History NintendoHard / FirstPersonShooter

*** And if ''that's'' not enough, beating the game will unlock the [[HarderThanHard Mein Leiben]] difficulty. If you start a new game on Mein Leben, you will need to beat the entire campaign without any checkpoints or saves throughout your entire run. You will have to restart the game from the beginning if you die at any time, and a single mook in this difficulty can kill you without much effort.

** Once you've finally mastered ''Eternal'', its DLC ''The Ancient Gods'' is there to smack you in the face the moment you round the corner; enemy combinations that were deemed too difficult for the main campaign are very much present, traps and environmental hazards are far more prevalent, combat encounters are often designed to minimize any sort of breathing room (such as making you fight a Tyrant in a small and narrow hallway), and the Spirits in particular can turn a normal heavy demon into effectively a mini-boss.

** And then we have ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', which qualifies solidly for Nintendo Hard status. Right out the gates the game is brutal and punishing even on Hurt Me Plenty, [[SequelDifficultySpike taking every element of challenge that the previous title offered]] and cranking it UpToEleven. It takes a few pages out of the ''[=DooM=] II'' playbook and adds [[DemonicSpiders powerful new enemies]] (many of them returning from ''[=DooM=] II'', unsurprisingly, like the Arachnotrons (which are introduced in '''''the very first level''''') and Arch-Viles), and puts you in much more dangerous mobs with more and stronger demons, this time now with lower ammunition caps and scarcer resources. You're forced to micromanage way more as more specific weapons and abilities are needed in order to stop the wider variety of enemies and get resources from the lesser minions all while not getting hit as you try to keep your focus, and that's only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of heightened skill you'll need to make any progress, much less see the end of the game.

** The ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' mod tweaks enemy behavior to make them smarter, stronger and more aggressive (Cacodemons can strafe quickly to dodge projectiles, Imps have faster fireballs and have a leaping slash melee attack, Cyberdemons fire five rockets instead of three, Spectres are ''completely'' invisible except for their eyes, only becoming visible when they attack.) Reloading is also added, now requiring the player to monitor how full their magazines are so they don't get caught reloading at a crucial moment (and keep in mind that this is on maps balanced specifically for BottomlessMagazines). Though there are some things to help make it easier as well: Secondary fire for most weapons, [[FinishingMove executions]] rendering the player invulnerable temporarily and restoring health, the pistol being replaced with a far more useful assault rifle, and HitScan being replaced with [[EveryBulletIsATracer projectiles]].

** In ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', the enemies use HitScan attacks, do tremendous damage, and can be [[ArtificialBrilliance surprisingly sneaky]], tend to be placed in ambush positions, and ''[[FriendlyFireproof shoot through each other]]''. You open a door, and there are a few [[DemonicSpiders SS]] in the room beyond. You try to fight them on equal ground and you get mown down. Reload. You open the door and try to catch them as [[ArtificialStupidity they file through the door]]. The room actually has two entrances, so one of them comes around through the other door and flanks you. Reload. This time you open the door and one of the SS [[RandomNumberGod rolls a near-instant reaction]] and [[HitboxDissonance shoots you THROUGH THE DOOR before it is fully open]]. Reload. You manage to get them through the chokepoint and kill them all. BUT! It turns out MORE guards were alerted in another part of the level and one sneaks up from behind and kills you. Hope you like SaveScumming.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/DoomIIHellOnEarth'' might not seem like these to modern audiences used to the current standard of mouse and keyboard controls and heavy use of the [[SaveScumming quicksave]] feature. But back then it wasn't uncommon to play with keyboard only setups since the mouse controls at the time were very awkward without third party hacks. Also, the "official" way to play the game ([[WordOfGod according to]] map designer Sandy Petersen) was to forgo mid-level saving and to restart the level with only the pistol on death, a phenomenon that would be known among the later community as the "pistol start" method. Both of these semi-official [[SelfImposedChallenge Self Imposed Challenges]] brought out a lot of the difficulty inherent in classic ''Doom''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'' might not seem like these to modern audiences used to the current standard of mouse and keyboard controls and heavy use of the [[SaveScumming quicksave]] feature. But back then it wasn't uncommon to play with keyboard only setups since the mouse controls at the time were very awkward without third party hacks. Also, the "official" way to play the game ([[WordOfGod according to]] map designer Sandy Petersen) was to forgo mid-level saving and to restart the level with only the pistol on death, a phenomenon that would be known among the later community as the "pistol start" method. Both of these semi-official [[SelfImposedChallenge Self Imposed Challenges]] brought out a lot of the difficulty inherent in classic ''Doom''.

* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'' qualifies, especially on harder difficulties. Your weapons are realistically accurate, which means they have a limited effective range, you can't take much damaged and the AI is both intelligent and accurate. The only effective way to take on more than one enemy at a time is to suppress and then flank them, but be careful, because there's often more than one group of enemies around, so they're trying to do the same thing to you, and if you catch a stray round while moving, that's it. The endgame, where all the enemies are armed with the accurate and powerful STG 44 Assault Rifle, is downright murderous if you make a mistake.

** And then we have ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', which qualifies solidly for Nintendo Hard status. Right out the gates the game is brutal and punishing even on Hurt Me Plenty, taking every element of challenge that the previous title offered and cranking it UpToEleven. It takes a few pages out of the ''[=DooM=] II'' playbook and adds [[DemonicSpiders powerful new enemies]] (many of them returning from ''[=DooM=] II'', unsurprisingly, like the Arachnotrons (which are introduced in '''''the very first level''''') and Arch-Viles), and puts you in much more dangerous mobs with more and stronger demons, this time now with lower ammunition caps and scarcer resources. You're forced to micromanage way more as more specific weapons and abilities are needed in order to stop the wider variety of enemies and get resources from the lesser minions all while not getting hit as you try to keep your focus, and that's only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of heightened skill you'll need to make any progress, much less see the end of the game.

** ''The Plutonia Experiment'', which forms half of the ''Final Doom'' expansion, is legendary in this regard. Dario Casali, one of the two level designers on it, stated that he would play through a level on hard, and if he could beat it too easily, would crank up the difficulty level. The end result: levels are absolutely flooded with hundreds, if not thousands of enemies that will chew you up immediately. [[BrutalBonusLevel "Go 2 It"]] is particularly infamous, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCGeNNvG0Z4 for reasons that should be readily obvious.]] There's a good reason why it took ''19 years'' for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUBUYWIZUpE someone to clear it in a single-segment on Nightmare difficulty.]]

** And then we have ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', which qualifies solidly for Nintendo Hard status. Right out the gates the game is brutal and punishing even on Hurt Me Plenty, taking every element of challenge that the previous title offered and cranking it UpToEleven. It takes a few pages out of the ''[=DooM=] II'' playbook and adds [[DemonicSpiders powerful new enemies]] (many of them returning from ''[=DooM=] II, unsurprisingly, like the Arachnotrons (which are introduced in '''''the very first level''''') and Arch-Viles), and puts you in much more dangerous mobs with more and stronger demons, this time now with lower ammunition caps and scarcer resources. You're forced to micromanage way more as more specific weapons and abilities are needed in order to stop the wider variety of enemies and get resources from the lesser minions all while not getting hit as you try to keep your focus, and that's only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of heightened skill you'll need to make any progress, much less see the end of the game.

** And then we have ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', which qualifies solidly for Nintendo Hard status. Right out the gates the game is brutal and punishing even on Hurt Me Plenty, taking every element of challenge that the previous title offered and cranking it UpToEleven. It takes a few pages out of the ''DOOM II'' playbook and adds [[DemonicSpiders powerful new enemies]] (many of them taken from D2, unsurprisingly), and puts you in much more dangerous mobs with more and stronger demons, this time now with lower ammunition caps and scarcer resources. You're forced to micromanage way more as more specific weapons and abilities are needed in order to stop the wider variety of enemies and get resources from the lesser minions all while not getting hit as you try to keep your focus, and that's only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of heightened skill you'll need to make any progress, much less see the end of the game.

