10 More Brutally Difficult First-Person Shooter Levels In Video Game History

Yet another star of the throwback shooter revival, Amid Evil is one of the difficulty-loving genre’s more forgiving entries. On Easy difficulty its streamlined gameplay makes for an outstanding gateway title. On the hidden Elite difficulty, however, it shows its true throwback colours.

Episode 5, The Forges, is the game’s most punishing segment, home to a witch's brew of, among others, swarming spike balls; extremely damaging laser-spewing snipers; a harpoon-hurling beast that reels you in for the killing blow, and a rapid fire spike-throwing horror aptly called the Painmaster. Combined they form a roster that can shred the player's health faster than anything else in the game.

Gauntlet of Torment takes the toughest members of that roster and insert multiples of them – simultaneously – into a level replete with lava floors, extremely tricky platforming segments, and expansive environments that leave you fully exposed to enemy fire.

The first time through it’s an absolute horror show – you will be perforated, exploded and incinerated with depressing regularity. But even veterans cannot afford to relax: anything less than constant movement, precision shooting and perfect weapon selection is guaranteed to leave you a bloody smear on the floor.