Challenging games from indie developers can be quite addictive. They may not have the same budget or mainstream appeal as well-known games from popular publishers, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be just as fun and entertaining. The overpowering need to beat a brutal eldritch boss or navigate an unfair set of spiked platforms can provoke a powerful catharsis upon our victory. Whether we’re in it for the chemical high of success or well-earned bragging rights, indie games can offer that memorable experience that many triple-A studios are afraid to attempt.
So whether we’ve mastered our favorite roguelike or are too intimidated to know where to start, getting into another challenging indie game is our best bet for satisfying that difficulty itch. And luckily, the vast boom of souls-likes and platformers means we’re sure to find a few titles that make the cut.
Bottom Line Up Front: Try Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies for challenging, well-polished narratives and gameplay. Gamers that prefer roguelikes should instead try Dead Cells and the Binding of Issac: Rebirth for infinitely replayable experiences.
Selection Criteria
Before we begin selecting challenging indie games, let’s lay out a few ground rules to sort out our list. While everyone’s definition of what constitutes a “challenge” varies, we can generally limit our search to games that define themselves as challenging with brutal combat or gameplay. Likewise, we’ll stick to games with a strenuous default difficulty rather than titles with alternative options (ie easy, medium, hard, nightmare). So henceforth, our selection criteria are as follows:
- The default difficulty is hard. While there may be several options to ease the game’s bosses and enemies, these alternatives exist as part of the game’s mechanics (ie wielding a greatsword or collecting health extensions). If we want to make the game easier, we’ll have to achieve it within the game’s mechanics rather than adjusting a difficulty slider.
- Challenge derives from combat and or platforming. We’ll limit our definition of “challenging” gameplay to games that test us with brutal combat and or unforgiving platforming to ensure the game’s fun to play. These two mechanics are generally a staple of challenging games and offer harrowing experiences with plenty of room for mastery.
- All games selected should have a 70% aggregate rating or higher on Metacritic.
- Indie title with a distinct identity and premise.
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Slay the Spire
- Developer: Mega Crit Games
- Genre: Roguelike Deckbuilder
- Metacritic Score: 89
One of the more challenging card games to date, Slay the Spire knocks it out of the park with fantastic encounters, wacky enemies, and a fun variety of playstyles. For our part, we play one of 4 battle-hardened loners on a quest to reach the top of a magical spire brimming with thieves, monsters, and machines. While the story generally falls to the wayside of the game’s addictive gameplay, beating the game’s secret ending with each character can lead to rewarding, almost tear-jerking moments after hours of consecutive deaths.
The actual difficulty of Slay the Spire lies in its multifaceted, unforgiving gameplay. Characters don’t heal to full after combat encounters, and we’ll have to carefully manage our health, gold, and deck if we want to survive and succeed. Luckily while we’re generally at the mercy of RNG, learning the synergies between each character’s playstyle and unlocking new cards and relics can give us an edge over the brutal gameplay. Instead of honorably fighting two giant donut-sized bosses, we can abuse synergies to fling endless amounts of shivs at our foes or turn ourselves intangible to take nearly zero damage.
Although I loved Slay the Spire’s challenging gameplay, its nature as a deck builder can turn off players intimated by the sheer amount of math, cards, and enemy types they’ll need to learn to get good. Still, it’s an incredibly addictive game that only gets better the more we play, so it still earns its spot at 10th place on the list.
Overall, if you like deck builders or are looking for a challenging but fair introduction to the genre, Slay the Spire is the game for you. Just beware of the game’s maliciously addictive ascension challenge modes; once you start challenging yourself, it’s painstaking to stop.
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Salt and Sanctuary
- Developer: Ska Studios
- Genre: Soulslike Metroidvania
- Metacritic Score: 84
A true homage to all things Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary is a 2D Metroidvania with challenging gameplay, a dreary world, and bosses brutal enough to satiate soulsborne veterans. We play as a marooned sailor on a quest to save a princess and escape an evil island. While the limited dialogue, characters, and plot can make the story feel meager, I appreciated Salt and Sanctuary’s oppressive environmental storytelling as we slowly succumb to the island’s evil.
Salt and Sanctuary’s gameplay delights in punishing new players. The mixture of platforming, enemy placement, and environmental hazards won’t hesitate to end our journey and bring our progress to a standstill. Still, after we learn the ropes of combat, find a handy weapon, and get a feel for movement, we’ll find ourselves slaying eldritch monsters in no time.
