Grand Theft Autohas been one of the most beloved series of all time in gaming. What originally started as a 2D top-down franchise, changed completely withGTA 3. While these games aren’t known for their difficulty, the older games had some really challenging missions.
Except forGTA 5, the previous entries had no checkpoints, with a few exceptions for the final missions ofGTA 4andSan Andreas. So, if you fail, you have to redo the entire mission from the start.
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This is acceptable in situations where you die doing something foolish. However, older games also had instances of bad AI or controls, mostly due to technological limitations. For example, you couldn’t fly or swim inGrand Theft Auto 3.
So if you are planning to replay all the past titles beforeGTA 6comes out, here arethe rankings of the 10 hardestGTAmissions.
10No Way On The Subway (GTA 4)
Out Riding The Lost Biker Gang
Out of all the different types of missions inGTA 4, chase missions haven’t been their strong suit. Some are more annoying than others, but none of them come close to No Way on the Subway.
The mission starts off easy with Ray telling you to take care of the bikers from The Lost Motorcycle Club, which Nico can find on Vauxite Street in Northwood. The bikers now mock and challenge you to keep up with them, which is fine until you get to the subway.
The subway is full of dark tunnels, multiple turns, and active trains. To make things worse, the guys that you are chasing drive awkwardly and shakily around turns. This will confuse you about whether they are about to go straight or make a turn. At least in your first few tries.
Thus making you fail and having toretry over and overuntil one of the bikers gets run over by the train, and you may shoot down the other.
9Wrong Side Of The Tracks (GTA San Andreas)
“Follow The Damn Train, CJ!”
Speaking of chase missions and not bringing Wrong Side of the Tracks is like playing GTA and not stealing any cars. We just don’t do that. Anyone who has playedGTA San Andreasknows that “all we had to do was follow the damn train.”
This is quite a simple mission: you have to take Big Smoke to the Unity Station. He has a tip on Vagos and San Fierro Rifa “cutting some kind of deal.” What was originally supposed to be the two crashing the meeting, ended up having to chase and kill the Vagos gang.
Sounds easy, right? Well, of course, there is a catch. Which is that you aren’t the one shooting down the gang members. Instead, it is Big Smoke, who after this mission should be called Big Stormtrooper, as he can’t shoot right even if his life depends on it.
You need to almost bring him to point-blank range so that he can take care of the Vagos members. But as you are driving on the opposite side of the tracks, you also have to watch out for incoming trains.
8Supply Lines… (GTA San Andreas)
The One Time You Don’t Want To Help Zero
After CJ finds Zero hanging in the closet by his underwear, he asks what is going on, and, as it turns out, Berkley humiliated his friend.
While CJ’s intentions are noble, he tells Zero to get even. Things become a drag for us players because Zero’s idea for a weapon is a “prototype for a miniature plane.”
It isn’t an understatement to say flying planes in San Andreas is horrible. But in this mission you need to use an RC plane, “the Red Baron”, to destroy five of Berkley’s delivery couriers.
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Aside from the terrible controls, you need to ensure you don’t run out of fuel. But that isn’t the only losing condition, the mission fails if the plane gets destroyed.
Now, to further add to your list of problems, couriers are spread across the city. So the slower you are, the further away they spread out, making it harder for you to get to them.
The mission isn’t even over after you take care of the couriers. You also have to fly the Red Baron home. The only thing good about this mission is that it is optional.
7Death Row (GTA Vice City)
Time Is Of The Essence
I hope you likedriving inGTAVice City, because in this mission you will need to do that a lot. In Death Row, Kent informs Tommy that Diaz’s men are holding Lance hostage. What seems like a mere rescue mission, turns out to be a test of your driving and shooting skills.
For starters, you have to drive all the way from Malibu Club to the Junkyard to get to Lance. This wouldn’t have been something to be bothered with if he wasn’t also continuously losing his health.
Things get messier once you get to the Junkyard as there are enemies waiting to kill you. By the time you are done with them and get to Lance, for most players he should have only around half his HP left, if not even less than that.
The mission still isn’t over yet. You have to take Lance to the hospital. All the while avoiding Diaz’s men from destroying your car as they chase you.
6Bomb Da Base Act 2 (GTA 3)
One Shot, One Kill
Bomb Da Base Acts 1 and 2 are polar opposites of each other when it comes to difficulty. In Act 1, you just have to talk to Salvatore Leone where he tells you to destroy the Colombian Cartel’s freighter. After that, you have to go to 8-Ball to get the required explosives.
For Act 2, first you need to bring 8-Ball $100,000, so that he can prepare the explosives. This isn’t even the worst part of the mission.
