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20 Video Games with the Most Complex Gameplay

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Ignacio Weil

Gaming - August 20th 2026, 23:30 GMT+2

Workers Resources Soviet Republic 2024 — 20. Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic (2024)

Most city builders let money quietly teleport concrete to a construction site. *Workers & Resources* makes you mine the gravel, manufacture the panels, assign the trucks and pray winter does not expose a missing heating pipe. Realistic Mode disables instant construction, so electricity, water, sewage, labor and more than 30 commodities become interlocking logistical obligations. The reward is a republic that feels genuinely built rather than placed—although one delayed bus can still bankrupt socialism before lunch. | © 3Division

Cropped Terra Invicta — 19. Terra Invicta (2026)

The alien invasion is almost rude enough to be the simple part. Before firing a space gun, you manipulate public opinion, place councilors, seize control points inside nations and steer a global research race shared with six rival human factions. Then the campaign expands into asteroid mining, orbital transfers and warships balanced around drives, radiators, armor and delta-v. *Terra Invicta* asks players to understand geopolitics and Newtonian physics in the same save file, because one headache was apparently insufficient. | © Pavonis Interactive

Cropped Amazing Cultivation Simulator — 18. Amazing Cultivation Simulator (2020)

A bedroom facing the wrong direction can become a spiritual engineering failure in *Amazing Cultivation Simulator*. Rebuilding a sect means feeding ordinary disciples while arranging rooms for favorable Feng Shui, channeling qi, balancing elemental relationships and training chosen cultivators through increasingly dangerous breakthroughs. Alchemy, artifacts, body cultivation, secret laws, politics with rival sects and heavenly tribulations all overlap, often without volunteering an explanation. It resembles a colony sim until somebody attempts immortality and the furniture starts influencing cosmic destiny. | © GSQ Games

Cropped Factorio — 17. Factorio (2020)

At first, the factory makes iron plates. Soon it has become a continent-sized argument about belt throughput, inserter timing, oil cracking and why the copper trains are parked nose-to-tail again. *Factorio* builds complexity from simple, perfectly readable parts: every bottleneck has a cause, every cause suggests another machine, and every solution creates fresh demand elsewhere. Players can stop after launching a rocket or wire a circuit network capable of performing logic no sane castaway actually needs. The factory, naturally, must grow. | © Wube Software

Cropped Noita — 16. Noita (2020)

*Noita* gives you a wand, then immediately demonstrates why unrestricted magic requires workplace regulation. Every pixel is physically simulated, allowing water to conduct electricity, fire to consume wood, acid to dissolve terrain and unfamiliar liquids to produce disastrous reactions. The deeper system hides inside wand construction: spell order, cast delay, recharge time, mana, triggers and modifiers can turn identical ingredients into either a boss killer or an extremely efficient suicide device. Knowledge matters more than reflexes, though both usually die together. | © Nolla Games

Cropped Microsoft Flight Simulator — 15. Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)

The difficulty slider separates a relaxing aerial postcard from a second unpaid career in aviation. With assists disabled, *Microsoft Flight Simulator* expects attention to checklists, trim, mixture, navigation, radio procedures, weather and the very firm rule that airliners contain more switches than bedrooms. Different aircraft bring distinct cockpits and flight models, while live conditions can ruin a technically sound approach in real time. Taking off is accessible; learning why the autopilot has chosen violence at 30,000 feet is the advanced course. | © Xbox Game Studios

Cropped Crusader Kings 3 — 14. Crusader Kings III (2020)

Conquering a kingdom is straightforward compared with convincing three sons not to dismantle it after your death. *Crusader Kings III* treats power as a family problem, tying succession, marriages, claims, vassal opinion, religion, culture and personal schemes to rulers who eventually die. A brilliant military campaign can therefore end with an incapable child, an ambitious uncle and several suspiciously widowed courtiers. Its interface is friendlier than its predecessors, but underneath sits a medieval relationship simulator where gossip can redraw Europe. | © Paradox Interactive

