Best Games To Play If You Want To Feel Powerful

The great thing about games is that there’s an experience for every mood. If you want to have a relaxing, low-stakes play session, any number of excellent cozy games will fit the bill perfectly. On the other hand, if you want to blow off some steam and blow away some enemies, these really aren’t the sorts of games you need. Luckily, there are plenty of other titles that will make you feel very powerful indeed, often right from the start.

In this list, we’ll celebrate some titles that revolve around environmental destruction, fast-paced enemy-swatting combat, and slower, weightier, incredibly impactful combat. A few even sport all three. They’re from genres that span from roguelites to FPS and the 3D platformer, and they all provide their own unique power trips to relish.

8

Doom: The Dark Ages

So Visceral, You Can Almost Feel The Ripping And Tearing

If there’s any series that could be considered an enormous power trip, it’s Doom. As per usual in an FPS, Doomguy’s arsenal in the games typically ramps up over time, from a humble pistol and shotgun to much bigger and more wonderfully ludicrous tools of destruction. When the series was rebooted, Glory Kills were introduced, a mechanic that reinforced the notion that our hero’s fists are just as powerful as any of his weapons.

Doom: The Dark Ages made the bold move of slowing down the rebooted series’ action somewhat, and for me, it’s all the better for it. The focus here is on blocks and bashes with the Shield Saw and hefty smashes with the Dreadmace, and I really loved this playstyle that truly made you feel like an unstoppable walking titan. This isn’t to say that you can’t still zip around the battlefield (shield charges are very effective there), but every blow, whether an enemy one absorbed with your shield or one of your own dished out in return, feels enormously weighty. The more conventional gun lack nothing in the kick department either, but wading in at melee range and crushing away is the most satisfying feeling I’ve ever experienced in an FPS.

In this entry, Doomguy is wielded against the Hellish hordes as a weapon, in defense of the Heart of Argent. He never feels anything less than that.

7

Dynasty Warriors 8

The Most Legendary of Warriors

The Dynasty Warriors games deliver some of the most satisfying button-mashing action in the industry. Hack and slash games are all about pitting a powerful character against hordes of weaker enemies, but musou titles take that whole concept to the extreme. In Dynasty Warriors 8, the tumultuous Han Dynasty period is brought to visceral life, with the campaign’s conflict following some real generals and battles but with a theatrical twist on history too.

The game has appeared in several guises, including the Xtreme Legends edition with its heightened difficulty options and the tricky Challenge mode. I had the most fun, however, with the original version, which hit PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in summer 2013. The greater variety of character-unique musou attacks lends an even more theatrical element to the enemy-swatting action, as did the Rage mechanic (much improved from its earlier appearance in the series in my view). While the missions aren’t especially varied in objectives (there’s only so much you can do to keep things high octane after all), I typically found the length of them just right. Each one doesn’t outstay its welcome, but is long enough to feel like a satisfying part of the overall story. It looks a bit silly to me, the way that foes seem to wait in place for you if you’re elsewhere on the map, but this does not take away from the satisfaction of mowing them down and finishing a stage with an absurd K.O. Count.

6

Donkey Kong Bananza

Terrain? What Terrain?

I wasn’t sure about Donkey Kong Bananza when I first laid eyes on footage. I loved the visuals and how full of personality it all was, but the thing for me is that I relish a carefully-crafted platforming challenge stage (think Hollow Knight‘s infamous Path of Pain, the likes of which surely led to Silksong‘s easy mode mods). I was concerned that this sort of stage design might take a back seat to mindless digging and smashing. Ultimately, I think I was very wrong.

It’s rewarding to smash your way through the terrain, picking up hidden bananas and fossils (along with a wealth of gold) along the way. It’s also quite impressive, mechanics-wise, how much freedom you have to do so. It’s possible to break yourself a ‘short cut’ to some objectives, but there are carefully-imposed limits. There are surfaces that D.K. can’t scale, and solid barriers that even the Kong Bananza can’t smash through. Donkey Kong’s tremendous strength shines through throughout, however, in everything from the armored-shell-smashing combat to the way he tears up terrain to throw, swing, and Turf Surf with. With the nicely varied layers, too, it doesn’t feel too repetitive, even though it does struggle a bit too much from reskinned boss syndrome in my view.

5

God of War (2018)

Some of the Most Intense Combat Ever

It’s difficult to rival Doomguy in the mayhem and carnage stakes. If there’s another protagonist that can do it, though, it would have to be Kratos. Interestingly, the 2018 God of War reboot took a similar direction to Doom: The Dark Ages, giving the combat less of an arcade feel and lending a more deliberate, considered, weighty feel to every swing. Kratos’ shield, leviathan Axe, and fists alike land with huge force that the player can almost feel, and I especially like that it’s not necessarily about the flashiest attacks, but practical strings. The combat flows very nicely and is much less button-mashy as a result.

As always with the series, there’s a gripping story to back up the brutality. There’s a surprising emotion to the tale, and humanity to Kratos, as we watch him teach Atreus the ways of the extraordinary world they find themselves in. The complex father and son bond at play here is clear to see, and I found it quite emotional watching it play out as they make the journey to honor Atreus’ late mother. The trek across the realms to Jötunheim was bold new territory for the series and this more mature take on Kratos, but the team accomplished it with aplomb. With more freedom to develop Kratos’ skills and equipment, the game gives you the freedom to make him your kind of powerhouse. He may not remain in the world of Norse mythology, though.

