Fallout 4 or if you like a bit more comedy and less open world - Shadow Warrior 2.

The former I can't comment on yet. The latter is very, very weak on RPG elements.

Fallout New Vegas is a great RPG and decent shooter. You need to mod the game a bit for it to become a challenging game though.

Don't listen to one of the posts above me. Fallout 4 may be a better shooter than FNV, but damn, it's a terrible RPG and if you care about story and writing, you probably should give it a wide berth.
If all you care about are its mechanics, mod the game enough and you'll have some fun with it. :)

Maybe that new upcoming EA title immortals of Aveum will manage to satisfy your itch on higher difficulty settings

Too bad, you'll get it anyway.

Send the OP a private message then. Otherwise it's all part and parcel of posting on a public forum...

I know what you mean. don't get me wrong, i like VR gaming and there is some games that only work in VR which are really good. But just yeasterday i was playing Shadows of doubt, and while it is really good game, i kept thinking "how cool would this have been if it was in VR"

What about
EYE: Divine Cybermancy?
Janky but a rather unique gameplay experience all the same

Other than that System Shock / Bioshock / Dead Space and Deus Ex come to mind

the Original ArmA / Operation Flashpoint if you're looking for a rock-hard battlefield one-hit-kill simulator that's not just your regular FPS power fantasy too!

We Happy Few

Stalker is pretty much unequalled in that respect.

The only ones I can think of are more military shooters like the original Ghost Recon or ARMA games, though RPG elements are very light unless you meant the rocket propelled variant.

Another game may be Venom: Codename Outbreak an earlier jank version of Stalker by the same developer.

Maybe Metro Exodus, but I haven't played that and the previous Metro games were fairly linear shooters.

VR would be great if things like walking did not make most people sick for the next 12 hours.

All of those range from good to great. Can't go wrong w/ any of those picks.

EYE is probably the worst of those you mentioned...and it's still quite good. EYE's a steal when it's on sale for like the $3-4 it often goes on sale for.

It's just....all the others you listed are great - i.e. System Shocks, Bioshocks, Dead Space 1, and Deus Ex.

What about that
"Chernobylite" game? I've not played it but it always looked like STALKER only.. err.. no JUST like STALKER actually!
Probably inferior but 'mostly positive' on Steam and 75 Metacritic so...

The already mentioned Dark Messiah of Might & Magic can be quite punishing on the hardest difficulty. FPP and has RPG elements. Not on GOG through

Seems like you are not going to play Borderlands but as far as the games go, the one I can recommend the most is the Pre-Sequel. It was the first game where the player characters had a bit more personality and regularly talked/reacted differently based on who you played. The characters and their skills are by far the most fun out of all the games. But if you want non-sensical difficulty, then the "raid bosses" in BL 2 are what you want. They were designed to be taken on in groups but can be soloed (very difficult).