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101

After I got my 99th Platinum trophy I decided it would be a nice touch to bookend my journey by obtaining #100 a few months later, exactly eight years after my first Platinum trophy. During the time between, I did continue playing games with the intention of getting the Platinum trophy but I would wait until after December 1st to actually complete them. Risen 2 was the first and one of the best games I have played.

I tried the first Risen on Steam a couple of years back, on a whim really. I didn’t get far into it, due to not being patient enough to deal with the very clunky combat, but from what I did play I really respected. The game starts with your character marooned on an unknown island as the survivor of a shipwreck, and over the short time I played I genuinely felt lost, afraid and unwanted even by the “friendly” NPCs inhabiting the island.

I picked up Risen 2 on PS3 hoping that it would have at least a hint of the integrity the first game showed, but also that they would improve on the technical issues that pushed me away from it. I was pleasantly surprised because they did both of those things.

The game starts off as a direct sequel to the first game which initially concerned me, since I was being introduced to characters the game expected me to know already. But the story quickly pulls a similar maneuver to the first game, wherein you find yourself alone and unwanted on yet another island. Risen 2 does not hold your hand, it lets you explore wherever you would like from the start and also make irrevocable mistakes. The game world is punishing, but it has a set of rules that are easy to follow once you know them.

From a technical perspective it’s quite clear that Risen 2 did not have a large budget. It had been released around the time that Skyrim came out, yet it looked and played closer to Morrowind. But, to me, that made the game more endearing. The environment was an hodgepodge of assorted visual tricks to make the world appear closer to what was expected of a high budget 2012 game, but clearly with the resources of an independent developer. There was so much effort and love put into this game that I feel bad even saying anything negative about it.

I genuinely enjoyed all 50+ hours I put into the two playthroughs I needed to obtain the Platinum trophy. The list was extensive and it involved playing through a few of the various outcomes the story branches off throughout the campaign. I probably could have done without that, for reasons I’ve detailed in the past (see: InFamous), but overall it was a good list. I’ll never forget Risen 2 and I have very high hopes for the sequel that I will play one day, hopefully soon.

 100% unlocked 9:24pm on the 25th of December 2017

102

Castlevania, conversely, was not great. And now I have to try and think of something to say about this mediocre and derivative game. Sadly it was a let down, even with the tempered expectations I went in with, having already heard that it wasn’t a great game. The boss fights were actually quite good, though I am not including the blatant (and terribly implemented) Shadow of the Colossus rip-off “bosses”, which are honestly an embarrassment to not just the game, but the entire genre.

It’s a bit sad really, I think Lords of Shadow had a lot of promise, there were moments in the gameplay where it started to feel like a game worthy of the long-standing and beloved franchise name. Hideo Kojima apparently had some creative control, but this was alongside a developer that did not appear to be experienced in the hack’n slash genre that Lords of Shadow was trying to be.

Kojima’s influence was noticeable from a thematic perspective, the cutscenes and non-interactive action set pieces had that unique and wonderful Hideo feel, but other than that, I could not claim that he had a hand in the bland combat or uninspired level design, textures and lighting. On a good note though, the various puzzles scattered appropriately throughout the game were surprisingly quite well designed, bringing my judgement of the game from bad to mediocre in conjunction with the entertaining boss fights.

The trophy list was a trophy list. It met all the usual criteria and did ask for full completion of the game and it’s optional challenges. I enjoyed going through the list well enough, though I have still yet to complete the DLC. So you might wonder why I even played the game in the first place when I had already known that it wasn’t well received and there were moments where I simply wasn’t having fun. It’s mainly because I would like to play the other Playstation Castlevania games and, being me, I couldn’t help but start at the earliest game. Here’s hoping the sequel is an improvement, though I hear it’s even worse.

 Platinum unlocked 9:24pm on the 25th of December 2017

103

I am not sure why it took me so long to get around to Platinum’ing the 2nd game in this amazing franchise. I did my first playthrough a few years ago and then started the Insanity playthrough, having had ample warning that I was in for a difficult time. That playthrough lived up to the hype, it was a long, thought-out process as I constantly had to adapt to each challenge that varied from fairly doable to brutally unforgiving. Anyone who’s played Mass Effect 2 on Insanity will have the Collector Ambush etched into their brain.

I did not say much about the first game, nor do I feel the need to say much about Mass Effect 2. It’s all been said before and the game needs no introduction. It’s the Mass Effect franchise. If you haven’t played it, play it, if you have – of course you bloody have it’s Mass Effect.

The trophy list was much better this time, with no trophies expecting much variance from your intended narrative experience and only light grinding was required. I’m very glad I finally pushed myself to finish Insanity, it was genuinely rewarding to do so.

  N7 Elite unlocked 1:31pm on the 15th of February 2018

104

Platinum’ing Mass Effect 2 was very satisfying and also very exciting, because it meant I could return to Mass Effect 3.

I love Mass Effect 3. It is, without a doubt, my favourite Mass Effect. It is 30+ hours of unabashed fan service, filled with unbelievable set pieces and a polished narrative that expertly guides the player and their prior choices all the way until the… very divisive… ending.

Let’s get that out of the way first. Yes the ending was a bit lackluster. But it’s the ending we got, and regardless of what I might think of it, the ending does not affect one minute of the incredible journey I took through the trilogy to reach that moment. I appreciate the intent behind the ending in theory, it subverted expectation and achieved the melancholy tone that the series needed to end on, considering the dire circumstance the galaxy was in by that point. However, the execution was noticeably lacking in a sort of thematic weight. Regardless, Mass Effect 3 is still phenomenal.

Mass Effect 3 received a general quality increase across the board from the previous game. It looked noticeably better, boasting very sharp textures that looked more “real” than the previous games, but without looking sterile or sacrificing the Mass Effect aesthetic, utilizing effective use of blue tinted lighting to achieve the atmosphere we were familiar with.

Aside from the graphical increase what really stood out to me were the improvements to combat. Mass Effect 3 blends the combat-centric components of the previous two games, taking the modification capabilities of the first game and the revamped shooting/power use mechanics from the second game, and improves on both to deliver a combat environment that felt fast paced and dynamic.

The three main enemy types had multiple unique units that were always fun to fight, which was helped by the choices you had as a player for how to build your character. Between the different weapons, armours, mods and powers, you could cultivate a viable build for practically any playstyle which achieved the balance of making you feel very powerful as a player and yet continuing to provide a challenge, at least on the higher difficulties.

I just find it so hard to fault this game, it’s so genuinely good on all accounts. Even the DLC was spectacular – I cannot think of a better example of the perfect send-off for a game than the Citadel DLC. If you have played Mass Effect 3 and you didn’t play the Citadel DLC, rectify that.

The trophy list was, funnily enough, an interesting mix of the trophy lists from the first and second game. Thankfully there was once again no forced “alternate play” narrative trophies, with the slight exception of one trophy  Master and Commander which required a -very- thorough playthrough of the entire trilogy in order to reach the required number of War Assets to achieve the best Final Assault outcome.

Though the expected number of assets can be potentially halved if you play the Multiplayer component of the game, which also had a trophy tied to it that Alex helped me obtain. The multiplayer was surprisingly fun, amounting to an online Horde Mode of sorts where you could build a Shepard-lite and clear waves of enemies for “Galactic Readiness” which would multiply the effects of your single player War Assets.

Other than those trophies there were a few ability grind ones, last seen in the first game and the mandatory Insanity completion trophy, alongside  Unwavering to finish every possible mission in the game on Insanity. They provided a challenge, nothing close to Mass Effect 2 – but I had a great time playing through the game one more time.

As for the latest entry to the franchise… More on that one day.

  N7 Elite unlocked 3:13am on the 8th of May 2018

105

After Brendan and I completed our co-op playthroughs of Borderlands and Geometry Wars 3, we hummed and hawed about which game we would play next for… over two years. Thankfully Housemarque eventually came to the rescue and their biggest game yet, Alienation, caught his attention – more on that later. I had been spying that game myself, but I also had my eye on the previous game they developed, which was Dead Nation.

I managed to convince Brendan to hold off on Alienation and play Dead Nation with me first, to satisfy my franchise completing compulsion. He reluctantly agreed and, to be fair, when I saw the screenshots and game info in comparison to that of Alienation, I briefly considered not playing it.

Well I’m glad I did and I’m sure Brendan is too, because the 30+ hours we spent playing through the three difficulties and then completing the optional challenge content was some of the most fun I’ve had in a co-op game. I never should have doubted Housemarque, they’ve proved themselves with every new game release that they are kings of the arcade shooter genre especially.

Dead Nation is a game that balances the zombie survival and twin-stick shooter genres expertly – and considering how contrasting those genres are, I say that was an impressive feat. Housemarque took the slow pacing, resource management and tense horror-inspired atmosphere from survival games and injected the mainstay elements of a twin-stick with a scoring system, robust upgrades and a range of enemies that require precision and quick positional maneuvering to survive, supported by an isometric camera that allows for single-screen co-op play.

Each of the 10 levels provided a different challenge, with some levels requiring us to step back and strategize before attempting on the harder difficulties. The most difficult trophy by far was the appropriately named  Never Give Up which was a waves-based challenge mode with permadeath. The later waves increased the health and damage output of the enemies above what we had played in the hardest difficulties, made even more difficult by starving us of the resources we were supplied in the campaign. Finally reaching Wave 10 and getting that trophy was both stressful and exhilarating, I don’t imagine we’ll be doing anything that difficult in a co-op setting any time soon.

The trophy list was your standard twin-stick fare and required almost complete mastery of the game. None of the trophies were overly grind-dependant, the only questionable one was  Memento Collector which rather arbitrarily required completion of the game on any difficulty but specifically in single player. I do not understand why that was a requirement, but it was a small, trophy centered blemish on a very very good game.

  Romero Would Be Proud unlocked 10:09am on the 3rd of October 2018

106

I picked up the new God of War a few weeks prior to starting this, more on that… one day… probably.  Long story short, it did not fill the action/beat’em up-shaped void in my heart, left from it’s previous entries. After I scoured my backlog I decided to finally see whether the latest attempt at a Wolverine game lived up to the hype and praise it received in 2009.

Wolverine successfully filled that void. It provided fast paced combat with intuitive controls and a decent range of unique enemies to quite literally sink my claws into. It didn’t have the budget of the God of War games nor the luxury of being released on an exclusive platform, but it delivered on the intention to be a notable entry in the list of action beat’em ups released in the mid to late 2000s.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a very good game. It serves the dual purpose of providing a competent portrayal of Wolverine’s character in a video game while also remixing the universally panned movie plot it’s based on and delivering a more palatable option for experiencing that story. It definitely scratched that beat’em up itch and often surprised me with the ambition of it’s biggest interactive set pieces.

The trophy list was the usual assortment you’d expect from the genre, with added trophies for finding some of the easter eggs hidden throughout the game.. I appreciated the simplicity of the list and felt as though I got all I needed out of Wolverine through it.

  Platinum unlocked 10:20am on the 3rd of October 2018

107

I first started Rayman Origins in 2013, shortly after I had achieved 100% completion on Super Meat Boy on PC. My first attempt to play it was brief. I had heard great things about the series and about Origins especially – I had also been warned by Jess that it was quite difficult. But after having beaten Super Meat Boy I was full of confidence that Rayman would fall beneath my mighty platforming skills!

I was very wrong. Rayman was unlike any platformer I had played and that initially put me way off it. I didn’t like how it controlled, I didn’t like the aesthetic, and I especially didn’t like how I was unable to unlock the highest rewards on even the first level of the game. I begrudgingly beat the first world and then I put it down with no intention of playing it again.

I asked myself why on earth people would like this game, it’s so clunky and slow yet it expects you to go fast. It made no sense to me, I couldn’t fathom why it was so highly rated – yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It took me over three years and a gaming dry spell for me to come crawling back to a game that I realize now was quite simply too smart for me in 2013.

