What should I play next

Ask for the shape of the challenge.

Not “something hard” — something that leans on the axes you want leant on and stays out of the way everywhere else. Demanding on strategy, forgiving on execution, under twenty hours. Everything below is scored through your own calibration, so “demanding” means demanding for you.

You have not calibrated, so this is matching against an average player. It still works; it is just not about you yet.

Calibrate
Or from something you finished

Sign in and this can read the ask out of a game you have already beaten.

Execution
Reaction
Strategy
Puzzle
Grind
Punishment
Learning Curve
Obscurity
Clear

Read out of Jump King

The same shape, one rung harder. The next thing, not the hardest thing.

I Wanna Be the Guy

2007 · Kayin · ~6h

8.1NIGHTMARE

Built on traps that cannot be seen coming the first time, so progress is memorising your own deaths. The save points are the only concession it makes.

UnratedEXE 9.2PUN 9.2REA 8.8
EXE 9.2STR 0.5PUZ 2.5GRD 3.0PUN 9.2CRV 7.5REA 8.8 — you asked for forgivingOBS 8.8 — you asked for forgiving

Spelunky 2

2020 · Mossmouth · ~40h

7.7NIGHTMARE

Every death is your own fault and every run is a fresh cave. The systems interact thoroughly enough that it kills you in ways nobody has written down yet.

UnratedOBS 9.2PUN 8.8REA 7.8
EXE 7.2PUZ 2.5GRD 3.0PUN 8.8CRV 7.2REA 7.8 — you asked for forgivingSTR 5.5 — you asked for forgivingOBS 9.2 — you asked for forgiving

Nioh

2017 · Team Ninja · ~60h

7.7NIGHTMARE

Ki pulse turns stamina from something you spend into something you play in rhythm, and the game asks for it in the first hour without ever insisting you learn it.

UnratedCRV 8.8EXE 8.5REA 8.2
EXE 8.5PUZ 1.0PUN 7.0CRV 8.8REA 8.2 — you asked for forgivingSTR 5.5 — you asked for forgivingGRD 6.2 — you asked for forgivingOBS 7.0 — you asked for forgiving

Rain World

2017 · Videocult · ~40h

7.8NIGHTMARE

A simulated ecosystem that has no interest in being fair. Movement takes twenty hours to feel deliberate, the rain cycle takes back anything you did not bank, and nothing is explained at any point.

UnratedOBS 9.6CRV 9.2PUN 8.0
GRD 3.8PUN 8.0CRV 9.2EXE 5.9 — you asked for demandingREA 5.8 — you asked for forgivingSTR 5.5 — you asked for forgivingPUZ 4.5 — you asked for forgivingOBS 9.6 — you asked for forgiving

Noita

2020 · Nolla Games · ~30h

8.0NIGHTMARE

Every pixel is simulated, so every run is one wand mistake away from killing you instantly. Wand editing is a programming language the game never teaches.

UnratedOBS 9.5PUN 9.2CRV 8.8
EXE 6.5PUZ 4.0GRD 3.5PUN 9.2CRV 8.8REA 7.0 — you asked for forgivingSTR 6.5 — you asked for forgivingOBS 9.5 — you asked for forgiving

Counter-Strike 2

2023 · Valve · ~100h

7.6NIGHTMARE

Twenty-five years of accumulated convention, none of it in the game — spray patterns, utility line-ups and default positions are all things you are assumed to already know.

UnratedEXE 8.8REA 8.8CRV 8.8
EXE 8.8PUZ 0.8CRV 8.8REA 8.8 — you asked for forgivingSTR 6.2 — you asked for forgivingGRD 5.5 — you asked for forgivingPUN 4.5 — you asked for demandingOBS 7.2 — you asked for forgiving

League of Legends

2009 · Riot Games · ~100h

7.8NIGHTMARE

A hundred and seventy champions, each with four abilities you are expected to know the cooldowns of, and the tutorial covers none of it.

UnratedCRV 9.2OBS 8.8STR 7.8
EXE 6.2PUZ 1.5PUN 6.2CRV 9.2REA 6.2 — you asked for forgivingSTR 7.8 — you asked for forgivingGRD 6.8 — you asked for forgivingOBS 8.8 — you asked for forgiving

Dota 2

2013 · Valve · ~100h

8.1NIGHTMARE

Every hero is free and every one of them can do something no other game would let a hero do, which is why the learning curve is measured in years rather than hours.

UnratedCRV 9.5OBS 9.5STR 8.5
EXE 6.5PUZ 2.0PUN 6.8CRV 9.5REA 6.2 — you asked for forgivingSTR 8.5 — you asked for forgivingGRD 6.5 — you asked for forgivingOBS 9.5 — you asked for forgiving

Dwarf Fortress

2006 · Bay 12 Games · ~100h

7.7NIGHTMARE

Not difficult so much as undocumented — everything that kills you was perfectly legible, in a menu you did not know existed.

UnratedCRV 8.7OBS 8.5STR 8.8
REA 0.4PUN 6.8CRV 8.7EXE 0.4 — you asked for demandingSTR 8.8 — you asked for forgivingPUZ 4.5 — you asked for forgivingGRD 6.6 — you asked for forgivingOBS 8.5 — you asked for forgiving