** The ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' mod tweaks enemy behavior to make them smarter, stronger and more aggressive (Cacodemons can strafe quickly to dodge projectiles, Imps have faster fireballs and have a leaping slash melee attack, Cyberdemons fire five rockets instead of three, Spectres are ''completely'' invisible except for their eyes, only becoming visible when they attack.) Reloading is also added, now requiring the player to monitor how full their magazines are so they don't get caught reloading at a crucial moment (and keep in mind that this is on maps balanced specifically for BottomlessMagazines). Though there are some things to help make it easier as well. On top of added secondary fire for most weapons, Berserk packs now allow the player to make [[FinishingMove executions]] which, on top of being [[{{Gorn}} bloody and ultraviolent]], render the player immune to damage for the duration and restore health, and the dinky pistol is replaced with a far more useful assault rifle. Finally, HitScan for the ballistic weapons is removed, and EveryBulletIsATracer, making open space combat more manageable (and fun).

** ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' brings back Nightmare mode, this time as a legitimate challenge rather than the twisted [[UnwinnableJokeGame joke mode]] of the originals. It lives up to the name and this trope, notably in the later levels. But if you really want a cruel joke, there's [[HarderThanHard Ultra Nightmare]] which is Nightmare but with {{Permadeath}} - yep, your save file is deleted upon death. And the demons are at their maximum ferocity; there's a good reason most of the death helmets you'll find are in the ''very first combat area'', and there's an achievement just for beating ''the very first level''.
** And then we have ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', which qualifies solidly for Nintendo Hard status. Right out the gates the game is brutal and punishing even on Hurt Me Plenty, taking every element of challenge that the previous title offered and cranking it UpToEleven. It takes a few pages out of the ''DOOM II'' playbook and adds powerful new enemies (many of them taken from D2, unsurprisingly), and puts you in much more dangerous mobs with more and stronger demons, this time now with lower ammunition caps and scarcer resources. You're forced to micromanage way more as more specific weapons and abilities are needed in order to stop the wider variety of enemies and get resources from the lesser minions all while not getting hit as you try to keep your focus, and that's only the tip of the iceberg of the kind of heightened skill you'll need to make any progress, much less see the end of the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'' aren't particularly easy games to begin with, due to a frantic pace, mountains of enemies with hitscan weapons, and confusing, mazelike levels. While they're not quite NintendoHard in and of themselves, the series has plenty of challenges that can qualify:
** [[HarderThanHard "Nightmare!"]] difficulty borders on being an UnwinnableJokeGame, as it was added post-launch as [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor a response to everyone who thought "Ultra-Violence" was too easy.]] As such, [[NoFairCheating cheat codes are disabled,]], levels are packed with enemies that constantly respawn after being killed and go super fast, and item placements are frequently changed to be as sadistic to get as possible. The only positive is that the game [[HardModePerks grants double ammo]], but that's only because it makes sure you'll absolutely need everything you can get. It is ''possible'', and plenty of people have managed to SpeedRun it, but there's a good reason why the game warns the player before picking it that it's completely unfair.
** The "Thy Flesh Consumed" episode included with the game's retail release, ''The Ultimate Doom'' is brutal even on Hurt me Plenty or Ultra-Violence difficulties, let alone Nightmare. The episode ''opens'' with the [[ThatOneLevel two hardest levels of the entire game]], there's very little cover throughout, [[DemonicSpiders overpowered enemies]] are absolutely everywhere, and it has some of the most confusing level layouts of the entire series, often leading to unavoidable damage if you don't know exactly what to do. [[SaveScumming Best to keep your finger on the quickload button.]]

** The ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' mod tweaks enemy behavior to make them smarter, stronger and more aggressive (Cacodemons can strafe quickly to dodge projeciles, Imps have faster fireballs and have a leaping slash melee attack, Cyberdemons fire five rockets instead of three, Spectres are ''completely'' invisible except for their eyes, only becoming visible when they attack.) Reloading is also added, now requiring the player to monitor how full their magazines are so they don't get caught reloading at a crucial moment. Though there are some things to help make it easier as well. On top of added secondary fire for most weapons, Berserk packs now allow the player to make [[FinishingMove executions]] which, on top of being [[{{Gorn}} bloody and ultraviolent]], render the player immune to damage for the duration and restore health, and the dinky pistol is replaced with a far more useful assault rifle. Finally, HitScan for the ballistic weapons is removed, and EveryBulletIsATracer, making open space combat more manageable (and fun).

** ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' starts manageable, but goes to its roots and spikes the difficulty up tremendously in the later areas, particularly when the stronger demons start showing up. To scale up with your upgrades and weaponry, rooms (even the small ones which are impossible to maneuver through) are often filled with near ''Serious Sam'' levels of enemies with different types mixed in to obliterate you when you're not looking. All of the old demon roster has TakenALevelInBadass too.
*** And then there's [[HarderThanHard Ultra-Nightmare]], where your save file is deleted if you die and [[ThisIsGonnaSuck makes you fight demons that would make Jesus whimper in terror]] - there's a good reason most of the death helmets you'll find are in the ''very first combat area'', and there's an achievement just for beating ''the very first level''.
** ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is even more relentless than its predecessor, with larger and more plentiful demon arena encounters, and even the weakest demons being able to deal lethal damage on '''''"Hurt Me Plenty"''''' difficulty onward. The lower ammo cap and scarcer health and armor pickups compared to ''2016'' also means you'll be constantly pressed for resources, only being able to be reliably regenerated via chainsaw kills for ammo, Glory Kills for health, and setting demons on fire for armor respectively.

** ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is even more relentless than its predecessor, with larger and more plentiful demon arena encounters, and even the weakest demons being able to deal lethal damage on '''''"Hurt Me Plenty"''''' difficulty onward. The lower ammo cap and scarcer health and armor pickups compared to ''2016'' also means you'll be constantly pressed for resources, only being able to be reliably regenerated via chainsaw kills for ammo, Glory Kills for health, and setting demons on fire for ammo respectively.

** ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' is even more relentless than its predecessor, with even the weakest demons being able to deal lethal damage on '''''"Hurt Me Plenty"''''' difficulty, and a lower ammo cap than in ''2016''.

* The original ''VideoGame/RedFaction'' turned [[DifficultySpike from challenging to nightmarish]] about 2/3 through the game. The introduction of heavy machine gun wielding mooks and instant death wall-penetrating sniper railguns mooks made the game a painful affair.
** It may not seem evident early on in the game, but as the difficulty spikes, you WILL notice that the [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard enemies even cheat]]. They know when you are reloading, and will rush you when you try to do so.
** ''Red Faction: Armageddon'' is a Third-Person Shooter, and for the most part is rather straightforward to finish. However, it takes inspiration from the original by dialing up the difficulty UpToEleven in the climax. The bugs respawn like crazy, there's little environment to destroy in the tight underground corridors, and the checkpoints are few and far between. Moreover, as you're approaching the Queen, Behemoths (which only one served as a separate boss) blockade your way, forcing you to deal with them and the virtually limitless enemies. When fans say the FinalBoss that follows is a BreatherLevel in comparison, you know the difficulty of the final few levels is going to be '''bad.'''