Cropped Oxygen Not Included — 13. Oxygen Not Included (2019)

Oxygen receives top billing because it is merely the first resource your colony will mismanage. Every pocket of gas moves, liquids require plumbing, power grids overload and heat slowly migrates until a once-efficient machine cooks the crops two rooms away. Keeping Duplicants alive means constructing closed loops for water, food, waste, cooling and breathable air while accounting for pressure and material properties. The cheerful art performs valuable emotional labor as the thermodynamics lecture underneath quietly turns dinner into carbon dioxide. | © Klei Entertainment

Cropped Kenshi — 12. Kenshi (2018)

*Kenshi* removes the usual RPG safety net and leaves the player with a hungry nobody who can lose a fight to local wildlife. Skills improve through use, injuries affect individual limbs, heavy loads build strength, and amputation can eventually become a prosthetic upgrade rather than a reload prompt. Scale up and the same drifter may command a squad, automate a mining settlement, trade contraband or provoke entire factions. The world keeps moving through patrols, raids and faction conflicts without permission—and rarely in your favor. | © Lo-Fi Games

Cropped Rimworld — 11. RimWorld (2018)

A colony’s freezer breaks during a heat wave. The cook gets food poisoning, insults the doctor and begins a fistfight beside the medicine shelf just as raiders arrive. That sequence is not a scripted mission; it is *RimWorld*’s simulated moods, health, relationships, temperature, labor and AI storytelling colliding on schedule. Managing production and defenses is only the visible job. The real work is preventing traumatized survivors with incompatible traits from turning one inconvenience into an operatic chain of HR violations. | © Ludeon Studios

Cropped Opus Magnum — 10. Opus Magnum (2017)

*Opus Magnum* hides intimidating depth behind machinery elegant enough to hang in a museum. Programmable arms rotate, extend and slide along tracks, carrying elemental atoms through glyphs that bond, split or transmute them into a required product. Any working machine solves the puzzle; then the histograms reveal how badly it compares on speed, cost and occupied area. Optimization becomes the actual game, inviting players to rebuild a functional contraption twelve times because one arm moved without sufficient dignity. | © Zachtronics

Cropped Hearts of Iron IV — 9. Hearts of Iron IV (2016)

A front line looks reassuringly simple until its divisions run short of rifles and fuel halfway through the offensive. *Hearts of Iron IV* links battlefield plans to factory allocation, production efficiency, division templates, supply networks, air superiority, naval control, research and national politics. Drawing an arrow toward Moscow takes seconds; building an army capable of following it may consume years of preparation. Even automated battle plans demand supervision, since generals possess the timeless military talent of attacking mountains in winter. | © Paradox Interactive

Cropped Stellaris — 8. Stellaris (2016)

Creating an empire is the first strategic decision, not decorative paperwork. Species traits, ethics, civics and origins shape how *Stellaris* handles population, diplomacy, expansion and even basic economics before the first science ship leaves home. From there come planetary jobs, trade, research, federations, espionage, fleet composition and wars fought across chokepoints that seemed irrelevant 50 turns earlier. Its many updates have rebuilt major systems repeatedly, so veterans occasionally return to discover that their galactic doctorate has expired. | © Paradox Interactive

Cropped Kerbal Space Program — 7. Kerbal Space Program (2015)

Orbit is not what happens when a rocket goes high enough, a lesson *Kerbal Space Program* delivers through fire and scattered debris. Players assemble every vehicle from functional parts, then wrestle with mass, thrust, staging, drag, fuel and orbital mechanics to make the design survive its mission. Reaching another planet requires launch windows and maneuver planning; landing also requires remembering the parachute. The smiling green crew keeps failure charming while the game quietly teaches concepts that actual space programs employ. | © Squad

Cataclysm dark days ahead msn — 6. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (2013)

