Best Difficult Games on Steam

Unlike generic lists, our game recommendations use a rigorous analysis of Steam user reviews to identify and feature only the best, community-validated difficult games.

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10 Second Ninja Ninjas are cool, this is an established fact of the universe. Nazi Robots from space are not cool, they are the complete opposite of cool, and Robot Hitler is out to get you, the world's first ninja. You have 10 seconds to destroy all Nazi Robots in your vicinity. IT. IS. ON.

Price 1.99€
Rating 8.0
Release 05 Mar 2014
Tower of Guns Tower of Guns is a fast paced first-person-shooter for the twitch gamer... with a few randomized elements to keep it fresh with each playthrough. It's a short burst "Lunch Break FPS"... not unlike Binding of Isaac mixed with Doom 2. Tower of Guns was made by a guy named Joe (with his brother Mike composing the music).

Price -95% 0.76€
Rating 7.7
Release 04 Mar 2014
One Finger Death Punch Experience cinematic kung-fu battles in the fastest, most intense brawler the indie world has ever seen! With the unique 1:1 response system of One Finger Death Punch, players will feel the immediate feedback of every bone-crunching hit. Pay tribute to the masters using five classic kung-fu styles mixed with additional weapons.

Price -90% 0.52€
Rating 9.5
Release 03 Mar 2014
Resident Evil 4 (2005) (Release: 2014) Special agent Leon S. Kennedy is sent on a mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter who has been kidnapped.

Price -79% 4.39€
Rating 9.2
Release 27 Feb 2014
Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge Ultionus is a love-letter to the home computer arcade games of the late 80s and early 90s, with colorful 2D visuals, catchy chiptune music by the legendary Jake 'Virt' Kaufman, and 7 stages of hard-as-nails gameplay.

Price -51% 3.49€
Rating 6.5
Release 25 Feb 2014
Angvik Angvik is a platform action game set in a joyful but unforgiving land.

Price -69% 0.95€
Rating 8.4
Release 24 Feb 2014
Hexcells Plus Hexcells Plus is an ambient logic puzzle game for PC, Mac and Linux.

Price -86% 0.42€
Rating 9.1
Release 19 Feb 2014
Hexcells Hexcells is an ambient logic puzzle game for PC, Mac and Linux.

Price 2.99€
Rating 9.4
Release 19 Feb 2014
Ikaruga Shoot! Dodge! and... Get Hit!? "Ikaruga" is a vertical shoot 'em up that features an unique polarity-switching gameplay. Switch the ship's polarity and "get hit and absorb" enemy bullets! Achieve High Score with the chain bonus!

Price -50% 4.49€
Rating 9.0
Release 18 Feb 2014
Banished In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.

Price -71% 5.62€
Rating 8.9
Release 18 Feb 2014
WazHack Time moves forward only when you do in the dungeons of WazHack. Think your way out of problems instead of just spamming 'attack' and 'drink healing potion'.

Price 7.99€
Rating 8.4
Release 17 Feb 2014
METAL SLUG 3 “METAL SLUG 3”, the masterpiece in SNK’s emblematic 2D run & gun action shooting game series, still continues to fascinate millions of fans worldwide to this day for its intricate dot-pixel graphics, and simple and intuitive game controls, heads out to the Steam gaming platform!

Price -90% 0.73€
Rating 8.7
Release 14 Feb 2014
Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star is a sequel to Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943. It’s an Eastern Front war game with solid graphics and sprawling battlefields that really emphasizes the scope of WWII tank combat.Want to step into the role of a commander in the very heart of Kharkov’s defense?

Price 27.99€
Rating 7.8
Release 11 Feb 2014
Descent Welcome to Descent™ - 27 levels of the most mind-bending, stomach-churning action game ever. Featuring true 3-Dimensional worlds and six degrees of freedom.

Price 19.99€
Rating 8.9
Release 11 Feb 2014
Reaper - Tale of a Pale Swordsman Enter the world ripe with magic and monsters. Become the Black Swordsman and slay thousands of enemies in an epic action RPG!

Price -19% 7.97€
Rating 6.5
Release 07 Feb 2014
LOVE Love is a reductive platforming game with a retro aesthetic and a focus on a challenging difficulty. It has an custom respawn system, 16 levels, 12 track soundtrack, competitive scoring, and a simple-to-use level creation feature.

Price -84% 0.40€
Rating 8.6
Release 07 Feb 2014
Jets'n'Guns Gold Jets'n'Guns is a heavy piece of ground shaking rock blasting action with graphics and special effects that will blow you eyes out! Enjoy yourself in almost-insane action adventure of saving the universe from the deadly threat of more than 270 unique monsters in the campaign of 43 levels.

Price -60% 3.11€
Rating 8.3
Release 05 Feb 2014
Oniken: Unstoppable Edition When a global war nearly decimated humankind, an evil military organization called Oniken takes advantage of the situation to dominate and oppress the few remaining survivors. Even though any resistance to this organization seemed hopeless, a small rebel movement organizes strikes against Oniken.

Price -64% 1.81€
Rating 7.6
Release 05 Feb 2014
realMyst: Masterpiece Edition Released in 2014, experience one of the first 3D adaptations of the renowned puzzle-adventure game Myst! Each discovery you make, every puzzle you solve, will bring you closer to reversing a wrong that has gone unchecked for ages.

Price -95% 1.02€
Rating 8.5
Release 05 Feb 2014
Aqua Kitty - Milk Mine Defender Aqua Kitty is a fast paced retro styled submarine arcade shooter with optional 2 player local Co-op.Blast through hordes of mechanical sea monsters in your kitty sub and defend the deep sea milk mining kittens!THE MILK MUST FLOW!

