Hardest Games By Insomniac

When Insomniac first stepped onto the scene with their smash-hit action-adventure game, Spyro the Dragon, they made it very clear that they were a studio that was aiming to do very big things in the industry. Ever since, these developers have been cranking out a plethora of exceptional games across a wide range of genres, with many of their titles going down as classics due to how innovative they ended up being at the time.

Though their games aren’t exactly known for being too difficult or demanding, this hasn’t stopped a few of Insomniac’s titles from posing quite the challenge through their gameplay. With that said, there are no games in Insomniac’s massive catalog that are deemed to be too absurd in their overall difficulty, with most of them being pretty manageable all-around, but these titles below are without a doubt the trickiest ones to fully complete.

7 Ratchet & Clank

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.05

Insomniac may have proven that they were more than capable of making an excellent 3D platformer with Spyro back in 1998, but they took this a step further by also adding a third-person shooter element to the experience with the release of the incredibly influential Ratchet & Clank. As players make their way through the numerous different and unique planets featured in the game, they’ll be able to slash enemies to pieces with Ratchet’s OmniWrench 8000, alongside blasting them away with one of the many weapons that can be acquired by collecting enough bolts.

This might seem pretty straightforward on the surface, but because the game can be quite unforgiving in how many bolts it gifts the player, it means that it can be quite easy to make the game much more difficult by not having enough to buy some of the stronger guns later down the line. Because Ratchet’s movements are a little more restricted in the game, especially with him not being able to strafe side to side, it also means that avoiding damage can take a lot more skill and practice than it would in future installments.

6 Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.05

The second game in the Ratchet & Clank series may have introduced a few key additions to make the experience more enjoyable, such as weapon upgrading and better visuals, but it still ultimately ended up being just as difficult as the first, primarily due to how many more enemies were able to show up on the screen at once. This becomes especially noticeable in the latter stages of the story where the game almost feels like one big horde mode, with Ratchet being forced to hunker down and kill what feels like hundreds of enemies at a time.

Related

The Best Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Easter Eggs

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is packed with details to discover, including a series of clever Easter eggs and references to other video games.

In addition, while some weapons fare well throughout the entire game, with the Vaporizer and Blitz Cannon being prime examples, there are also a lot of them that fall flat at about the mid-point when the more durable enemy types start being introduced. Aside from the few random difficulty spikes, Going Commando puts up quite a moderate challenge throughout its runtime that will provide a true test of the player’s platforming and third-person shooter skills.

5 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.07

using his spider legs as a weapon against a thug ” src=”https://static0.gamerantimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/screenshot-2024-03-01-at-13-41-09-cropped.jpg” style=”display:block;height:auto;max-width:100%;”/>

Although there are numerous reasons why many people consider Spider-Man 2 to be a lot harder than its predecessor, one of the biggest is the general combat itself, which is made to be much more chaotic and over-the-top this time around. Not only are there far more enemies that will take on Peter and Miles at once but getting interrupted by bullets is also a lot more common, considering just how trigger-happy many of the thugs now are. Admittedly, the game does give players plenty of tools to try and combat this, but getting used to the numerous gadgets, and the incredibly tricky parry mechanic is a lot easier said than done.

The boss fights can also be downright brutal at times. Whether it’s the Lizard with his gigantic AOE abilities, Kraven with his deadly command grabs, or Venom, who can melt health bars through his heavy attacks. Needless to say, players will need to be on their A-game to even stand a chance of taking each one of them down, resulting in some exhilarating, but also incredibly challenging encounters.

4 Fuse

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.13

In contrast to a lot of Insomniac’s titles, Fuse took a slightly more grounded approach to its world and setting, being based around a group of four soldiers who are tasked with apprehending an evil corporation before they can get their hands on a mysterious but powerful alien substance known as Fuse. The third-person co-op gameplay may not be anything too out of the ordinary, but what makes Fuse so difficult at times is the absurd amount of damage that the player and their teammates can receive during a gunfight.

Related

10 Best Co-Op PvP Games On Steam, Ranked

For players looking to team up with some friends online or on the couch for some PvP action look no further than these Co-Op games available on Steam.

Accidentally running into a pool of fire or getting clipped by an enemy is more than enough to put a character on their last legs, and considering that the AI companions are less than reliable, it means that playing solo can be a pretty brutal overall experience. Of course, since the game was designed with co-op in mind, playing through it with a well-coordinated team can make it a little easier, but the game still feels like it’s too difficult for its own good a lot of the time.

3 Resistance 3

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.17

Considering that Resistance 3‘s story takes place during a full-scale war between humans and the bloodthirsty aliens known as Chimera, the unforgiving difficulty does do an excellent job of feeding into the hopeless narrative of the game, with the humans having barely enough resources to hold on for much longer. As a result, players won’t be finding boxes full of health packs and ammunition like in the previous game, but will instead be forced to scavenge every last bullet they can find to deal any amount of meaningful damage to the enemy forces.

In Resistance 2, skilled players would often be able to run and gun their way through a horde of enemies so long as they were accurate enough, but this is more or less impossible in this entry which instead encourages players to pick their shots while hiding behind cover as much as humanly possible to avoid taking damage. Pair this with a pretty unforgiving checkpoint system, and plenty of ambushes to keep players on their toes, and it results in a game that will push even the most experienced FPS fans to their limit.

2 Song Of The Deep

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.21

Song of the Deep is a passion project from Insomniac that doesn’t quite have the visual spectacle or deep gameplay that they are most well known for, but it’s still without a doubt a beautiful experience that follows the story of a young girl trying to find her father who’s gone missing at sea. The core gameplay plays like a classic Metroidvania, and just like a lot of games within this sub-genre, it certainly doesn’t pull any punches, featuring tons of tricky platforming sections, and an abundance of dangerous enemies who won’t make Merryn’s journey any easier.

Luckily, the game isn’t just entirely made up of these sorts of challenges, since there are still a lot of opportunities where Merryn can simply swim through the vast ocean and explore its many mysteries, but when these tricky sections do show up, they can require a lot of patience and determination to eventually overcome.

1 Resistance: Fall Of Man

GameFAQs Difficulty Rating: 3.21

When people complain that the first level of a video game is difficult to complete, that immediately gives an idea of just how arduous a game can be, and this is most definitely the case for the very first Resistance game. Right from the get-go, players are dropped into a literal warzone with barely any tutorials or hints to speak of, and a severe lack of effective weaponry. Things only get harder once some of the more dangerous enemy archetypes start getting thrown into the mix, such as the Stalkers and Widowmakers, who are more than capable of killing the player on their own thanks to their ferocious attacks.

Because health doesn’t regenerate in this game, it also means that taking any amount of damage can prove to be very costly in the long run, making every encounter feel like a true fight to the death. Unlike a lot of shooters which will space out their enemy spawns, Resistance also has no problem throwing a frankly ridiculous number of enemies at the player at one time, and although it does make these shootouts far more epic, it can also feel downright impossible to kill even a single Chimera when there’s such a staggering amount of them in a single area.

More

Hardest Metal Gear Solid Games, Ranked

Every Metal Gear Solid game challenges players in one way or another, but there are certainly some games harder than others.