Hard Indie Games With Simple Controls

Every game offers its unique challenges, however trivial. Even narrative-driven experiences such as The Walking Dead offer rudimentary challenges in the form of quick-time events and dialogue choices. However, difficulty can come in many forms, and sheer inaccessibility and/or overly complex controls are not typically fun challenges to overcome.

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Many traditional roguelikes, for example, tend to be less accessible not because of their unforgiving gameplay, but because of their complicated user interfaces and various inputs. However, these titles blend intuitive control schemes and challenging gameplay in a way that's often easy to learn and hard to master.

1 Will You Snail?

An Intuitive Platformer With A Challenging Twist

• Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation
• Released: 2022
• Developer(s): Jonas Tyroller
• Genre: Platformer

Brutal platformers and rage games such as Super Meat Boy are typically easy to learn, and hard to master experiences. Will You Snail? Is particularly so, as it features simple controls (move, jump, double-jump), and a true challenge presented by an artificial intelligence that can predict the player's movements.

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With the squishy feeling of the titular snail, the subtle animations, and particle effects, Will You Snail's character controller is tremendously tactile. This quality allows the controls to feel intuitive, making it easy to time jumps and be aware of the space around the shelled protagonist.

2 Ravenswatch

A Slowly Ramping Challenge With A Fluid Character Controller

Featuring a diverse cast of characters that play like they're from League Of Legends, Ravenswatch is easy to control but hard to master. Though its initial difficulty settings are a breeze, Ravenswatch quickly ramps up the challenge.

Mastering each and any of the characters in Ravenswatch takes time, especially as players unlock more available perks. However, the fluid animations, slick user interface, and simple control scheme allow players to focus on the action at hand.

3 Sifu

A Stylish And Intuitive Break Down Of 3D Brawlers

Sifu isn't the hardest game in the world, not in the moment-to-moment, but its various boss fights and unique structure make it a relatively unforgiving experience. However, a fluid control scheme prevents the action from becoming too frustrating.

Every time players die in Sifu, their character permanently ages. This has increasingly detrimental effects, eventually ending in death. The intuitive controls keep things fair, breaking down the essence of 3D brawlers without becoming overly simplistic. Stylish visuals and exciting set-pieces also help in making Sifu a memorable experience, elevating the simple - but exhilarating - action.

4 Spelunky 2

Simple, Expressive Controls And Chaotic Roguelike Gameplay

The realm of action roguelikes is a broad and varied one, but many of them feature much more accessible control schemes than their traditional counterparts. Spelunky 2 is one such game, with an intuitive character controller that's also surprisingly expressive.

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Spelunky 2 is also a challenging game. Deadly spike traps, a variety of dangerous mobs, and emergent gameplay consistently throw spanners in the works. All of these things make Spelunky 2 a chaotic experience. As a result, players should expect a game that's easy to learn, but equally easy to get frustrated with.

5 Wildfrost

A Deceptively Charming Roguelike Deck-Builder

Wildfrost is a roguelike deck-builder that plays with the formula in unique ways, bolstered by a whimsical cartoon art style. There's plenty of charm to be experienced while playing Wildfrost, but it can be deceiving. Wildfrost is no pushover.

As with many deck-builders, Wildfrost is tremendously easy to control. Players simply play cards on a designated field, and Wildfrost makes this feel even more intuitive with a tactile user interface. The difficulty of Wildfrost comes from the unrelenting pace of its battles and encounters that can quickly rise in complexity. The unique cooldown system that controls the player and enemy turns can also be easy to misread, despite all the information being on-screen.

6 Battle Brothers

A Violent And Unforgiving Tactics Game

As a turn-based strategy game, Battle Brothers is inherently easy to control. However, it's bolstered by an intuitive user interface and easy-to-understand systems, such as initiative and morale. Battle Brothers tasks players with developing and managing a mercenary company, taking on dangerous contracts that often involve duking it out in gritty, violent battles.

Losing hardened soldiers is not uncommon in Battle Brothers, and that's part of what makes it such a challenge. Similar to games such as XCOM, it can be tremendously frustrating to lose valued members of the team. However, the intuitive gameplay loop and easy-to-read battles prevent the game from feeling unfair.

7 Hotline Miami

A Frenetic Top-Down Shooter With A Snappy Pace

Hotline Miami is a classic indie action game, a frantic top-down shooter with a one-of-a-kind vaporwave style. The thumping music, the vivid colors, the wholly grungy art style. These qualities are in constant synergy with one another to provide players with a truly memorable experience. Perhaps more important, however, is the simplicity of Hotline Miami's controls and its gameplay as a whole.

By refusing to overcomplicate the moment-to-moment gameplay, the brutal and unforgiving challenge presented by Hotline Miami is allowed to shine. Frustration is short-lived, as restarting a level is quick and easy to do, and the action itself plays at a breakneck pace. Simple top-down shooter controls take moments to learn, but it's learning the flow of the game that presents a challenge.

8 Post Void

Smooth, Expressive Movement And Low Time-To-Kill

Move. Shoot. Slide. That's all there is to it. Post Void is a frantic, fast-paced FPS roguelike with a commitment to simplicity. The visual style is messy, busy, grungy, and jumbled together with as much ferocity as the gameplay itself.

The time-to-kill is incredibly short in Post Void, on both ends. Enemies go down quickly, but the player's health is constantly draining, encouraging a fast play-style. The expressive movement controls help to facilitate this fast-paced gameplay, allowing players to get into a flow state with relative ease.

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