While they are most well-known for being the developers behind Fortnite, which has skyrocketed in popularity over the last few years, Epic Games has been making their games within the industry for over thirty years, and they have quite an extensive catalog to show for it. Before Fortnite, Epic became synonymous with making gritty, dark, and action-packed titles that captivated audiences with their fast-paced gameplay and high-skill ceilings, which encouraged players to put in a lot of practice if they wanted to improve.

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None of their games ever bordered on being impossible in their challenge, but that's not to say that there aren't still a few titles they have come out with that are pretty difficult to jump into and play. Here are the hardest games developed by Epic Games that are well worth checking out for anyone who hasn't already played them, especially those who love trying to overcome a challenging experience to receive that immense satisfaction in the end.

7 Gears Of War 2

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.19

While Gears of War 2 plays almost identical to the first game, the number of enemies that appear on-screen at once has been bolstered quite a bit, which makes sense since the story centers around the COG taking the fight directly to the Locust themselves. Luckily, Marcus and the gang do have plenty of weapons to help them survive these onslaughts, with some such as the Boomshot and Torque Bow being especially powerful, making them capable of turning around an intense fight with little to no problem.

There are still quite a few tricky enemies who are introduced into the game though, especially the Reavers, who will gladly fire a barrage of missiles down at the player, and if even one hits, it can put the character near death. Then there are the Tickers, small explosive Locust who scuttle around their enemy before blowing them to smithereens if they manage to get close enough. With the right weapons and knowledge of the enemies, Gears 2 is a manageable experience, but it's far from a walk in the park.

6 Unreal Tournament 2004

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.21

• Release Date: March 2004
• Developer: Epic Games, Digital Extremes
• Platforms: PC

Unreal Tournament 2004's action-packed gameplay still plays well to this day, but even when just playing single-player, it can prove to be quite a challenging experience. The AI bots are incredibly clever in this game, often going out of their way to acquire the most powerful weapons, and even strategizing to flank the player and their teammates when they know they have a chance to pick up a few kills.

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This was also one of the first games to ever make use of a dynamic difficulty system, which would activate for certain bosses such as Malcolm. So long as players were holding their own against him, he would become deadly accurate, to the point where it became incredibly difficult to even react to him in time. Unreal Tournament 2004 presents a hearty challenge that every experienced FPS fan should give a spin, especially since it still holds up so well after all these years.

5 Gears Of War 3

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.22

After the collapse of the Locust at the end of Gears of War 2, Marcus and the rest of his COG allies face a brand-new enemy who has been lurking under the surface the entire time in the third game, and that's the Lambent. The Lambent are much more unpredictable than the Locust, often having multiple mutations which makes them incredibly dangerous to fight, and also extremely durable.

Even something as weak as the Lambent Human enemies or Lambent Wretches become a worrying sight because of how many of them will gang up on a character at one time, which encourages players to stick together to stand a chance of surviving until the very end. It also feels like Epic decided to challenge the player this time around through its level design, granting them less cover to hide behind and preferring to put them in large open spaces instead. Considering how dire the character's circumstances are, this brutal difficulty perfectly fits the tone of the game's narrative, but players will need to be on their A-game to withstand the Lambent hordes.

4 Unreal Tournament

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.26

While many of the future Unreal Tournament games provide some sort of guidance or hints for the player to make the experience a little more forgiving, the first game pulled no punches with its gameplay, throwing players in the deep end right from the start. Because of how devastating the guns are in this game, it means that mastering the strafing movement system is vital to dodge any incoming rockets or bullets, but because of the way the stages are designed, it makes it all too easy to jump off a cliff by accident while doing this if players aren't careful.

Despite how long ago the game came out, the AI enemies are actually quite difficult to take down because of their quick movements and trigger-happy gameplay, but the game becomes something else entirely when playing online against real people, or even just locally. Newcomers to the series are pretty much guaranteed to get killed plenty of times, but this is ultimately what will help someone improve and eventually master the game.

3 Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.27

• Release Date: April 2005
• Developer: Epic Games
• Platforms: Xbox

Being designed to take advantage of the newly introduced Xbox Live, Unreal Championship 2 is an incredibly competitive game that, unlike its Unreal Tournament counterparts, places a much bigger focus on melee combat. Depending on which class players pick, it will determine how much health they have and the amount of damage they can dish out, and while they all have their uses, by far the most powerful is the Heavy, who is capable of killing enemies outright with a well-placed melee attack.

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Players will also need to keep track of their Adrenaline powers, of which there are six that can be used during a match. These unique powers can prove to be a big help in giving someone a head-start or catching up to the person at the top of the leaderboards, but because Adrenaline can only be earned through kills and killing spree awards, it means that only the best of the best can make effective use of it. Unreal Championship 2 therefore has an incredibly steep learning curve, but this is what has made the game so intriguing to many competitive FPS players.

2 Gears Of War

GameFaqs Difficulty Rating: 3.28

Gears of War revolutionized the gaming landscape when it was released in 2006, popularizing the cover-based third-person shooter gameplay that so many games are replicating even today, and while it became immensely popular, it was still extremely difficult. While the regular Locust enemies are hyper-aggressive in the first game, since a lot of the overpowered weapons hadn't been introduced yet, it also meant that players often felt ill-equipped to take on the swarms of enemies set out before them, which makes every fight extremely tense.

The game also features some massive difficulty spikes, especially the encounter with General RAAM who covers himself in Kryll to prevent himself from being damaged, while also being able to one-hit-kill the Cog if he gets close. There are also more scenarios in the game where the team is forced to split up, and even when Marcus has an ally with him, the lack of AI means that they're never much of a help anyway. Gears of War is still a fantastic game with an excellent story and engaging cover-shooter gameplay, but it's clear that Epic wanted this game to push players to their absolute limit with its difficulty.

1 Age Of Wonders

Game FAQ Difficulty Rating: 3.32

• Release Date: November 1999
• Developer: Epic Games, Triumph Studios
• Platforms: PC

Age of Wonders is a far different game from everything else Epic has developed, being a turn-based strategy title that takes an isometric camera angle as opposed to the classic FPS or third-person viewpoint that Epic eventually became known for. Once the player boots up the single-player, they'll be tasked with exploring their environment, harvesting resources, and interacting with the other races they encounter on their journey.

What ends up making the game so downright difficult is how in-depth the mechanics and systems of the game are. For example, while other races can be met, actually making peace with them is far from easy, and even if they're eventually conquered, they have every chance to revolt if the player's military isn't big enough. The combat itself can also be very tricky to get the hang of, especially since anything in the environment can severely affect the chances of striking a target, and while this does add a lot of immersion, it also makes it incredibly difficult to reliably take down groups of enemies. Age of Wonders is still a beloved game with a hardcore fanbase behind it, but getting to grips with it requires a lot of time and practice.

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