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' second DLC: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot introduces extended 'Larger Challenges' [[MarathonLevel that take roughly 4-5 hours to complete]]. If you die you have to start over from the beginning.
* The ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' franchise is well known for incorporating classic gaming elements into a more modern setting, including ''sheer fucking nightmarish difficulty''. You will probably die more times in one ''Serious Sam'' game than in all other [[FirstPersonShooter FPS]] games you've played combined. Even on "Normal" mode, the games still qualify for this trope. Thankfully, the extreme difficulty generally [[SchizophrenicDifficulty comes in waves]].
* ''Faceball 2000'' (the SNES port) gets difficult once you begin to meet drones that begin to fight back competently (e.g. Wallys, Rovers, maybe Turkeys) starting from the second world. At this point, you probably still don't have enough armor pickups to deal with large numbers of enemies. The end game gets ridiculously hard, as groups of powerful drones can swarm you without warning (e.g. Ninjas, Sharks) and make quick work of you.
* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'' comes from the [[SpiritualSuccessor same lineage]] as ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' below, and ''oh dear god'' does it show it. It's not too hard on Easy or Normal modes, but put on Hardcore, or any of the Ranger difficulties, and you get to see how you'd actually fare in a real life AfterTheEnd survival combat environment when you don't know the places, don't speak the language, and ammo is so valuable and scarce that it's used as ''money''!
** To put it into perspective, on the Ranger difficulties, you may find around a hundred "dirty" rounds in a single ''playthrough''. There's no HUD, ammo indicators, or QTE prompts either on the Hardcore settings. Filters are impossibly precious and not having enough of them can flat-out make the game UnwinnableByMistake later on as most of the later levels are ''very'' long and take place entirely on the surface. It also doesn't help that several later sections of the game also force you into mandatory slugfests with mutants, particularly the [[DemonicSpiders Librarians]] and [[ActionBomb Amoebas]].
** Also the combat in this game is ''really'' not optimized for fighting against other humans. On lower difficulty levels, this is more annoying than anything, but on Hardcore or the Ranger difficulties, it makes ''Call of Duty'''s Veteran feel fair. This is because you have only cruddy weapons and basically no ammo, and trying to stealth around is insanely difficult due to the AI's rather [[TheAllSeeingAI inconsistent/buggy detection radius]] that often gets you spotted for seemingly no reason ("Bandit" and "Dry" in particular are notorious [[ThatOneLevel That One Levels]] because of this).
** In fact, the primary reason why ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' is [[SequelDifficultyDrop much easier overall (though still challenging)]] than ''2033'' is because the stealth system and AI were both completely rebalanced due to complaints about the first game, making the stealth much fairer and human enemies more consistent to fight. This rebalanced stealth was also brought back for ''Metro 2033 Redux'' and the third game ''VideoGame/MetroExodus''.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRenegade''. Gameplay is largely a loving throwback to older-style first person shooters, meaning lots of elite enemies constantly attack. There are lots of annoying respawning enemies and a majority enemies are {{Demonic Spiders}}. Levels are also very long and large, and there is no auto save or checkpoint system.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' is no slouch in the difficulty department. Most levels are difficult, and not just from the abundance of enemies. There are plenty of traps to worry about, maze-like level design (fortunately the auto-map in single-player helps make this aspect of the game a bit easier to handle), and then there's [[ThatOneBoss The NME]]...
* Nearly all of the ''VideoGame/RainbowSix'' series, due to the near-psychic enemy AI and cheap {{one hit kill}}s, as well as [[FinalDeath perma-death]] in the early games.

* ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'': The unique zero-gravity, floating mechanic made the game harder to learn than most first-person shooters as it is, but the real difficulty comes from the brutally unforgiving enemies. Drillers (hitscan weapons) and Heavy Hulks (homing missiles) are absurdly common enemies that do insane amounts of damage and have huge accuracy, even on low difficulty levels. On the higher difficulty levels, even the easiest enemies are capable of ripping you apart in a matter of seconds due to their shots firing being stronger, faster, shooting more bullets per volley and healing items recovering less as the difficulty gets higher. The ''Insane'' difficulty level is very appropriately named.
* ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' has been criticized for this. It qualifies on numerous levels: very limited health and thus the ability to be killed with only a couple of direct hits; an overload of monsters in certain areas; limited ammo; and ambush attacks.
** Of course, all that ends up moot once you manage to max out your Ego, where then you can take as much damage as you could in VideoGame/DukeNukem3D with RegeneratingHealth to boot.

