I play and love a lot of games that might be described as “hard” or “punishing.” Obviously everyone has their own definition of what games warrant those terms, but the point is, I like a game that pushes back. I don’t mind losing a fight, because I think it feels all the better when I eventually conquer that challenge. I welcome the chance to improve. I’m no strangers to games that make me work for it, is what I’m saying.
GTFO might be towards the top of my ‘most brutally punishing games’ list, though.
I haven’t played a lot of it (26 hours currently), some of it during a Rundown in Early Access, some of it in Rundown 7 now that the game is officially released, but the ruthlessness of it has routinely raised my eyebrows. I love it. It 100% scratches that “when I beat a level, I feel like a god” itch, because actually managing to get through a level rarely feels like a foregone conclusion (at this stage in my experience level, anyway).
At the same time, while I might spend three hours attempting a level with friends and walk away without a win, we do at least walk away with some useful experience and knowledge, which is what I want in a game that ramps up the difficulty. Make it punishing, sure, but do so in a way where I feel like even defeat is teaching me to get better.
No doubt some of you will comment “That sounds awful,” or “I don’t have time for that, when I sit down to play a game I just want to casually breeze through it” and yeah, I get it. This is a weird thing to enjoy, and sometimes I wonder if I’m just a gaming masochist. I won’t be able to convince you that it’s fun to spend all night trudging through a dark space station filled with creepy monsters and scarce resources, losing over and over.
But for those of you like me that love the thrill when you finally get past a challenge like that, maybe look into GTFO for your next fix. You can do some of the game with bots, but it’s best played with others, willing to voice communicate.
(If you don’t have 3 friends willing to jump on board, I’ve had a lot of great luck getting groups in the game’s official Discord.)
Have you tried Vermintide 2? It should fall into the same space of punishing while showcasing your errors and bad decisions.
However, this will only become apparent on the higher difficulties which are “hidden” behind an annoying and slow grind for levels and equipment at the beginning taking several dozen of hours. So many people never actually see the “real” game
I’ve played a lot of Vermintide 2, and I’m very much looking forward to Darktide later this year.
I don’t believe I ever saw these “hidden difficulty” levels, though.
Yeah, it’s an okay game at recruit and veteran difficulty levels. At Champion and above it requires much more skill. I bounced off champion at first, but had a friend who always wanted to play. I realized after about 10 champion matches that I was just button mashing at the lower difficulty levels, and that Vermintide actually has an amazing melee system, you just don’t realize it until you have to use it well to survive.
The game is so much more rewarding once you actually have to master it’s systems.
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See, for me it depends on the game. I love Cuphead because it’s challenging, but the challenge can be overcome.
But there are other games that make me feel like I’m beating my head against a brick wall. So rather than feeling good about overcoming the challenge, I just feel slightly relieved that I can take my hand out of the meat grinder ?
But there are other games that make me feel like I’m beating my head against a brick wall. So rather than feeling good about overcoming the challenge, I just feel slightly relieved that I can take my hand out of the meat grinder ?
Sometimes I feel like the only one of my friends who sticks a shooter on an easy difficulty just so I can enjoy myself and not worry about having to spend hours trying to get good at a game. I just don’t get the same enjoyment from the ‘achievement’ of overcoming a really hard level compared to the actual experience of carving through hordes. I suspect part of it is my preference for experiencing the story of a game than grinding against gameplay. But trying to work my way slowly through a survival horror game isn’t exactly the ideal way… Read more »
I feel that. It’s like the Dynasty games. Sometimes you just want an over the top/overkill moment without having to worry that you’ll have to start the level over again if you die.
Ummm…. there is something I must be missing out on – why is Magneto telling us about his gaming preferences?
It’s a meme:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/perfection
Thank you I didn’t recognize the reference either. 🙂
I’d assume its based on Fassbenders Magneto asking to see the real Raven to Mystique and having to ask a couple of times, its also a meme format using his reactions from the same scene.
It’s a reference to the famous meme with Michael Fassbender in it, with a scene taken from X-Men: First Class. Probably Tim thought that this would have made the actor more recognizable in the comics.
Ahh, I see, thank you muchly – I guess I need “I prefer the real <enter item here>” to get the meme reference.
Love Elden Ring and Hunt:Showdown, but not a big fan of GTFO.
GTFO reminds me most of high difficulty Payday 2, but just less fun and with waaay more dead time spent just crouchwalking past oblivious NPCs and searching through garbage for ammo. The most successful strategy in GTFO is slow and methodical and incredibly boring.
When you start, sure… but that’s only viable in the first couple of levels, once they throw error alarms, fog timers, warden protocols, opening blood doors that require foaming, it just flips the script there. Not to mention, clearing rooms once you get familiar with the melee system becomes easy.
So, I get that stealth part of GTFO can get tiresome, the game is not remotely reduced down to that in the slightest.
Ironically, I second guess my very identity as a gamer because I don’t enjoy soul shattering defeat in video games.
Longest game ever took me to win was command and conquer and it only took me 25 years to Beat It
Very difficult FPS shooters aren’t really my cup of tea. I prefer to see my character. Elden Ring has given the challenge I enjoy and it’s been nice to see how much it offers. 135 hours in and still counting!
