One of the main reasons why people play video games is for therush of adrenalineand feeling of accomplishment that comes with conquering an objective. This sense of accomplishment has been integral to game design from the very beginning, with high scores being an early example of tracking accomplishments.
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Activision are considered to be the team that birthed the idea of achievements with their ‘patches’ system, where players could send photos of their high scores in exchange for literal patches. However, the Xbox 360 was the console that popularized gaming achievements, and almost every game console has incorporated them since. Achievement hunting has become an integral part of modern gaming for many people, with achievement scores and trophy counts being bragging rights among friends.
Since the Xbox 360 popularized the concept, there have been some games that have pushed the ability and resolve of achievement hunters to their limits, withridiculously difficultachievements that should award completionists with a plaque for unlocking them all.
6Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
When thecritically-acclaimed remakeof the originalCrash Bandicoottrilogy hit stores, fans of the PS1 classics were overcome with nostalgia. However, many of them were surprised to learn that the game was much harder than they remember – particularly when gunning for 100% completion. The game’s success led to a 2020 sequel to 1998’sCrash Bandicoot: Warped, which leaned into the trilogy’s reputation for difficulty by ramping the challenge up through the roof.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time’s achievements essentially require the player to beat the game 100%. This is far tougher than it sounds, though, as the game is littered with gems, relics, and flashback tapes to find and complete. It’s the gems andrelics that are the game’s hardest test; there are a ridiculous amount of gems to collect, many of which require players to find boxes that are completely off-screen. As for the relics, they are far harder than theN. Sane Trilogydue to how much longer and tougher the levels are, and for the essential triple spin mechanic, that can literally become painful after a while because of how often players need to press the spin button.
5Outlast 2
Following the huge success of the originalOutlast-which was helped in no small part by its popularity withYouTubers and Twitch streamers- a sequel was inevitably released. Like its predecessor, the game has a handful of ridiculously difficult achievements, such as beating the game on Insane difficulty.
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Insane difficulty doesn’t just make the enemies far tougher than normal; it forces players to complete the entire game without any checkpoints or saves. That’s not all though, as the Messiah achievement requires players to beat the game on Insane difficulty without ever reloading their camera with batteries. Suffice to say, players need to know the game like the back of their hand and have virtually speedrun-level skills atOutlast 2to unlock all of its achievements.
4Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collectionis both a blessing and a curse for achievement hunters. On the one hand, it has a whopping 4,000 Gamerscore on offer, but on the other hand, it has an eye-watering 400 achievements to unlock - making it an incredibly steep challenge for completionists.
It’s not just the sheer number of achievements that makesHalo: The Master Chief Collectiontough to 100%, as there are also a plethora of tough challenges mixed in. The hardest achievement is LASO Master, which requires the player to beat fourHalogames on Legendary difficulty with every Skull activated.
3Mortal Kombat (2011)
2011’sMortal Kombatwas one of the series' most important releases. The franchise’s creators and long-running development team, Midway Games, filed for bankruptcy in 2009, giving Warner Bros. the opportunity to obtain many of their assets, includingMortal Kombat.Warner Bros.handed the development of their first game in the franchise to NetherRealm Studios, who were under a ton of pressure to satisfy a skeptical fanbase.
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Mortal Kombat(2011) impressed fans and critics, though it certainly didn’t attempt to appease fans with its achievements. The game is infamous for its borderline cruel ‘My Kun Fu Is Stronger’ achievement, which tasked players with accomplishing the following with EVERY one of the game’s 27 characters:
It’s safe to say that players aiming to unlock this achievement should clear their calendar for the next few months.
2XCOM 2
The iconicturn-based strategyseriesXCOMis well known for its punishing difficulty. The franchise’s level of challenge originally made the game fairly niche, though it became a surprise mainstream success in 2012 with the release ofXCOM: Enemy Unknown. The game’s success led to a sequel,XCOM 2, which many people thought would be easier due to the series' newfound mainstream attention. Firaxis Games decided against this, however, and instead made the game even tougher than its predecessor.
Simply completingXCOM 2is challenging enough,though beating it on Commander+ difficulty makes the game brutal for completionists. Along with playing on Commander+, there are achievements like The Untouchables, which requires players to never lose a soldier, and Valhalla, which tasks players with turning on the infamous Ironman mode that saves the player’s progress after every decision they make.
1Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Tactical shooterGhost Recon Advanced Warfighterwas released on Xbox 360 in March 2006, only a few months after the console’s achievement system was launched. It’s fair to say that Ubisoft didn’t take to achievements like a duck to water, asGhost Recon Advanced Warfighterhas arguably the hardest set of video game achievements ever, thanks to three ridiculous challenges in particular.
Believe it or not, the game has three separate achievements where the player has to reach the very top of an online leaderboard to unlock them - essentially meaning that only the top 0.1% ofGhost Recon Advanced Warfighterplayers ever stood a chance of unlocking all of its achievements.