*** And if ''that's'' not enough, beating the game will unlock the [[HarderThanHard Mein Leiben]] difficulty. If you start a new game on Mein Leben, you will need to beat the entire campaign without any checkpoints or saves throughout your entire run. You will have to restart the game from the beginning if you die at any time, and a single mook in this difficulty can kill you without much effort.
* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'' qualifies, especially on harder difficulties. Your weapons are realistically accurate, which means they have a limited effective range, you can't take much damaged and the AI is both intelligent and accurate. The only effective way to take on more than one enemy at a time is to suppress and then flank them, but be careful, because there's often more than one group of enemies around, so they're trying to do the same thing to you, and if you catch a stray round while moving, that's it. The endgame, where all the enemies are armed with the accurate and powerful STG 44 Assault Rifle, is downright murderous if you make a mistake.
* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has even the weakest of mooks dealing ''huge'' amounts of damage even on lower difficulties (along with being rather stingy on the health pickups,) and the weakest ranged weapon in the game (which you'll be stuck with for a while) deals continuous damage, but still takes a while to kill anybody, requiring you to either unload more shots into the enemy (in a beginning where ammo is sparse) or just shoot once and run away until they die.
* ''Videogame/{{Quarantine}}'' has ''every'' vehicular mook not in a passive state a DemonicSpider in every level (including the first map), and even the pedestrians who are hostile are annoying GoddamnedBats. Armor is pretty much required to complete any mission in the levels you're in, because the unpredictability of the Mooks gets frustrating for a while, and even then, armor here in this game skirts dangerously close to ArmorIsUseless thanks to the Mooks having unfairly powerful attacks. Not only that, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything else tries its level best to slaughter you]] in the [[WretchedHive city of KEMO]] with even the traps and walled defenses harming you. Just to let you know, whenever you pick up a passenger, ''every single mission'' is a TimedMission and depending on the location you're in, you could end up with a frustratingly short timer before you could complete your mission, and to worsen matters, the city's layout is maddeningly confusing if you don't check your map. Justified, since you're driving a futuristic, hover-capable weaponized taxi car and making money by gaining fares. Also, the fares are randomized whenever you pick up a passenger, which can range from a fat paycheck that is good enough to buy you some more ammo and new weaponry/armor to a dirt-poor wage that isn't enough to buy a few items from the grocery store (of course, this is just a hyperbole, since there is no ability to get out of your vehicle in the game whatsoever). There are hardly any safe spots to rest in, no difficulty level to choose, and SaveScumming is pretty much required to complete the game.
* ''VideoGame/NosferatuTheWrathOfMalachi'': Between the limited supplies, hordes of difficult enemies popping out of every shadow and hiding place, lengthy levels, and the fact that you can lose family members if you take too long, which loses you items [[spoiler:and makes the final boss harder]], you've got yourselves one hella tricky shooter.
* ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters'':
** While the trilogy is difficult in general thanks to its ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye]]'' roots, trying to get Gold on the Challenges (and some of the more notorious Arcade League matches *cough[[ThatOneLevel Can'tHandleThis]]cough*) can be hair-pullingly frustrating.
** The Hard difficulty of the ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters2'' campaign is definitely this trope, and puts the other two games to shame. God help you on [[ThatOneLevel Atom Smasher and Robot Factory]].
* Tower of Guns is a short roguelike shooter designed to be beaten in about an hour, but delves straight into BulletHell, and doesn't let up; your weapon also gets weaker the more you get hit. Good luck getting to the FinalBoss without the "I'm too young to die" perk, and beating the boss WITH the perk.
* ''Lovely Planet'' combines OneHitPointWonder status with tricky platforming and an instant-kill hazard should you not disarm it. And you don't have a sight, you have to aim purely by feel. It says something that the game gives a tutorial for the respawn button.
* ''Videogame/{{Strafe}}'' was purportedly made as a homage to mid-90s FPS such as ''Quake''... except unlike classic FPS which are generous about saving and healing items, there is no saving, healing items and stations are pretty rare, gameplay is fast, and enemies tend to swarm you in large groups. You also must beat the game in one sitting and in only one life; dying sends you all the way back to the beginning. Finishing the game normally takes a little over an hour and a half, which is manageable as long as you don't die.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}'' is another homage to mid-90s FPS games. Episode 1 is pretty much the appetizer that introduces you to the game, only really getting difficult towards the end. Episode 2, on the other hand, jumps from one to about a hundred from the ''first level'' onwards as the devs stop holding back. Episode 3 just increases the difficulty to stratospheric heights, cumulating in [[ThatOneLevel The Dweller in Darkness]].
----

