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 Sifu

Nearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.

Returnal

2021 · Housemarque · ~25h

6.2PUNISHING

Bullet-hell reflexes bolted to roguelike stakes — the two hardest things to hold simultaneously for two uninterrupted hours.

UnratedREA 7.6PUN 6.2EXE 6.0
EXE 6.0REA 7.6PUZ 1.2GRD 4.0PUN 6.2CRV 6.2

The Surge 2

2019 · Deck13 Interactive · ~25h

6.0PUNISHING

A directional parry replaces the roll as the answer to almost everything, and the game is markedly better once it clicks and markedly worse until it does.

UnratedREA 7.0EXE 6.8PUN 6.2
EXE 6.8REA 7.0PUZ 1.8PUN 6.2CRV 6.0GRD 4.2 — you asked for forgiving

Lies of P

2023 · Round8 Studio · ~35h

6.6PUNISHING

A parry game wearing a Souls coat: dodging alone will carry you for two hours and then stop working entirely.

UnratedREA 8.0CRV 7.6EXE 6.9
EXE 6.9REA 8.0PUZ 1.2CRV 7.6GRD 4.2 — you asked for forgivingPUN 5.8 — you asked for demanding

Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection

2021 · Capcom · ~10h

5.8STEEP

Two hits and you are in your underwear, three and the level restarts, and the game expects a second full loop before it will show you an ending.

UnratedPUN 6.8EXE 6.3REA 6.0
EXE 6.3PUZ 1.5GRD 3.3PUN 6.8CRV 6.4REA 6.0 — you asked for demanding

PUBG: Battlegrounds

2017 · PUBG Studios · ~50h

5.9STEEP

Slow, heavy and unforgiving — one bullet from someone you never saw ends thirty minutes, and the correct play is usually to not take the fight.

UnratedEXE 6.8REA 6.2PUN 6.2
EXE 6.8REA 6.2PUZ 0.8GRD 4.0PUN 6.2CRV 5.8 — you asked for demanding

Dark Souls III

2016 · FromSoftware · ~40h

6.2PUNISHING

The world is kinder than Dark Souls and the bosses are considerably meaner — almost all of the difficulty has moved into the fog gates.

UnratedREA 7.4OBS 6.5CRV 6.6
EXE 6.1REA 7.4PUZ 1.4PUN 6.0CRV 6.6GRD 4.2 — you asked for forgiving

Call of Duty: Warzone

2020 · Infinity Ward · ~50h

5.9STEEP

The fastest time-to-kill of any battle royale, which makes positioning worth more than aim and mistakes worth almost nothing else.

UnratedREA 7.0EXE 6.2PUN 5.8
EXE 6.2REA 7.0PUZ 0.5GRD 4.5 — you asked for forgivingPUN 5.8 — you asked for demandingCRV 5.5 — you asked for demanding

The Surge

2017 · Deck13 Interactive · ~20h

5.9STEEP

You choose which limb to cut off, which means every fight is a decision about what you want to be wearing afterwards rather than only about surviving it.

UnratedREA 6.5PUN 6.5OBS 6.5
EXE 6.2REA 6.5PUZ 1.8PUN 6.5CRV 6.0GRD 4.5 — you asked for forgiving

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

2023 · FromSoftware · ~25h

6.0STEEP

The walls are build checks rather than skill checks. The tutorial helicopter and the first real boss both exist to say that the fight is decided in the garage.

UnratedREA 7.0OBS 6.2CRV 5.9
REA 7.0PUZ 1.2GRD 3.0EXE 5.4 — you asked for demandingPUN 5.5 — you asked for demandingCRV 5.9 — you asked for demanding

Apex Legends

2019 · Respawn Entertainment · ~80h

6.6PUNISHING

The movement is the skill ceiling and nothing in the game mentions it — the players beating you are using techniques that were never taught, only tolerated.

UnratedCRV 7.8REA 7.5EXE 7.1
EXE 7.1REA 7.5PUZ 0.8CRV 7.8GRD 4.2 — you asked for forgivingPUN 5.0 — you asked for demanding