After the two reach Portland Harbor, 8-Ball will tell you to find some place with a good vantage point to kill the cartels. The mission begins as soon as you fire the first shot.
Now, this is where yoursniping skillsare tested. You need to be precise and quick with your shots because 8-Ball will not wait for you to eliminate the cartels. Not to mention the mission fails if 8-Ball dies.
5Robbing Uncle Sam (GTA San Andreas)
Forklift Sucks And So Does Ryder
Before online multiplayer games, people used to complain about bad AI. Ryder fromGTA: San Andreashas to be the perfect example of this. This mission arguably would have been a lot easier had you gotten to do it alone.
You start by talking to Ryder, who informs you that the National Guard has all the “Straps”. You take him to the Ocean Docks only to find that the gates are closed. Things are fine so far, you need to jump over the wall and shoot the switch to let him bring in the van.
The real challenge of this mission begins once you have to use the forklift to load the van with the crates.
This machine has absolutely horrendous controls. To make matters worse, Ryder can’t hold his own, so you need to stop loading the crates to fight off the enemy so that he doesn’t die.
You aren’t done until you bring the crates to Willowfield. All the while, your enemies can shoot the tires of your van to make driving it harder. But the worst part is, even after you successfully complete the mission, Ryder berates you for “complaining a lot”.
4Demolition Man (GTA Vice City)
7 Minutes Of RC Helicopter Hell
Ever wanted an RC Helicopter of your own as a kid? Well, after playing this mission, there is a good chance you will want to break one.
Flying is already difficult inGTAgames, and when it comes to playing older titles likeVice City, the controls get even worse. In this mission, Avery wants Tommy to destroy the construction site. To do this, you need to plant 4 bombs using the RC Goblin.
Not only is controlling this helicopter difficult, but as soon as you pick up your first bomb, the 7-minute timer starts.
Now, you need to plant the bombs by dropping them on the cylinders. You also need to do this while the construction workers are chasing the RC helicopter around with hammers and the officers are shooting.
If you still want an additional challenge, then to get the Chopper’d Up achievement in the game’s Definitive Edition, you have to kill all the enemies using only the helicopter’s blades.
3S.A.M. (GTA 3)
Witness The True Might Of LCPD
Unlike many of the other hard missions on this list, this falls more on the fun side instead of frustrating. In S.A.M. or Surface-to-Air Missile, Asuka tips off Claude about a plane arriving at Francis International Airport which contains SPANK drug packages.
What you need to do is destroy the plane, collect the packages, and bring them back to the construction site. The thing that makes this mission interesting is you have two ways of completing it.
You could either use a boat to destroy the plane before it lands. Or get to the runaway and shoot it down as it is arriving. Once the plane is down, you get a 4-star wanted level, which basically makes you a police magnet.
Now, you should control your urges to shoot down any police vehicles that are after you as that will raise your wanted level to 5-stars, which will practically make it impossible to complete this mission.
Alternatively, if you are looking to make things easy, you could use the Dodo plane to fly to the construction site quickly.
2Pilot School (GTA San Andreas)
Fight Or Flight? I’ll Choose Fight Everytime
Remember I mentioned how bad the “Supply Lines…” mission was? Well,Pilot Schoolisn’t even an optional mission. So if you choose to skip that mission, you still get to experience the misery of flying inGTA San Andreas.
For starters, it is a series of missions. While the first two tasks in it are easy and only ask you to take off and land a plane, it soon turns into a flying fest where the game asks you to circle the airstrip and land, perform a barrel roll, and do a loop-the-loop.
That is not all. You also get the “privilege” of learning how to fly a helicopter. Here you get to shoot static and moving targets.
Many say N.O.E. and Freefall missions are worse than Flight School. But considering this was the first time you got to fly and the fact that the game didn’t let you progress until you passed all the tests, is what makes it the worst for most.
1Espresso-2-Go! (GTA 3)
You Will Need Espressos For This Mission
While S.A.M. may have been on the fun side of hard missions, Espresso-2-Go! definitely has to be on the frustrating one. After Asuka finds out that the Colombian Cartel is using the Kappa Coffee House stalls as a front to sell SPANK via street stalls, Claude has to destroy and put them out of business.
The catch is these stalls aren’t marked on your map. So you need to drive around Liberty City to find them. After you destroy the first one, an 8-minute timer starts in which you need to find and destroy the other eight stalls.
As it happens, the Cartels aren’t playing around. Once they see you approach, they will start shooting at you to kill you or destroy your car.
Interestingly, the original mission was so difficult that the developers changed the Cartel members to use Uzis. Previously, they would attack you with pump-action shotguns, making this mission extremely difficult to complete.
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