought death.
If that still fails to satisfy your craving for exquisite suffering, Lies of P offers up New Game+ with enhanced pain. Suffering never truly ends for those unable to put the controller down until they’ve conquered the madness at its utmost limits. That sweet rush of hard-fought victory is fleeting…but the sequel DLC cannot come soon enough!
