Summary
Horror as a genre of gaming is such a broad concept, encapsulatingvisual novels, intense action games, co-op “comedy” games, and everything in between. Even if a player prefers a laid-back casual horror experience, most would admit that intense action and combat have become staples of triple-A horror games.
This list looks at 8 horror titles with the most difficult combat, whether that difficulty comes from strict resource management, incredibly tight timing restrictions, or simply being unable to fight the horrible forces bearing down on the player. Each game provides its own challenge in combat and will offer many gamers a hard time for at least one playthrough.
PlacingOutlaston this list is kind of cheating, considering the only choice in combat is to flee, but it is hard to argue that this system doesn’t make for impossibly difficult combat. The player has to outrun, hide, and outlast the horrors chasing them, which makes for an exhilarating feeling of terror every time it happens.
Similarly to the next entry on this list, stealth is the best approach to this game, avoiding combat at all costs. However, there are some sections where this simply isn’t possible, and there isn’t a feeling like being chased while doing everything possible to duck, dodge, weave, and escape.
In a similar vein toOutlast,Alien: Isolationhas an emphasis on stealth, thanks to the immortal Xenomorph stalking the player for the game’s duration.Alien: Isolation, however, does have more traditional combat elements, with the main character acquiring weapons that are used to fight other humans and androids around the space station.
The difficulty in this is attempting to conserve ammunition, as it is painfully scarce, as well as avoiding drawing attention to a scuffle with the tanky androids, as each gunshot draws the Xenomorph closer.Alien: Isolationsuccessfully makes going into combat a difficult decision, as the player can easily be overwhelmed by enemies, run out of ammo, or force an encounter with their terrifying predator.
WhileResident Evil 4may not be the most difficult entry in the series (most of those spots are reserved for the somewhat niche spin-off games), it is the perfect onboarding game for many gamers and will be many new fans' first experience with the newResident Evilcombat style. It takes the third-person perspective from the previous two remakes in the series, as well as the puzzle-solving and challenging bosses to make a simultaneously engaging and oftentimes difficult time.
The real difficulty inResident Evil 4, as is the case with many entries in the franchise, is the strict resource management, becoming progressively more restrictive as the player increases the game’s difficulty level. While some of the later sequences in the game can become a bit too cinematic action-focused,the boss fights can be a painful slough if the player isn’t careful with their ammo conservation.
Most gamers will not think of theAlan Wakegames when thinking about “difficult combat”.However, the combat systems in place can be rather punishing while getting to grips with them. As is a staple in the survival horror genre, resource management is a requirement, conserving both ammunition and batteries for a flashlight, without which the game’s combat is impossible.
Alan Wakerequires the player to bathe enemies in light before being able to shoot them, which can be an intense challenge when feeling overwhelmed by the dark monsters that plague Alan Wake and is made more so when needing to desperately conserve power to overcome the horde.
The Evil Withincan be a pretty difficult game by default, requiring the same resource management and precision shooting asResident Evil, with even scarcer ammunition. In light of this, stealth kills are the player’s best friend, allowing for quick and easy kills that avoid wasted ammo and getting into melee combat (which is essentially used only to make space between the player and their enemies).
The real insane difficulty inThe Evil Withincomes in the form of AKUMU mode, a difficulty setting available once the player has beaten the game on Survival difficulty. AKUMU adds one specific modifier to the game that greatly increases the difficulty of all combat: every single enemy will kill the player in 1 single hit. It is brutal and makes the already required combat efficiency vital.
Not every game on this list is a third-person survival horror, but it would be incomplete without the inclusion of the seminal sci-fi horror game,Dead Space.With an incredible remake released in 2023, many gamers were reminded of just how difficultDead Spacecan be, on top of its absolutely brutal gore and atmospheric dread.
To kill the Necromorphs plaguing the Ishimura, the player must be incredibly accurate, dismembering the monsters with precise usage of a plasma cutter. Unlike most horror games, a shot to the head is not this game’s skeleton key to success, and the player will likely spend some time figuring out the best way to kill each creature. While this process is taking place, they will no doubt die over and over, in various gory ways, and all of this is simply to overcome the standard enemies. The boss fights are another beast entirely.
Darkwoodis an interesting entry on the list, as essentially a top-down base defense game. In the day, the player must scavenge and buy all they can to barricade and trap their base, before the night falls, and they are forced to defend themselves with everything they can find, praying to make it through the night. If they do, congratulations! Do it again, and again, unlocking new areas to scavenge, and gaining a reputation with vendors to buy more expensive defenses.
On higher difficulties, this game becomes a roguelike, turning from “Oh death just means no resources for the new day” to “Death is permanent, restart the game”, which can be brutal.Darkwoodis a surprisingly hard game, with a great story that simply requires some tenacity and trial-and-error to eventually overcome.
No list of games with difficult combat would be complete without an entry from FromSoftware, andBloodborneis this list’s pick. As a gothic horror-inspired adventure,Bloodbornedoes as the Souls-like genre is known to do and forces the player to “get good or die trying”. Unlike theDark Soulsgames, however,Bloodbornehas no shields and very little armor. The player is instead able to recuperate lost health by attacking enemies, forcing them into a much faster and more aggressive playstyle.
To match this, enemies are faster, hit harder, and leave much less breathing room. The player must get to grips with the complex combat system, chaining light and heavy attacks, dodge rolls, weapon transformations, and parries to overcome the eldritch monstrosities that plague the city of Yharnam.