Rayman Origins is a great game. It has an involved set of moves implemented in a way that can be punishing if you do not put the time in to apply them and it has a fluid level design that demands intimate knowledge of every platform, enemy and collectable if you want any chance of beating it’s optional speed and score challenges.

17th of October 2016 I played Origins over a period of just over three weeks. During that time I beat almost half of the time trials, over half of the score rewards and unlocked the final stages of the game. I learned to really appreciate Rayman over that time, but by the 15th of November I had realised I reached my current peak of ability and I could not progress further. I was disappointed by that, because I considered myself a fairly adept platformer player but I couldn’t overcome the challenges ahead.

I put down Rayman Origins for a second time, but this time the intent had changed. I vowed to one day return and give that game the respect it deserved. I would get the Platinum eventually. On the 2nd of October 2018 I returned to Rayman Origins. I opened up my old save file and decided that I’d just jump straight into the content I couldn’t do when I gave up – I’d just bash my head against it until one of us breaks. What could possibly go wrong??

Well, that day I earned the trophy meeting the speedrun requirement of half the game’s levels. That was… unexpected. A level that I had tried and failed to achieve the speed run two years prior and I beat it after about half an hour. I’m not sure if I can explain that, it just felt like as soon as I picked up the controller and played it again, everything just clicked. I utilized the hover, the dash jump and the other intricacies of the movement system in a way I couldn’t comprehend two years ago – and then a day later I had obtained the speedrun and score awards for every level of the game, followed soon by the platinum trophy.

I don’t quite understand how this happened. Rayman was the first platformer I had played in almost a year, previous one being Celeste which is a very different sort of game. My Rayman-specific platforming skills just appeared to lie dormant, finally emerging in 2018. That or all those Super Mario Maker Lets Play videos I’ve been watching rubbed off on me somehow, shoutout to witwix. Regardless, that is another gaming milestone fulfilled.

  Sweet Dreams! unlocked 2:12am on the 5th of October 2018

108

I never had any real plans to play this game, aside from my usual franchise completion compulsion™. I first played The New Order (more on that later) and then went all the way back to the PS3 remaster of Wolfenstein 3D (more on that later also) before picking up Wolfenstein from a bargain bin. I wasn’t really expecting much from this game. I’d watched Yahtzee’s video of it a while ago and he didn’t have many nice things to say about it. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

It’s an enjoyable game. It has shooting and nazis and dismemberment and magic and cool guns and BJ and… and… yeah. I mean, what more do you want from a Wolfenstein game? It had a decent budget, it runs ok on PS3 – I thought it was considerably better than another FPS released around the same time called Singularity (more on that probably never).

What impressed me most about Wolfenstein was the town of Isenstadt, which acted as a mission hub where you picked up the main story missions, but you could also explore the city and find side objectives. After each mission the nazi force moves closer and closer into the city, certain areas open up while others have been bombed and are no longer available. It brought a sense of weight to the story and helped to establish Wolfenstein as something a little different to all the other FPS’s developed in that time.

The trophy list was fairly standard – difficulties, collectibles, alternate play and unfortunately quite extensive multiplayer trophies that I eventually boosted. Overall I’m glad I played it. The game was fun and challenging and surprised me a few times. It wasn’t Half-Life or The New Order, but it was a fine example of an above average late 00’s FPS.

  Platinum unlocked 12:23pm on the 7th of October 2018

109

Fun. That is the one word to best describe Just Cause 2. It’s not particularly deep or nuanced or complicated or original but it is a whole lot of fun.

In the first 10 minutes you are introduced to the main mechanics of the game – shooting, driving and it’s most unique feature, grappling. You’re then let loose on a giant island inspired by Malaysia/Indonesia and you’re tasked with overthrowing the dictator of the country. How, you ask? By causing as much mayhem as possible.

The entire game revolves around moving from place to place shooting, exploding and collecting everything in your path however you choose. Guns, explosives and vehicles are plentiful and the games physics engine allows for some creative ways cause mayhem. The main story and the 3 separate faction stories have the depth of an 80’s action movie, that is to say that they provide sufficient motivation to explode as many things as possible, and nothing much else. It’s not very self aware and it’s often unintentionally hilarious.

Just Cause 2 was just the game I needed as a palate cleanser. It was good mindless fun with a couple of standout moments that really made me feel like the action hero they designed the main character Rico to be. Trophies-wise the list was pretty standard from what I had experienced in open world games, with the exception of one of the grindiest trophies I’ve ever had to get, Perfectionist. I had to complete 75% of the content that the game had to offer which far exceeded any of the requirements asked of the previous trophies in the list. While I did enjoy the game very much, my enjoyment diminished a fair amount by the 200th settlement I destroyed.

Overall I had a great time though and I’m looking forward to picking up the third game in the series.

  Winner Takes All unlocked 3:00am on the 15th of October 2018

110

Around the end of 2006 I picked up a copy of Pokemon Diamond while I still lived at home in Whakatane and played it through the night for 18 hours straight. Very sleep deprived but immensely satisfied with the playthrough, I decided to head down the road to tell Jess all about it. After I regaled her with anecdotes from my Pokemon adventure, and while fighting the urge to fall asleep on my feet, Jess decided to commemorate the moment by introducing me to one of her favourite PS2 games, Amplitude.

What followed was a sensory overload of crazy colours and environments that served to amplify the most unique and captivating rhythm action game I’ve ever played. That afternoon I was re energized by songs from POD, Garbage and more, where I clumsily learned to guide my “Beat Blaster” down snaking pathways of notes that I would slowly but surely learn to hit at the right timing. It was an alien experience for me, especially because I’d never really played much in the way of rhythm games before then. This was quite the introduction.

There really is no other game like Amplitude. Well, aside from their previous game, Frequency – but Amplitude is basically the perfect result of a vision that Frequency was born from. The aesthetic of the game is nothing short of psychedelic. That afternoon I saw colours and textures presented in a way I’d never seen before, especially not in a video game. Even today I’m not sure that I could think of a game that matches the visual intensity that Amplitude achieves.

The way Harmonix balanced the insane visuals with the demanding gameplay was masterful. Even on Jess’s 15” CRT TV the tracks and notes clearly popped off the screen while the crazy backgrounds pulsed and danced frenetically and in time with the various tracks. Amplitude used visual distraction and diversion as a means of teaching the player to “feel” the music, rather than focus on each individual notes as they came faster and faster throughout the 25+ song campaign. Each difficulty filled in the gaps where notes were missing before, culminating in the “Insane” mode which required intimate knowledge of any given song and it’s track layout if you wanted to even begin to try and complete them.

It took me about three years to finally complete every challenge that Amplitude had for me. Finishing the song Spaztik by Cosmonaut Zero and earning the Halo adornment for my ‘Freq’ Avatar was an unforgettable moment for me. That game took me on a journey, one that led to some of my favourite music artists – special mention to Freezepop. My time with Amplitude had come to an end.

And then May 5th, 2014, out of fucking nowhere, Harmonix announced the Kickstarter for a brand new Amplitude. Holy shit.

I backed it immediately. Not only did I back it, but I backed a premium package full of all sorts of goodies. And then I watched over the month it was available to fund, in increasing worry, as they gained funding at a rate that did not confidently reflect the almost $800k goal they were asking for.

Honestly I was genuinely concerned that the goal would not be reached. It was a nail biting few last days, but Harmonix managed to eventually attract 14100 backers, two of those being Jess and myself, and the goal was -barely- achieved, making just over 800k. But it was achieved. We were going to have a new Amplitude in our lives. Holy. Shit.

The wait was agonizing. It was delayed at least three times that I can remember, one of those times I had purchased a PS4 in -rabid- anticipation before the delay was announced. But I knew that it would be fine, delays just meant the game was going to be all the more polished and closer to Harmonix’ vision of what an Amplitude reboot would be.

Finally, early December 2015, Amplitude was released. The code I received only worked for EU accounts so, alongside my US moniker, Ukdecroux was born. I completed my first song 1.31pm December 24th and at 2.26pm Ding!  Synesthete for finishing the last song of the campaign. Five hours later Ding!  Golden Child for achieving the highest score accolade for three songs and by the next day I had 100% completed the campaign and bonus songs, followed by  Super FreQ Out for finishing a song on the hardest difficulty. It was safe to say Amplitude was worth the wait.

I continued playing on and off, having had achieved all except the hardest and multiplayer trophies, but I had a plan for those. In mid January 2016 I made my way up to Auckland to spend time with Jess so we could gush endlessly about the game we had both so heavily anticipated. We also helped each other to achieve the multiplayer trophies, two of which still have a 2.1% and 1.4% rarity.

We played some competitive multiplayer matches just for fun, and then Jess firmly cemented her position as Rhythm game Master by proceeding to summarily clear and master every song in the game in front of me, achieving the Platinum trophy effortlessly in three sporadic days of play. She achieved the trophy  Fluid Intelligence awarded for clearing the full 15 song Campaign without failing, retrying or quitting on Expert difficulty on her very first playthrough. I did it after over two years.

Not long after that I achieved  Closure for completing every song on the Hardest difficulty, followed soon by  Luminary for achieving a high score on every song in the game. Amplitude was just the journey I hoped it would be and I enjoyed every moment of it. Thank you Harmonix for bringing it back into our lives.

  Superhuman unlocked 4:39am on the 16th of October 2018

111

Brendan and I got a lot more enjoyment than I think we expected to get out of Dead Nation, so it took longer to play Alienation than we intended. Both games were purchased around October 2016 and on February 2017 we finally decided to move on to the game Brendan had wanted to play in the first place.

Was it worth the wait? Of course it was, it’s a Housemarque game. Was it better than Dead Nation though? On paper that should spell a resounding yes. It employs mechanics from other great games of the same and similar genres like Diablo and Helldivers, along with a really vibrant aesthetic style that compliments the fast paced and frenetic action. The Diablo-style loot system always kept the game fresh with the potential for some very strong weaponry and gear.

But that wasn’t really something I was looking for from a twin-stick shooter. It was a genre mash-up that I felt didn’t quite work, it was similar ambition that resulted in the creation of Dead Nation and in my opinion that ambition did not pay off as well in Alienation. I also think the lack of a clear story in favour of the Helldivers-style more “mission-driven” plot structure made for a more sterile experience than I was hoping for.

Regardless of that, it’s safe to say that the solid month or so we spent on the game was an indication we were having a good time. We played well past the point that we could have earned trophies and completed some very challenging content. The way I see it, my personal feelings about the game are really based on genre preference. Dead Nation was much closer to my genre preference than Alienation was, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a very well constructed game.

The trophy list was pretty extensive and required many played hours in each of the three classes, along with a decent amount of luck when it came to a few of the trophies relying on item drops. It was a fun list and another very worthy Housemarque Platinum trophy. Next up, Nex Machina – more on that later.

  Alienated unlocked 12:31pm on the 17th of October 2018

112

As stated about my previous Wolfenstein Platinum, I don’t think I ever really had a plan to play the Wolfenstein games. I’ve played my fair share of shooter games and there didn’t initially seem to be anything that Wolfenstein could provide that other FPS’s hadn’t already. This was until I heard about The New Order.

Wolfenstein: The New Order walks a fine line between delivering satisfying and varied gameplay revolving entirely around shooting nazis and also providing an emotionally affecting and melancholy story… about shooting nazis. Somehow it achieves that balance flawlessly. The New Order is equally action-packed, scary, heartfelt and earnest during it’s 10 hour campaign.

Each of the main missions in which you’re tasked to obliterate nazis in such classic locations as a bridge, a castle, in a submarine and… the Moon, are separated by interactive sequences situated in your hidden resistance base where you get to know your fellow fighters and learn their motivations to continue fighting a war they’ve already lost.

