10 Video Games Only The Most Skilled Players Can Handle
Unless you're going to put the time in, just give up.
Transcript
00:00 Go back 30-odd years and analyse the gaming landscape, and you'll find home consoles
00:04 trying to find their place amongst a consumer base unsure of whether a night's entertainment
00:08 could be anything other than TV and film, arcades chock-full of experiences that bring
00:13 social circles together, and a general sentiment that video games took practice, effort, and
00:18 dedication to play, understand, and appreciate.
00:21 This mentality is still felt today, but the industry itself has demonstrably changed.
00:26 That said, while there's plenty of games that have gotten a lot easier, that doesn't
00:29 mean that there aren't challenges out there for extraordinarily skilled players.
00:33 I'm Jess from WhatCulture, and here are 10 video games only the most skilled players
00:38 can handle.
00:39 10.
00:40 Kerbal Space Program
00:41 You know all those people that end any discussion on a faux-complex topic with "it's not
00:46 rocket science"?
00:47 Well, Kerbal Space Program is rocket science, and it's absolutely phenomenal.
00:51 An unabashedly complex, unforgiving toolbox of ship components, physics interactions,
00:56 and rocket propellant, you're tasked with everything from achieving spaceflight to maintaining
01:01 velocity, landing on a number of planets, to even just not imploding in midair.
01:06 9.
01:07 Steel Battalion
01:08 The game that shipped with an entire mech cockpit to go alongside, Steel Battalion is
01:13 damn fun and an all-round immersive experience like nothing else, provided you can get your
01:18 head around literally driving a robot.
01:21 Nintendo Labo's robot kit This Ain't has everything from ignition switches to joysticks,
01:26 multiple accelerator and brake pedals, to levers all play a part in manoeuvrability.
01:31 Add combat and quick reactions to the mix when the game's later levels kick in, and
01:36 unless you've become one with your mech and can pivot, return fire, and dodge accordingly,
01:41 you are toast.
01:42 It's really something when even getting your head around a game's controller is the opening
01:46 slog.
01:47 8.
01:48 Dark Souls and Bloodborne
01:49 The obvious choice for anything like this, for as much as there's always an army of
01:52 people who'll spring out either to proclaim that the Soulsborne games aren't really
01:57 hard, let's just say they're wrong and move on.
01:59 What From Software perfected with their mix of restricted player movement, agile enemies,
02:04 and animation-prioritizing attacks was an ethos behind gameplay that demands you re-approach
02:09 everything you think you know about action games.
02:11 It's absolutely the case that you can become one with this unique ebb and flow, whether
02:15 you're playing Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring.
02:18 Such a sense of synergy is why millions of people proclaim Soulsborne titles as the best
02:22 of the best, but overcoming that wall of progress really does take time, patience, and perseverance.
02:29 7.
02:30 Nioh
02:31 Carrying on from where Dark Souls and Bloodborne left off, Team Ninja's Nioh was actually
02:36 in development for a decade, yet emerged as a spiritual successor to everything From Software
02:41 pioneered.
02:42 Where once we had belabored movements and a focus on positioning as you approached each
02:46 encounter like a chess match, now a faster game engine means you can leap into a number
02:51 of frays in quick succession, swapping stances, using items, drinking the game in at a far
02:56 steadier pace than anything that came before.
02:59 Team Ninja knew that speeding up Souls-like combat could make gameplay excruciatingly
03:03 hard if they got it wrong, and it took two separate public alpha and beta demos to refine
03:08 everything just right.
03:10 These earlier looks into Nioh were only surmountable by gaming's most die-hard masochists, feeding
03:15 into a final product whose difficulty is as razor-sharp as its visuals are gorgeous to
03:20 take in.
03:21 6.
03:22 Super Meat Boy
03:23 A game whose reputation tends to precede it, only 0.15% of all gamers on Sony systems have
03:29 managed to unlock every last trophy in the game, not to mention how PC and Xbox players
03:34 are getting on.
03:35 Still, Team Meat's pixel-perfect platformer is one of the most initially accessible, charming,
03:40 and lovable games of them all.
03:41 It invites a sense of playability that belies just how meticulously schooled in its physics
03:46 you'll have to be to survive the later levels.
03:49 Even the opening stages will best the majority of players, combining skin-of-your-teeth leaps
03:53 over buzz-saws and reverse-momentum jumps in mid-air to clear some very intimidating
03:58 runs.
03:59 Super Meat Boy is very much for the elite old-school gamer, they who shall not smash
04:03 the pad no matter how unfair the action on screen can get or feel.
