Xbox Game Pass Games: Xbox Game Pass provides a good selection of games that are willing to test the skills of its subscribers. Included below is a collection of Game Pass’s longest, most difficult, and most testing titles.
Xbox Game Pass is rife with challenging and lengthy games, with a plethora of titles that will have achievement hunters playing for thousands of hours, having their skills completely challenged, and/or testing their luck against the RNG gods. The question of whether or not these taxing titles will be on Game Pass long enough for you to earn the completion is an important one to ponder before diving into one.
The risk of starting a game like Deep Rock Galactic, which will take hundreds of hours and has been on Game Pass for almost two years at this point, is high since you might not have enough time to finish it before it is removed from the service. While this isn’t normally an issue with first-party games as they tend to stick around for good, you should still be able to find plenty to sink your teeth into on Game Pass so long as you take into account how much time you’re likely to need against how much time you’re likely to have.
We felt it was necessary to redress the scales a little after publishing so many articles on how to quickly and easily stock up on Game Pass accomplishments and Xbox sales quick completions. Using the same reasoning, we’ll disregard everything where factors such as unobtainable render a successful completion implausible, with a few probable exceptions (sorry, Nuclear Throne, I still love you).
Let us raise a glass to the dedicated players who want to take on these massive games, and may the satisfaction of unlocking that last, grueling achievement always be fresh in their minds.
Hark! Our favorite time of the day! pic.twitter.com/ck3uEychIp
— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) November 15, 2022
Flight Simulator for Microsoft
Although the Xbox edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator is technically unfinishable, we couldn’t leave out a game that boasts an achievement for logging 1,000 hours of flight time since it would be unfair.
The offending achievement for console players is Decathlon, and while completing ten weekly activities might not sound that difficult, it turns out to be difficult when the team doesn’t actually run weekly events — there have only been a total of four for console players since the Xbox version launched in mid-2021, though shared progress with the PC version (which counts twice for achievement progress here, too) means that it has been possible for console players who also hacked the PC version.
The rest of the list, even excluding this one, has unlocked rates significantly below 5% on TA (and much lower globally), and we have just 25 completions on-site from a player population of over 100,000… this one will need considerable devotion.
Thieves’ Sea
Sea of Thieves is a whale of completion, even without counting the accomplishments introduced in the 20+ title upgrades, and that’s ignoring the 13 achievements that were removed when the Arena mode was scrapped. The base game alone has a 1,000+ hour completion estimate, and although a lot of it isn’t too hard (especially with a steady crew), there are a ton of Commendations to earn, most of which have a 1-2% unlock rate on TA.
Working your way through these will likely take months, as each one requires a significant investment of time in specific activities or with specific factions, so there isn’t an awful lot of overlap; furthermore, unless you have a permanent crew to play with and/or amicable ‘adversaries’ on alliance servers with whom to boost.
You’re also going to be at the mercy of the fates in terms of what other players are doing with and around you, so things can often be out of your hand With the latest patch, there are even more Commendations and related (and unrelated) milestones to unlock, making the game even more demanding of your time. You’ve got roughly five years’ worth of catching up to do if you’re just now embarking on this journey.
eating well today pic.twitter.com/wFkggrYQDU
— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) November 24, 2022
Third Age of the Crusader Kings
Now we have something a little different, but even so, Crusader Kings III is a test for the ages. The success or failure of your efforts to accomplish a goal may hinge on factors beyond your control, such as the sudden impotence of a crucial figure, the abduction of that person, or their assassination. The fact that many game milestones are unlocked exclusively in Ironman mode means that you can’t just save-scum your way out of a lot of these problems.
The list requires a wide variety of narrow endeavors, some of which may present themselves on any one run and others of which may keep you occupied for generations as you attempt to accomplish a single goal.
It’s also important to remember that games with this kind of absurdly deep strategy system aren’t exactly the easiest to jump into cold turkey; if you’re completely new to Crusader Kings III, it’ll take you a good chunk of time to get your bearings and learn the systems necessary to unlock the majority of the game’s achievements.
It should be very obvious that this will not be simple to overcome, with less than 100 completions on TA out of a player pool of over 20,000, so best of luck to you, my liege!
Gears of War
You can’t have a list like this and leave out the Gears series, which is known for having one recurring achievement that is the epitome of Grindy, as well as tons more that will keep you busy across all modes in each game. Any of the major Gears games might be here, but if we had to choose one at Lancer-point, it would be Gears of War 3 due to the fact that version 3.0 greatly increased the difficulty of achieving the Lancer rank by making it necessary to earn all Onyx medals.
However, props to Gears 5 for having the guts to divide Seriously into two brutal achievements then remove the second in a title update nearly two years after the game’s initial release. If you’re tempted to obtain a Serious achievement on your tag but don’t want to dedicate thousands of hours to it, the first two game lists look delightfully benign in comparison to those that came later (bar Judgment).