Often BJ Blastkowicz punctuates scenes with his own internal monologue that provides a surprising amount of nuance to a character who was little more than a silent and grimacing face in it’s first incarnation. The New Order’s unique take on the shooter genre was refreshing. Every level was genuinely tense and nobody felt invincible, I cared about all of the characters and I was invested in the entire journey.

The New Order was, to me, proof that an FPS can elicit emotions other than triumph and could deal with deeper themes other than “shoot the bad guy”. It restored my faith in what I considered a tired genre and I’m looking forward to playing through the other Wolfenstein content the developer has made.

  Wolfenstein Master unlocked 12:31pm on the 17th of October 2018

113

113 games later and I finally get to talk about one of my all-time favourite game series.

Ideally I would have liked to talk about the Runner/Bit.Trip series earlier than this and I had the opportunity when the first Runner was released in a compilation on PS4 that rewarded a Platinum upon mastery of all the games present on that compilation. Each Bit.Trip game is designed with an emphasis on fast-paced gameplay inspired by retro games like pong, breakout and pitfall, with a heavy emphasis on rhythm. Which brings me to one of the main aspects of the Bit.Trip series – they’re all really really hard.

Bit.Trip Runner, the first of the Runner series, was released with the intention of being the most accessible of the overarching Bit.Trip games. This accessibility allowed people to appreciate the highly detailed and meticulously constructed gameplay that had featured in all the prior Bit.Trip games, with the added bonus of not being almost impossible to complete. That led to Runner being easily the most popular game developed by then named Gaijin Games.

Like most, I started my Bit.Trip journey with the first Runner and I happily got my ass handed to me over and over again. The combination of endearing retro visuals and a great soundtrack by Anamanaguchi as well as a punishing yet fair level design that felt extremely rewarding to beat kept me coming back for more punishment. I spent months  trying to complete everything Bit.Trip Runner had to offer and to this day I am still missing one last challenge (though thankfully that is not required for the PS4 trophy).

A few years later Gaijin, soon to be Choice Provisions, announce the sequel to Bit.Trip Runner, titled Bit.Trip Presents… Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien!

Best. Video game name. Ever.

My hype levels for this game rivaled Diablo III and Mirror’s Edge in intensity and I purchased it day one. Runner2 was everything I hoped it would be and consumed a solid week of my time as I completed every challenge and maintained positions on the level leaderboards. It was released on PS3 later though sadly it did not receive a Platinum trophy. I’m still yet to play through the entirety of Runner2’s content for the trophies and I expect it to be listed in my next Honourable Mentions.

Choice Provisions announced that Runner2 would be the finale to Commander Video’s journey as they decided to move onto new games that they would both publish and develop inhouse. I was proud to see them mature into this new period of their lives as a developer and I bought every game they released on PlayStation.

And then they announced another Runner game. When it was announced it felt to me like they were offering a giant dessert just after I’d savoured and ultimately filled myself on a delicious meal prior. I was excited to be sure, but I decided I’d wait a bit before I treated myself to the third Runner installment.

Runner3 was initially released on the Switch in May 2018, then the PC and finally it made its way to the PS4 in November 2018. I purchased it the day it released on PS4 and achieved my first Choice Provisions developed Platinum trophy two days later. Better yet, I was first in the world to do so.

Choice Provisions, unsurprisingly, impressed once again with another excellent entry to the Runner series. They made a lot of adjustments that evolved from the standard formula set by the first and second game, which resulted in the usual fast paced and intense gameplay, yet elevated by crucial new additions to the move-set that made Commander Video more fun to control than ever. Runner3 also included the biggest soundtrack of the series and some great aesthetics that built off the foundation Runner2 had set.

It was arguably the hardest game of the series too, the trophies required full completion of the game and that included some extremely challenging moments, even after being modified by the various difficulty scaling options included. It was a well earned Platinum and a very fun two days spent completing the latest entry to an all-time favourite game series. Until next time, Choice Provisions. Can’t wait to play it, whatever it is.

  Perfect Destruction unlocked 2:10pm on the 16th of November 2018

114

After how much of a success Crash Bandicoot was, it was only a matter of time before another beloved older game trilogy would get a current-gen remake and few were more asked for than the Spyro trilogy.

Unlike Crash Bandicoot, I didn’t have too much prior experience with Spyro. I played a bit of the second one on PS1 a long time ago but I didn’t remember too much about it, if anything really. So I thought it would be kinda neat to approach the Spyro series without the rose tinted glasses that I approached many of the other nostalgia-bait remasters/remakes on this list with.

It didn’t even take me 10 minutes to conclude that Spyro is an absolutely delightful game. It’s not particularly challenging at all, nor is it any major technical marvel – but it achieves exactly what it sets out to do with style. Running, charging, gliding and burning things all feel great and each of the 20+ stages and five hub worlds provide a unique challenge and some new enemy type that revolves around the basic formula of “burn this”, “charge this” or “avoid this until you find the necessary power up” but with a nice new twist to every level.

The levels are compact and filled with gems and enemies and allow for non-stop gameplay – you can blaze through the levels without stopping and you’ll never have more than a few seconds of downtime, there’s always something to collect or kill and the remake adds new features to accommodate that play style, like the ability to have Sparx the Dragonfly point in the direction of a missing gem. But if you want to take your time and explore on your own, each unique creature model and animation in the various levels of the game provide plenty of incentive for that.

The trophy list was a fun list and asked for alternate methods of approaching many of the levels for some trophy conditions, but as stated earlier, none of that was very challenging. The Platinum trophy sits at above a 50% completion rating, which would normally annoy me, but I had too much fun playing Spyro to not want it on my list.

  Gnasty’s Demise unlocked 2:51am on the 4th of December 2018

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Spyro 2 – Aka: if it ain’t broke, needlessly over-complicate it.

Nah, it’s still great. Spyro 2 plays and feels pretty much identical to the first one, but there’s something about the concise formula that the first game perfected that is missing from the second game. A few interface and narrative changes that padded the game a little more than I expected. They also attempted something along the lines of a plot but that was forgettable and easy to ignore.

But perhaps that’s being overly critical of Spyro 2. It was trying to do something a little different with it’s base formula and it’s worth noting that the more complicated collectibles-obtaining mechanics were clearly what inspired the gameplay loop of a future beloved adventure-platformer called Jak and Daxter… moooore on that later.

It’s tough to say anything more about Spyro 2, it’s more Spyro. The series continued to delight me and I was happy to move straight on to the third game.

 Ripto’s Remorse unlocked 9:51pm on the 9th of December 2018

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But first, it was time to knock out LocoRoco 2.

Unlike the first game I hadn’t actually previously played this one, or even really knew anything about it. LocoRoco 2 was a really nice surprise and I consider it an improvement over the first game in every regard.

Unfortunately, it also featured the most bugged trophy list I’ve experienced in a game. It’s a shame that is what I will likely dedicate the majority of this entry to, because of the 116 games I have completed and over 300 I have played on PlayStation, this is by far the worst implementation of trophies I have seen. I ended up 100% clearing the entire game three times in my efforts to trick the game into giving me it’s trophies. I scoured forums and message boards looking for other people with the same issues and eventually I managed to troubleshoot my way through the game and complete it in such a specific way that the trophies popped.

But I get it. It’s a niche game and it’s really good enough that it even made it to PS4 in the first place. I very much enjoyed my time with it and I’m glad that the Platinum trophy was obtainable at the very least, which is more than can be said for some other games. So I’m not going to rant and rave about how they could have implemented the trophies better because when it comes down to it, as long as the game performs well they’ve done their job.

And after having played through the game in it’s entirety three times, I can confirm it does indeed perform very well. LocoRoco 2 was a damn fun experience and I very much have my fill of the series now.

  Let’s Sing Together! unlocked 12:08am on the 13th of December 2018

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Spyro 3 feels like a return to form, but with a good overall increase in scope. Gone are the needlessly complicated collectibles in place of the Core Two, gems and dragons, the first game asked for.

Spyro 3 also introduced playable side characters who all had their own sections throughout the game. I thought they each provided a nice change of pace and were used appropriately. Even Sparx the dragonfly got playable levels which were quite reminiscent of the old hack’n slash, Gauntlet.

I really have very few complaints about the trilogy. Each game provides satisfying gameplay and has some really decent levels that I’d be happy to replay one day. Once again, the remaster/remake trend continues to faithfully bring to life the old classics and prove that some games are simply timeless.

  Party like it’s 2024 unlocked 5:38am on the 15th of December 2018

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I bought the Ratchet & Clank remake on release day, unsurprisingly. Having had played the original PS2 version’s PS3 remaster somewhat recently, I knew that I was going to approach this remake from a more critical perspective. So I’ll start off by saying this – Ratchet & Clank 2016 is indeed a good game. But is it a good remake?

Tough question. Had you asked me this when I finished a couple of days after release that answer would have been an enthusiastic yes. Sure, it has it’s issues. The lootbox-eqsue progression system was unnecessary and there was too much content cut out that had been in the original game, including some of the best and most challenging levels that I had fond memories of beating. Their absence was noticeable. But the visual quality of the game was enough for me to justify their content choices because really the main draw of playing the latest Ratchet & Clank is getting to play the classic mascot platformer rendered as one of the best looking games ever made.

However, that was before we were honored with the faithful recreations of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Now I’m not so quick to justify their decisions. I think Ratchet & Clank could have done with a little more time in the oven, a little more love and care and we could have had the definitive Ratchet & Clank experience.

All that aside I’m not going to say I regret playing it. In fact, I chose to savour it. The reason I waited so long to achieve the Platinum trophy was because I realised I wasn’t getting the full experience of the game unless I played through it in full HDR and 4K resolution, an experience that I would not truly manage to achieve until late 2018.

With the help of my flatmate Brendan, I finally got to finish my personal entertainment system. Now armed with a PS4 Pro thanks in large part to Alex, The PS4 Platinum Wireless Headset thanks to JB Hifi (and Sony’s warranty return policy) and finally the LG 27” 4K HDR monitor.

It was worth the wait. Of all the games I’ve played so far, Ratchet & Clank feels the most like it was built for 4K. I’m very glad I chose to wait until I had all the equipment necessary to enjoy the game at it’s fullest.

The trophy list was actually quite fun and required multiple playthroughs of the game, which wasn’t an issue on account of how short it was. Other than some amusing Easter Egg trophies and the handful of collectibles-based ones, there was one unique one,
 Death by Disco  that I enjoyed obtaining more than I expected to. It required a full playthrough of the game making every unique enemy and boss dance with the Groovitron weapon at least once. I’m glad to report that there was much more effort put into the various dance moves of the game’s enemies than anyone should have any right to expect. It’s trophies like those that I would like to see more often, which showcase the crazy amount of attention to detail that some developers have.

Here’s to a potential sequel, chopped down or not, I’ll be happy to play it.

  The Hero of Heroes unlocked 4:18pm on the 15th of December 2018

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I think American Mcgee’s Alice is the very first “niche” or “cult” game I’d ever really heard about. Back when I was around 14 years old, it’s existence was whispered in revered tones throughout the darkest corners of the internet. I’ll be honest, for a long time I was simply too scared to play it, having seen screenshots and heard tales of people describing snippets of the already dark and twisted Alice in Wonderland story mutated into it’s darkest and most twisted form.

Jess was the first of us both to approach it and that spurred me on to finally try it myself, on PC. American Mcgee’s Alice is an experience. The developers took the Quake 3 engine and manipulated it into a game that I can’t say I’ve played anything like before. It’s flawed in many respects, but that just adds to it’s charm. The narrative and aesthetics flawlessly build an inhospitable world and story, that’s still very recognizable if you’re familiar with the Wonderland stories.

The gameplay is “what if Quake 3 but really clunky” and can be a chore to deal with at times. But it’s worth it to learn the quirks of the controls, because every new level is an entirely unique and compelling gameplay experience that is worth your time and effort. However, I first played this quite early on in my Platinum acquisition journey and so I gave up relatively early on at the first sign of conflict.

