10 Stupidly Hard Video Games Clearly Made By Sadists

4. Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey

Initially intended as the first part of a trilogy featuring different lead characters, Abe proved so popular he became the series' regular lead and his first video game appearance is now considered by many to be a classic. The player takes control of the titular Abe, a strange alien looking creature who finds out his boss is killing his race and selling them as food, thus resulting in Abe trying to escape the factory and probably do something else but I never got far enough to find out. Although the game does have a save system, progress could only be logged at certain points that were often pretty far apart, occasionally forcing players to keep redoing difficult sections due to the save areas' awkward placement. Abe himself can do very little. There's no way to attack enemies or defend oneself in any way, while those you come-up against often have laser guns that kill you instantly and cannot be dodged. As such, Abe's Odyssey is debatably one of the hardest stealth games of all time , not having any form of the worst-case-scenario escape plan present in so many others (even the original Splinter Cell gave you a gun). Along with that there's the added difficulty of mind-boggling puzzles that often result in hours of unfruitful trial and error. While some may claim the unwieldy mechanics are a result of bad design, they can be excused by remembering you're playing as a factory worker with no combat skills or military training, so allowing any form of weaponry, or even the double-jump standard in many 2D games, would go against the point of the title. Few games before or since provide such a feeling of powerlessness as Abe's Odyssey. It is a game about strategy and puzzles, but most of all it is about survival, with it often feeling like you are playing directly against the developers themselves. The people who made the game do not want you to win, and it's your job to ruin their day. Soon to be getting a HD remake that likely reduces the difficulty, it's worth playing the original while you still have the chance.