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MGS2: Substance HD European Extreme difficulty. What the heck is this?!

entremet

Member
I'm doing an MGS replay to get ready for Phantom Pain and I decided to try European Extreme.

I never had the original Substance, so I'm new to this difficulty, but I figured let me try. The Souls games have made a more persistent gamer and I didn't want to sleepwalk through this game as I remember the default was rather easy.

I'm at the tanker and I do notice the guards are more aggressive, but I know the routes.

But then I get to Olga and she one shots me....

....

I try again, same thing.

I think to myself, this can't be right?

But it is.

I don't care about difficulty spoilers, so what else does European Extreme has in store?

Honestly, I might just go back to Hard as I can only imagine the Vamp fight and his little projectiles. Do those one shot too?
 
I've never played on European Extreme, but on Extreme, Olga was actually one of the biggest barriers in the entire game for me.
 
EE is very tough, especially Olga and Fatman. Most of the bosses can one hit kill you. Also the Solidus choke hold near the end is a full 60 seconds of mashing triangle as your health depletes super fast. It's probably one of the hardest gaming experiences I've had honestly, especially if you're going for the Big Boss rank.

If you're just replaying the games for story/fun/to prepare for MGSV, I'd say you don't have to bother with EE unless you really want the challenge.
 
guess you're not hardcore enough

It was more out of curiosity as I never played the difficulty.

Back then I never played games on higher difficulties, always normal or default. I was OCD about that since I though was the developer's intended vision.

But I changed my mind after getting into character action games and finding out hard games can be much more fun.
 
You can do it. Don't let it deturr you, you'll start seeing her pattern and in return she'll become easier with each life.
 
If I remember correctly, all bosses 1 hit KO.

Fatman's C4 timers are a lot shorter

The sequence with Snake against the Tengu soldiers can be absolutely maddening.

You fight like, 20 Metal Gear RAYs during that sequence.

They also 1 hit you.
 
If I remember correctly, all bosses 1 hit KO.

Fatman's C4 timers are a lot shorter

The sequence with Snake against the Tengu soldiers can be absolutely maddening.

You fight like, 20 Metal Gear RAYs during that sequence.

They also 1 hit you.

Wut?!

Yeah, I think I might go back to hard lol.
 
I played through the entire game on EE on the Xbox version after it came out, but the fight with
Solidius
lagged so bad with the BTTF flames on the ground I ended up deciding it wasn't worth dealing with the frustration.

That was such a terrible port, it dropped the frame rate like crazy anytime there was fire or water on the screen. I never tried on the PS2 Substance or the HD one but now I kind of want to go back to it.
 
I feel I never appreciated MGS2 enough, it was tainted for me because of Raiden haterade, but I'm willing to give it another chance before MGS5 on European Extreme..

What exactly do you need to do for Big Boss rank?

Probably no rations, no alerts, no kills, and under a certain time like the rest of the games.

I never messed with Big Boss rank stuff. I almost tried with 4, but I got tired of replaying it.
 
I feel I never appreciated MGS2 enough, it was tainted for me because of Raiden haterade, but I'm willing to give it another chance before MGS5 on European Extreme..

What exactly do you need to do for Big Boss rank?

Total playtime under 3 hours.

No alerts.

No rations. (Both of which aren't an option in Euro Extreme anyway)

No continues.

Save no more than 8 times total.

Shoot no more than 700 shots.

No radar.

No special items.
 
I feel I never appreciated MGS2 enough, it was tainted for me because of Raiden haterade, but I'm willing to give it another chance before MGS5 on European Extreme..

What exactly do you need to do for Big Boss rank?

finish in 3 hours
0 kills
no rations used
no deaths
less than 3 alerts
radar off
no special items

It challenging but not as hard as MGS3. MGS4 is the easiest to get Big Boss rank due to unlimited saves.
 
Also the Solidus choke hold near the end is a full 60 seconds of mashing triangle as your health depletes super fast. It's probably one of the hardest gaming experiences I've had honestly, especially if you're going for the Big Boss rank.
Wow. That sounds annoying and cheap as f***. The bad kind of difficulty, in my book.

If I remember correctly, all bosses 1 hit KO.
Fatman's C4 timers are a lot shorter
The sequence with Snake against the Tengu soldiers can be absolutely maddening.
You fight like, 20 Metal Gear RAYs during that sequence.
They also 1 hit you.
Regular Extreme difficulty has 20 RAYs too. It took me a while.
 
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Don't you even try the VR missions if you want to sleep at night without nightmares.
 
Sort of related, does anyone know what the difficulty settings are for each of the Snake Tales? Particularly the one that ends with you doing the Ray and Solidus fights as Snake.
 
If you're just replaying the games for story/fun/to prepare for MGSV, I'd say you don't have to bother with EE unless you really want the challenge.

This, don't bother. Euro Extreme is too much bullshit to be worth the hassle. Do Hard or Extreme. They'll give you some difficulty without the bullshit spikes Euro Extreme has.

Which reminds me, did they really make Extreme harder on the original MGS2 for Europe?
 
Wut?!

Yeah, I think I might go back to hard lol.
I remember thinking I was pretty good on hard but ended up quitting in anger and frustration during the 20 Ray fight. Ended up quitting after 30 or so tries before I realized I didn't have the nerve. Can't even image that extreme difficulty lol. Good luck soldier!
 
This, don't bother. Euro Extreme is too much bullshit to be worth the hassle. Do Hard or Extreme. They'll give you some difficulty without the bullshit spikes Euro Extreme has.

Which reminds me, did they really make Extreme harder on the original MGS2 for Europe?
Seems it was common during the PS2 era. Ico was similar.
 