04:07 5.
04:08 Arma 3
04:09 There are military-precision shooters, and then there's Arma 3.
04:13 Initially born from the desire to make a 3D shooter that carried with it as many aspects
04:17 of realism as possible, the franchise quickly developed a hardcore community that reveled
04:22 in guns, attachments, bullet drop, camouflage, and everything else you can think of that
04:26 replicates a real-world combat scenario.
04:29 By the time Arma 3 rolled around, developers Bohemia Interactive were completely entrenched
04:34 in creating AI scripts and missions that'd challenge a fanbase already hungry to have
04:39 their abilities pushed to the brink.
04:40 The result was a game that, to this day, is mired by "is it too hard, or is it just
04:46 right?"
04:47 No matter which way you slice it, getting comfortable with Arma 3 means putting a lot
04:51 of time in.
04:52 4.
04:53 Cuphead
04:54 A gorgeous, stupidly beautiful game that was perhaps just a smidge too hard for its own
04:58 good.
04:59 You need only look at the achievement data to see just how far the average player progressed.
05:03 It turns out, to the surprise of no one, only 15% of all players actually finished the game
05:08 on normal.
05:09 A slightly bigger 20% made it to the final aisle where the game's toughest bosses reside,
05:15 but even the first and second aisle completions were 65% and 32% respectively.
05:21 Back to the game itself, and Cuphead prides itself on having a brutally old-school mentality.
05:26 Checkpoints are rationed out to the extreme, and overcoming any boss requires a solid half-hour
05:31 of memorizing every attack that'll come your way before you can ultimately turn the
05:35 tables at every last second.
05:38 3.
05:39 Dota 2
05:40 King of the MOBAs, ruiner of lives, and lord master of reducing everyday working individuals
05:45 to sun-dodging husks, Dota is the perfect example of a game whose most interesting aspects
05:50 get teased up front, but its learning curve will dominate your life thereafter.
05:54 Picking the perfect combination of characters, abilities, and group strategies is arguably
05:59 impossible, with each setup being balanced and workable in what feels like an infinite
06:04 amount of ways.
06:05 Though gameplay boils down to overcoming enemy forces and taking over checkpoints, the minute-to-minute
06:10 gameplay of Dota is so enthralling and complex, it was one of the first games of its kind
06:15 to become an eSport, attracting millions of viewers to this day.
06:19 Getting into Dota is less a hobby or casual pursuit as it is a career, something you can
06:24 seldom say about the vast majority of titles on the market.
06:27 2.
06:28 Rainbow Six Siege
06:29 It might have launched in a state more befitting an alpha test, but Rainbow Six Siege has blossomed
06:34 into quite possibly the most tactile FPS on the market.
06:38 Where Call of Duty focuses on reaction times and Battlefield playing the long game, Siege's
06:43 mix of ability-equipped operators and maps riddled with scores of insertion methods is
06:48 in a league all of its own.
06:50 Destructible scenery means grabbing hostages or taking out opponents can be done from literally
06:54 any angle, encouraging fortification and stealth takedowns as much as exploring or map learning.
07:00 The result is simply a shooter that exceeds in pure tactics, something that will have
07:04 your expectations for breakfast first time around, but slowly lets you become the master
07:09 over a considerable amount of time.
07:11 1.
07:12 Any Call of Duty Multiplayer
07:14 Speaking of Call of Duty being the game to test your reaction times, if you're not in
07:18 that top percentile of those who can draw a gun or move within fractions of a second
07:22 of seeing an opponent, good luck.
07:25 Notably, COD has become so popular for those exchanges where you've just missed out on
07:29 firing a shot, ensuring that to gain the upper hand you'll have to be forever wide-eyed,
07:34 putting as much time as possible into returning fire, and having a few contingency strategies
07:39 if you make it out alive.
07:41 Dropped grenades that can kill from beyond the grave, quick-fire aiming attachments,
07:45 and drawing your sidearm to finish a foe before they do you, Call of Duty is the pristine,
07:50 billion-dollar equivalent of physical athletic competition made digital.
07:54 That's the end of our list, but let me know down in the comments what you think are the
07:58 best video games only the most skilled players will be able to handle.
08:02 As always, I've been Jess from War Culture, thanks so much for hanging out with me.
08:06 If you like it, you can come say hi to me on my Twitter account, where I'm @JessMcDonald,
08:10 but make sure you stay tuned to us here for plenty more gaming goodness.