It goes without saying that there is more than one type of gamer on earth. There are people who want to enjoy cute and lovely video games, but there are also people who only love horror games. Within the horror game genre, there are people who enjoy the difficulty, so the survival horror game genre is born. Those people love the classic feature of the horror game, which is fear, but regular fear from regular horror games is not enough for them. These people always hunt for the most difficult survival horror titles to play. If you are one of those people, then this article is for you.
Today, we bring you the top hardest survival horror titles from all platforms. You may ask us how we rate the difficulty of these titles. To be fair, it is hard to say because the personal experience toward a video game is not the same for everyone. The difficulty of the below video games can come from anything. It can be the weapon system, it can be the illogical control system, it can be the scary moments of the game. Since we cannot tell for sure, we rate this list according to the amount of time you need to spend on each title from start to finish.
Without further delay, let’s come down to our list right now.
FORBIDDEN SIREN
Release date: 2004
Platform: PS2
This could have been a great survival horror title as it introduced some unique features for games in this genre. But then, the difficulty of this game comes from the bugs and illogically hard quests and objectives of the game. Moreover, you get no hints from the game, so Forbidden Siren eventually makes you feel like playing a point and click title from the 1980s.
Not to mention, your enemies in the game is incredibly strong. They all have guns, so stealth is kinda the only option you have. Instant death is the punishment for not playing stealth in Forbidden Siren.
MANHUNT
Release date: 2003
Platform: PS2, PC, Xbox, Wii
If you think Forbidden Siren is a hard stealth game, then Manhunt will surely make you reconsider your opinion. This is a stealth game, but it has a lot of sloppy-made shooting quests. Those quests unimaginably increase the difficulty of this title. The enemies in the game never show any sign of mercy, they will hunt you down the moment you make the slightest noise. You see a chainsaw and you think it will be useful in the future so you take it. That logic can work in almost any game, but not in Manhunt. The moment you pick up that chainsaw, all of the mercenary team will do anything to take your life.
FATAL FRAME 2
Release date: 2003
Platform: PS2, PS3 , Xbox
Ahhh, the first game in the list that difficulty does not come from the mistakes of the developers. In Fatal Frame 2, you will be fighting against ghosts to exorcise them away with a camera. It sounds fun right. But if you truly look for struggles, then we suggest you try nightmare mode. This mode will make the enemies stronger, health items weaker to a point that you can easily be tilted. However, the mode does reward players with special features like some extra undercover files, some additional boss fights, and some more endings of the game.
F.E.A.R
Release date: 2005
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3 , PC
This is an FPS game with a lot of horror features in it. The title of the game – F.E.A.R – stands for First Encounter Assualt Recon, and elite team that you are a part of. You and your teammate will go to a secret mission with a lot of unknown factors waiting.
The thing is that F.E.A.R is only a true survival horror title in the Extreme mode of the game. In other modes, things are pretty easy and you can gun down your enemies while running. But in the Extreme mode, your enemies are much stronger, faster, and smarter. AI of this game is exceptionally good at teamwork in the Extreme mode, so you can never run and gun your enemies. They know every corner, flanking position, and they can form very professional team formations to take down all of your team.
THE EVIL WITHIN
Release date: 2014
Platform: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 , PC
This third-person shooter title has Akuma mode, and that mode brings us the definition of perfect gameplay in the survival horror genre. Hard games always have Nightmare mode or something similar. In those modes, you can be killed with one hit only, but at least the game will send you back to your checkpoints. However, in the Akuma mode, you will be sent to the beginning of the game once you die. That means you have to be absolutely perfect in the Akuma mode.
The Evil Within is a stealth game, and it will punish you will waves of zombies if you fail your stealth. If you look for perfect gameplay in the survival horror genre, Akuma mode of The Evil Within is your answer.
BLOODBORNE
Release date: 2015
Platform: PS4
From the creator of 2019’s Game of the Year, Bloodborne is a soul game exclusively for the PS4 platform. The difficulty of this game comes from classic features of the soul game genre: unknown areas, extremely strong creeps and bosses, lack of health items … However, Bloodborne does have some iconic features of its own.
First of all, the combat style of Bloodborne is much faster and much more aggressive than the Dark Soul series. And the second thing is that the bosses of Bloodborne are extremely smart and fast. Yes, one hit from them still can take away 1/3 of your health bar, but imagine they can do it so fast that a full combo from them likely means instant death for you. Not believing us? Try the game for yourself. When you encounter Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower or Father Gascoigne, you understand us.
RESIDENT EVIL REMASTER
Release date: 2015
Platform: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 , PC
The first Resident Evil is a hard game, no doubt about that. If you want to beat the game, you have to control your tank, manage your ammo, and try not to freak out when opening any doors. But the remastered title has brought the difficulty to a new level. The Resident Evil Remaster keeps all the iconic features, but the developer decided to give AI a whole new level of intelligence. Moreover, ammo management is harder in the remastered title, since the enemies can evade your shots like the pro CS:GO gamers. To be fair, this is the most easily tilted title in our list today.
SILENT HILL 3
Release date: 2003
Platform: PS2, PC
Oh damn. This game is a true pain in the ass. Trust us. If you still want to love the survival horror game genre, don’t play this game. Silent Hill 3 offer its players two types of difficulty: a combat and gameplay difficulty, and a riddle difficulty. The tough combat and gameplay mode is quite the same as what we have from other survival horror titles, but the riddle mode is a true pain in the ass.
This mode will require tons of specific knowledge, and the puzzles are carefully designed so that there is absolutely no way for you to get through them with just wild guesses and blind luck. One of the most memorable challenges we have encountered in Silent Hill 3 is a challenge about Shakespeare, and the only way to get through it is to have an exceptional knowledge about Shakespeare’s work.
Moreover, after Hard mode, you will have 10 more levels of hardness in extreme mode. If you choose the riddle mode and you can finish Extreme 10 of the game without using Google, you can consider joining “Who Will Be A Millionaire” gameshow to make one million for yourself.