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For many FPS fanatics, the genre might appear stale with how many games have copied Halo or Call of Duty. It is certainly a problem, but there are plenty of challenging FPS titles that will give the most experienced gamers a challenge. From competitive multiplayer games to one-life single-player campaigns, here are the hardest FPS games anyone can play today.
Updated on September 20, 2022, by Ritwik Mitra: Many people consider the modern era of first-person shooters to be devoid of any challenge, which couldn’t be further from the truth. While it’s true that certain action-packed FPS titles prioritized seamless gameplay over tough challenges, this doesn’t mean that the entire genre has suffered the same fate. The following titles are great examples of extremely challenging FPS games that require great reflexes and an in-depth understanding of the gameplay mechanics for the player to get through each level unscathed.
25 Crysis
Why it’s difficult: All-out battles without the use of stealth can be pretty challenging, even on Normal difficulty.
For the most part, Crysis can be a fairly tough experience but not a frustrating one for many players as long as they use the capabilities of the suit. However, the difficulty of this game absolutely skyrockets if players opt for the highest level of challenge possible.
Enemies in Crysis become more aggressive and smart while trying to shoot the player into smithereens, which will happen quite often. A player’s reflexes need to be perfect if they wish to get through Crysis’ massive levels with such elite opposition.
24 Titanfall 2
Why it’s difficult: Lack of twitch reflexes will lead to many deaths.
Titanfall 2 is a game that was unfairly overlooked upon release. The game featured many improvements to the core gameplay along with one of the best single-player campaigns in an FPS to date.
The end result is an amazing experience that becomes quite challenging in multiplayer. Players will have to make the most of the extended movement suite and the game’s wide array of firearms to overpower their opposition.
23 Apex Legends
Why it’s difficult: Barrier to entry is high, and heroes take a while to master before players get into the flow of the game.
While Titanfall 2 might not have sold like hotcakes, the same can’t be said for Apex Legends. Technically, the game is free-to-play, but the massive player base makes it clear that Respawn struck gold with this title.
Apex Legends is an FPS hero shooter where players will take some time to learn the mechanics of the various characters they can control in the game. The balanced experience provided by this game, coupled with its deep systems, makes for a scintillating FPS experience where players need to be absolutely attuned to the game and its mechanics if they wish to come out victorious.
22 Blood: Fresh Supply
Why it’s difficult: Personifies the difficulty that pervaded most retro shooters.
Blood was one of the manyDoom clones during the golden age of PC gaming. It approached this genre with a pretty unique setting, with the supernatural elements of the game allowing for unique weapons and enemies that made it quite different from DOOM in its own way.
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The remaster of this game retained the great aesthetics and challenging difficulty of this title. Blood: Fresh Supply is by no means an easy title, but people who love the atmosphere and humor of this title will definitely have many excuses to power through this nostalgic gem of a game.
21 DOOM
Why it’s difficult: Demons don’t stop inflicting pain every step of the way.
The reboot of DOOM was a source of great happiness among fans. However, these gamers were also rather skeptical about how id Software would be able to make the formula of DOOM work in a modern gaming environment.
Thankfully, the developers managed to strike a perfect balance between classic FPS gameplay and modern gaming nuances. This made for a rich first-person shooting experience that was tough as nails as well. It’s easy to see why most people can’t get enough of DOOM nowadays.
20 F.E.A.R
Why it’s difficult: Challenging AI coupled with an oppressive atmosphere.
When it came out, most people considered F.E.A.R to be one of the hardest FPS games ever made. This was mainly achieved through a combination of unforgiving gameplay and smart enemy AI that could flank and surprise the player at every step.
Of course, one has to admit that the constant fear of Alma and the other horrors present in F.E.A.R also contributed to the overall difficulty. After all, it would be hard for players to focus on the game’s shooting when they’re too busy trying to avoid any scares in the game.
19 Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Why it’s difficult: Nonstop action and a health handicap near the start of the game.
MachineGames is a name that most fans of the Wolfenstein series would be familiar with. After all, this company is responsible for ushering in the modern era of Wolfenstein. This game is full to the brim with excellent combat and a story of immense quality. Most players were surprised to see a story of this caliber in Wolfenstein.
