Every kind of adventure can be found in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, though adventures of the violent kind are more common. From driving submarines,to enjoying some yoga, the world is the player’s oyster.
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Some missions have become notorious not only for how bizarre or original they are, but also for their difficulty. For many of these missions, the difficulty stemmed almost entirely from bad controls, bad companion AI or completely unreasonable expectations from the player. Get ready to face some sour memories from your past as we take a look at some of the most ridiculously challenging missions in Grand Theft Auto games.
10The Big Score - GTA V
Helicopters and GTA Don’t Mix
Grand Theft Auto 5
It’s one of the last missions in theGrand Theft Auto 5, so it only makes sense that it is one of the biggest and toughest missions in the franchise’s history. The obvious approach to this mission, unsurprisingly, brings the most difficulty, including enemies with excellent aim, and some awesome but annoying helicopter flying.
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Who knew airlifting a bunch of gold in a helicopter could be so hard to control? At least this mission’s difficulty is warranted, and a fitting send-off forFranklin, Trevor, and Michaelbefore the end of the game.
9The Snow Storm - GTA IV
An Impossible Escape
Grand Theft Auto 4
Many gamers get sidelined by the sudden difficulty dropped on the player in the second half of this mission inGrand Theft Auto 4. While the mission begins simply enough, it’s when NOOSE, the National Office of Security Enforcement, shows up that leads to many players' hospital visits.
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Some players try running out without stopping to shoot, some players go for the big shootout, and some very crafty players discover the boat that spawns out back for a quick getaway. But any route the player chooses, the surprise difficulty jump and number of enemies to take out make this a mission to remember.
8Espresso-2-GO! - GTA III
Guide Required
Grand Theft Auto 3
Mini-maps have come a long way since the beginning ofGrand Theft Auto 3and older gaming in general. For a few missions in the franchise, they are made much tougher by the lack of clear direction and markers. Espresso-2-GO! Is very much one of these missions.
Players must destroy nine stands owned by the Colombian cartel in a short amount of time with no indication of where they are, just gamer sense and luck. Each stand also has muscle, so players must also deal with that while making sure they have a vehicle good enough to take the hard beating the mission presents. A real pain in the butt.
7Learning to Fly - GTA: San Andreas
School For Gamers
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Nothing like getting home from school then turning on the Playstation and doing more school. Learning to Fly is literally flight school: no guns, no fun characters, just trying to maneuver a plane with some very dated controls. And despite the flight school training, players will likely not be enjoying the other flying levels in this game.
While the mission is hard, it is the lack of character and the fact that it is mandatory that really makes things more annoying. Also some save points would have really made the slog less sloggy.
6The Exchange - GTA III
Roll the Dice
One of the biggest game design no-nos is to make players feel like they do not have control over a scenario or create situations that require you to die in order to learn how not to do something. The Exchange from Grand Theft Auto 3 is such a situation, while being the last mission in the game, should not be this kind of difficulty, as players just have to roll the dice and hope they trick the enemy AI into letting them succeed.
Throughout the game, enemies have different levels of accuracy, but it seems every enemy decided to take some lessons before this mission, as all of a sudden everyone but the player is James Bond, hitting some crazy shots, while the dated aiming system on your end makes it hard to repel them.
5Wrong Side of the Tracks - GTA: San Andreas
This is probably the most famous of all the frustrating missions in the GTA franchise.Big Smoke and his never-ending rageat the player’s inability to perfectly maneuver a motorcycle while Smoke poorly shoots the enemies on top of the train is a meme in itself.
It seems this mission was teaching gamers what it would be like to play MOBAs, requiring a teammate to win, but that said teammate lacks the necessary skill. You need perfect driving ability and a lot of luck to chase down the train while giving way too much time for Big Smoke to finally land some bullets.
4Bomb Da Base: Act II - GTA III
American Not Very Good Sniper
First person sniping has come a long way since Grand Theft Auto 3, as players who have played this mission can attest to. In this mission, players are required to protect Eight Ball while he plants explosives, and there are so many enemies that the player must shoot or blow up with red barrels all over the facility.
The player must contend with janky controls, an Eight Ball who doesn’t wait for you to clear out enemies, and very hard to spot targets, making this a mission very few pass without dozens of attempts.
3Demolition Man - GTA: Vice City
More Helicopter Problems
Something about helicopters andGrand Theft Auto: Vice City Storiesjust don’t mix. In this mission from Vice City, players must control an RC helicopter to plant bombs all around a building. If the controls were smoother, this would not be such a bummer, but the difficulty of this mission comes from the jankiness of the flying controls for the game.
The bombs must be placed perfectly while construction workers attack a toy helicopter rather than just running away, and to top it all off, there is a timer. All the hallmarks of a classic frustrating GTA mission.
2D@%$o Dodo - GTA: Vice City
At Least It Is Not a Helicopter
The premise of this mission inGrand Theft Auto: Vice Cityis fun enough, the player must distribute porno magazines from a moving plane. What is not funny is that Vice City decided to make piloting a plane as hard as real life, as the player must navigate through checkpoints close to buildings within that cursed time limit.
Trial and error is not a fun way to play, and this mission feels full of that kind of strategy. Gamers had to simply suck it up, and struggle until they were lucky enough to pass this mandatory mission.
1Supply Lines… - GTA: San Andreas
Guess Who’s Back?
It is only fair to finish off the toughest missions in GTA history with yet another weird, RC toy flying mission. No one was a fan of Zero’s missions, though Zero had a great voice actor and character provided by David Cross.
In his most hair-pulling mission, players had to navigate across the city shooting moving targets and blowing up rivals with a hard-to-control toy plane, armed with hard-to-shoot guns, and not enough fuel for the desired carnage. How play testers did not flag this one is a mystery, but anyone who touched San Andreas will know exactly what you mean as soon as you bring up Zero missions.
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