So why am I talking about a PC game in this list? Well when Alice: Madness returns was released on PS3 it was soon followed by a free DLC release of the original game, along with accompanying trophies. It took me a few years to work up the courage to immerse myself in that world again, but on the 14th of June 2018 at 5:04pm I earned   Madness Begins, fittingly as a direct reward for beating the part of the game that I could not previously. 22nd of June at 6:00pm I had beaten American Mcgee’s Alice.

I obtained my first trophy,   No Happy Returns for Madness Returns two and a half hours later.

It was interesting to start playing the game after it had been out for so long. I was concerned that my opinion of it had already been coloured by the various highlights and polarizing reviews I’d seen about the game. Yahtzee was not a fan of the game for one, and it’s not often that I disagree with him about a bad game.

Madness Returns is the exception. From the art style to the narrative to the gameplay I love this game. It’s the perfect sequel to the first game, sharing a lot of it’s twisted style but employing creative use of colour and equally creative platforming and combat arenas, helped significantly by a much better control scheme than the first game. I’m so happy that I finally got around to playing the series because it is one of my all-time favourite Adventure Platformer games and stories.

Even better, there’s whispers on the wind of a third game and I really hope that happens.

  Platinum For All Other Trophies unlocked 8:25am on the 18th of December 2018

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This will be one of my more sombre entries.

Hob is the final game developed by Runic Games, a developer that has a very special place in my heart. The first game that I played from them was Torchlight, a spectacular Diablo clone that more deserves the title of “Diablo successor”. It was a beautifully constructed hack’n slash with in depth game mechanics and an excellent score by Diablo composer Matt Uelmen. It was followed up by a sequel and then Runic Games went dark until 2015, when they announced Hob.

I never played Torchlight 2, because it came out around the same time as Diablo III (more on that later) and DIII provided what I was looking for from a hack’n slash game.  But then Runic announced that they were starting a brand new IP with metroidvania elements, a wordless narrative and a beautiful art style set in a long forgotten world inhabited by friendly robots and alien creatures. I was sold from the first trailer and relayed every update to anyone who would listen.

I pre-purchased Hob on PS4 and played it the moment it was released. Even through the bugs and dreadful frame rate and multiple crashes, I was as enamored by Hob as I was hoping. It was everything it advertised and I enjoyed every second of the multiple playthroughs I did within a few weeks of it’s release.

Runic Games was shut down three months later. 

Game developers come and go. More often than not they’re mercilessly executed by the publishers they signed their rights off to. Unfortunately, Runic Games appears to be no exception to this, after their funding was cut by their Publisher, Perfect World. Their reason? They want to follow the “games as service” model that publishers like EA and Ubisoft have been using as a means to manipulate and extort players out of as much of their money as possible under the guise of “pride and accomplishment”.

I hope Perfect World is destroyed by their own hubris. They bought and subsequently collapsed one of the greatest developers to ever exist, under misguided pretense that “single player games are dying”, a message regurgitated by the world’s biggest game publishers and proved wrong time and time again by the latest biggest game releases. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – FUCK PUBLISHERS.

At least I can take solace in knowing Hob was released. I will return to Hob many times in my life, not just to experience that world again but to remind myself what you’re capable of as a developer when you love making games above all else. RIP Runic Games. Thanks for all of the joy you brought to my life.

  Make It Home unlocked 4:28am on the 20th of December 2018

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When I finished Just Cause 2, I had planned to take a break before jumping into the third game. From what I had heard of the sequel, it was more of the same but bigger and prettier. Getting the Platinum for Just Cause 2 had burned me out a bit.

Or so I thought. I had actually owned Just Cause 3 for a while, when I picked it up through PS+. Something drew me to it. I had a general idea of how well received it was, Yahtzee loved it while most other critics/reviewers had issues with the plethora of bugs that plagued the game. But I have learned that’s the great thing about playing games a long time after release.

Before I get into the game, let’s talk about something I like to call the “Play Date”, a term I just shamelessly stole from Mega64. Nowadays, with AAA games especially, games are released on a tight deadline to meet the requirements of the Publishers (fuck them) they’re tied to. More often than not, this leads to many games being initially released as incomplete and buggy messes. Sadly, this often amounts to poor initial reception and reviews of a game that, had it had a little more development time, had the potential to be a critically acclaimed release.

The saddest part of all is how many developers continue working on their game, patching it up to various degrees, until it is eventually the game they intended it to be – games like The Witcher, No Man’s Sky and even Mass Effect: Andromeda (more on all of those later). But a lot of the world doesn’t get to see that game. The initial review reception is set in stone and some of the best games out there are permanently tarnished by what amounts to knee jerk reaction.

So that’s why I much prefer to wait for the “play date”, which is generally a few months after release, so I can experience a developer’s vision as close to what they intended as possible. There are downsides of course, after all the internet is dark and full of spoilers, but it’s worth it to play a finished product. 

Throughout my entire playthrough of Just Cause 3 I could probably count the bugs I experienced on one hand. Though even if there had been more bugs I doubt it would have tempered that unadulterated FUN that Avalanche Studios so expertly infuse in their games.

Yup, Just Cause 3 was another hit. I don’t know how I could have been so burned out on 2 and yet still be so invested in 3 when it was essentially exactly as advertised – the same game but bigger and prettier. Almost all of the missions played out exactly how they did in 2 and there were maybe one or two “new” types of mission, otherwise it really was Just Cause 2 again in essence, yet I couldn’t put it down.

There were notable changes here and there, like a very slick interface – in fact it’s probably one of the best game interfaces I’ve seen. It’s unobtrusive, yet provides all the information you need at any one time, while clearing the screen of unnecessary fluff to make way for MORE EXPLOSIONS. The optional challenges were tweaked to provide a more challenging and rewarding experience in an elegant way, by utilizing the collection of reward “stars” you receive from said challenges as currency for the various upgrades you can purchase for your character. 

The few gripes I have with the game are barely worth mentioning, but I did feel like the vehicles were a bit “weightless”, especially compared to the second game. I also had my reservations about the narrative and I’m aware of how ridiculous it sounds to complain about the “narrative” of a Just Cause game so I’m not going to elaborate.

I even enjoyed the trophy list more than the previous game. I think overall I spent more time Platinum-ing it, it was hands down harder than JC2, but the time honestly flew by. The list was pretty standard, with a couple of unique exceptions like My Little Rocket Man, awarded for tethering an enemy to a gas canister with your trusty grappling hook and then launch them into the air. Completion of the entire game was required, there was nary a fuel tank or radar left on the colossal island of Medici by the time I heard that ding. Can’t wait to play Just Cause 4, on the play date of course.

 King of Medici unlocked 12:13pm on the 2nd of January 2019

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Titanfall 2 is a good game. I find it hard to say much more than that. It’s very competent. Shooting and movement feels good. The Titan sections are kinda fun but I honestly preferred the times I was out of the Titan. The story was a maybe above-average FPS story, full of bad guy shooting, elevated slightly by somewhat meaningful interactions with my AI Titan companion. Um… yeah.

Here’s the first few lines of Kotaku’s review for Titanfall 2.

“When I finished Titanfall 2’s campaign, my body felt numb. I left my apartment, walked to the street corner and bummed a cigarette. I needed to calm myself. I’d just been through an astounding experience.”

So, I totally got myself accidentally overhyped for this game. The reviews for it were pretty much universally amazing. Various gaming podcasts I listened to had people excitedly recalling anecdotes and demanding that people play it. The story was apparently the best FPS story ever. And then there’s that quote from Kotaku. 

Titanfall 2 isn’t even in my top five FPSs and I don’t play many FPSs. It really is fine, it does it’s job as a video game. It’s a good video game. It’s not much more than that though. The campaigns of Half Life, the new Wolfensteins and especially Metro (see below) are remarkable FPS campaigns with emotional weight and nuance. Titanfall 2 is about killing the bad guys.

There was one moment in the short campaign where I thought that Titanfall 2 showed a  glimpse of greatness. Anyone who has played the game will likely know the chapter “Effect and Cause”. For that brief moment I understood the hype. The unique game mechanic introduced in that chapter, coupled with exceptional level design, was the turning point for my enjoyment of Titanfall 2, or so I thought.

Here I was, silly enough to think that such a cleverly designed and extremely fun mechanic would be mine for the rest of the campaign, I started imagining what new and challenging levels awaited, I was completely invested and thought “oh now I understand, how could I have doubted this game!”… only for my hopes to be dashed when the device is destroyed at the end of the chapter. The next chapter? More shooting the bad guys.

The trophy list was a list that involved shooting a whole lot of bad guys, at various levels of difficulty and also a little bit of online shooting, but thankfully not that much. It had been a while since I’d played a hard shooting game and I was happy to confirm that it was still within my ability. Actually there was one notable trophy, …Becomes the Master, which required almost perfect mastery of the movement and shooting in a grueling 30+ second gauntlet. It was reminiscent of my time with Mirror’s Edge and I can’t ever say that’s a bad thing.

Titanfall 2 is a good game. I was just hoping it would be better.

 Mark of the Advocate unlocked 12:11am on the 25th of January 2019 

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Metro 2033 might be one of my all-time favourite games. Between Half-Life, Deus Ex and Metro 2033 I find it hard to rank them.

Metro 2033 is almost perfect in my eyes. From the very start it is a truly compelling and immersive experience. Every character you meet throughout the campaign is unique and fleshed out, every hostile environment is tense and challenging, but rewards cautious and methodical play. The interface is beautifully designed and is almost perfectly integrated with the world and the main character with very little externally given information. It’s an unforgettable experience in many ways and it has some incredible moments that stand out from an already outstanding game.

One of the most impressive things to me is how little Metro 2033 holds the player’s hand. You are thrust into Artyom’s shoes and feel his inadequacies as he is forced down a path he wasn’t prepared for. Metro 2033 makes no concessions for the unsure and if you aren’t paying attention to your surroundings or heeding the advice given by your various companions, failure is almost certain. There is no tutorial, there is no hand-holding. Metro 2033 is the definition of immersion. 

I could go on forever about this game, but it’s better to experience it yourself. Oh and make sure to play the Redux specifically, which is another prime example of the “play date” in action. 

Great trophy list, required two playthroughs of the game, one of which is to unlock the very hidden “good” ending, which essentially amounts to a non-canonical easter egg. A shame I have to talk about the sequel.

 Platinum Trophy unlocked 12:41am on the 30th of January 2019

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When it comes to game sequels I tend to have rather contentious views. It’s not often that a sequel will impress me more than the previous game, especially when I take into account that often the first game in a series is made with fewer resources but also with a more concise direction in my opinion. I doubt many game sequels were actually ever really intended to be developed until the sales of the first game justified the existence of a sequel in the eyes of those fucking publishers.

I am not sure if Rayman Legends was intended, but it is one of those rare exceptions that I consider better than the previous game in every single way. Granted it helps that they included a large chunk of Origin’s levels as a bonus campaign, remixed to fit in with the major technical updates to the Rayman formula.

I started Rayman Legends pretty much immediately after completing Origins. I didn’t expect that I would stick with it after all the time I had put into Origins. Well, two weeks later I had beaten the campaign and optional challenges. 

The difference between the design of Origins and Legends is incredible. Origins, while well designed, still felt at odds with itself in terms of balancing the fast-paced action platforming with the puzzle-oriented nature of getting high scores. Legends achieves that balance flawlessly with some key design changes. Almost every level can realistically be played perfectly on the first run-through while still being just as, if not more, challenging than Origins. The level design is exceptional. New mechanics and gimmicks are introduced seamlessly and serve to constantly maintain a fresh platforming experience.

And then there is the trophy list. It was a fairly standard affair, with the exception of a single trophy called  Truly Awesome! Which was to achieve “Awesomeness” Level 11 through a mixture of points gained from the campaign and the various randomly-generated daily and weekly challenges.