The apocalypse may be less threatening than the first look at *Cataclysm*’s command list. Beneath the tilesets and turn-based movement sits an obsessive survival simulation covering nutrition, pain, stamina, weather, wounds, crafting, vehicle construction, mutations and cybernetic augmentation. A shopping cart can become vital infrastructure; a badly fitted backpack can change a fight. Because the persistent world continues beyond the player’s immediate crisis, surviving one week only earns admission to a much larger course in improvised post-human logistics. | © Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Contributors

Cropped path of exile — 5. Path of Exile (2013)

*Path of Exile* presents its passive tree like a threat, and that is before skill gems, support links, item affixes, ascendancies or crafting currencies join the conversation. Building a character means understanding which modifiers stack, which interact multiplicatively and which expensive mistake will become obvious many hours later. The Atlas adds another progression tree to an endgame packed with mechanics inherited from years of challenge leagues. Combat remains fast and gratifying, but the arithmetic behind a great build could frighten an accountant. | © Grinding Gear Games

Cropped Victoria 2 — 4. Victoria II (2010)

*Victoria II* does not let players run an economy so much as negotiate with one that has developed opinions. Millions of simulated people are divided into population groups that buy goods, change jobs, support parties, migrate, radicalize and feed factories connected to a global market. Tariffs might protect revenue while starving industry; reforms may calm one class and energize another. Warfare matters, yet the real opponent is a nineteenth-century spreadsheet capable of producing a revolution because artisans could not find enough tea. | © Paradox Interactive

Cropped Dwarf Fortress — 3. Dwarf Fortress (2006)

A dwarf can dislike rain, remember an old insult and carry that irritation into a workshop producing socks for the military. *Dwarf Fortress* generates civilizations, histories, geology, creatures and personalities before the fortress even opens, then simulates labor, craft industries, fluid flow, temperature, anatomy and material properties inside it. Success requires learning dozens of systems; catastrophe requires touching only one aquifer or magma channel incorrectly. The famous motto “losing is fun” is less reassurance than a legally necessary warning. | © Bay 12 Games

Cropped Aurora 4x — 2. Aurora 4X (2004)

*Aurora 4X* resembles database software that has accidentally developed interstellar ambitions. Players design not only ships but engines, sensors, weapons, missiles and fire-control systems, then expand shipyards capable of building those exact specifications. Surveying, mining, logistics, research, officer assignments, maintenance and fleet doctrine all demand separate attention across a growing empire. The interface offers very little theater, leaving the imagination to supply the explosions while a dense collection of tables calculates precisely why the fleet never detected them. | © Steve Walmsley

Cropped Eve Online — 1. EVE Online (2003)

*EVE Online*’s hardest system is other people, although the fitting window makes a respectable attempt. Ship modules interact with power grid, CPU, capacitor, resistances, weapon tracking, range and movement; beyond combat lie exploration, manufacturing, logistics, trade and a player-driven economy with consequences that escape any tutorial. Joining a corporation adds diplomacy, fleet doctrine, espionage and politics conducted by people who may remember a betrayal for a decade. It is a space MMO, financial market and trust exercise sharing one merciless universe. | © Fenris Creations

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A controller may have only so many buttons, but these games seem determined to assign three jobs to every one of them. Their layered mechanics, demanding combat and intimidating menus can make the tutorial feel like an entrance exam. From sprawling strategy titles to fighters governed by split-second decisions, these video games turn confusion into a genuine skill ceiling. Mastering them is deeply satisfying—provided you survive the homework.

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A controller may have only so many buttons, but these games seem determined to assign three jobs to every one of them. Their layered mechanics, demanding combat and intimidating menus can make the tutorial feel like an entrance exam. From sprawling strategy titles to fighters governed by split-second decisions, these video games turn confusion into a genuine skill ceiling. Mastering them is deeply satisfying—provided you survive the homework.