While Salt and Sanctuary offers an excellent RPG experience with attractive replay value, its small world and often clunky combat and platforming can disappoint players looking for a polished, seemingly endless world like Hollow Knight. Still, the game’s bleak world and fun builds deliver enough intrigue for those interested, so it still earns its spot at 9th place on the list.
In total, if you enjoy 2D hack and slash soulslikes with brutal combat and dreary worlds, you’ll love the challenge Salt and Sanctuary has to offer.
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Cruelty Squad
- Developer: Consumer Softproducts
- Genre: Grotesque FPS/Immersive Sim
- Metacritic Score: 89
A satirical take on cyberpunk dystopias and hypercapitalism, Cruelty Squad is an unflinching FPS designed to frustrate our eyes, minds, and bank accounts. For our part, we play as a corporate assassin tasked with eliminating religious fanatics, corporate warlords, our landlord, and other evil miscreants. While a first glance at its disgusting graphics can be enough to dissuade most players, taking time to dissect its world rewards us with stunning, darkly humorous set pieces.
Besides the house built of toy action figures and a capitalist eldritch horror, Cruelty Squads’ gameplay is brutally unforgiving. Most foes gun us down within seconds of spotting us, and dying several times turns us into an automated flesh puppet. Even if we abuse the highly profitable organ and fish black market to purchase more powerful implants, these upgrades often come with horrible downsides like spamming us with ads or reducing our vision to a small oval. And yet, if we can leverage these systems and master the organ grappling hook, we’ll discover a well-built game brimming with excellent level design and combat flow.
Unfortunately, the sheer difficulty towards the game’s end can lead to a few repetitive, painful scenarios with an ultimately unrewarding conclusion. While I still enjoyed Cruelty Squad’s hilarious dialogue and visual revulsion, the lackluster design at the game’s end was enough to push this to the 8th place position on the list.
Overall, if we’re looking for a unique game emphasizing dark humor and futuristic dystopia tropes, we’ll find ourselves welcome in the cold, cruel, uncaring embrace of Cruelty Squad.
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Dead Cells
- Developer: Motion Twin
- Genre: Roguelike Hack-and-Slash
- Metacritic Score: 89
Violent, cathartic, and vastly enjoyable, Dead Cells is a 2D action-adventure roguelike with top-notch gameplay and no manners. We play the role of an infinitely respawning parasitic blob on a quest to save a ruined kingdom from the grasp of the deadly malaise. While the story takes a backseat to the game’s incredible gameplay, it’s enough to reward our vicious struggle with hilarious finger-flipping and good-natured curb stomping.
Gameplay-wise, Dead Cells knocks it out of the park with its hack-and-slash combat against its mutated denizens. The expansive selection of weapons, perks, and enemies ensures a uniquely challenging experience for each run, and the availability of new tools guarantees a perpetually expanding adventure. While I struggled with the latter portions of the game, especially when more challenging foes began spawning in earlier levels, the combat is fair enough to reward players that ascribe to perfecting their parry and dodge abilities.
Although the repetitive environments and unfair difficulty towards the game’s conclusion damaged my final impression of Dead Cells, the overall experience from run to run was enough for me to place it at 7th place on the list. Though with the devs constantly adding new enemies, maps, and weapons, Dead Cells is likely to earn a more favorable impression from veteran players who keep returning for more.
In all, if we’re looking for a challenging 2D roguelike with greater emphasis on skill over RNG, Dead Cells is the perfect chance to test our mettle.
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The Binding of Issac: Rebirth
- Developer: Nicalis, Inc., Edmund McMillen
- Genre: Roguelike
- Metacritic Score: 86
Perhaps the most expansive roguelike to date, The Binding of Issac is a darkly humorous 2D bullet hell pitting a small boy against his evil mother and tortured mind. While there is a story (and a particularly sad one at that), we’ll have to shoot through hundreds of hours of demonic enemies, cruel bosses, and literal poop to finish it. Still, if you can learn to love the gross environments with slightly dated visuals, we’ll find an almost nauseating depth of gameplay mechanics and synergies to unleash on our enemies.
Regarding gameplay, The Binding of Issac thrives on its bullet hell and RNG. Even if we’re blessed with exceptionally good luck on one run, the game’s increasing difficulty culminates in bosses with complex attack patterns that demand our attention. Especially with characters like the Lost or the Keeper, which die after taking two hits, we’ll need to get good if we ever want to 100% the game.
Unfortunately, the Binding of Issac’s mechanics and visuals can feel somewhat repetitive after dozens of runs. While we’ll slowly unlock new content as we progress, it takes time to see tangible results. Still, despite its repetitive quality, I found myself enjoying Issac’s tortured psyche 100+ hours in and have to put this at 6th place on the list.