I’m going to break this trophy down in numbers in order to quantify the effort I put into the trophy that I have easily spent the most time trying to earn in any game thus far.

Awesomeness Level 11 requires 6000 points.

The Campaign, once 100% completed with all medals and challenges awards a total of 4000 points. The rest of the points must be earned through the Daily and Weekly challenges.

Daily and Weekly Challenge points are awarded based on the “Medal” you receive from each challenge.

Medals are not awarded based on predetermined values, rather they are awarded based on how you rank against the other participants of these challenges.

The bottom 10% receive no points.

The bottom 50% to 10% are awarded a Bronze medal worth 1 point.

The Top 50% to 20% are awarded a Silver Medal worth 5 points.

The Top 20% to 1% are awarded a Gold Medal worth 10 points.

The Top 1% are awarded a Platinum Medal worth 50 points.

Even then it’s not that simple, because you have to take into account all of the people who are blatantly cheating, with .1 second completion times or scores at the hexadecimal limit. So the Platinum medal was almost impossible to legitimately achieve pretty much every time.

Every day, two new challenges would be available and you would be awarded the points for the challenge you did the previous day. Every week, two more challenges would cycle, meaning I could do a maximum of 16 challenges per week.

I’m no Rayman master. I enjoyed the heck out of the campaign and barely cleared some of the harder challenges after many, many attempts. So, pitted against the online community, let alone the online community so dedicated to the game that they’re still playing it over five years after release, I barely managed a Gold medal half the time and achieved three Platinum Medals. Otherwise the majority of my medals were Silver, with a couple of shameful bronzes here and there.

I finished the Campaign 21st October 2018. I reached Awesomeness Level 11 26th February 2019, logging in almost every day. I actually enjoyed myself every single day. Rayman Legends is just that good. 

 Legendary unlocked 8:02pm on the 26th of February 2019 

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This is a tough one. 124 Platinum trophies later and I finally decided to revisit a game that was basically doomed to not live up to the unrealistic expectations the Mirror’s Edge fan base had set.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst… is fine. Even as I type this I’m not sure how I feel about it. I want to say it’s a good game. Let’s put it this way –  if Catalyst were the first game in the Mirror’s Edge series I’m pretty sure I’d say it was a great game, but I think it suffers from that same lack of direction that has plagued many other sequels in the past.

On paper it looks so good. The linear design of the first game has been replaced by an open world of rooftops that seamlessly connect multiple visually distinctive areas. But… there’s no real differentiation between the areas from a gameplay perspective, so regardless of how visually striking the areas are, they start to feel bland due to their stagnation mechanically.

The perspective of the cutscenes was changed to be mainly from first-person view, another great change from the first game. A shame the story was essentially retconned and replaced by a nebulous set of story beats, far less engaging than the original.  

And let’s talk about one of the most egregious additions, the introduction of a “skill tree”. This completely unnecessary “feature” badly stank of fuuuuuucking publisher interference. They’re the only kind of people so out of touch with their player base that they’d think arbitrarily locking core abilities of the Mirror’s Edge move set like turning 180 degrees or ROLLING should be locked behind an experience point counter that takes about half an hour to an hour to unlock, just long enough to be infuriating, especially for veterans of the series which, let’s be honest, were the majority of the people who picked this game up.

So yeah, it has issues. But I still had a great time playing it. Nothing about it really surpassed the first game, but there were a few good moments. I personally really enjoyed the combat and I thought it flowed well. The momentum-based “bullet shield” and lack of ability to wield a gun allowed for tense moments of high-pressure platforming. Dealing bonus damage when attacking enemies directly after performing a parkour maneuver allowed for some truly cinematic and entertaining combat encounters. 

Time trials made a return, though with one major change that I’m still not sure if I liked. Due to the open-world design of Catalyst, it was decided that there would be no checkpoints between the Start and Finish points of the time trials. It was a cute idea in theory, but all it really amounted to was having less direction on how to achieve the optimal path. There was obviously always still an exact path that needed to be taken in order to achieve the goal times, but that could only be found through a lot of trial and error which got frustrating. One of the levels literally required you to turn around and go the opposite direction from where you started.

The trophy list was a list. Pretty similar to the first game, though no trophies to speedrun the campaign levels. Granted they were not designed to lend themselves to speedrun, as they were more puzzle, combat and “narrative” focused.

So, closing thoughts on a game I highly anticipated, the sequel to one of my all-time favourite games, it really is fine. It does the job. Though I would have been happier if were some obvious rip-off of the original, because I don’t think it deserves the title of Mirror’s Edge successor. 

 The Few. The Elite. Unlocked 2:16am on the 27th of February 2019

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I don’t think I’ve ever had such bad initial impressions of a game then turned around on it completely by the end. Rime really is a gem. Apparently it was stuck in development hell for a few years which would explain the plethora of technical issues. It also had some pretty derivative music choices that I didn’t feel had an established identity, rather Rime was trying a bit too hard to be like the games it is clearly inspired by.

Those gripes aside, about an hour in Rime really finds its feet and provides an incredibly compelling and immersive experience. It definitely wears its inspirations on it’s sleeve and the music is a clear indication of that. But from a thematic and gameplay perspective, Rime takes inspiration from its atmospheric adventure platforming predecessors and successfully lays its own path. It deserves to be spoken of almost as highly as Journey and Ico.

The trophy list promoted a lot of optional exploration, with deviously hidden collectables and a few optional play trophies, like  Careful Steps, awarded for navigating the first chapter of the game without breaking any of the seagull eggs subtly laid out around the level. Rime has many secrets, right down to the names of the chapters. The plot unfolds in a way I was not expecting and I won’t soon forget. Rime is worth your time if you enjoy your contemplative, atmospheric puzzle platformers. 

 The end is a new beginning Unlocked 7:01pm on the 28th of February 2019

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There aren’t as many rhythm games on this list as I would like, considering I am a big fan of the genre. The main reason for this is that rhythm games tend to be very difficult, especially when it comes to the trophies they’ve been assigned. I still have three or four other rhythm games waiting for me to attempt to obtain the Platinum and I’m not sure if I will ever manage to push past the intense difficulty barriers ahead.

But then along came Thumper, which provided a nice balance of challenge while still managing to feel completely doable. Plus it is one of the coolest games I have ever played. 

Thumper is the only game I know that could be given genre classification of Rhythm Horror game. The gameplay is undeniably rhythm-based, employing the use of up to six different button inputs, though the pace at which I had to press those buttons was relatively forgiving. The main learning curve of Thumper was processing how those inputs were obfuscated.

This is where Thumper was most compelling. The visuals of Thumper are a technicolour Lovecraftian nightmare. You control a beetle-like creature as it speeds across a metallic line that sprouts the rhythmic inputs, backed by a heavy Drum & Bass OST that gets faster and more frenetic as I progressed through the game. All the while there’s a series of interdimensional horrors lurking at the end of each track. Beating each of them requires complete mastery of the prior techniques learned throughout the campaign.

The trophy list was very simple. Beat the game, then beat the game again, achieving S Rank in every level. This is where Thumper excels yet again. Unlike most other rhythm games where your end is score is based solely on how accurately you manage to press the buttons as displayed on the screen, Thumper encourages experimentation. Once I knew all the possible inputs and combinations, I soon realized that I could add inputs without being told, which would often reward me with a much higher score and some incredibly satisfying visual and aural feedback. 

This optional scoring system balanced out the initial challenge. Sections that would have been very difficult to play through “perfectly” were mitigated by adding in extra bonus input combinations that bolstered my score and allowed for a couple of mistakes here and there. That moment-to-moment, risk versus reward gameplay was what made attempting this Platinum so much fun.

Thumper is one of few games that I kept installed on my PS4 after I achieved the Platinum trophy. It will be a game I periodically return to purely because of how much fun it is. I’m a little sad that the later added New Game+ mode didn’t come with a new set of trophies.

Oh and special mention to Thumper VR! I recently visited Jess and Dave in Auckland and had the opportunity to play around with the PSVR headset. Thumper was the best possible introduction. I was amazed by how seamless the transition was to VR. I expected that I’d have to adjust to some amount of latency or some other unforeseen change that would require me to unlearn the muscle memory from the many hours I spent playing on my home monitor. What I didn’t expect was that, if anything, I was playing better than ever in VR. I have high hopes for the future of VR, based on that experience. 

 All S Rank Unlocked 10:25am on the 30th of March 2019

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After I Platinum’ed Thumper I took a bit of a break from PS4 for a couple of months. I guess after 127 Platinum trophies and countless more games started, nowadays I’m finding it harder for a PlayStation game to keep my attention. There was also the addition of Oldschool Runescape which has had my attention since November 2018. 

Trust the powers of Jess and also the Japanese to win me back. During the ‘Big In Japan’ sale, Jess gave me an early birthday present, a game called Ys VIII. Ys is a series that I’ve had my eye on for about 10 years now, but I never really had the opportunity to play mainly due to localisation issues. While I had put the series out of my mind, the games did eventually get official translations and western releases.

But before I started Ys VIII, I scoured the internet to learn about which other Ys games had been released on Playstation and I found out about Ys Origin. After learning that Ys Origin was a prequel set hundreds of years before the first game, also not wanting to start my journey in the eighth game of an episodic story, I decided my foray into the Ys games would be better starting with Origin.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Ys. All I knew from the screenshots was that it was an isometric action game with RPG elements. I didn’t expect that the game would hold my attention too long, especially when there was more Runescape to be played.

I finished Ys Origin three times in four days. The first playthrough was with the male character, Hugo. The fast-paced, ranged focused combat was immediately satisfying against the wide array of monsters throughout the six hour campaign. Each of the three new abilities I learned provided a new approach to the growing challenge the game presented and each of the 10+ bosses in the campaign were more creative and challenging than the last.

And just when I thought I had this game figured out, it got better. I had assumed that the difference between the Male and Female character selection at the start of the game was simply that – Male or Female. I did not expect that not only were they completely separate characters (who also played a narrative role in each other’s campaign story), they also had completely different fighting styles and abilities. The Female character, Yunica, was the daughter of a Knight and did not have an ounce of magical ability in her blood, favouring a battleaxe instead. I found her gameplay even more enjoyable than Hugo’s.

What really interested me was, despite having prior experience with the monsters and bosses as Hugo, it felt like a completely different game with Yunica. Bosses I had struggled with as Hugo I made short work of with Yunica, conversely some bosses that I had found relatively easy with Hugo proved to be much more of a challenge when forced into melee range with Yunica. Ys Origin really was something special. 

And it doesn’t end there! There was a super secret third playable character unlocked once I beat Hugo and Yunica’s campaign. I’m not going to spoil anything but I’ll just say that character was exactly who I was hoping it would be and recontextualised the game’s story yet again while also providing the fastest paced and most fun gameplay yet.

The writing during the ample narrative sections was excellent. Each of the main characters and the supporting cast were unique, well written and had clearly defined personalities. As someone who doesn’t really watch much anime, not only would I say I’d happily watch an anime adaptation of Ys Origin’s story, I’m actually currently watching the official anime adaptation of the very first games in the series. 

Ys Origin’s Trophy list demanded complete mastery of the game and I was completely OK with this. I finished the game with all three characters again on the hardest difficulty, Nightmare mode which I enjoyed every second of, just as much if not more than the first playthroughs. What impressed me most was that each of the bosses were buffed with mechanical differences that made them considerably more interesting to fight than if they had just received a health buff. Learning and eventually beating these bosses reminded me of when I used to raid in World of Warcraft. 

Finally, I had to apply all I had learned in Ys Origin’s hardest challenge of all – the Boss Rush. During the campaign I did have the luxury of leveling myself up higher as a means of mitigating the difficulty of the bosses on Nightmare mode (at a heavily reduced exp gain rate on Nightmare). Boss Rush removed that crutch with a predetermined level and set of gear I should have for each of the bosses. It was not forgiving with that allocation.

