8 Hardest Video Game Levels Of 2021 (So Far)

Returnal is hard.

I feel like that sentence, as succinct as it is, is a massive understatement. It is a title that fuses liquid-smooth gunplay and action elements with a crushing (but ultimately fair) difficulty to create an experience that is both rewarding and wall-punching in equal measure.

The sheer drop in your stomach upon being kicked all the way back to the beginning upon death is enough to make you feel like you're haunting your own bones, but the addictive gameplay will pull you right back in for another dose of hell.

While the first two biomes basically act as an introduction to the core mechanics of the game while sliding up the difficulty scale enough to push you pretty hard from the off, however, the third biome also known as The Derelict Citadel is less a challenge curve, and more a difficulty spike that can, and likely will impale you.

And it's all down to the sheer amount of annoying robots in the area! These little bastards can rinse your health with rockets and lasers, before flitting off and out of sight, causing enough of a distraction that you won't see the suicide robots charging towards you.

Many a run has ended in these ruins, and the name of the area certainly rings true as this level can make you feel as if God himself has abandoned you.