Overall, I recommend checking out The Binding of Issac if you thrive on challenging roguelikes, bullet hells, and vast gameplay mechanics. Although we’ll never really save Issac, we can enjoy his slow descent into madness as we conquer Satan, the Antichrist, and Issac’s mother.
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Cuphead
- Developer: Studio MDHR Entertainment Inc.
- Genre: Bullet Hell
- Metacritic Score: 86
A 2D Bullet Hell made as a homage to 1930s-style cartoons, Cuphead emulates the painfully hand-drawn animations that characterized Walt Disney Classics. We play the role of an animated cuphead turned debt collector determined to shoot, dodge, and blast our way to a clean slate. While the premise sounds simple, the sheer enemy variety, from talking plants to giant bees, renders our world into a bizarre creation ripped from the 1930s.
Although there’s much praise for Cuphead’s authentic visuals, the gameplay offers just as fine a complement to the game’s cartoon world. Fights are a 1 to 2-person match between an assortment of bosses and their lackeys. Victory means carefully memorizing the animation governing each foe’s attack patterns and figuring out how to react to the foe’s incoming bullets, appendages, or stray tears thirsty for broken cupheads. Though the first few foes go down easy enough, latter enemies present a nearly indomitable challenge for us to confront.
Despite its absurd challenge towards the end, Cuphead offers a unique take with its fascinating animation style. Though I found myself losing interest towards the very end, the general experience of Cuphead is pleasant enough to earn its 5th place on the list.
All in all, Cuphead offers a distinctly fascinating take on 2D bullet hells with gorgeous visuals and meticulous design. I advise checking out Cuphead if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind action adventure with a brutal challenge waiting at its end.
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Celeste
- Developer: Extremely OK Games, Ltd.
- Genre: Precision Platformer
- Metacritic Score: 88
One of the best challenging games to date, Celeste is a must for platformer and 2D action-adventure fans. This fantastic journey places us in the role of a young girl climbing a haunted mountain. Despite its simple premise, Celeste’s stunning visuals, levels, and music are enough to draw us in from the start.
In terms of gameplay, Celeste’s platforming is second to none. The highly reactive controls and well-designed levels succeed in teaching us the basics and then challenging us with more difficult gauntlets of terror as we progress. The gradual unlock of new abilities, and secret levels are well paced and placed for players looking to continue their adventure past the main game. Even if we struggle with a given level, Celeste’s assist mode is a fair solution to make the game more accessible without removing its challenge.
Although Celeste’s lack of violence may underwhelm players who prefer fighting over platforming, the game delivers an emotional narrative potent enough to make a hardened Dark Souls veteran cry. All in all, Celeste’s existence as a nearly perfect precision platformer earns its 4th place on the list.
Overall if you’re looking for a 2D platformer with gorgeous visuals, challenging gameplay, and a wholesome story, I wholeheartedly recommend Celeste.
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Blasphemous
- Developer: The Game Kitchen
- Genre: Soulslike Metroidvania
- Metacritic Score: 77
A visually revolting Metroidvania set in a theologically corrupted realm, Blasphemous is a darkly religious game designed to test and torture us. From insta- kill spikes to grotesque bosses, our penitent wanderer must endure every form of adversity to save Spanish-inspired Cvstodia from the grips of the malicious miracle. For those looking for a genuinely challenging 2D adventure with a rewarding story and payoff, Blasphesmous presents the perfect challenge for you.
Most of Blasphemous’ difficulty lies in its environmental hazards and enemy placement. While combat is no joke and a few bosses prove a particular challenge, after we master parrying, we’ll find ourselves gliding through most enemies and bosses with ease. Though I was never dissatisfied with fighting foes or exploring Cvstodia, dying several times over the same spikes can prove frustrating.
While some players may get turned off by the sheer difficulty, those looking for a rewarding test of challenge can delight in Blasphemous’ unique mixture of pain and pleasure. With its emphasis on challenge, pain, and determination, Blasphemous earns its 3rd place on the list.
In total, if you’re looking for a visually unique Metroidvania and are willing to put up with gory, tortured enemies, Blasphemous offers an incredible dark theological adventure. I advise discretion if you’re uncomfortable with graphic depictions of violence and torture; however, some of the enemies and execution are enough to make even hardcore horror gamers queasy.
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Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
- Developer: Live Wire, Adglobe
- Genre: Metroidvania
- Metacritic Score: 86%
A heartbreaking Metroidvania akin to Hollow Knight, Ender Lilies is a rightfully tragic 2D adventure. For our part, we take the role of a young girl tasked with purifying a destroyed kingdom from the grips of the malignant blight. While the game functions much like other Metroidvanias in terms of abilities, leveling, and exploration, its heartfelt story, and soothing music are enough to sell the uniquely sad adventure.