It took me two and a half hours, but I applied all I had learned from my six previous playthroughs over the two weeks and eventually beat the Boss Rush using Hugo. It is one of the most rewarding trophies I have obtained in a long time. 

Ys Origin revitalised me. It reminded me what I loved about gaming and reignited my passion for trophy hunting. Ys Origin is the first game that I have played in a long time in which I could clearly see the ample love and care and attention the developers paid to it. It’s the kind of game I wish I could play much more of. Hopefully the future Ys games will live up to the experience. 

 Top of the Tower Unlocked 5:08am on the 29th of May 2019

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It has been a long time since I first started Trine 2. I actually started it on PC originally, this must have been around the time when I didn’t have a PS3 available. I never finished it then and I didn’t buy it on PS3. Part of the reason why I didn’t buy it for PS3 was because I thought the trophy list was pretty lackluster. It was very common as well. It was nothing compared to how comprehensive Trine 1’s list was.

I’m glad I waited. Trine 2 was eventually re-released on PS4 along with it’s DLC expansion. The trophy list also got a much needed makeover and now closely resembled the first game. This was enough for me to consider purchasing it yet again.

I’m not sure what to think of Trine 2. Described in one word? Ambitious. It is very highly rated by critics and users. The gameplay of the three titular characters is improved in almost every way and the visuals are impressive. Yet, something about it just didn’t click with me. Not in the same way it did with Trine 1. 

Trine 1 achieved a tonal balance of feeling like a whimsical light-hearted fantasy adventure with fun platforming, entertaining combat and appropriate puzzles. Trine 2 felt as though it was trying to maintain the thematic whimsy of Trine 1, but that was at odds with the significant step up in difficulty. Most combat encounters were intense to the point of being stressful and the puzzles were simply mind bending. I was not prepared for this at all when I first played it.

I have since restarted Trine 2’s campaign three times. I completed the introductory level of the game May 7th, 2015 and, over a period of four years, I slowly pushed my way through the demanding levels. Over that time I came to appreciate the game’s vision a lot more. I slowly began to understand how it worked and how it was “meant” to be played.

I think that was the problem. I was too busy asking what the game wanted me to do, not realising that the answer was “whatever the hell you want”. Each character had a skill tree that unlocked some powerful abilities which were designed to break the game and it’s devious puzzles. Trine 2 wants you to break it’s rules and have fun doing so and once I realised this, Trine 2 was fantastic.

The revamped trophy list was demanding. It had every trophy from the PS3 list as well as the completion trophies similar to the first Trine. It was a 4+ year mission to Platinum and it’s definitely one of my proudest Platinums.

 Trine 2 Hard Unlocked 9:25pm on the 1st of June 2019

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Let’s get this out of the way first – Mass Effect: Andromeda is a perfectly adequate game. I can’t speak for how it was on release, though I did see the -extensive- patch list so I can respect that perhaps the launch was pretty shaky. Well that’s what the Play Date is there for! 

Does Mass Effect: Andromeda live up to the trilogy? No. But that was going to be very hard to do. The important thing is that Andromeda does manage to feel different to the Trilogy though. It feels as though it had been made without any knowledge of Mass Effect 2 or 3 existing. Honestly, I think that works to the game’s favour. I really enjoyed the heavier emphasis on RPG elements from the first game and lamented their removal in favour of the action-oriented gameplay of the second game. Personally I think the balance of combat and RPG in Andromeda is the best of the series.

I always thought of the Mass Effect Trilogy to be the Star Wars of this generation (before Star Wars was reintroduced to this generation). Andromeda feels more like Star Trek. The focus on exploration and discovery intrigued me and kept me interested in exploring the new galaxy. I was impressed by the narrative impact of both the friendly and unfriendly introductions to the new alien races. Would I have liked to see more than two new alien species? Yes, of course. But what we got was satisfying enough.

Though when it comes to dialogue, arguably the most important aspect of the Mass Effect series, Andromeda was the worst of the series by a significant margin. The dialogue and overall narrative wasn’t -bad-, but it didn’t feel up to par with what we know Bioware has been capable of. Still, it was better than most other dialogue driven RPGs. There was plenty of variety in the conversations of the NPCs that fleshed out the world and the setting quite well. I think where it was most noticeably lacking was with the crew members. Crew relationships didn’t feel as meaningful as they did in the previous games. 

As I explained earlier, I cannot really relate to the initial wave of people who picked up Andromeda on release. I only have a vague understanding through the lense of memes and vitriolic youtube videos about just how bad Andromeda once was. But now it is fine. It deserves to be called a Mass Effect game and it is worth a Mass Effect fan’s time to play. I seriously hope this isn’t the last we see of the franchise.

 Andromeda’s Finest Unlocked 10:27pm on the 8th of June 2019

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I don’t think I’ve ever played a turn-based RPG for over an hour, let alone actually finished one. They’ve never really been my kind of game. I guess Dragon Age is the closest comparison I can make but that series ended with an emphasis on action rather than strategy. Also, comparing Dragon Age to Divinity does a disservice to Divinity.

I love this game. Even from the first time I had a proper combat encounter and got my ass handed to me repeatedly, I was determined to continue playing Divinity: Original Sin. It took me around 20 hours of terrible, terrible failure for the game to finally click for me, though I enjoyed every minute. It’s the most I’ve had to learn in a single game. Deciphering the game mechanics, both combat and exploration, was so damn rewarding.

About a third of the way through the campaign I decided I’d start the game again, on the hardest difficulty. Brendan had prior experience with Divinity (I was playing his copy) and explained that ‘Tactician’ difficulty was the true way to play the game. Knowing Brendan’s aversion to difficulty settings that amount simply to “increased health and damage”, I trusted that the difficulty change would be a little more meaningful than most other games.

That trust was well placed. The difference between the previous “Classic” difficulty and Tactician was incredible. Every combat encounter had new enemies, every enemy had new abilities, every dungeon had some new and dangerous puzzle that needed to be solved. Death came swiftly. I’m very glad I didn’t originally play on this difficulty, because had I done so, I’d have given up half an hour in. Armed with the knowledge gained from my first playthrough, I slowly pushed my way through one of the most demanding games I have ever played, learning so much from all of my many failures.

Of all the games, I think I have to thank Trine 2 for shaping my mindset, in that Divinity is another game that challenges you to break it. Though, while Trine 2 might give you about 50 ways to break it’s levels, Divinity provides about 5,000. That’s not an exaggeration. Divinity: Original Sin has almost unlimited mechanical depth. 

All of the characters were well written and the environments in the four main areas of the game were varied and distinct from one another. The world felt organic and the story was quite enjoyable, with a nice balance of serious and tongue-in-cheek. Also, the interface translated surprisingly well to PS4, considering it was originally a PC game. 

Every combat encounter is a new, unique puzzle to solve. Most combat areas will provide enough consumable resources to mitigate the difficulty of the otherwise harrowing fights, though enemies will take advantage of some of these resources if you do not. It was essential for me to explore entire areas and plan out the order I would do the combat encounters in. Nothing respawns after being killed so there was no way to artificially reduce the difficulty by grinding exp. The sense of accomplishment after I cleared an area of its challenges was palpable.

The trophy list was… comprehensive. There were trophies for reaching specific outcomes of many of the sidequests alongside the usual RPG character progression trophies, but the one major obstacle of the entire list was awarded for finishing Divinity on the true hardest difficulty, Honor Mode. Honor Mode was the same game as Tactician Mode, with one very important difference. You have one save slot. If any of your party members die, that save slot is automatically overwritten. If all of your party members die, your save file is deleted.

It took me a month to Platinum Divinity: Original Sin. When I first started the game I hadn’t even given thought to getting the Platinum, knowing that trophy existed. I finished my playthrough of Tactician Mode 12:50am, 25th of June. 20 days later, Ding!
 Never Say Die – Finish the game on Honor Mode.

For me, completing Divinity opened the door to a whole new world of games, like Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 and, of course, Divinity: Original Sin 2. More on all of those later.

Original Sinner Unlocked 5:05am on the 14th of July 2019

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It’s been a while since PS+ has given me a good, fun, simple plat. Unfortunately, the main reason behind this is due to the PS3 and Vita games being stripped from the allotment as of March this year. This has led to a general increase in the “budget” of the now two games available each month. I have mixed thoughts about this.

On one hand, we’re losing out on four extra games a month. Even though they were intended as PS3 and Vita games, more often than not these games would have crossplay functionality. This would give us PS+ subscribers access to around four potential indie gems a month, along with a couple of middle/high budget games generally intended for PS4. PS+ is an objectively worse deal as of March 2019.

On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that PS+ is actually quite harmful to those independent developers, due to how little money they seem to receive in compensation, coupled with all those lost potential sales from the thousands of people who just got their game ostensibly for free. Housemarque is a prime example of this. The inclusion of Alienation to PS+ may have changed their entire focus as a game company. More on that, sadly, later.

Ok, I’m going to talk about the actual game now. It’s really fun! Horizon Chase Turbo is a love letter to the those old 80’s arcade racing games, namely Outrun. Aquiris Studios have lovingly recreated the classic feel of those previous games, complete with their unforgiving difficulty.

Aesthetically, Horizon Chase Turbo really stands out. Each of the areas capture that vaporwave look, backed by an excellent synthwave OST. The car models were also quite creative and the rate at which they unlocked was paced well. I was kept entertained throughout the 100+ tracks of the game almost solely through the visuals. 

The trophy list was pretty standard, requiring “Super trophy” finishes of each track in the game which involved both placing 1st while having collected all of the bonus “coins” scattered throughout each map. This culminated in the final trophy which was awarded for placing 1st in the final Endurance challenge, a tournament spanning all 109 of the game’s tracks. This trophy was actually a little scary, because if I placed below 5th place in any of those tracks, that would disqualify me from the tournament. I had a couple of 5th place scares, but eventually I beat the challenge and was awarded  Look Mom, No Hands!

Closing thoughts, I hope Aquiris Studios didn’t lose too much money from their listing on PS+. Granted I would never have played this game or even known it existed had it not been made available through the service… so… swings and roundabouts? 

Super Super Trophy Unlocked 12:43am on the 24th of July 2019

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After having extensively played Just Cause and Saints Row, I was genuinely concerned that I would be ruined for future, less crazy, open world games. While I appreciated the ambition behind older GTA games like GTA 3, the later entries like GTA 4 barely held my attention and kinda disappointed me. I had no reason to think Mafia II would be any different, yet I purchased it all the same. Yahtzee was bored to tears by it, but it otherwise received fairly positive reception.  

I’m a sucker for first impressions. If a game can impress me in it’s first hour and elegantly push me in the direction it wants to go, I’ll happily follow it. Mafia II did just that.

The opening for Mafia II kinda reminded me of Assassin’s Creed 2. Starting from his birth, the opening cutscene took a brief journey through the early childhood of the protagonist, Vito Scaletta. This led to him being arrested for a robbery in his early twenties and sent off to war, which was a clever way of implementing the combat tutorial as early as possible. That played out like a pretty standard action game, though little did I know, that was the most combat I’d see in the game for over 10 hours.

Where Mafia II really impressed me was after this tutorial, when Vito returns home to the snow covered slums of Empire City (modeled after New York) in 1945. Classic time-appropriate models of car were scattered around the area, random inhabitants of the area would call out to Vito and welcome him back amid the hustle and bustle of the slums, all of this backed by the song “Let It Snow”. I was completely immersed.

That immersion did not wane. Mafia II does a great job of incentivising the following of its rules. Supporting characters will actively encourage Vito to follow road rules when driving and will even chastise him if he exceeds the speed limit or runs a red light. This is further enforced by the Police who will attempt to stop and fine you if you’re caught breaking any of those minor rules. Taking damage in a car felt impactful, the car models were very well designed and I felt attached to my first car. I ended up keeping my original car until the end of the game. 

