What is the toughtest game you have ever beaten?

[FredLC]

Ok, I had to find an excuse to brag a little about this:

After the news came of the full Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster coming, I decided to have an original trilogy full playthrough, because it was almost 5 years since I last played a game in the series (a failed attempt at an insanity run on ME 2). I wanted it fresh in my head when the remasters came.

So I started fresh using my 360 copies on my Xbox One, and decided to bump up the difficulty on the first game above I ever tried before. Still, I found it too easy.

(A little context; I tried ME 2 on insanity because I made a full Dragon Age Series run on nightmare around that time, decided to check is I could on ME 2 as well, but failed and bumped it down to veteran).

So I begun on veteran again, and applied the ideas I used on the DA run; control my squadmate powers directly, scout every new enemy wave for high priority targets to focus-fire early on, guarantee a debuff specialist always in my team, and added some new mass effect specific new tactics, like changing ammo types more frequently to deal with specific defenses and prioritize heavy version of ammo powers instead of the squad version.

It was so easy on veteran with those new tactics that, still on Omega, I restarted and tried a new insanity run on ME2; and this time, it worked. Five years ago, insanity was gruelling difficult, taking too long, no fun, and I gave up on the first collector's base. These last few weeks it was just right, and I finished the game last night, grabbing in the process the last two only achievements I had left, both difficulty-related.

Feels great to be able to beat a difficulty that bested me before. Specially because I don't usually like artificially high, unfair difficulties, and play games on normal, or slight above normal (only games I ever finished on maximum difficulty are the 3 Dragon Ages, Witcher 3 and now Mass Effect 2).

So, my question is: what is your most proud gaming accomplishment?; some difficult level you completed? A trophy/achievement perhaps? Some multiplayer tasks you excel in? Beating a game I a way developers didn't anticipate? A speed run, a solo run?

Share the tale of your proudest gaming moment!

Couple of extra questions for mass effect players: have you guys tried the higher difficulties? I wonder what is the base of players that bump it up.

Also, I began ME3 right after and I guess I never really tried one right after the other, because I noticed the gameplay mechanics improvement much more accutely than ever before. The evolution is not as dramatic as that of the jump from 1 to 2, but it is greater than my memory told me. Did you guys also perceived that ME3 is, mechanically-wise, a far better game than ME2 (though two still is my favourite because of story and pacing).

Regards .

 

[sherbz]

In no particular order:

- Completing Doom 2 on ultra violence from start to finish on a single save (no reloads or starting again - pure ironman and death means death)
- Completing Slay The Spire with all 3 characters at ascension level 20
- Completing For the King on Master difficulty on every scenario
- Completing XCOM2 on a legendary difficulty ironman save (again - no reloads)
- Completing Pestilence Lake on HOMM3 on hard difficulty (impossible is for masochists IMO)
- And finally 1 multiplayer achievement. I once spent an entire map cycle on Team Fortress classic on a domination map as a scout without dying once - and my score at the end was something like 72-0

I have played all ME games apart from Andromeda. I thought gameplaywise 3 was the best. But there were a number of really stupid design decisions like your war score being influenced by how much you played multiplayer. And the very limited way in which the ending was reached. I only ever play games like that really on the default normal difficulty. As they are more about story for me. And i dislike most modern shooters at higher difficulties. The only shooter i have ever found fun at high difficulties was Doom. If im going for something difficult it will nearly always be either a strategy game or an old school RPG. I tried to do Wasteland 2 on sick joke difficulty but got bored once i got to Hollywood and found it a bit grindy and a bit unfair (i guess the clue was in the difficulty title).

Some games lend themselves to higher difficulties better than others IMO. Most of them tend to be roguelikes.

 

[FredLC]

Doom 2 must be really really hard in top difficulty, but I guess I stuck with reflex-based gameplay.

With a cooler head, the toughtest one for me was actually Dragon Age 2, but I played inquisition with friendly fire off (2 does not allow it on nightmare), so maybe inquisition would top it if I turned on all challenges and FF.

And yes, some stupidity keep ME3 from being a 10/10, war assets chief upon them. Just mechanically wise and graphically wise it was objectively better.

Mechanically wise andromeda also leaped ahead, and it still sucks...
Regards .

 

[sherbz]

I got about 3 quarters of the way through Doom 2 on Nightmare difficulty. But it was a bit of a grind and insanely difficult. The original Doom was actually quite manageable on Nightmare difficulty (with saves - without it would be much much harder). Id say about a similar level of difficulty to the whole of Doom2 on Ultra violence (without saves).

