Vote For The Hardest Game: Isaac, Dead Cells, or Enter the Gungeon?

[PurpleCryptidOutbreak]

In my gaming experience i would say Isaac comes out at top as the hardest to 100% complete with all the achievements. I would never recommend this game to someone new to video games even thou it's my 2nd fav game (thou i'm not good at it). I do think they are all similar in difficulty overall it's just the amount of time to 100% completion is longer here . gungeon is a great game too and you have more space to maneuver in when fighting bosses and enemies which changes the bullet hell dynamic.

[JellyPuff]

Difficulty is subjective, but i vote for Enter the Gungeon. It's difficulty is also the most genuine. Relying on unlocks, to eventually brute-force success isn't necessarily a bad thing (Rogue Legacy and Hades use this design-philosophy very well), but it's also nice to play a game, where you get a good sense of getting better at the game.

[PurpleCryptidOutbreak]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Difficulty is subjective, but i vote for Enter the Gungeon. It's difficulty is also the most genuine. Relying on unlocks, to eventually brute-force success isn't necessarily a bad thing (Rogue Legacy and Hades use this design-philosophy very well), but it's also nice to play a game, where you get a good sense of getting better at the game.

Aye I never know if it's the items that got me the win or if i just got better at the game. But I've only completed half the achievements/items in the game. My biggest gripe with Isaac is all the items that don't do much for the run and are as good as an empty pedestal. The more items are added the harder it is to get what you want. I have heard it is easier to do the challenges in a certain order so that you can add powerful items to your item pool and not dilute it until the end when you have too.

[squat_instructor]

Out of your whopping list of 3 things I can only compare it to DC, since I never cared about EtG, which is certainly more difficult but it's not a type of difficulty I personally find compelling - it's more about practicing to get better, doing no-hit bossfights, learning tight timings etc.

I'd say Isaac sits on the lower part of difficulty spectrum when it comes to peers but that's not the main appeal. With Isaac it's more about items/characters/challenges quantity and sheer amount of built-in synergy (I am amazed how someone actually managed to code and maintain it through the years). To succeed consistently you need to know how to squeeze every nook and cranny for that little bit of advantage: an extra coin here, a bit of health there, some obscure combos/interactions for extra items/pickups. You can be a god gamer on adderall and dodge like crazy but at the end of the day you gotta know how to abuse everything you see and THAT is what attracts me the most. Difficulty is welcome of course, but it's secondary. It's also aimed at completionist dopamine junkies (I am definitely one of those) with the amount of unlocks it has.

[Rio]

You can cheese almost anything in isaac with remote play. And you should do so, with the tainted characters like tainted lost and tainted jacob.

Gungeon's difficulty went out the window once rainbow chest mode got added.

[Dr. Curien]

Nuclear Throne.

[Eprico]

Isaac for sure. Dead cells feels unfair at times, gungeon is literally just about mechanical skill getting lucky with your guns, no game knowledge needed. I have the least experience with dead cells but if it feels unfair then I won't count it

[twoxsp]

Fistful of frags