4

Vampire Survivors

Lay Waste To Hordes Of Supernatural Foes

In Vampire Survivors, you can’t smash your way through a mountainside like in Donkey Kong Bananza, or feel the bone-crunching collision of enemy skulls against your mace a la Doom: The Dark Ages. What this roguelite does offer, though, is an absurd number of foes that even the Dynasty Warriors series would struggle to rival. The setup is extremely simple: You choose a character (each with unique traits and their own starting weapon) and a supernatural-themed stage, and then must survive an ever-increasing gauntlet of bats, zombies, and other spooky horrors for as long as you can.

Along the way, you’ll acquire new sub-weapons, upgrades for existing ones, and other bonus skills like faster movement. All of your attacks activate automatically, meaning that all the player has to do is control their character’s movement. I felt very vulnerable when I first started playing, as the hordes closed in, but slowly learned to appreciate the thrill of upgrading an AOE weapon and eradicating groups at a time.

Different combinations of equipment can evolve into more powerful versions, and the sheer number of them and variety of effects they have is incredible. The appropriately-named Death Spiral, a take on the scythe wielded by Death in the Castlevania titles, is my favorite, with its wide area and offensive/defensive utility. Like any good roguelite, it has very satisfying combat (regardless of the limited control the player has over their arsenal), a loop that continually rewards the player with more content and unlocks, and that powerful feeling of mowing through foes when you have a good build. Lots of great games have imitated Vampire Survivors.

3

The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

You’ll Definitely Like Him When He’s Angry

One of the most legendary physical powerhouses in the Marvel Comics roster, an open-world destruction-athon is probably the best sort of playground for Dr. Bruce Banner’s angry green side. That’s exactly what Radical Entertainment aimed to deliver with 2005’s The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Suffice to say, if you enjoy the way D.K. leaves a little impact crater behind when he lands from a great height in Bananza, this is a classic worth revisiting.

The story revolves around Banner’s attempts to suppress the Hulk and the looming presence of Devil Hulk, the device he had invented to do so, and a broader conflict against the forces of Emil Blonsky. Naturally, this leads to the Marvel icon performing wrestling moves on helicopters grabbed out of the skies and tearing military vehicles apart and using them as rocket launchers. “I’m a big green time bomb, and I’m ticking,” Banner states dramatically in the game’s intro, and he’s certainly not kidding.

My favorite part of this title is the way Hulk’s strength is gauged. He can rip apart certain military units with ease, but this doesn’t mean there’s no challenge. He’ll come up against even larger foes, with the Abomination (Blonsky’s tragic tale is a key part of the story) being the ultimate example. Resourceful use of the environments is important to success in more challenging battles. There’s also the fact that traversing the environments is well done in itself, with mechanics such as wall-running implemented well.

2

Marvel’s Spider-Man

A Wide Range of Gadgets Causing Chaos

Spider-Man is, in some ways, a much less heavy-handed hero. Yes, he does whatever a spider can, but he’s a bit more limited in the brute force stakes than the likes of the Hulk. Much like Bruce Banner, though, Peter Parker is a real science whiz. I’m truly grateful that he is, as well, because the array of gadgets to unlock and upgrade are absolutely my favorite thing about Marvel’s Spider-Man. They make the combat so much fun, because the way that time slows to a crawl as you use the selection wheel allows you to implement the likes of the Impact Web and Concussive Blast in combos. The Webhead’s athletic strikes and ability to launch foes into the air matches perfectly.

From crowd control to delivering sustained damage to bosses, it really is a blast to deliver tried-and-true combos. On several occasions, I’d run out of my go-to gadgets and had to improvise with what I had in the heat of the moment, and I enjoyed that too. Despite all of this gushing, and for all the game makes you feel powerful, it can also make you feel just the opposite. The tragic inevitability of Peter Parker’s friendship with the brilliant Otto Octavius shattering forever, and the fate of Aunt May, had far more of an impact on me than I’d expected going in. Kudos to Insomniac Games for crafting a living, breathing city that’s as fun to simply traverse as it is to fight through, but even more so for its original Spider-Man narrative.

1

RoboCop: Rogue City

Like many games on this list, RoboCop: Rogue City had one absolutely pivotal thing to get right: Players have to feel like RoboCop. From his every clanking footstep (and not since Final Fantasy 9‘s Steiner has a character clanked so much as they walked) to that iconic speech pattern, Teyon certainly achieved that.

The game explores the cyborg crime fighter’s connection to his human past, the curious way it can impact his performance, and the mysterious Old Man’s schemes to enact Project Afterlife. In classic series fashion, Rogue City isn’t all about the action, as there’s some investigation work (think Batman’s detective sections in the Arkham games) to be done too. RoboCop will search buildings for clues, carry stricken characters (informants, victims, and so on) to the authorities, and more. He will also, at times, need to defend himself with his Auto 9, and it’s during the shooting sections that we really feel like a powerhouse. Running for cover really isn’t RoboCop’s style, and the amount of punishment he can take really is incredible. This isn’t to say there’s no challenge to the game, as you’ll come up against some towering bosses and more sophisticated weaponry, but you have so much power yourself to toss enemies around and shrug off some hits.