I like the concept of party of 4 doing missions or going through the stage together… But sadly, many had left the impression “you didn’t play the game when it came out, let us speedrun everything and just stay out of trouble scrub.” I don’t have any gaming buddies atm, so it’s a pass with majority of such games.
souls being allready way to much for me, I KNOW I wont try this one, thanks to you.
You made me question why magneto was in this strip until I realised it was a meme reference
Oh heck yeah man. I tend to dial the difficulty up because I love the challenge. Then when I want something more easy going, I’ll play some Stardew Valley and just have a relaxing time of it.
10 Chambers (the company that makes GTFO) followed me on Twitter ages ago – when GTFO was in its infancy.
Not really might type of game, but I have been keeping an eye on it as we follow eachother on Twitter.
Glad to see that after a shaky start (at least I felt like it did), it has found it’s niche.
I played GTFO during the free weekend. Its brutal, it punches you in your face and takes your lunch money, and I love it.
IF you figure the level out, how to deal with the various types.. you can easily just breeze through the levels.
But its the ‘5 foot by 5 foot creep foreward.. oh god a new creature what mayhem does this one do’..
I’ve definitely watched the Bob/Wade/Mark/Sean quad in their playthroughs of this. Looks way beyond a game I could even contemplate having the time for, but it’s a super fun series to watch!
You’re not weird dude, I am the same way where being defeated shows me where I can improve. I play a lot of fighting games and it’s essential to be able to do that, you need to find the fun of learning over just winning.
Honestly it depends on what mood I’m in at the end of the day. Yesterday was an “Outriders Worldslayer on Apocalypse level 1” while I’m a level 41 character. Sometimes you just wanna make bad things splatter.
GFTO is a good way to unwind after playing Escape from Tarkov XD
Honestly, I believe that we, gamers, shouldn’t judge what others might find fun or what not.
I don’t like sports game, a lotta people do.
I don’t enjoy scary games, a lotta people do.
I love playing modern FPS games with friends, a lotta people don’t.
And that’s all ok. What either of us chooses as our source of enjoyment and leisure time, is our choice. Doesn’t mean it’s something bad whether others disagree or not.
GTFO is the sorts of game that teaches TRUE survival horror, not just cheap jump scares. The monsters are not forgiving and ammo is truly limited. Melee weapons are often your best option to prevent noise and bring a screaming horde down upon your team. Some of the runs I have done have taken well over TWO HOURS before completion. The game tests your nerves and your skills. It’s a game that hits you in a primal sense of what it feels like to survive while avoiding predators. Personally I come back to it every time I feel like a… Read more »
My partner thinks Dark Souls is easy, so I’m not even sure what’s hard anymore.
I personally like games where the challenge is figuring out what to do, not doing it. If the issue is that my hands aren’t moving fast enough or I’m not aiming quite right, I will throw the game through a window. Once I have a workable strategy, I want the game to do any fiddly bits for me. Turn-based games all the way.
You missed Escape from Tarkov
Liking hard games is very subjective. I love RogueTech because it is an absolutely punishing game and you either learn from your mistakes or you continue to fail. Others play RT long enough to get roflstomped and then give up because “it’s impossible!” even though plenty of people find it not at all impossible. My first play through lasted no time at all because I got absolutely ruined. Challenge accepted. 😀
On the other hand I’m absolute rubbish at FPS style games and don’t enjoy playing extremely hard and/or punishing ones.
Why is he dressed like magneto?
Apparently it’s a reference to X-Men First Class where Mystique is showing Magneto various forms, then her true one. Someone had to explain it to me too!
You are a Gaming Masochist, and that’s OK. We still accept you.
My group tried it a couple years ago as a 3-man because my wife doesn’t like scary games.
HA HA HA HA. We got the F in GTFO, hard.
I am probably dumb, but I don’t get the joke about the guy dressing as Magneto.
I grabbed this to play with my brother and his friends a few years ago, on the second rundown I think. There was a map where we had to open a vault door which sounded an alarm, summoning a literally infinite horde for something like fifteen minutes. The only way we managed to beat it was by kiting the mobs for the duration of the alarm, doing our best not to lead them into each other, and even that was a highly chancy affair, particularly in the cleanup, and just getting to the door was a bit of a mission… Read more »
I don’t mind hard games. But I hate when the game doesn’t respect players time. A difficult boss where the player has to learn how to beat it and each death means only resetting the fight? Bring it on! A game where after 20 minutes of navigating through the level there’s suddenly a tough bossfight with no checkpoint before it? Bad design. Bad design to have to repeat the whole dungeon only to progress the boss. Looking at you, final level of Vermintide 2 Drachenfels DLC!
The worst part of most PVE games is low difficulty. Devs expect us to have fun beating enemies easily, yet it makes the game content be passed too fast, so then devs add grind into the mix, killing all the fun (warframe any1?). Hard games can be way less repetative cause you’ll succeed less.
What’s the point in playing if you know you’ll win anyway?