Disentangle 2
Since Unravel Two is not included in the standard Game Pass library but is included in the EA Play library, this one is reserved for subscribers to Game Pass Ultimate. You probably wouldn’t have put a sweet platformer about some small yarn dolls between Gears and Ninja Gaiden on a list of rough completions, but here it is – if you know, you know. In spite of Unravel 2’s cutesy appearance, the game’s list of achievements is challenging enough to put even the most skilled players to the test, what with deathless and speedrun achievements for each of the game’s main levels (and bonus stages) and a few extremely specific ones for which you’ll likely need to practice as well.
There is extremely little wiggle room in the gold medal speeds for those speed runs, so mastering the more challenging ones will take practice and the discovery of new techniques. If you want an idea of how difficult these are, consider that the unlock rate for all of them is a crazy 0.02% on Xbox (and sub-1% here on TA): most regular players don’t even seem to bother trying to do them, so it’s up to the achievement hunters to drag those percentages up as they aim for the completion in this surprisingly savage platformer.
The Ninja Gaiden Video Game Series
Like with Gears, there’s probably no definitive answer to the question of which entry in the Ninja Gaiden series deserves this honor; different players will undoubtedly find different aspects of each game challenge. Rather, it makes more sense to cover the series as a whole, which is how it’s included in Game Pass as the Master Collection.
The games in the Team Ninja series are notoriously challenging, to the point where many players will have trouble completing them even on a casual run, let alone performing the insane stunts required to get all of the game’s milestones. There are over a hundred frustrating milestones spread over all three games for completing each game’s difficult trials and beating Master Ninja difficulties (with Master Ninja grades), while the total number of gamers who have completed the trilogy is under one hundred.
While the hardest difficulties in games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta give you access to a plethora of powerful weapons and abilities, Master/Ultimate Ninja immediately pits you against normal enemies who can easily kill you in a couple of hits, not to mention the special enemies and bosses who can deal even more damage. If you’ve made it all the way from Ninja Dog to Master Ninja in Ninja Gaiden without losing your mind, you have our deepest respect.
Scrabble 2
Many players who have been around since the Xbox 360‘s release will be familiar with Spelunky’s tendency to be brutal, as the original game received a lot of praise during the Xbox Live Arcade era. Spelunky 2 carries on this legacy and maybe even pushes it further by making its levels and various hazards randomly generated each time you play. This ensures that you will never get into a comfortable rhythm and will always have to be on your toes.
It only takes a quick glance at Spelunky 2’s achievements to see that only five of the 32 have a TA unlock rate of more than 10%, with most much lower. The word “unfair” has been used to describe Spelunky, which is a bit of an unfair assessment. Yes, there are plenty of devious tricks and unfortunate layouts to contend with, as well as the occasional cheap shot, but you’ll eventually come to learn the ropes and go from blundering tomb raider doomed to smack into every single spike trap to master explorer, deftly disarming traps with all manner of neat feats. It’ll take some time to get there, but man, that first good run is worth the wait.
Descenders
Below you’ll find two games, Descenders, and Unsouled, that were both suggested by the victors of our Great True Achievements Score Challenge and were therefore considered for inclusion in June’s TA Playlist. This should provide some context for the kinds of ratios at stake in these titles. The downhill bike game Descenders, which has nearly 100,000 players on TA, has just over 130 completions and is represented in all three categories.
There is a significant amount of skill required because you’ll need to adjust to courses on the go, and random level layouts and one accomplishment introduce the RNG component, which can lead to a grind as you repeatedly try to beat difficult levels in the hopes of getting a favorable seed. As the name suggests, “extreme downhill freeriding” is a form of mountain biking with some seriously challenging sections.
Unsouled
During its time on the TA Playlist, Unsouled was only completed once, by Infamous, who won the GTASC contest by making extensive use of the game’s inclusion on Game Pass. In spite of the player base increasing by a factor of two since June 2022, the number of completed quests has only increased by 20.
This is the kind of game where we see a lot of Game Pass bloat from players trying it out and bouncing off very quickly; the first death achievement means this one is on your card for good whether you persist or not, but since so many achievements relate to the punishing Master Soul difficulty and things you’d have to go well out of your way to find, that might not be all that surprising. And persist you should, since this hard-core action game is actually excellent, especially if you give it the time it takes to grasp its subtle features.
The Complete Master Chief Experience for Halo
The Halo 2 Los Angeles Soundtrack. What else can we say? Okay, that makes sense… we’re going to be a little low otherwise. Sorry, Rare Replay, but there was only ever going to be one choice, and with 700 achievements to earn in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, it feels even more like cheating to include a compilation than an entire series.