The story is exactly what you would expect from a game about the Mafia, filled with nefarious dealings, death and betrayal, though led by a cast of well written and acted characters. Vito is definitely in my top ten favourite game protagonists, but it’s his friend Joe Barbaro who might be my favourite supporting character ever. He provides a nice balance of comic relief while also being nuanced and flawed. Joe is the perfect character to guide both Vito and the player through Empire City.

The trophy list is very standard open-world stuff, nothing too difficult but not too easy either. There are also DLC trophies but unfortunately there does not appear to be a way to purchase the DLC separately. I am genuinely tempted to purchase the physical “Game of the Year” edition so I can access the DLC.  

Platinum Trophy Unlocked 3:28am on the 28th of July 2019

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The Last of Us may not be one of my favourite games, but it is one of the greatest games ever made. There are very few, if any games that have matched it’s ambition. 

This was the last game that I picked up from a video rental store on day one. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t all that excited about the game, that I just wanted to pick it up and play it as soon as possible so I could take part in the online discussion and get ahead of the potential spoilers.

I’m not sure that I “enjoyed” my first playthrough of The Last of Us, as much as I respected it. My first playthrough was on Hard difficulty, but this was a lot earlier on in my gaming journey, before I’d learned how to adapt to the challenges ahead. I wasn’t prepared for the many combat encounters to be designed more like a puzzle game than a shooting game.

And yet, I don’t think I’ve ever been so enthralled by a game, as evidenced by the motion sensor on Dave’s TV detecting no movement in the lounge while I was playing and automatically turning off the TV during my playthrough. Twice. I didn’t even know that was a feature until that day. I apparently didn’t move for at least four hours of my first playthrough.

There is almost nothing I can fault about The Last of Us. The acting is superb, the atmosphere is bleak and tense, yet it has its moments of levity. The story is refreshing, especially from a western developer. Joel is no hero and some of his decisions are not relatable, but his character and actions all feel appropriate to the setting. 

Though I never thought I would actually get the Platinum trophy. There are only 26 trophies in the base game, which is a very low amount for a shooting game. The first Uncharted game had 49. The Last of Us does away with a lot of “filler” trophies, I only earned one trophy during my first playthrough, not including the difficulty completing ones. 

Where the list was most intimidating was the multiplayer. Of the four multiplayer trophies, Firefly and Hunter were the ones that initially prevented me from even attempting the list. Not only did they require playing about 30 hours of matchmaking multiplayer, but there was also a chance for failure that would result in having to start the trophy requirements all over again. None of this was very appealing to me at all.

But, on June 6th 2019 Sony announced that the Uncharted and TLoU servers would be shut down in September. August 6th I earned my first multiplayer trophy. August 14th I earned  Hunter, and August 16th  I earned  Firefly. After the requisite 84 multiplayer matches, I actually had an appreciation for how well the single player mechanics of the game were translated to multiplayer. It was very well executed.

The hours spent in multiplayer also prepared me for the next hardest challenge, finishing the campaign on Survivor difficulty. I doubt I would have managed to beat Survivor difficulty back when I first played the game. It was considerably more difficult than Hard and required some major resource management. Plus there was the removal of a key feature present in the previous difficulties, “Listen mode”, which essentially allowed Joel to see through walls when enemies moved. Instead in Survivor, Listen mode was a pair of good headphones and a quiet room.

I’m very glad that I convinced myself to get those multiplayer trophies, aided by the time constraints of the impending server shutdowns. I think I would have been disappointed in myself if I missed out on the plat, especially with The Last of Us: Part II’s impending release. I had a great time playing through the campaign again and I have an even deeper appreciation for the game as a whole.

It can’t be for nothing Unlocked 1:12am on the 30th of August 2019    

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Originally I intended to play Ultimate Alliance in co-op with the flatmates. I’d heard discouraging things about the single player experience, plus it had been a while since we’d had a solid co-op outing. Unfortunately life schedules did not allow for us to keep going with that plan so I put the game aside indefinitely.    

My plans to play Ultimate Alliance were fast tracked by an invitation to a Marvel quiz night. It ended up being a Marvel Cinematic Universe quiz night so the vast wealth of information I absorbed about decades of Marvel Lore helped me answer, like, one question. But hey, it was worth it because I had a great time, both at the quiz and with Ultimate Alliance.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is half competent hack n’ slash game and half Marvel Lore Compendium. I think I spent more time reading through lore excerpts and listening to every single bit of optional dialogue in the game than I did playing the damn thing and I have no regrets about this. There is even an inbuilt trivia mini-game with 150 questions that rewarded me for my very thorough playthrough.

In terms of gameplay, the complaints about the single player experience were unfortunately quite accurate. The computer AI controlled the other three characters of the four character party and they were certainly no replacement for real people, electing to ram their heads against enemies with little to no regard for the different abilities they could use. But I made it work, because thankfully switching between the four heroes was fairly simple, so I would play each hero individually when they were most useful. This amounted to using a party of three heroes that provided buffs, and one hero that I enjoyed playing the most. That hero was, unsurprisingly, Wolverine.

Ultimate Alliance did a great job of merging hero fantasy and identity with it’s solid roster of playable characters. Each of the heroes played how I believed they should, especially as my knowledge of Marvel lore grew. The game did sometimes feel unbalanced, but I think that was unavoidable in the pursuit of recreating the abilities and advantages of the different heroes as accurately as possible. Wolverine, for example, was basically invincible with his regenerating heath and he did absurd amounts of damage. 

The trophy list was fairly involved and it required just a bit too much mindless grinding for my tastes, but overall it was a decent list. My Hard difficulty playthrough was made much more fun by the recommendations in a YouTube video I watched that informed me of the most efficient way to traverse the levels, by using Mr Fantastic and his ability to turn into a human pinball. This unexpectedly merged two of my greatest gaming pleasures, Hack n’ Slash and Marble Madness games. It was a very enjoyable playthrough that still had a few challenging moments. 

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was not a perfect game, but it was a very enjoyable one that I’m glad I finally had a reason to play. It’s an added bonus that now I can hold my own in a deep lore discussion of Marvel’s comic history.

Platinum Award Unlocked 12:30am on the 16th of September 2019 

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Due to both games being remastered at the same time and sold as a package (unfortunately they’re no longer listed for sale) I moved straight on to the next game in the series. The increase in production quality was very noticeable. As I understand, the first game was designed primarily for PS2/XBOX, the second game was made for the 360/PS3.

Ultimate Alliance 2 is a pretty fun time, like it’s predecessor. I wouldn’t say it is an improvement in every way, but overall I had a much better gameplay experience with it’s dramatically improved controls and, most importantly, computer AI. Finally I could plan a team where I knew that all of my chosen upgrades would actually be utilized within the party without the need of micromanagement.  

Though, the unfortunate trade-off for the increased production value was a dramatic cut in content compared to the first game. Instead of a giant adventure that spanned the universe, Ultimate Alliance 2 was an interpretation of the more intimate Civil War story-line, taking place almost entirely on Earth. While I did appreciate how different the roster of heroes were in comparison to the first game, there were fewer opportunities to talk with those characters and learn about their histories. 

Class balance also took the forefront of the gameplay experience this time around. Wolverine took a major hit to his survivability and didn’t feel as fun to play. Furthermore, after the first act of the campaign you’re required to pick a side of the Civil War which limits your hero picks in your first playthrough to heroes that align with your chosen side. My choice did not align with Wolverine’s so he was no longer an option.  I appreciate that this spurred me on to experiment with other characters and I eventually settled with Black Panther. 

Another issue I had with the game was to do with the storyline. Just like InFamous, my story experience was tarnished by both of the story branches being depressingly similar. Other than that though, Ultimate Alliance 2 was pretty enjoyable.

The trophy list was a vast improvement over the first game, eschewing most of the pointless grind trophies. Hard difficulty was a considerable increase in challenge, especially without the ability to pinball my way through the whole game. I did need to recruit my flatmates for one of the last trophies of the game, which involved the only optional challenge of the entire series that warned me it was “Co-op optimised”. Special thanks to Brendan, Clinton and our latest addition, Tony, for help with that trophy!

Platinum Award Unlocked 8:50pm on the 2nd of October 2019   

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It took me a long time, but I finally found a game based off one of my favourite Anime that interested me enough to finish it. 

So, I guess this is the closest I have to a Fighting game on my list. That would be because Xenoverse is far more of an RPG than it is a Fighting game. Had it been purely a fighting game, it would likely still be lying dormant in my backlog, along with Dragon Ball Budokai and Dragon Ball Fighterz… and Injustice: Gods Among Us… and… Soul Calibur 2… and… um… 

Fighting games are my final hurdle, one that I’m yet to clear. Something about them I just can’t get my head around. I don’t even know where to start to be honest. It’s such an intimidating genre to me, one that I don’t think I had the requisite experience, preferably in an arcade with pockets full of coins. It’s a quintessential gaming experience that simply passed me by. So thankfully, Xenoverse borrowed more from beat ‘em up games. Honestly it felt more like Kingdom Hearts than a traditional Fighting game. 

Xenoverse is probably the most enjoyable fan service game I’ve ever played, from the perspective of perfectly capturing that DBZ power fantasy. The story managed to infuse enough original content and justification to allow you to make your own original character and seamlessly integrate them with the classic Dragon Ball plotline, starting from the Saiyan Saga. The whole Z saga was very faithfully recreated, complete with a return of pretty much every original voice actor, most importantly Sean Schemmel and Christopher Sabat. Even if they didn’t get everyone, I can’t think of a single character that didn’t sound faithful to the original performance.

I got to relive every key fight of the series with my own original character and by the end of the game I had access to basically every technique or power that any major or minor character had used during the entire duration of Dragon Ball Z. That extraordinarily extensive list allowed me to create exactly the character I wanted to play. 

The trophy list required exactly what I detailed above, unlocking every single ability in the game. This involved 100% completion of the game, including all optional side quests and multiple summonings of the titular wish granting dragon Shenron. Getting those Dragon Balls were admittedly not very reflective of the journey involved in the TV show and instead amounted to some painfully long grinding. There were also some superfluous multiplayer trophies that I boosted with the help of James. Overall it was a really great time and I’m looking forward to eventually moving on to the sequel.

If You Show Me Your Courage Unlocked 4:24pm on the 4th of October 2019   

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7:30pm on the 15th of May 2012 I sat at my makeshift desk in my room with enough snacks and junk food to last me a week, in front of my recently upgraded computer. It took just shy of an hour of the infamous “Error 37” roadblock but I eventually managed to log in and start playing a game I had been anticipating since January 22nd, 2010 when the world got their first look at a game that had been widely considered as vapourware until that day.

I played through the night and until late the next day. I continued playing an absurd amount of Diablo III for another three weeks, and would periodically return to it as it was faithfully and frequently updated to meet the rabid demand of its giant playerbase.

I think I’ve noticed something about my tolerance for widely anticipated or “hyped” video games. The three big games that came in the last decade with enormous expectations were, as I recall, Diablo III, Mass Effect: Andromeda and No Man’s Sky (more on that soon I hope!). The one connective tissue of those three games was the backlash, outrage and vitriol because they didn’t live up to the impossibly high expectations the players imposed on those games.

I think I’m immune to hype, in a way. Don’t get me wrong, I was beyond excited for the release of Diablo III as well as the other two games, but unlike a large portion of the player base, I was actually so damn satisfied with what we got in Diablo III. Was it Diablo II? No, of course it wasn’t. Nor should it have been. Making an iterative sequel is a safe bet that you’ll please your playerbase I’m sure, but I appreciated how Diablo III revolutionised it’s own formula. It stood on it’s own as an exceptionally well crafted Hack n’ Slash. 

I appreciate and respect intent. Diablo III was created with so much good intent. And I knew this was just the beginning. I actually stopped playing as much because I didn’t want to be burned out by the time they inevitably released the big Lord of Destruction-caliber shakeup expansion that Blizzard has been so adept at releasing in the past. They did not disappoint. Not only did we get Reaper of Souls, but we got it on PS4.

