Gaming as a hobby can be whatever you want it to be. It can be relaxing and cozy, where you just kind of go into autopilot mode and keep planting turnips in Stardew Valley without a care in the world. It can also tap into your deepest power fantasies like The Witcher 3 and Skyrim, where dying might happen once or twice, but you can recover pretty fast and learn the ropes of combat quickly.
Best Open-World Games That Are Hard To Put Down
A well-designed open world can keep players hooked for countless hours, sucking them into an immersive world they don't want to leave.
Then, there are games that make you sweat. Tense experiences that force you to think critically and strategically about every single little detail. They can be incredibly frustrating to play, as they're fast to punish you for going into lazy mode, but they are addictive to a niche of players who love being rewarded for their hard work. If you're not stressed enough in your real life, here are a few games that need you to lock in fully.
The Forest
Starts Slow, But Builds Into A Tough Crescendo
The Forest starts off pretty tame, but what makes this game a challenge is the increasing difficulty of enemies as time goes on. Like any survival game, you need to be well-prepared, and you need to think strategically here. It all starts with your choice of base location and setting up solid defense systems through traps against the cannibals that share the island with you. Even if you're combat-ready, don't underestimate your enemies: you're alone, and they're multiple.
It might also be tempting to head out and explore on a whim, but you'll always need to be 100% prepared, especially if you venture out into some of the caves found on the island. These are some of the toughest locations in The Forest, so make sure you have proper gear, weapons, food, and, of course, water. Essentially, it's a game where you constantly work to prepare yourself, a race against the clock, almost, and not having a clear plan or a goal to work towards will eventually lead to dying over and over again.
Outward
Planning Ahead Is Everything
Outward is a brutal fantasy RPG world, one where playing like you're in Skyrim will immediately earn you more than just a slap on the wrist. The world is very unforgiving, and it takes serious work to become powerful. You'll have to grind for good armor, cook food, and brew potions in order to strengthen yourself. Before that, don't even think about challenging just any enemy you find out there, let alone wandering into a dungeon. Even in a group, it's not uncommon for enemies to demolish players in just a couple of hits.
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This is a game that favors those who have the patience to plan. Because it has a hefty dose of RPG gameplay, you might not think of it as a survival game, but it shares a lot of similarities with other games of that genre in the sense that you need to pick your fights strategically while tending to needs like sleep and thirst. Even when you do hold your own later in the game, combat is not something you should take lightly, as attack patterns are a real thing.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Going In Guns Blazing Will Get You Killed
STALKER 2 might be a shooter, but you're not exactly Master Chief in this game. Part of the difficulty comes from what is fondly known as the STALKER jank, a persistent issue from earlier games in the franchise. In Heart of Chornobyl, enemies have been reported to see you through walls and even shoot you through walls without looking at you. Mind you, the original games were known to be far more punishing than this one, and STALKER 2 is still immensely punishing for the uninitiated.
Stealth and strategy are your greatest friends in this game, and running in guns blazing is usually a death sentence. Not only do you have to be mindful of your surroundings and the unfairly tuned enemies, but also of your gear, your ammo, and any consumables. You should feel confident going into an area with a plan in your mind. It can be tempting to rush encounters and feel powerful with a new gun in your hand, but the game is always one step ahead of you. Knowing that it's a marathon, not a sprint, will take you far in the Zone. Oh, and save often, because you will die often.
Green Hell
The Title Isn't A Joke
Back to more survival games, Green Hell is one that definitely justifies its own name with brutal gameplay. The tropical wilderness is an unforgiving place, and surviving it will test your stomach, health, and mental patience. Running around aimlessly will get you killed very quickly in this game, and again, trying to rush your goals or force a plan that has fallen through will only lead to more disappointment.
Where Green Hell really shines is that it respects your intelligence. It's a game that tests your observational and learning skills in the wild, as you listen for cues from threats like jaguars and crocodiles. There's absolutely no handholding involved here; it's up to you to figure out what it's going to take for you to survive, but a hefty dose of common sense and logic is going to be helpful here. It's no power fantasy game or Minecraft, though, so expect the pacing to be much slower and for the gameplay to be brutally stressful, especially in the beginning as you establish a safehouse and figure out your water and food sources.
Kenshi
The World Is Unapologetically Vicious
Since we're on the topic of brutal worlds, Kenshi is another title that will only reward players with enough resilience and patience. It's a title that loves reminding you on a regular basis that your existence is irrelevant, and that you're in fact not Geralt of Rivia or the Dragonborn. You're simply a survivor, but the good thing is that it's up to you to decide what your story's going to be. There's a lot of freedom involved, though it comes with a steep cost and a hefty learning curve.
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Kenshi's (multiple) first hours are a brutal experience where you'll have to learn skills, die, and die again. You will get downed, attacked, and downed again, and then have to recover to full health in-game time. Its combat will quickly frustrate anyone who jumps in without proper gear and preparation, sending them back to the drawing board. The good news is, failure is a pretty effective teacher, and it's one of the more rewarding games to grind, so long as you have the patience to be methodical about your approach to survival and combat.
Project Zomboid
Be Ready For Anything, At Any Time
Although Project Zomboid lets you tailor its experience to be a little less punishing than some of its more "default" modes, we'll focus on the standard experience you'll find in the Apocalypse game mode. This means decently tough zombies that are smart and deadly, especially if the player gets ganged up on. As you loot the world for items to survive and figure out your safehouse, you really have to take things slow and methodical to avoid getting a ton of zombies on you at once or succumbing to fatigue.
This means that everything takes a long time in Project Zomboid, and every decision you make has to be calculated, including where you enter a building from, what you're working on next, and what your plan is if all goes badly and you end up tripping an alarm. Since you constantly need to be aware of your surroundings, too, you can just rush inside a building, but you need to check your corners and what lurks behind closed doors. It really is a tense experience that will have you bitten and injured quickly if you don't stay vigilant.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Realistic Melee Combat That Punishes Mindless Slashing
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was released in 2025, and a lot of newcomers, thinking it was a more grounded, non-fantasy Skyrim RPG, were surprised by the combat. Yes, it's far from the rather forgiving melee fighting in Skyrim. Even the previous game was well-known for its deep and realistic combat that encourages patience and observation. It's a game where both Henry's training and the player's constant practice against enemies pay off.
You'll have to pay attention in combat, wait for the cues to hit the perfect block, and bide your time when it comes to going on the offensive. Just mindlessly slashing away at someone will drain your stamina, and will quickly have your opponents cut you down without mercy. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but if it clicks for you, it can be an extremely fun and rewarding system.
Elden Ring
Don't Snooze, Even When Exploring
Of course, we needed a Soulslike game here, and Elden Ring is the perfect candidate. Although it's no doubt one of the easier and more accessible of its genre to get into, Elden Ring won't let you grow complacent. There are some decently tough bosses in the game (we all remember Malenia), and the DLC ramps up the difficulty even further. You can't mindlessly hack away at bosses; dodging and timing are essential parts of any Tarnished player's skill set. Bosses aside, even just exploring the dungeons and different locales will have you on your toes. There are enemies hiding around corners, ready to chainstun you, as well as tanky, patrolling knights that force you to play your life until the next Grace.
Of course, as you grow more powerful, these challenges become trivial, but on your first playthrough for a legacy dungeon, if you're not grossly over-leveled, you'd better keep your eyes open and your finger on the so-called trigger. It's not uncommon for a death screen to assault you out of nowhere, especially with powerful and devastating status effects like Bleed, Scarlet Rot, and Death Blight that can be applied by simple rank-and-file enemies.
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