This, don't bother. Euro Extreme is too much bullshit to be worth the hassle. Do Hard or Extreme. They'll give you some difficulty without the bullshit spikes Euro Extreme has.

Which reminds me, did they really make Extreme harder on the original MGS2 for Europe?
I don't think so. As far as I know European Extreme was always an optional extra originally included as an apology for the European version being late.
 
most people don't seem to know you can move and autoaim in 3rd person with your gun drawn by holding L1. i've only done regular extreme, not euro, but it helped a lot in most boss fights. you won't get any headshots but you can dodge attacks and land hits faster and easier than going into first person each time. i can beat olga using this method before she even gets a chance to shoot the tarp or spotlight.
 
Man, hard was enough for me in MGS2 Substance, it was just the right level of difficulty.

Me an buddy tried Extreme mode back in the day, the Olga fight was like a brick wall of frustration, and to think there was a European Extreme, hell no.
 
MGS2 is my favorite game and European Extreme is the best way to play.

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Guards are ready to fuck you up at all times. Setting "Game Over If Discovered" is actually easier because you can just restart at the checkpoint instead of getting hit and potentially going into a boss fight with low health.

Olga one shots you, as you mentioned. You can't shoot out the light. You can't shoot out the tarp. Go fuck yourself.

Fortune one shots you because you should feel bad about getting hit in the first place.

Fatman is almost a dice roll. If you let him get out of control, then you're done. May as well kill yourself lmao

The Harrier can absolutely wreck you. It throws a RIDICULOUS amount of missiles in European Extreme. One missile is an instant game over. Two hits from the vulcan machine gun is a game over. Your Stinger ammo supply is more limited. Otacon WILL FLY THE HELICOPTER IN YOUR LINE OF SIGHT MORE OFTEN.

Vamp can be cheesed in 3 or 4 different ways. Nothing to worry about.

The oil fence with Emma can be a nightmare because of your more limited ammo and Pentazamin capacity. Stay on your toes and you will be ok. Eliminate the claymore mines ASAP. Solid Snake will NOT help you until like the last 30 seconds to troll you.

The Tengus in Arsenal on European Extreme are...well, you'll see when you get there. And you have to do two battles with them. Mandatory. Lmao.

On European Extreme you must fight twenty Metal Gear Rays. A single one can take minutes to kill. It's not unusual to take 20 minutes just for this one fight. Oh and if you get hit then you die instantly.

Solidus chokehold on the PS2 version of European Extreme was the hardest thing in the series. No lie. They toned it down in the HD version.

Solidus himself isn't much of a threat. RAY, for all intents and purposes, is the true final boss of European Extreme.

Such a glorious difficulty. I love Snake Eater. It's a masterpiece. But the European Extreme in Snake Eater is such a joke except for the Fury.
 
Sort of related, does anyone know what the difficulty settings are for each of the Snake Tales? Particularly the one that ends with you doing the Ray and Solidus fights as Snake.

The guards are tuned somewhere between the normal and hard modes, I believe. They might have just been set to hard mode but I feel like I remember the main game's hard mode being tougher than the Snake Tales.
 
Sort of related, does anyone know what the difficulty settings are for each of the Snake Tales? Particularly the one that ends with you doing the Ray and Solidus fights as Snake.

Snake Tales are on Hard mode.

And I thought Raidou 1 devil mode was insane.
(And it is)


Is this on the Xbox Subsistence too?

Substance*

Yes, XBOX European Extreme is just as crazy as PS2 version. Only thing XBOX is missing is Skateboarding Mode.
 
Snake Tales are on Hard mode.



Substance*

Yes, XBOX European Extreme is just as crazy as PS2 version. Only thing XBOX is missing is Skateboarding Mode.

Well, I'm doomed to try it eventually then. That's the version I have.
(Never had a problem with it...)
 
If I remember correctly, all bosses 1 hit KO.

Fatman's C4 timers are a lot shorter

The sequence with Snake against the Tengu soldiers can be absolutely maddening.

You fight like, 20 Metal Gear RAYs during that sequence.

They also 1 hit you.

All bosses have 1HKO attacks but I don't think all their attacks kill you in one hit. You can survive some of them.

The first part of the Tengu fight can be made a lot easier by making use of the game's true MVP, the coolant sprayer. Tranquillise snake and hide between cover. Then just spam the coolant to stun all the Tengu that try to get to you and either kill them or tranq them.

I only played on Extreme though, not EE so I'm not sure if it makes a huge difference.

MGS1 Snake Grenade Level 5 still haunts me.

It's so weird, I was always terrible at throwing grenades in this game so I was dreading that VR mission... And then I did it on my first try. I don't even know how that's possible but I'm happy I didn't have to play it any more than that.

That mission where you need to defend the cardboard box as MGS1 snake on the other hand... This shit made me rage hard. I spend like 2 and a half hours on it. The sniping controls in this game just suck balls and made things even harder than they should have been.

But apart from that I really enjoyed the VR missions. They're challenging an really teach you how to use your entire arsenal. Finishing some of them can be pretty damn rewarding too (like the aforementioned sniping mission or the mission where you need to run up and down 2 corridors and hold up like 12 guys in quick succession).
 
I spent a summer when i was younger hoping to play all the difficulty levels, got all the way to the choking scene on extreme then just couldn't do it. Could not imagine what the EE mode was like. 1 hit kills would have been a nightmare.
 
A little off-topic but has anyone gotten the PS4 controller to work with the PC version? I feel like I have tried everything.
 
Finished MGS2 on Extreme(by far the hardest MGS game), but never tried European Extreme, what are the differences?
 
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