author: Paul Musiolik
Souls-like Games Rated Easiest to Hardest
The Dark Souls series is famous for its hellishly high difficulty, which requires, above all, patience. Games inspired by Dark Souls are trying to emulate that, with various results. Here's our list rating souls-like games from easiest to hardest.
12. Lords of the Fallen (2023)
- Release date: October 13, 2023
- Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: HexWorks
- Publisher: CI Games
A fresh release. CI Games took a long time to create a sequel to its first soulslike game from 2014. The developers decided to rename it as a reboot of the one-shot "series" and completely remodel it. Result? A fairly decent representative of its genre with a few intriguing ideas. What about the difficulty level?
The difficulty level may seem a little strange due to the combat system, but I can't quite identify what is wrong with it. Maybe it's a matter of inaccurate hitboxes and odd attack animations? Or maybe the "tankiness" of the opponents? Balance isn't the strongest aspect of this game, which often presents us with a significant challenge.
11. The Surge
- Release date: May 16, 2017
- Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne
- Developer: Deck13 Interactive
- Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
The Surge is a prime example of how we perceive a technically inferior soulslike game as more challenging. As I mentioned before, The Surge has serious problems with the camera, which significantly increase the level of difficulty. Then, there's a certain inertia of combat and bizarre collision detection of attacks. I belong to the people who enjoyed this game, but I still remember how much it frustrated me and how many times I died due to the strange level designs.
On top of that, The Surge has aged surprisingly badly. It's just 4-years-old in theory, but it feels outdated by two generations.