Gameplay-wise, Ender Lilies offers a unique set of spirits with visually distinct and mechanically satisfying attacks. Exploring the world and fighting foes to collect these spirits was a worthwhile adventure that never ceased to bore me. Even the uniquely challenging bosses are fairly built, and it felt fun to slowly learn their attack patterns and dismantle them bit by bit.
While I have to hand to Ender Lilies’s gripping story and challenging bosses, its mildly confusing design at the game’s end was enough to throw me off. Though Ender Lilies remains one of my favorite games of all time, the minor hiccup at its end was enough to put it to 2nd place on the list.
Overall, those looking for a superb Metroidvania with challenging gameplay complemented by moving music and story should try out this tear jerking experience.
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Hollow Knight
- Developer: Team Cherry
- Genre: Metroidvania Soulslike
- Metacritic Score: 87
A bug-themed adventure through a decaying kingdom, Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight has rightfully earned every ounce of praise for its wonderful hand-drawn world and engaging gameplay. Our role in the cutesy melancholic adventure is one of a mysterious knight on a quest to liberate their home from the clutches of a deadly plague. Beware of its cute exterior; Hollow Knight’s never afraid to test us with brutal bosses and sad narratives that leave us beaten and heartbroken.
Regarding gameplay, we employ a nail and a set of spells to hack and slash our way through foes. While limited, these combat options felt highly refined in the flow of combat, turning every enemy and boss encounter into a teaching challenge that escalates until we face down god itself at the game’s end. Besides its fun mechanics, the vast, visually distinctive world of Hollow Knight feels almost unending and offers rewarding loads of charms, upgrades, and lore for us to peruse at our leisure. While the game can take about 10 hours to beat, it can take well over a hundred hours to finish.
Hollow Knight delivers in every facet of game design. Its heartbreaking story, fantastic world, and addictive gameplay culminate in a final boss and unforgettable experience that earns its 1st place position on the list.
Overall, if you’re looking for a challenging indie game, Hollow Knight’s Path of Pain has answered the call and is ready to make you suffer.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few more games that didn’t make the mark, lacking either a high Metacritic score, comprehensively challenging gameplay, or other noteworthy features. For further challenging indie games, take a look at:
- Getting Over it
- Rain World
- Super Meat Boy
- Hyper Light Drifter
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- Spelunky
- Spelunky 2
- Undertale
- Risk of Rain 2
- Darkest Dungeon
- Darkwood
FAQs
Question: What’s the most challenging Indie game?
Answer: While differing player skills can make some games more challenging than others, Celeste’s extreme platforming humbles even the most veteran gamers. Though beating the game is easy enough, the vast set of secret modes and subsequent levels offer a trial by fire that sets most of us aflame.
Question: What’s the best challenging Indie game?
Answer: Hollow Knight’s stellar combination of gameplay, story, and combat makes it one of the best challenging Indie games to date. The game’s meticulously detailed world offers a vast set of challenges and narratives, culminating in a breathtaking finale.
Question: What’s the longest challenging Indie game?
Answer: Completing the Binding of Issac: Rebirth can take several hundred hours for even veteran players. The game requires us to achieve 12 distinct endings per each of the 11 characters to properly finish. However, characters that die in two or fewer hits, like the Lost, can prove problematic to beat even a single time.
Question: Why are many challenging Indie Games Soulslikes?
Answer: The success of Dark Souls’ death, difficulty, and bonfire system tend to translate well and offer enjoyable challenges for challenging indie games. Titles like Salt and Sanctuary, Hollow Knight, and Dead Cells enjoy taking inspiration from the hit game to tell exciting stories that take the FromSoft formula in their own distinct directions.
Conclusion
Challenging Indie games fulfill a unique niche. While triple-A games, excluding FromSoft titles, tend to offer players easier, unearned victories, Indie game developers aren’t afraid to devise cruel, immoral ways to torture us before we achieve that sweet, sweet victory screen.
Whether it’s Hollow Knight’s Path of Pain or Undertale’s San’s fight, these challenges offer one-of-a-kind opportunities to beat seemingly unbeatable odds and prove that nothing can keep us down.
Overall, we hope this list helped you find the right challenge for you. Good luck, gamers.
By Jerome Morris — A gamer geek fascinated by scripts and dialogues that turn a good game, into an amazing one. Freelance game writer, and dialogue fanatic currently working on developing experiences in the gaming industry