* ''Ultimate VideoGame/{{DOOM}}'', the retail version of the original, contains an extra episode called "Thy Flesh Consumed", which is a [[ThisIsGonnaSuck pretty accurate description of what will happen the moment you start playing it]]. It's the closest thing to playing "Nightmare" mode without actually playing on it.
** And while it didn't contain any content on the level of the above example, the [[MissionPackSequel official sequel]], ''DOOM II: Hell on Earth'' is [[SequelDifficultySpike noticeably harder]] than the original's "standard" episodes. Imagine what playing "Nightmare" on ''that'' game must be like...
** The ''Plutonia Experiment'' official expansion for ''Doom II'' spawned an incredibly difficult subset of Doom levels that emphasizes combat against vast hordes of monsters, often dozens at a time. Levels have been made with literally ''thousands'' of enemies, often with fights against multiple "Arch-Viles" - [[DemonicSpiders powerful enemies]] who revive other monsters and have a delayed line-of-sight attack which can take off 80% or more of the player's health.

** The ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' mod tweaks enemy behavior to make them smarter, stronger and more aggressive (Cacodemons can strafe quickly to dodge projeciles, Imps have faster fireballs and have a leaping slash melee attack, Cyberdemons fire five rockets instead of three, Spectres are ''completely'' invisible except for their eyes, only becoming visible when they attack.) Reloading is also added, now requiring the player to monitor how full their magazines are so they don't get caught reloading at a crucial moment. Though there are some things to help make it easier as well. On top of added secondary fire for most weapons, Berserk packs now allow the player to make [[FinishingMove executions]] which, on top of being [[{{Gorn}} bloody and ultraviolent]], render the player immune to damage for the duration and restore health, and the dinky pistol is replaced with a far more useful assault rifle. That doesn't mean the enemies get the same perks, like a Imp tearing you apart.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', comes from the [[SpiritualSuccessor same lineage]] as ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' below, and ''oh dear god'' does it show it. It's not too hard on Easy or Normal modes, but put on Hardcore, or any of the Ranger difficulties, and you get to see how you'd actually fare in a real life AfterTheEnd survival combat environment when you don't know the places, don't speak the language, and ammo is so valuable and scarce that it's used as ''money''!

* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', which comes from the [[SpiritualSuccessor same lineage]] as ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' below, definitely shows this. Your character isn't a badass, or a stalker, or a soldier; you're just a 20 year old kid trying to make a trip across nuked Moscow, running right into the paths of mutants, Nazis, Communists, bandits, anomalies, and everything else that could redecorate its part of the station platform with your face. It's not too hard on Easy or Normal modes, but put on Hardcore, or any of the Ranger difficulties, and you get to see how you'd actually fare in a real life AfterTheEnd survival combat environment when you don't know the places, don't speak the language, and ammo is so valuable and scarce that it's used as ''money''!
** To put it into perspective, on the Ranger difficulties, you may find around a hundred "dirty" rounds in a single ''playthrough''. There's no HUD, ammo indicators, or QTE prompts either on the Hardcore settings. Filters are impossibly precious and not having enough of them can flat-out make the game UnwinnableByMistake later on as most of the later levels are ''very'' long and take place on the surface. Also the combat in this game is ''really'' not optimized for fighting against other humans. On lower difficulty levels, this is more annoying than anything, but on Hardcore or the Ranger difficulties, it makes ''Call of Duty'''s Veteran feel fair. This is because you have only cruddy weapons and basically no ammo, and trying to stealth around is insanely difficult due to the AI's rather [[TheAllSeeingAI inconsistent/buggy detection radius]] that often gets you spotted for seemingly no reason ("Bandit" and "Dry" in particular are gigantic [[ThatOneLevel That One Levels]] because of this).