On a related matter - this is what i consider to be the greatest achievement in gaming in terms of difficulty and skill. Granted thats a very subjective measure. But to complete Final Doom Plutonia experiment on Nightmare difficulty in a single segment is quite literally insane. And the runner doesnt use any tools to cheat his way through slowing the game down or other hacks. Its well worth a watch. I sort of follow speed running and have done for years now. And for many this run was impossible. It took someone 19 years from its release to attempt it. And the video can be found below.

 

[FredLC]

Thar is a level of skill I doubt I would ever achieve. It's exhausting even to watch!

 

[sherbz]

It took 19 years before someone even attempted it. Now when a game releases its often speed runned and completely broken within a week or so (Prey is a complete joke on this count - watch a speed run of that if you are familiar with the game). And this took 19 years to achieve. I still find it unbelievable. And the level of skill is utterly jaw dropping. The runner - Zero Master - holds most of the big records in Doom speed running. Theres two rocket jumps, an arch vile jump (14:20), and also a "death". If you watch at 24:55 he shoots a rocket into the wall and dies, and his corpse clips through the doorway and over the level end teleporter - which completes the level. Yes he has to start the next one with no guns or ammo. But that takes serious balls and knowledge.

 

[FredLC]

Never had to much interest in the speed running scene. Saw some videos of the YouTube channel "summoning salt" a while ago, after he made a video about people beating Mike Tysons punch out blindfolded, which is pretty amazing, and after that I saw some videos of people completely breaking games; like, beating a Mario game without ever pressing the left button, which sounds utterly impossible but actually can be done.

I do enjoy the occasional glimpse of those unreasonably skilled people, though...

 

[TrailblazingScot]

XCOM: Terror from the Deep 2 on the highest difficulty setting was a challenge. Ship terror missions were brutal experiences. XCOM: UFO Unknown was a walk in the park by comparison.

 

[sherbz]

XCOM: Terror from the Deep 2 on the highest difficulty setting was a challenge. Ship terror missions were brutal experiences. XCOM: UFO Unknown was a walk in the park by comparison.

I gave up with tftd. Ships were a nightmare. And artifact sites were suicidal. You also needed good RNG in order to unlock key weapons. Because woe betide you if you came up against Lobstermen without access to vibro blades. Id be interested to see an ironman run of it. Because the only way i can see it being beatable is with a hefty dose of save scumming. Which isnt particularly fun IMO.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

I gave up with tftd. Ships were a nightmare. And artifact sites were suicidal. You also needed good RNG in order to unlock key weapons. Because woe betide you if you came up against Lobstermen without access to vibro blades. Id be interested to see an ironman run of it. Because the only way i can see it being beatable is with a hefty dose of save scumming. Which isnt particularly fun IMO.

Sonic cannons and the alien grenades were sufficient against lobstermen. I remember my first ever game of TFTD. An island terror mission at night. I only had standard weaponry and I faced off against lobstermen for the first time ever. My squad fought bravely, but I think I only downed one lobsterman despite firing literally everything I had.

Not rare to have base defence as the first mission. You have just enough time to stock up. I set magna pack explosives to explode on turn 1 so when my guys die they drop the explosives and they detonate. Desperate times call for desperate measures

 

[Tinkerharrison]

It's a bit embarrassing to admit, especially when I compare it to the others here, but I finally managed to beat Dark Souls 3. I'm not very patient, when it comes to games; everytime a game gets to hard or I get stuck on a part, I just stop playing.
But DS somehow managed to grip me and make me continue, I don't know why, but I'm happy it did

 

[FredLC]

Wow, had kinda forgotten this thread, than I got the notification.

The souls series is well renown as one of the hardest out there, so maybe just dark souls 3 is enough of an accomplishment to merit bragging rights

Anyways, since the opening post, I decided to 100% all the Original Trilogy, which I accomplished a couple of weeks ago, with the insanity trophy on ME1.

Now, thinking better at what was actually the very hardest; well, it actually is a hard decision.

I now it isn't witcher 3; only the last fight of the last dlcs is a real challenge if you know how to spec, and even that one isn't that terrible with some god-tier builds you can find online.

My most difficult personal experiences would be Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2, in that order, but in truth, it might be because both are the only ones I played nightmare/insanity without the new game + file.

Da Inquisition on nightmare with friendly fire and all challenges on would probably be much thougher than Da2, and Da2 would probably be much easier if it allowed friendly fire off.

Also, mass effect 3 was generally way easier than 2, but again, I had the NG+ gear. Without it, I'd probably be ok most of the time, but I can think of a few difficulty spikes that could prove challenging.

Anyways, no changes on ME2, I finished it and all dlcs on maximum difficulty without NG+. But, I guess, an asterisk on ME 1 and 3, that were completed with NG+, and thus, much fancier gear...

Regards .