Summary
Although it’s fairly uncommon for strategy and tactics games to be released on home consoles in the modern day, the original PlayStation had a shocking amount of strategy games available, primarily in the RTS and strategy-RPG genres.
This could arguably be attributed to the immense popularity of RTS gamesthroughout the 90s, during which the PlayStation was one of the biggest home consoles available. However, due to their age and common dependence on the player’s familiarity with the genre, many strategy games for the PS1 can be brutally difficult.
This popular standalone expansion for the originalCommand & Conquergame isn’t as brutally difficult as other PS1 strategy games, but as an older RTS game, it can be extremely unforgiving in some of its latter missions.
Command & Conquer: Red Alertis an addictive and highly polished RTS game, and its dual campaigns certainly help to keep players engaged, but it can be a challenge to reach the end of either campaign, especially when playing on the PlayStation without the use of a mouse.
5Front Mission 2
This turn-based tacticalmech strategy gameis the second entry in the popularFront Missionseries. Although it could be argued thatFront Mission 3is a superior entry in the series,Front Mission 2is debatably the most difficult due to its often complex mechanics and inaccessible systems.
Front Mission 2, like the otherFront Missiongames, is relatively complex; the game has more weapon variety than the first game, a system for terrain that affects the accuracy of mechs and ammunition. Although the otherFront Missiongames may have some of the hardest missions,Front Mission 2is arguably the most consistently difficult of the games.
Set in the iconicWarhammeruniverse,Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Ratis an often overlooked entry in the abundance ofWarhammervideo games due to its age, but it’s a surprisingly punishing and tactical retroWarhammerstrategy game.
Warhammer: Dark Omenmay be an arguably superior game in its design, accessibility, and visual style, butShadow Of The Horned Ratremains a solid strategy game nonetheless, andits complex systemsand difficult missions make it one of the most hardcore experiences on the PS1.
Centered around managingthe jobs and abilities of a broad ensemble of characters,Final Fantasy Tacticsis a tremendously difficult and strategically deepturn-based tactics gamethat maintains a fast pace.
Much of the difficulty inFinal Fantasy Tacticscomes from the customization of characters, tasking players with coming up with good strategies and efficient builds in order to make the most out of each character.Final Fantasy Tacticsalso features a lot of difficult battles; however, this difficulty can, unfortunately, be mitigated through early-game grinding. Despite this, players going into the game with no prior knowledge are almost sure to have a challenging experience.
This deep and highly complex tactical mech strategy game was arguably one of the most complex and inaccessible experiences to be released on the original PlayStation. The game’s user interface is enough to give any regular gamer a mild headache, but its robot-wars-style auto-battler combat was way ahead of its time.
Carnage Heart’s difficulty mainly comes down to its steep learning curve and complex systems. InCarnage Heart, players must build artificial intelligence for their hulking mech soldiers, essentially creating a program that tells them how to fight. On top of this,Carnage Heartcontains elements of resource management, adding an extra layer of depth and difficulty even outside of the game’s highly tactical combat system.
X-Com: Terror from the Deep
WHERE TO PLAY
The war continues… X-COM: UFO Defense brought you to a galactic battlefield. X-COM: Terror from the Deep brings the alien terror into a totally new dimension. Seeking to take advantage of a weakened Earth, X-COM’s deep space foes unexpectedly change strategy and launch a powerful second front against planet Earth.In the dark depths of vast oceans, long sleeping forces are awakened by reanimation signals sent out across the galactic silence by their interstellar brothers and sisters. Slowly but surely, an army of hibernating alien sea creatures awakens. Your combat now extends to the strange new worlds of the deep where superior alien technologies threaten the very survival of this planet - your planet - Earth.Sequel to the hugely successful X-COM: UFO Defense. Actual undersea geoscape mapping system with rich topographic detail. Full array of undersea military technology. Rich graphics feature water coloration and wrecks.Multilevel tactical maps featuring both underseascapes and buildingsAlien encyclopedia features mutation technology and new watery denizens.
ThisX-COMgame, released for both the PC and the PlayStation, was one of the first entries in theX-COMfranchise. However, inX-COM: Terror From The Deep, players are tasked with defeating a variety of vicious aliens underneath the waters of the Earth rather than invading space-farers.
X-COM: Terror From The Deepis one of the hardest strategy games on the PS1 due to its arguably imbalanced enemies, mechanical complexity, and unforgiving gameplay; likeotherX-COMgames,Terror From The Deepis a combination of unit and resource management througha hub worldand deep tactical combat from an isometric perspective. The campaign and the missions themselves are both lengthy and complex in their layouts, making them notably more difficult thanUFO Defense.
