One would think that a third-person shooter would be more forgiving than afirst-person shooter. After all, players get a wider perspective and more time to react to threats. But for certain games, the opposite is true. Third-person shooters can be just as difficult or even more so, compared to their first-person counterparts.
RELATED:Great PS Vita Shooters Worth Revisiting
That’s because plenty of horror games are set in the third-person so that players can see more and be more afraid. Granted, not all of them are set in the horror genre. Somethird-person shootersare simply made of sterner stuff. That’s why it’s best not to underestimate the following titles.
Dead Spacewas such a horror cornerstone that it easily deserved a high-quality remake which is coming out in 2023, thankfully. It was a unique idea that combined several successful genres and mechanics such asResident Evil’s sluggish gunplay andAlien’s space horror.
The result was a frightening and traumatic experience that will keep players on their toes. PlayingDead Spacefor the first time will often result in numerous panicked deaths. Moreover, it also has some survival elements. For example, ammunition is scarce so players will need to be conservative with their guns, further compounding the game’s difficulty.
7PUBG: Battlegrounds
PUBGmight not be the battle royale powerhouse it once was, but it still holds an important spot in gaming as a genre pioneer. Still, it’s easy to see why a lot more players prefer alternatives suchasFortniteorApex.PUBG’s insistence on being a semi-simulation andadherence to realismmakes the learning curve much higher.
RELATED:Strongest Sharpshooters In Anime
Third-person movement can feel stiff, especially for people used to more agile animations and frames. Moreover, the nature of the gameplay loop itself means players usually don’t always win. Fighting against 99 other players in a king-of-the-hill match typically yields low chances of success.
6Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrowis primarily a stealth-action game, but it does give players the chance to shoot silently as an elite spy and covert ops veteran, Sam Fisher. What makes it difficult compared to the succeedingSplinter Cellgames is how it often prefers a path for players.
Deviating from said paths or lateral thinking and improvisation can often result in Sam Fisher getting killed or ruining his stealth run. By comparison, the newerSplinter Cellgames gave players more freedom.Pandora Tomorrowoften tasks players with finding the ideal gameplay avenue throughtrial and errorto see which one the game prefers.
5Control
Controlwas one of the oddest sleeper hits of 2019 and this underrated gem follows the story of a janitor named Jesse who suddenly got promoted to an executive and now has to find her kidnapped brother inside her own office. It’s a lot more serious than it sounds, okay?
RELATED:Harrowing Military Shooter Games
In any case, Jesse’s escapades in this Kafkaesque environment are mired with difficulties both in story and gameplay. Despite having some cool supernatural powers, her enemies are just as formidable. Most combat encounters inControlwill throw swarms of enemies at Jesse. Coupled with some unforgiving checkpoints, it’s easy to see why players often quit and complain.
4Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Resident Evil: Code Veronicaholds a special spot in many fans' hearts. It’s among the most unanimously considered difficultResident Evilgames in existence, perhaps surpassed only byOutbreak(but that’s due to poor AI).Code Veronica’s difficulty spikes are deliberate attempts by developers to turn the players' lives into a gauntlet of hell.
In-game, there’s a crippling scarcity of ammo and healing items paired with too many fetch puzzles. The map design was also tediously designed, forcing players to go from end to end just to place key items. Running past enemies is also tougher here since they seem to have an unfair grab range compared to otherResident Evilgames.
3Remnant: From The Ashes
WhenRemnant: From the Asheswas released back in 2019, it quickly earned a notorious reputation as “Dark Soulswith guns.” The game might not be as difficult as its prime genre inspiration, but this Soulslike game was well-noted for its lack of explanations or instructions for its important mechanics.
RELATED:Best Co-Op Twin Stick Shooters, Ranked
At release, the game didn’t explicitly tell players how its level adjustment system works. Thus, it’s easy to ruin or handicap a playthrough by committing upgrades blindly, unlike in games likeDark Souls. Of course, the enemies and boss fights themselves are just as brutal. It’s a Soulslike game, after all.
2Returnal
One would think thatReturnalwould make itself more accessible to a wider range of audiences on the consoles since it’s one of the first few PlayStation 5 exclusives, but it chose to be a Roguelike game. That dip into the genre immediately gaveReturnalan infamous shade, and those who decided to bite the bullet and play the pretty and shinyPS5 exclusivewere in for a cruel surprise.
In true Roguelike fashion,Returnalmade newbies quit due to the overbearing difficulty and having to restart all over again upon death.Returnaldoes have its strong points since it seamlessly ties its intriguing sci-fi plot into its gameplay, but the Roguelike mechanics can be a bit too much for many people.
1Risk Of Rain 2
The first game could also count here, butRisk of Rain 2has better graphics and more frenetic gameplay. It’s close enough toReturnalsince this one is also a Roguelike game. The big difference is that enemies scale in difficulty based on the player’s items, so if players don’t build their characters to be overpowered through passive stacking, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
In fact, a lot of players end up leavingRisk of Rain 2after being unable to handle the difficulty spikes and the Roguelike mechanics. Don’t be fooled by the vibrant graphics,Risk of Rain 2is a nerve-wracking bullet hell game that demands ingenuity and a metric ton of perseverance from players.