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Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is easily the hardest game out of all the titles in the series. The initial handicap that BJ suffers in terms of a low heath pool is detrimental enough as is. Furthermore, the game never lets up with its fair share of massive challenges that will keep the player occupied for quite some time.
18 Valorant
Why it’s difficult: Twitch reflexes that need to be combined with the knowledge of agent abilities.
Most people describe Valorant as a mix of Counter-Strike and Overwatch. While this might be an accurate description of the title, such a simple explanation doesn’t do justice to the excellent gameplay of Valorant.
Each competitive match in this title becomes a struggle to tactically manage encounters while simultaneously making the most of each agent’s abilities. It’s easy to see why most gamers consider Valorant to be one of the hardest FPS games currently around.
17 Bulletstorm
Why it’s difficult: Combining stylish kills with health management can be quite a pain.
At a glance, Bulletstorm might sound like an odd pick for this list. After all, the game prides itself on giving players cannon fodder to work with as they rack up a bunch of stylish kills.
However, higher difficulty and the challenge of chaining multiple special kills can be quite difficult for many gamers. Most players need to ensure that they don’t get so carried away in showing off their style that they end up receiving a completely avoidable death blow.
16 Devil Daggers
Why it’s difficult: Demands mastery of simple gameplay systems.
Devil Daggers is incredibly difficult due to its simplicity. Players only have to worry about the enemies around them and taking them down by firing a flurry of daggers at them.
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Playing Devil Daggers looks much easier than it truly is. The whole point is to achieve as high a score as possible before death. Games get more hectic as the timer continues, eventually overwhelming the players with hundreds of enemies on screen. Speed, accuracy, and critical thinking are all required to survive the ever-increasing onslaught of demons.
15 Deus Ex
Why it’s difficult: Reliance on RPG systems and scarce resources.
The original Deus Ex was a marvel of imaginative cyberpunk storytelling and some elite RPG elements married to an FPS framework. It was also hard due to its reliance on tactics instead of running and gunning. Indeed, soldiering in was not a viable option.
Deus Ex is also difficult for many other reasons, most notably its overabundance of skills. Players had to understand how their skill points would affect the gameplay, which meant determining their preferred playstyle from the outset. To make matters worse, resources are scarce in Deus Ex to encourage players to thoroughly explore every level. Expertly-crafted levels and a plethora of choices make Deus Ex the PC classic fans know it for. It just so happens that a byproduct of this was a rather unforgiving combat system.
14 Prey (2017)
Why it’s difficult: A brutal early-game and Immersive Sim elements.
Immersive Sims masterfully blend player choice into their core gameplay rhythm, typically utilizing complex levels and tough enemies to encourage players to explore. As was the case in Deus Ex, the 2017 reboot of Prey is a brutal experience for newcomers to this style of game.
Prey fans can likely remember their first playthrough as sluggish and painful in the opening hours. Morgan Yu, the game’s protagonist, is incredibly weak in the opening hours. Until players get their hands on a few Neuromods, taking on even Prey’s weakest enemies is quite the ordeal. Scavenging for supplies and sticking to the shadows is key to survival. For those that are used to Immersive Sims, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. However, those new to the genre were in for a tough time.
13 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Terrorist Hunt)
Why it’s difficult: Terrorist Hunt on Realistic difficulty has brutal AI.
Cooperative game modes can’t get much harder than Rainbow Six: Vegas 2’s Terrorist Hunt mode. This game’s PvE activities were borderline masochistic with the way AI was handled.
Harder difficulties would cause enemies to have perfect accuracy and use tactical equipment much more often. Worse, the player’s friendly AI was detrimental to the experience as they would sometimes refuse to listen to orders. While easier in co-op with real players, this game’s learning curve and instant deaths on higher difficulties definitely tested the patience of most gamers.
12 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. — Shadow Of Chernobyl
Why it’s difficult: Unforgiving mechanics.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are renowned for their punishing gameplay, especially when gamers first start off. The wasteland is a dangerous one with horrors just waiting to pop out from the cover of darkness and kill. As such, it’s difficult for many gamers to get their bearings.