Price 6.89€
Rating 8.1
Release 03 Feb 2014
Octodad: Dadliest Catch Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a game about destruction, deception, and fatherhood. The player controls Octodad, a dapper octopus masquerading as a human, as he goes about his life. Octodad's existence is a constant struggle, as he must master mundane tasks with his unwieldy boneless tentacles while simultaneously keeping his cephalopodan...

Price -73% 3.79€
Rating 9.1
Release 30 Jan 2014
Hero Siege Hero Siege is a fast paced Pixel Art ARPG featuring an expansive roster of unique classes, deep build experimentation, and a player driven economy.

Price 7.79€
Rating 6.8
Release 29 Jan 2014
Our Darker Purpose Journey to the dark heart of the Edgewood Home for Lost Children in this fiendishly difficult action RPG!When her teacher stepped out of the classroom a month ago, Cordy never imagined he would be gone for good. Now her fellow students have turned on each other as the school descends into chaos.

Price 14.99€
Rating 7.8
Release 29 Jan 2014
Original War An American geological expedition, under a UN mandate, assesses the natural resources in a distant part of Siberia, deep in the trackless steppes of Eastern Russia. But instead of oil, they discover a deposit of a hitherto unknown mineral.

Price -94% 0.69€
Rating 9.0
Release 27 Jan 2014
KAMI KAMI is deceptively simple: fold out coloured paper to fill the screen in as few moves as possible. Relaxing and easy to pick up, you'll soon find yourself deep in contemplation to perfect each puzzle. Created by State of Play, famous for their handcrafted aesthetic, KAMI has been created with real paper in an elegant Japanese theme.

Price -90% 0.41€
Rating 9.0
Release 23 Jan 2014
Might & Magic X - Legacy After a decade, a Might & Magic® RPG is back with both the unique core formula and a new set of improved and fine-tuned features. The best RPG of its class!In the wake of the spectacular events in Might & Magic® Heroes® VI, you will play in a party of four adventurers entangled in intrigue and political machinations unfolding in...

Price 29.99€
Rating 6.5
Release 23 Jan 2014
Blackguards What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor, but in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, a new turn-based strategy RPG, explores this very question. You will discover over 180 unique hex-based battlegrounds within a dark and mature story of crime, drugs, and murder.

Price -95% 0.56€
Rating 6.1
Release 22 Jan 2014
Hitman: Contracts Enter the world of a HITMAN - a world of crime, sin and greed. Delve into the mind of Agent 47 and encounter his greatest adversaries, completing the work that made him so brutally efficient and shaped him as an assassin. Eliminate your targets by any means necessary. There are no rules... only the contract, signed in blood.

Price -96% 0.40€
Rating 8.4
Release 21 Jan 2014
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE Developed by Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames, METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE takes the renowned METAL GEAR franchise into exciting new territory with an all-new action experience. The game seamlessly melds pure action and epic story-telling that surrounds Raiden – a child soldier transformed into a half-human, half-cyborg ninja who...

Price -42% 11.70€
Rating 9.5
Release 09 Jan 2014
Kingdom Rush - Tower Defense Get ready for an epic journey to defend your kingdom against hordes of orcs, trolls, evil wizards and other nasty fiends using a vast arsenal of towers and spells at your command!Fight on forests, mountains and wastelands, customizing your defensive strategy with different tower upgrades and specializations!

Price 9.99€
Rating 9.5
Release 06 Jan 2014
Gunman Clive In the year of 18XX, the west is overrun by thugs and outlaws. A group of bandits have kidnapped Mayor Johnsons daughter and are spreading havok across the land. Only Gunman Clive can bring order to the west and save the girl!Jump and shoot your way across 16 diverse and challenging levels and fight massive bosses.

Price -56% 0.88€
Rating 8.3
Release 03 Jan 2014
Teslagrad A journey begins... A treacherous tower... Unravel its mysteries!Discover the secrets kept in the long abandoned Tesla Tower!Magnetism and other electromagnetic powers will help you explore a non-linear world of beautiful hand-drawn environments, in a steampunk-inspired vision of old Europe.

Price -91% 0.98€
Rating 8.1
Release 13 Dec 2013
Tales of Maj'Eyal Tales of Maj’Eyal is a roguelike RPG, featuring tactical turn-based combat and advanced character building. Play as one of many unique races and classes in the lore-filled world of Eyal, exploring random dungeons, facing challenging battles, and developing characters with your own tailored mix of abilities and powers.

Price 6.99€
Rating 9.2
Release 12 Dec 2013
Small World CONTROL FANTASY RACES, SET OFF TO CONQUER NEW LANDS, OVERTHROW YOUR ENEMIES AND CLAIM THE VICTORY! In this digital adaptation of the legendary board game, dive into a world inhabited by whimsical fantasy races.

Price -92% 0.84€
Rating 6.7
Release 11 Dec 2013
Race The Sun You are a solar-powered craft. The sun is your death timer. Hurtle towards the sunset at breakneck speed in a futile race against time. Delay the inevitable by catching speed boosts which reverse the setting sun - if only for a moment. Don't crash, stay in the light, and don't slow down!

Price -78% 2.23€
Rating 9.1
Release 09 Dec 2013
Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension You are a God! You are master and ruler of a loyal nation. You have unimaginable powers at your disposal. You have claimed this world as yours. But there are others who stand in your way. You must defeat and destroy these pretenders. Only then can you ascend to godhood and become the new Pantokrator.

Price -80% 6.81€
Rating 8.6
Release 05 Dec 2013

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