The original Gears of War was fucking insane on "Insane" difficulty.
Trapped in a really dark research facility full of swarming melee enemies that explode upon death and do massive amounts of damage? No problem. Suddenly stuck in a moving minecart with aforementioned exploding enemies dropping on top of you as insta-kills? Okay, bothersome. All of a sudden the minecart's picked up speed and the explodey enemies are coming at you on the ceiling? Well... fuck.
Every individual enemy on Insane was more than capable of easily killing you. Many enemies had insta-kill attacks and would aggressively use cover to get close to you and use them. EDIT: in fact, ALL the enemies had insta-kill attacks if they got close enough. The night-level with the Kryll was hard enough, but even on Co-op the later levels were so insanely hard that many people never completed them.
Oh, and the final boss was nigh invincible on Insane. Defeating him on single-player was hard enough that to this day, Gears fans brag about beating him in LESS THAN TEN TRIES on second and third playthroughs of the game.
Sure, not nearly as hard as some games, but "Insane" difficulty was still appropriately named.
Trapped in a really dark research facility full of swarming melee enemies that explode upon death and do massive amounts of damage? No problem. Suddenly stuck in a moving minecart with aforementioned exploding enemies dropping on top of you as insta-kills? Okay, bothersome. All of a sudden the minecart's picked up speed and the explodey enemies are coming at you on the ceiling? Well... fuck.
Every individual enemy on Insane was more than capable of easily killing you. Many enemies had insta-kill attacks and would aggressively use cover to get close to you and use them. EDIT: in fact, ALL the enemies had insta-kill attacks if they got close enough. The night-level with the Kryll was hard enough, but even on Co-op the later levels were so insanely hard that many people never completed them.
Oh, and the final boss was nigh invincible on Insane. Defeating him on single-player was hard enough that to this day, Gears fans brag about beating him in LESS THAN TEN TRIES on second and third playthroughs of the game.
Sure, not nearly as hard as some games, but "Insane" difficulty was still appropriately named.