** To put it into perspective, on the Ranger difficulties, you may find around a hundred "dirty" rounds in a single ''playthrough''. There's no HUD, ammo indicators, or QTE prompts either on the Hardcore settings. Filters are impossibly precious and not having enough of them can flat-out make the game UnwinnableByMistake later on. Also the combat in this game is ''really'' not optimized for fighting against other humans. On lower difficulty levels, this is more annoying than anything, but on Hardcore or the Ranger difficulties, it makes ''Call of Duty'''s Veteran feel fair. This is because you have only cruddy weapons and basically no ammo, and trying to stealth around is insanely difficult due to the AI's rather [[TheAllSeeingAI inconsistent/buggy detection radius]] that often gets you spotted for seemingly no reason.

** In fact, the primary reason why ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' is [[SequelDifficultyDrop much easier overall]] than ''2033'' is because the stealth system and AI were both completely rebalanced due to complaints about the first game, making the stealth much fairer and human enemies more consistent to fight. This rebalanced stealth was also brought back for ''Metro 2033 Redux'' and the third game ''VideoGame/MetroExodus''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Metro 2033}}'', which comes from the [[SpiritualSuccessor same lineage]] as ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' below, definitely shows this. Your character isn't a badass, or a stalker, or a soldier; you're just a 20 year old kid trying to make a trip across nuked Moscow, running right into the paths of mutants, Nazis, Communists, bandits, anomalies, and everything else that could redecorate its part of the station platform with your face. It's not too hard on Easy or Normal modes, but put on Hardcore, or any of the Ranger difficulties, and you get to see how you'd actually fare in a real life AfterTheEnd survival combat environment when you don't know the places, don't speak the language, and ammo is so valuable and scarce that it's used as ''money''! How will you do? If you're lucky, there'll be a corpse, or at least a red smear for the rats...

* ''VideoGame/{{Dusk}}'' is another homage to mid-90s FPS games. Episode 1 is pretty much the appetizer that introduces you to the game, only really getting difficult towards the end. Episode 2, on the other hand, jumps from one to about a hundred from the ''first level'' onwards as the devs stop holding back. Episode 3 just increases the difficulty even more.

* ''Videogame/{{Strafe}}'' was purportedly made as a homage to mid-90s FPS such as Quake... except... unlike classic FPS which are generous about saving and healing items, there is no saving, healing items and stations are pretty rare, gameplay is fast, and enemies tend to swarm you in large groups. You also must beat the game in one sitting and in only one life; dying sends you all the way back to the beginning. Finishing the game normally takes a little over an hour and a half, which is manageable as long as you don't die.

** The games were deliberately designed to be as tough as possible, and subvert and [[DeconstructorFleet deconstruct]] dozens of common FPS tropes. Remember those other [=FPSes=] where you had limitless supplies of ammo which took up no room in your magic bottomless bag? No. Remember those games where the people not shooting you spoke the same language as you? [[BilingualBonus Nyet]]. Remember those games where there'd be some guy who would helpfully fill you in on the boss's weak point before you fought him? Nein. Remember those games where you didn't have to eat, where being injured was just a reason to be slightly more cautious, and you could heal by simply walking away and waiting for a bit? [[RuleOfThree Non]]. These games want you dead, and a lot of content was DummiedOut in the first game and the AI's capability scaled back because it was regarded as too unfair. Most mods restore a lot of it with the express purpose of making the games even harder. With those enabled, it's not so much about shooting as it is ''outmaneuvering'' the enemies that will get you to win fights. [[ArtificialBrilliance Yes]], [[ItCanThink even with mutants]].
** There's a very good reason the series is sometimes retrospectively called "the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' of First Person Shooters", with [[EverythingTryingToKillYou all]] [[MalevolentArchitecture that]] [[ThatOneLevel entails]]. There's also a good reason why a common word of advice to new players is to ''bind Quicksave and Quickload to the mouse buttons''.

* The original ''RedFaction'' turned [[DifficultySpike from challenging to nightmarish]] about 2/3 through the game. The introduction of heavy machine gun wielding mooks and instant death wall-penetrating sniper railguns mooks made the game a painful affair.

* ''RiseOfTheTriad'' is no slouch in the difficulty department. Most levels are difficult, and not just from the abundance of enemies. There are plenty of traps to worry about, maze-like level design (fortunately the auto-map in single-player helps make this aspect of the game a bit easier to handle), and then there's [[ThatOneBoss The NME]]...