That's pretty hardcore actually. Oldschool, not being able to save...

That said, some genres are just not for every one. I've beaten Doom 1/2 on "grandmaster mode" (Ultraviolence with faster monsters) and Quake on Nightmare. Back in the day that is, when my reflexes were better. I've also beaten Master of Magic and Master of Orion 1+2 on "Impossible". I've played through games like Chaos Engine, Apidya and Turrican 1-3 without dying once. I have quit UFO - Enemy Unknown before the finale because I found it too easy.

Still - give me an RTS like Command and Conquer and I'll raqe quit, probably after the third level, finding it impossible to win.

The life system alleviates it somewhat, because it essentially gives you checkpoints. Not like in Wolfenstein 3D or Rise of the Triad, where losing a life sets you back to the beginning of the level.
And the difficulty doesn't really spike until a few missions in.

One game that is made incredibly challenging due to the inability to save during missions is 2004's Shadow Ops: Red Mercury. It doesn't even have checkpoints, you have to complete each stage in one go.

Never played that one. With Dark Forces the real challenge to finish a 5 hour level (like the Super Stardestroyer) when you have a RL with job and family and so on. And yes, if've beaten the game (before I had all this) ;-)

But if you want "hard"... Play Operation Flashpoint on "realistic". Blood, sweat and tears...

You mean, it takes an amazing incredible person to beat a first person shooter that does not belong to the Call Of Duty series. A drunk Chimp could beat a Call Of Duty game.

I think you just have to learn the individual games' ins and outs. It makes sense to die quite a bit in FPS, it's going to happen, simple, especially if you aren't playing super-timid or a super-power-player. I play them all on "normal" difficulty and struggle dying a good enough amount, but not annoyingly so.

DOOM I find to be a great teacher of the FPS. Its gradual increase in difficulty is really well scaled, you get this awesome feeling of being able to take on bigger and stronger guys, and it is harder, but it teaches you how as you go along, so you can finally beat the GD cyberdemon.

As someone else said, don't let the Duke Nukem Forever haters disway you from that one, it's fun, just the right feeling of challenge (maybe even a little easy, but not too much.)

REDNECK RAMPAGE is a great one too, a bit more hard, but, open and forgiving in a lot of ways.

I more recommend finding FPSs with art-styles, themes/atmospheres, and music that you like. That will be more likely to compell you through an FPS than its difficulty, once you learn how you need to play it.

But hey, life is short, go ahead and put them on easy and have fun blasting away.
Ooof, that sounds rough. I am playing W2 on ranger difficulty and not having any real issues, now that I've figured out the combat mechanics (which you figure out more and more and more as you play, just as a novice ranger team getting more experience should.) I will PM you about some tips if you like.

Man, more proof of kids being soft these days. Sad.

Nope, no trouble at all. It's you. I beat most of them on the hardest difficulty (Blood and Descent are pretty hard even on lower difficulty though). I don't consider this very incredible at all.

Play at higher difficulties. You'll get better quickly.

Do you have problems viewing stuff in first person?

Little self promotion:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2015/post58

I beat quite a few this year because A: they're really freaking fun and B: they're pretty easy wins to pile up.

Having that been said, I got started out on Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. While I am by no means good at these games, this game required a lot of patience for me early on but it made some games look easy by comparison (except Finest Hour... I cannot and probably will not beat that one). Having that been said, finally got the first Call of Duty with the case, manual and box earlier for next to nothing so i can have a real opinion on that game soon.

They announce they are shutting down Hellgate 5 days ago

I've played through the original Cold War Crisis campaign and about two thirds of Red Hammer. Definitely one of the most intense gaming experiences ever. And one reason why I would never consider to become a real soldier (well now I'm too old for that anyway).

I play all FPS games on the hardest setting the game offers by default and only turn down the difficulty if/when I encounter something insane and not fun in a game. Rarely do I end up feeling the need to turn down the difficulty level though. Some parts of a game might be challenging, but then that is what "hard" is all about, an increased challenge. I've been playing FPS games since 1994 though so it's hard to not build up general FPS skills over 20+ years which can be applied to all FPS games.

I also play FPS games exclusively with a mouse and keyboard, which are definitely the best controllers to play FPS games with, giving the greatest agility and precision. Fidgeting with gamepads with FPS games is robotic and imprecise, and has been shown to be at a disadvantage. I'd recommend anyone struggling with FPS games using gamepads or similar to set them on fire and throw them off a cliff and use a keyboard and mouse instead for greater precision and accuracy.

I consider myself pretty good with PC FPS games (usually play the single-player campaigns in highest difficulty, and I've always done quite well in public Team Fortress matches with various classes), but Blood did feel odd to me, as in dying constantly. Good to know I am not imaging its difficulty level being all over the place, then again I wonder why it has such a cult status if the gameplay is so broken?

Console FPS games with gamepad controls I detest. I'm still having nightmares about playing the XBox version of Halo 2, or the PS2 version of Serious Sam, or the TimeSplitters games for that matter. I could just as well be controlling with my feet instead, and having as much "fun" fighting the poor controls.

Thank you for making me feel amazingly incredible :) I always considered myself rather poor at FPS games.

When I play a new fps game, I play it on normal difficulty. When I finish it, the difficulty is always hard or normal (depends on my mood).