The deadly Jackal snipers are only one of the many obstacles you’ll face in Halo 2 Legendary, along with six games’ worth of single-player and multiplayer content. While completing a game with LASO (Legendary All Skulls On) is a true test of skill, there are countless more accolades you can get based on the game’s difficulty, deathless levels, time trial runs, collectibles, special circumstances, multiplayer, and more.
With little over 2,000 people who have all 7,000G from around half a million TA players, this would be a legendary accomplishment to have on your tag. This list is a detailed history lesson on the series that first defined Xbox as a platform. If you’re a fan of Halo, you’ll be in heaven.
look at them all, we’re so proud! pic.twitter.com/RU0MbldC1w
— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) November 23, 2022
SpiderHeck
Even if only 0.1% of TA players have claimed the completion so far, SpiderHeck is certainly no pushover despite being a silly party game about spiders fighting with laser swords.
This chaotic multiplayer title, like TowerFall, also features a single-player/co-op mode, and that is where the issue achievements appear to be located. It’s hard to tell if the steep drop-offs in unlocks at each step are due to the high skill ceiling of the physics-based gameplay in SpiderHeck‘s Survival mode and challenges, or the random nature of enemy behavior, pick-ups, and stages.
Nobody will want to play you in versus once you reach arachnid godhood, but that’s the price you have to pay for being one of only a small handful of people to achieve this completion. Still, SpiderHeck appears to be one heck of a ratio booster if you’re willing to put in the time and master its fiddly mechanics.
Pac-Man Museum Plus
That part about there being a limit to one album collection? I lied; please accept my apologies. It really seemed like there was something missing from this list, and while it may seem like Rare Replay is being overlooked once again, there is an excellent reason for it. You see, the reason why Pac-Man Museum+ is so challenging to finish is not just because ancient games are notoriously difficult, but also because a) some old games are pretty poor and b) some conversions and ports are likewise really bad.
Unfortunately, Museum+ suffers from both of these flaws; licensing restrictions prevent the inclusion of some of the better legacy games that would help boost the quality quota that Pac-In-Time drags down so very, very hard, and input lag makes it difficult to play some of the faster games in the collection well enough to complete the various Missions and achievements. Learning to dominate a slew of classic games won’t happen overnight, and there are also a number of very tedious milestones connected to the “arcade” setting in which these digital throwbacks are housed.
This is arguably the more challenging of the two… but maybe not for the right reasons. Pac-Man Museum+ does have some absolute gems in it, but Rare Replay is the superior selection.
Elder Scrolls Online
If I didn’t disclose that Tom is one of the few people who had unlocked the Emperor in The Elder Scrolls Online, he would kill me. Then he would probably resurrect me and kill me again. the award, you know, the crazy PvP one that acts as the gatekeeper preventing anybody but the most dedicated MMO players from ever attaining this completion.
Even if you had to pay for additional stuff (and put in a few thousand hours) to get access to everything, at about 6,000G and well over a thousand hours, this more than justifies its inclusion here. Although it is undoubtedly among the top Xbox MMOs, the pursuit of this 100% completion could become more of a full-time job than a casual pastime as the game’s list of achievements grows with each new content update.
it’s that time again. the time we tell you what games are available today pic.twitter.com/d5ZP7P15CI
— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) November 22, 2022
The Operating Room Second Edition
Last but not least, we have Surgeon Simulator 2, a sim that, in everything but name, is more akin to Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015 (yes, it is a real video game) than the more realistic ones we’ve been seeing more of lately on Xbox. Controls, physics, and mechanics will be purposefully scuffed for comic effect, making it difficult to progress through the game and earn a perfect score on the Summa Cum-Laude.
It’s not simple to balance the two acts alone; this is likely a major factor in the high ratios and low unlock percentages for many of these achievements, so it’s best to attempt it in co-op with a friend.
Have you previously completed any of these tasks and added them to your tag? Maybe you’re thinking about it, though, and you’ll be taking one on in the near future. Is there anything else you could think of that should have been included? Leave your thoughts in the box below, and may the RNG stooges be kind to you and your choking opportunities be limited.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Play Xbox Game Pass Games Forever?
For how long will I have access to the PC Game Pass library of games? If you’re a subscriber, you can play the games until either your subscription ends or Microsoft removes them from your Xbox Game Pass.
Are Games in Xbox Game Pass Free?
To play on your Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Titles Pass grants you unlimited downloads of over 300 games each month. For the same price as Xbox Game Pass, you may upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and gain access to Xbox Cloud Gaming, as well as Xbox Live Gold, PC Game Pass, EA Play, and EA Access.
How Many Games Do You Get With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?
As a membership service, Game Pass offers players access to over 400 games, allowing them to dive deep into a wide variety of settings and genres.
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