The 5 Most Challenging Video Games to Conquer
Do you think you have what it takes to elevate your gambling skills to a whole new level? Steer clear of the casino floors and explore the other real-world games that demand strategy, skill, and patience.
Here are our top picks of the world's five most challenging games.
1. Go
Originating from China during the Zhou dynasty, Go is a two-player abstract strategy board game with over 2,500 years under its belt. No wonder it's difficult!
The objective appears easy: control the most territory on the board to amass the most points and eventually win. Let's explain how it works. Each player uses black or white stones to claim territories by surrounding empty intersections on the board. Stones can't be moved once placed, but you can use them to encircle your opponent's stones and eliminate them.
Once you've no more moves left to make and no new territory left to conquer, players earn a point for each empty space within their territory and a point for each stone or "prisoner" captured from an opponent.
What makes this extra challenging is that the game typically takes place on a 19x19 board, creating countless potential configurations and moves (or, perhaps, longer hours spent staring at the board).
Some experts even estimate that the number of legal board positions in Go surpasses the number of atoms in the universe. That's a long game!
2. Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering is a captivating collectible card game starring wizards and enjoyed by millions.
The goal? Reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to zero. Seems simple enough, right?
This is typically done by using a combination of lands, creatures, and spells from a card deck to engage in battle against your foe.
There's even more complexity: players start with seven cards in their hand and draw another each round. Can engage in combat and spell casting on every turn.
With approximately 2,000 rules and 19,000 cards, it's no wonder modern science has concluded that Magic: The Gathering outperforms even supercomputers in complexity.
According to MIT Technology Review, "This research establishes that Magic: The Gathering is the most computationally complex real-world game known in the literature."
3. Chess
Chess, one of the most debated games in the world with no direct agreement on age or justifiable origin, stands firmly as one of the most challenging games to master.
The mission: checkmate the opposition king while ensuring your king remains secure.
You'll start with 16 pieces - black or white - of varying royal status, such as the king, queen, rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns. Your aim is to force your opponent into a checkmate where their king cannot avoid capture.
You'll need to use strategic thinking and tactics to move your pieces across the board's 64 squares, following each piece's specific movement rules.
While a game can also end in a stalemate if no kings are in check and no more moves are possible, the ever-changing array of moves available to players means you'll need to think multiple steps ahead at all times.
4. The Campaign for North Africa
The Campaign for North Africa is hands down one of the longest games in the world (and, perhaps, legend).
This meticulous board game is a military simulation of the North African Campaign that occurred during World War II in Libya and Egypt.
It takes 10 players to act as commanders for the Allied and Axis forces. And guess how long it takes to play this "wonder of legend"? According to various stories, it's estimated to take about 1,500 hours - or 62 days - to complete!
What makes it so time-consuming? The massive rulebook filled with every possible detail, including a rule requiring Italian troops to have extra water rations for cooking pasta. It also includes charts and an expansive 10ft map of the Sahara.
5. Bridge
Bridge, traditionally viewed as one of the hardest card games—ever.
The objective is to score more points than your team's opponents, but as we know, it's never that simple. You'll need to form cunning partnerships in 4-player games while watching your opponents' moves like a hawk to stay one step ahead in this strategic team game.
Bridge is a game for four players, divided into two teams, using a standard 52-card deck. The objective is to win the highest number of points by taking the maximum number of tricks and rounds. The game is divided into four stages - dealing, bidding for tricks, playing the hand, and scoring.
During the auction phase, players make bids in a clockwise rotation, describing their hands. This is followed by the play, where the winning bidders from the previous stage try to collect the needed tricks to fulfill their contract.
To secure victory, a pair must gather four cards, one from each player, played in a clockwise direction. Bridge is considered an intellectual challenge equal to chess, so it may take some time to understand the nuances if you're not familiar with trick-taking games.
For a similar game, check out our guide on how to play mahjong.
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