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Naturally, a combination of practice and character progression helps mitigate many of these issues, but that doesn’t make the game any less forgiving. Hazards and horrors lurk around every corner, and run-and-gun techniques simply aren’t going to cut it as they would in a game like Call of Duty.
11 Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Why it’s difficult: Brutal combat encounters.
Serious difficulty in the Serious Sam games is the ultimate challenge. Enemies have much more health, while Sam is much more susceptible to damage. Every Serious Sam game is challenging on this difficulty, but none are harder to beat than Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.
Croteam dramatically increased the number of enemies in each encounter in this installment. Levels are much larger, the weapon roster has expanded in smart ways, and the enemy roster is highly varied. These major improvements in most difficulties become a burden on higher difficulties where making two mistakes can be disastrous. It gets worse when the game decides to place the player in a small room filled with hundreds of enemies.
10 Doom Eternal
Why it’s difficult: Demands absolute mastery of gameplay mechanics.
Despite Doom Eternal’s young age, it has made a big impact on the FPS genre. This game will force players to enter a rhythm while demon-slaying to earn their black belt in destroying the forces of Hell.
It does a fantastic job at this, even on the lower difficulties, but this game is at its most adrenaline-fueled on Ultra Nightmare. A single mistake doesn’t just cost players their life; it ends the current playthrough. Perfection is mandatory if anyone wants to beat this game on its hardest difficulty, but few games can improve someone’s aiming and positioning skills quite like Doom Eternal.
9 ARMA 3
Why it’s difficult: Simulation elements.
The ARMA series was designed to be as realistic as possible, which is no surprise given that the developer created software used to train the U.S. military. It’s not quite the same thing, but ARMA 3 is no less unforgiving. In fact, it’s downright difficult for many gamers to get into.
Part of the reason is the play mechanics. Single-shot deaths are plenty, there are no duck-and-cover health regen options, and virtually nothing about the game plays like a commercial FPS title. ARMA 3 is to FPS players what hardcore flight simulators are to aviation enthusiasts.
8 Rainbow Six: Siege
Why it’s difficult: One-shot headshots and a huge learning curve.
Rainbow Six: Siege is Ubisoft’s latest entry in the tactical shooter series. Instead of focusing on single-player missions or Terrorist Hunt as Rainbow Six: Vegas did, Siege opted to double-down on its multiplayer systems.
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It paid off in spades. Siege is one of the largest competitive games in the world, thanks to its large Operator roster and destructible maps. The number of strategies players can develop are nearly endless, making it a daunting game to get into. Instant-kill headshots further exasperate this problem by leaving most newcomers in the dust against veteran Siege players who know every angle to pixel-peak from.
7 Far Cry
Why it’s difficult: Overpowered enemies introduced halfway through the campaign.
Crytek knows how to make graphically demanding games. Most know them for the original Crysis that still runs less than stellar, but they were also the original creators of Far Cry.
Earlier levels encouraged players to scout out enemy encampments and plan out a method of approach. This made for a great gameplay loop that Ubisoft’s Far Cry games would later build upon. That is until the second half of the game. In typical Crytek fashion, the standard human enemies are replaced with enemies that would fit better in another game. In Far Cry’s case, mutants overtake the island and take entire magazines to kill. Mutants can also three-shot the player with full health and armor, single-handedly souring the entirety of Far Cry’sotherwise stellar campagin.
6 Call Of Duty: World At War (Campaign)
Why it’s difficult: Enemies spawn infinitely and throw unlimited grenades on Veteran difficulty.
Call of Duty: World at War’s campaign is a memorable experience gamers won’t soon forget, if only for its absurdly hard campaign. Beating World at War on Veteran is a serious test of one’s patience.
Enemies will spawn infinitely until the player completes certain objectives, all the while they’re throwing half a dozen grenades every couple of seconds. A handful of bullets will down the player, forcing them to restart from a checkpoint. World at War’s later levels, where players fight alongside Victor Resnov, really show how broken this game’s single-player is on Veteran.
