Games

Open-World Games With The Most Difficult Endgame Content

Published

2 months ago

October 18, 2024

Christoph Rediske

7 open world games with the most difficult endgame content 1

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Open-world games can offer a mix of exploration, combat, and endgame challenges to add depth and difficulty.
Games like Elden Ring and Fallout 4 provide tough combat mechanics, challenging bosses, and increased difficulty settings.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim ups the challenge with mods, while No Man’s Sky’s endgame focuses on managing fleets and survival.

Many open-world games rely on exploration and questing to deliver the main gameplay experience. And whilst this is usually something fun, it does mean that, sometimes, open-world games are less of a challenge than they could be, being more of a kind of interactive entertainment than a tough-to-beat video game.

6 Saddest Open-World Games, Ranked

Not every open-world game is packed full of action and combat. Some are deeper and can be quite sad as players progress their stories.

But there are some sandbox-style open-world games that manage to provide both entertainment and a tough challenge. Many of these use additional difficulty settings that simply make the entire game harder. And some have endgame content that hits a player like a brick wall, making everything up until that point seem easy.

7 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Provides Tough Bosses And Challenges In The Endgame

Systems

Released: March 3, 2017
Developer(s): Nintendo EPD
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild starts off as quite a relaxing game, and this continues until almost the endgame. Exploration of the amazing open-world map makes up much of the gameplay, as does solving the many puzzles the game includes.

6 Best Open-World Games To Play As A Thief

Some open-world games offer the player the freedom to do whatever they wish, including becoming a thief.

However, once the player hits the endgame in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the situation changes. Some of the latter bosses are extremely tough and require the player to have full mastery of the combat mechanics. And then there is the whole Trial of the Sword challenge, which sees Link stripped of all of his equipment, leaving players to face the game with nothing more than their skill to help them.

6 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Pits Players Against Challenging Mythological Foes

Released: October 15, 2018
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Set in Ancient Greece, and dripping with mythology, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has one of the most attractive open-world game maps ever made. The player must navigate a complex political situation as they explore the world, battling mythical creatures.

Some of the creatures the player has to tackle, such as Cyclops and Medusa, can tough to deal with, due to the mystical powers they wield, and gamers need to master the combat system to take on the hardest of them. The Fate of Atlantis DLC adds even tougher enemies to an already difficult game, at least in the endgame.

5 Elden Ring

The Endgame Features Some Of The Hardest Bosses

Released: February 25, 2022
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Elden Ring is widely considered to be one of the hardest open-world games around. The entire game provides a significant challenge, even for the most hardcore gamers. The combat system requires players to master the art of dodging, timing attacks, and healing at the appropriate times.

Many of the boss fights in Elden Ring are extremely challenging, with the optional endgame bosses being some of the hardest of all. Mastery of the combat system and a capable build are must-haves for this endgame content. Without this, the game can become an exercise in frustration, as it is entirely unforgiving.

4 Ghost Of Tsushima

The Endgame Requires A Mastery Of The Combat System

Systems

Released: July 17, 2020
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Ghost of Tsushima manages to balance action and combat with exploration of the exquisitely crafted open-world game map. In this title, the player is tasked with hunting various Mongol warlords, and this is quite a challenge in its own right.

7 Best Open-World Games To Play As A Mercenary

No every game has clear cut morality, some allow the player to take on the role of a mercenary and sell their sword to the highest bidder.

However, by the endgame, the player is going to be tackling increasingly difficult opponents. Taking on a master swordsman in Ghost of Tsushima means mastering the subtleties of the excellent combat system. High-level mythic quests can also be very difficult in this game.

3 Fallout 4

A Classic Bethesda Open-World With A Tough Survival Mode

Released: November 10, 2015
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Avid fans of Fallout 4 often cite it as being the best of all the open-world game maps that Bethesda has crafted. In normal mode, the game can be quite tough, especially for players new to the game who have not worked out how to put together an effective build yet.

However, in survival mode, the difficulty ramps up to be a significant challenge that can feel almost impossible at times. Enemies that were previously not particularly tough to overcome, even in groups, suddenly become a deadly threat, as the difficulty of the game ramps up over time. DLCs such as Nuka-World and Far Harbor only add to the difficulty.

2 No Man’s Sky

The Endgame Features Various Challenging Loops

No Man’s Sky is a well-respected space exploration game. With a universe populated with over a trillion star systems, there is a lot to explore in this title. Both space combat and ground combat are quite basic at times, but it isn’t the combat that makes this game hard in the endgame.

The real challenge in the endgame is gameplay loops such as timed expeditions, managing a large fleet of capital ships, and having to take on increasingly dangerous waves of sentinels. Players who want an even tougher challenge, can play in survival mode, which features permadeath and much more demanding survival mechanics.

Mods And DLC Make The Game Harder

Released: November 11, 2011
Developer(s): Bethesda Game Studios
OpenCritic Rating: Strong

When playing on lower difficulty settings, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim isn’t a particularly taxing game in many ways. Combat can be pretty easy, and there are so many online resources covering quest completion, builds, and equipment, that the process of completing the game is pretty straightforward.

5 Best Open-World Games With Horror Elements

With vast worlds to explore, it’s no wonder that these games sprinkle in a few horror aspects to scare players and immerse them even deeper.

In legendary mode, however, the game becomes more difficult, but it’s not impossible. The Dragonborn DLC also adds some new challenges. But the real challenge in Skyrim comes from installing one of the many mods that make the game more difficult. For example. The Ultimate Skyrim mod completely revamps almost all of the mechanics of the game, ramping up the difficulty to ridiculous levels.