When you look at stealth games in general, most aren’t extremely hard, and that’s because you can usually make them consistent. Randomness isn’t going to be an issue with the usual patrol routes, butMetal Gearhas something else.
There’s a reason why the games are dubbed as Tactical Espionage Action — that last part is where you need some serious skill. You can’t just use a guide and win every time when doing these boss fights and action sequences. There’s a bunch of parts that make the series vastly more difficult to 100 percent than any other stealth game.
Anything seventh-gen and up will be judged on the difficulty of the platinum trophy, while older titles will be judged on the difficulty of completing and unlocking everything.
Out of the PS2Metal Gear Solidtitles, you will spend the most time on the second game. This is for two big reasons: dog tags and the VR Missions. To get the blue wig for Raiden, which is the last dog tag item unlock, you’ll need 218 out of 242 Plant dog tags.
This forces you to beat the game while collecting virtually every dog tag five times from Very Easy to Extreme mode. Extreme’s no joke with theincredibly difficult boss fightson offer, including the 20 Metal Gear Ray gauntlet. There’s also 511 VR Missions, which take a ridiculously long amount of time to do, and some are pure savage.
Unlike Metal Gear Solid 2, you don’t need to beat Extreme mode to get all the unlockables in MGS3. You can get them all on Normal, but the number of playthroughs you’ll have to go through will probably be the same, if not more. There’sa ton of collectibles you’ll need to get.
All the camouflage, face paints, shooting every Kerotan, and getting all the animals and plants will be needed for 100 percent. The latter two are required for unlocks, while the former are permanent additions to your inventory on that save file. You’ll also need to see every cutscene on one save file to unlock the Peep Demo Theater, a funny reward that’ll require at least four playthroughs.
With Metal Gear Solid 4 being on the PS3, you have to obtain the coveted platinum trophy, which, in this case, happens to be the hardest of the mainline titles. There’s quite a few collectibles and miscellaneous trophies, but the dealbreaker that everyone hates is the trophy for acquiring all the iPod tracks.
You’ll need to get all 40 emblems here, requiring eight total playthroughs, and achieve both the highest and lowest ranks available. Thankfully, the game’s really short when you skip all the cutscenes, which does move things forward, but that won’t help when waiting for the 35-hour requirement to get the Chicken rank.
Peace Walker andMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painare very similar gameplay-wise, but also in their 100 percent challenge. Both games will take a lot of time, but what sets Peace Walker apart is the sheer number of S ranks required. There are 128 extra ops in the game, and unlike the side ops in MGS5, you are graded here.
Getting all the S ranks very well could be the last trophy you need, as there’s so many that you’ll likely get most of the other miscellaneous ones on the way. Finding and collecting key soldiers can also be hard without using a guide, and you’ll have to grind out the AI weapon bosses, Monster Hunter fights, and multiplayer as well, further lengthening 100 percent completion.
You only need to worry about S ranks for the main missions of Metal Gear Solid 5, but there are a few aspects that make it harder than Peace Walker. First off, every mission now has optional tasks you must finish for 100 percent. Some are easy, while others can be a real pain, like the few that require you to listen to whole conversations.
Finding the Leopard Tortoise to complete your animal collection is also a real hassle, even when you’re at the right spot. You’ll also have to grind for plenty of resources to create and subsequently dispose of a Nuke, which takes 24 real-life hours to develop. Despite the length, MGS5 is so fun andsuch an amazing stealth game; it’s fun all the way through.
It’s a bit odd that the two hardest Metal Gear completions come from spin-off titles, but it’s the truth. Metal Gear Rising comes from Platinum Games, and if you’re familiar with the company’s action game pedigree, you’d know that this is going to be incredibly hard. Like Sons of Liberty, there are two real culprits here: Revengeance difficulty and the VR Missions.
Not only do you have to beat the savagely hard Revengeance mode, but you’ll have to S rank all the levels along the way. Once again, every VR Mission must be completed, but it’s even worse than MGS2 because you have to set the highest score in all of them, as well. Metal Gear Rising is no doubt one of the hardest action game completions on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
1Metal Gear Survive
You Ain’t Surviving This One
Without question, the hardest Metal Gear completion has to beMetal Gear Survive. To put things into perspective, the total amount of people who’ve gotten the full completion on TrueAchievements is under 100, and the total TA score for this one game is over 7,000. If you’re not an achievement hunter, you may not realize just how big of a number that truly is.
There are so many difficult achievements here, but three in particular take the most time. Eating every food in the game, getting all the weapons and gear, and maxing out all your stats are the primary reason Metal Gear Survive’s total completion time is in the hundreds of hours.
