Actually at least Phantasmagoria 2 and Fahrenheit have more graphic scenes, not that I collect these things or anything....

It's actually easier on Insane since you get double the XP awards, even though there are more mobs that hit harder, but your party levels faster.

Party creation definitely has a lot to do with it as well.

Soldiers: Heroes of WW2

Omerta: City of Gangsters. I dare you to finish the version we have on GOG at the moment...

Out of the ones I've played, I'd probably say either Realms of Arkania 1 or 2, those are insane. Part of the reason seems to be that they are apparently made exclusively for people who are already players of the "Dark Eye" pen & paper RPG.



I would also like to mention Shogo - Mobile Armor Division, which I am pretty sure is impossible on the highest difficulty. Not sure if it counts, though, because it is pretty buggy and unbalanced, but I think the fact that almost every enemy can one-hit-kill you with a critical hit (meaning they can basically do the same kind of damage as the player) is the main source of its difficulty. I love every second of that game, though.

I'll vote Wizardry 7 (since Wizardry 4 isn't on GOG)

One of my most beloved games that I'd love to replay (and finally beat) but every time it goes on sale an invisible force holds me back and the voice of reason reminds me that there's no way under the sun I can find the time -and stubbornness- to beat this game nowadays. I wonder how many people have actually finished this without consulting any kind of strategy guide or hints to speed things up, probably only a small percentage. Aside from a couple absolutely ridiculous boss battles the game per se doesn't feel that hard but the sheer scope of things and the amount of grind you have to go through if you don't know where you're going and are forced to backtrack long distances is seriously daunting.

In terms of willpower needed to complete it, Wizardry 7 is right up there at the top. A select number of other games may take you more hours to finish but Wizardry 7 makes you feel the weight of those hours more. You could use a walkthrough of course, but then you're missing out on experiencing what a truly and brutally non linear RPG feels like. Brutal because unlike the Elder Scrolls e.g. where you can quite comfortably diddle-daddle around on your own at your own pace, you have actual competition in Wizardry 7 where enemy NPCs can snatch away crucial main quest items and run off to god knows where and hunting them down can be tricky. Makes the gameplay quite unique and dynamic on a strategic level but on a tactical level you'll end up backtracking a lot more and fighting even more hordes of monsters along the way so things can get tedious.

Battle Isle: Incubation is pretty HC.

Interesting responses in this thread so far. Surprised so one has said Stargunner yet. I'm not kidding when I say I spent more time looking at the loading screen than actually playing the game. Loading would take like 2 seconds but if I don't make the right move right after it loads, I'm usually dead in less than a second. Save every 3 seconds too. Unless you're a hardcore SHMUPer, I can't see anyone finishing that game without any hardcore save scumming.

I agree with rockyfan4 on Master of Orion. Defiantely a steep learning curve on that game but worth it once you get over it.

Dunno if this counts cos Fallout: Tactics is no longer in the catalog but FO:T on tough guy mode can be hard and nerve wracking. On tough guy mode you can't save during the mission so if you slip up, you either have to accept the loss of your squad member or play the whole mission again. (usually more than a hour). Your always so careful you don'tscrew up and have a squad member on the end of a super mutants M2 Browning (Lost two guys that way). Also lost Malice to a robot's Gauss Gatling gun (and I planned on keeping him till the end game too!!!!) but I was NOT going to spend another 2 hours doing that mission again!!!!!!

Hitman: Codename 47 can also be quite frustrating cos you can't save during missions and generally far too easy to screw up. I'm at the jungle area but I can't progress forward yet. Still screwing up way too much,

I´ve done that---and I don´t get the point---it´s hard @end, but nothing like nearly impossible!
Let´s give a hint: You can do some ugly "machine gun camping" in there...

This is leading the pack for my vote as well. Perimeter also qualifies, not because of the innate difficulty of the missions (though some are), but because you never know when a mission-goal bug will trash all your hard work on a level.

As for games not on GOG, the perennial choice of Dark Souls gets my vote. Another that is not hard in-and-of-itself, but makes you hate life for the way it handles saves and progress.

Haha, seconded. Cossacks just wiped me out and hyper speed. Dark Reign tore up my cards before knew was playing. And Jagged Alliance made me die of thirst because I found out I was I the middle of a desert.

I meant, that the current version is impossible to finish because of a game-breaking bug on a certain mission :) Not sure, which version you have, or if you were lucky somehow and the mission wasn't glitched out for you. But I can't finish it, because the mission has an objective it fails to see it's fulfilled.

Clearly Gothic II Gold - damn, that game is brutal... FUN but brutal!

I had that issue ," just" restart mission and it´s O.K. for the rest of the game ;)

Mineralogically speaking, Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition is the hardest game here.

*ba-DUM-bump-tish*