Having been so satisfied with the original product, it’s hard to put into words what I think of the game now, especially since it’s a completely different game in many ways. Do I think it’s an improvement over the original? Absolutely. Do I think all the changes have been good ones? No, but there’s nothing that bothers me too much. Overall Diablo III is an incredible gaming experience and Reaper of Souls has brought almost limitless replay value to the game. This is one of the few games I will return to well after having got the Platinum trophy for it. 

Diablo III is the source of many of my gaming memories, playing the Seasons with Dylan on PC and then later with Brendan on PS4 were amazing journeys, always on the perma-death mode Hardcore of course. 

Diablo III is one of the few games that feel right to balance the reward of character progression and loot acquisition with the constantly looming threat of losing everything with one bad mistake.  

Diablo III is possibly the ultimate power fantasy video game. My strongest character to date was a Crusader. He started off doing damage in increments of 10 to 100 and by the end of his journey that damage had reached 10 to 100 million through lucky gear drops and strategic build choices. 

Diablo III was, is and always will be one of my all time favourite video games.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Platinum Trophy Unlocked 1:53am on the 12th of October 2019 

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After I finished Ys: Origin I had planned to wait a while before I started on Ys VIII, mainly because I didn’t want my opinion of the game to be coloured by the experience I had with Origin. I soon realised that was going to be harder than I thought, since Ys: Origin has proven to be an unforgettable experience. Plus, I really wanted to see more of what the Ys series had to offer.

About half an hour in, any concerns that Ys VIII wouldn’t live up to it’s previous entry were allayed. Ys VIII is a different game to Origin in many ways, but it still has that clear Ys identity, with fast paced combat and familiar sound effects and enemies. This time though, the game was designed in a far less linear fashion, with a multitude of well written and voice acted main and side characters that I fell in love with.

The story really engrossed me for the majority of Ys VIII which was set on a mysterious “deserted island”. The pacing of finding and introducing castaways to the ever expanding encampment that served as the main hub of the game was really well done. Both playable and non-playable characters had a lot of attention paid to their individual aesthetic and personality. I really enjoyed learning about the histories of those characters and improving my friendship with them. Also, I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t mention that this is the most Bara game I have ever played, which added exponentially to its charm.  

Jess informed me that Ys VIII was originally developed for the Vita and later ported to the PS4. Though from what I understand, the PS4 version is far more than a port and actually added about 25% more content to the game, focusing around the titular character Dana. Ys VIII was essentially split into two parts, shown through significant leaps back and forward in time.

I’m really happy I got to play the PS4 version because all of those added Dana bits were easily my favourite parts of the entire game. Those sections were most reminiscent of the tightly tuned, challenge-focused design of Ys: Origin and I’d have loved to play an entire game revolving around that content.

Near the end of the game I felt as though the story did devolve into some really heavy JPRG rigmarole. The stakes of the plot increased at a rate that I found a little overwhelming and I kinda lost interest in it a little bit. I appreciated the earlier. more intimate, character driven moments rather than the overarching plot as it progressed in the late game.

The trophy list was just as comprehensive as I’ve come to expect from JRPGs and required me to fight every monster, fish every fish, make every character love me the most and collect every single unique item in the entire game. At no point did I find that boring or tedious. Ys VIII was consistently entertaining from a gameplay perspective and offered just enough character/item optimization.

There was only one thing about the late/end game that did disappoint me somewhat, through no real fault of the game. It’s a rather large spoiler though, so I won’t get into it here. Regardless, I’m very thankful to Jess that she finally gave me the chance to experience the Ys series. Here’s to Ys XI, may it be localised as soon as possible. Or maybe I’ll just have to learn Japanese…

 Adventurer Extraordinaire Unlocked 4:09am on the 22nd of October 2019    

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I kept a close eye on Hyper Light Drifter when it’s kickstarter was announced. By the time it had released on PC I had already transitioned to PS4, though I was still fairly tempted to pick it up. But I waited and hoped that it would eventually make its way to console. July 26th, 2016  that day came and I purchased it on day one.

Hyper Light Drifter is probably the game that I am happiest I spent full price on, because the lead developer Alex Preston deserves my money. Throughout the 15-20 hours I spent playing and completing it I did not encounter a single issue with the game. No bugs, no disappointment, just pure enjoyment.

The way Hyper Light Drifter starts is incredibly compelling. The plot slowly unfolds through wordless narrative that is left up to interpretation, with the use of gorgeous pixel art, backed by an astounding OST by Disasterpiece. That combined aesthetic establishes a bleak and almost hopeless atmosphere, with a glimpse of optimism. Basically, it’s the best ‘Samurai Jack’ game that never was. 

The gameplay was airtight, as was the design of the enemies. Every encounter was tense and satisfying. The bosses were especially well designed. Combat had an intelligent sense of rhythm to it.

As much as I love this game, there really isn’t much more to say about it. Hyper Light Drifter excels in its simplicity. It does not overstay its welcome and it achieves exactly what it sets out to do, perfectly. The trophy list was one of the shortest lists I’ve seen that still awarded Platinum trophy. It was a list that got pretty intense, with one of the rarest trophies being appropriately titled Masochist which required beating the game on New Game+.

Unlike NG+ modes in most other games where you’re likely to get an easier experience due to keeping your previous character progression for a second playthrough, Hyper Light Drifter goes the opposite route and forces your character to wear a piece of equipment that reduces their health to two segments, instead of the usual five. Coupling this with a decent chunk of enemies and all the bosses having the tendency to do up to 2 damage with a single attack, this made for an intense three hour playthrough.

I’ll continue to keep a close eye on what Alex Preston and Heart Machine have planned for us next. He has announced another game, Solar Ash Kingdom, for PC due March, 2020. This time I may not be able to wait for port. So more on that, maybe, one day.

Platinum Unlocked 4:35am on the 24th of October 2019

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I was pretty excited for this game. I had a great time with the first Dishonored and I especially enjoyed the DLC which managed to really expand the lore of the world and introduce some creative new gameplay elements. I wasn’t really expecting a sequel to the game though, so it was a pleasant surprise seeing Dishonored 2 announced so soon, at E3 2015. 

I purchased it day one, and, well, I kinda wish I hadn’t. Dishonored 2 is fine. It’s adequate. It’s a game that I guess has to exist, in today’s gaming climate. It is a very safe sequel that only iterates on it’s previous material, both aesthetically and mechanically. This was especially noticeable because Dishonored 2 was released on an entire console generation above the first Dishonored, yet that jump in potential was barely noticeable.

Dishonored 2 is not a bad game, there’s nothing I can really say is worse than the first game. It’s just a bit unnecessary. Anything that was in Dishonored 2 could just have easily been more DLC for the first game. The option to play as one of two well known characters from the Dishonored story was a great idea in theory, but like many games that attempt to provide “narrative choice”, it ended up being a shallow and unnecessary inclusion that basically did not affect the outcome of the story or gameplay at all.

There were some genuinely great moments though. One of the better things Dishonored 2 did was lean hard into it’s steampunk/fantasy setting and that led to some moments of incredibly creative level design unlike anything I’ve seen in another game. Those moments, few as they were, did make the experience worth it. Though, again, it would have been just as good to have those as separate DLC for the first game.

One of the worst things Dishonored 2 did was in it’s marketing, in which it released a “gameplay teaser” that ended up showing the entirety of one of it’s best levels. Then when I finally got to play the game I found out that mission was situated near the end of the campaign. It introduced a gameplay element not too dissimilar to the mechanic I enjoyed all too briefly in Titanfall 2, which was also doomed to the same fate. First of all, I don’t understand how you could think it was a good idea to give away the entire premise of a late-game mission months before release, and also, developers – can you please stop introducing one of the coolest game mechanics ever made and then steal it from us after one level? 

Actually, there is something Dishonored 2 did worse than the first game. It’s trophy list. For the most part, it was the same list, with the glaring exception of one trophy, Flesh and Steel. This trophy is similar to one from the first game. However, instead of allowing you to use Blink, the key feature that the first game was designed around, this time you weren’t allowed to use any powers at all. Not only did this result in a boring and frustrating playthrough of the game that boiled the campaign down to feeling like a generic first person shooter, it also showcased just how bland most of the level design was, in that the entire game was easily able to be navigated without the use of a single power. 

Dishonored 2 was just a bit of a disappointment. I think it was released far too soon. I believe it had a lot of potential to be a really good sequel, but ultimately I feel as though it amounted to a standalone DLC that charged full price. Oh and they’ve since actually released a standalone DLC for the game, complete with it’s own Platinum trophy and this time I’ll be waiting for a special, so, more on that one day.

DUNWALL DAYS AND KARNACA NIGHTS Unlocked 9:35pm on the 24th of October 2019

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Unlike Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, I never played this one back on PS2. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this game. Nothing about it sounded particularly enticing to me, but I was willing to give it a shot, at the very least so I could hope to understand the story better.

I am really glad I got the chance to play this game. Chain of Memories is more than just a spinoff of the series, more accurately it should be called Kingdom Hearts 1.5. Knowing what I know of the story from Kingdom Hearts 2 and how lost I was for the entire prologue, it was very satisfying to have Chain of Memories fill in all of those story gaps. I genuinely enjoyed the story of Chain of Memories. It was a great balance of JRPG whimsey and compelling character development.

The biggest surprise was the combat. That was my main concern coming into the game. All I knew was that it involved cards and deck building. This was immediately off putting to me because I was imagining some perverse combination of Kingdom Hearts and Magic the Gathering. Thankfully, it was nothing like that. The deck building system ended up being a really interesting combat mechanic. Each card is assigned with a familiar Kingdom Hearts combat ability and unlike most card-based games I’ve seen, the deck isn’t ever randomized. It essentially allows you to “program” your combat encounters.

The trophy list was just as involved as I have come to expect from a Kingdom Hearts game and it took me a long time to get through. There were a couple of nasty grinds, but nothing too awful. Next up, Kingdom Hearts 2 – more on that hopefully soon.

Chain of Memories Master Unlocked 1:12am on the 25th of October 2019

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Years after I played Sly Cooper, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and, of course, Ratchet & Clank, I finally got around to getting the Jak & Daxter Platinum trophy. Some would say I saved the best until last.

I did originally play and finish this one back on the PS2, because I think it’s impossible to be friends with Jess and not have played Jak & Daxter at some point. I’d watched Jess speedrun the game many times, while expertly reciting every line of dialogue along with the cutscenes, in multiple languages. Maybe those memories have coloured my opinion of the game for the better, but I feel pretty confident in saying it’s the best mascot platformer of the PS2 era.

Out of all the major mascot platformers out there I think Jak & Daxter is the most mature of them, and that’s not even counting it’s much darker sequel. Jak & Daxter has a great sense of humor that never goes overboard, along with some genuinely lovable characters. The level design is exceptional, with some really varied environments and well paced objectives. The campaign is relatively short but it has very little filler.

I feel kinda bad that I don’t have much more to say about the game really. I guess because, in essence, it’s a mascot platformer like many I’ve played before. But I do think it is the best one overall. It’s the kind of mascot platformer that can only be made by devs who ultimately go on to make masterpieces like The Last of Us, and so they did. Though, I’ll have more to say about the rather divisive sequel. More on that one day.

Top of the Heap Unlocked 9:50pm on the 31st of October 2019

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Well, this one has been a very long time coming. Honestly, I’m surprised that I even managed it in the first place. So uh, unpopular opinion time. I don’t think Skyrim is all that good. At least, not compared to the other Elder Scrolls games.

Obviously, Skyrim isn’t a bad game. I think it would be very hard to justify saying that it was. It has universally received some of the highest review scores ever and it has been re-released on almost every possible platform it could be. It looks gorgeous, especially with the latest release on the new consoles. The controls are responsive and it’s not even that buggy nowadays either, which is a massive improvement over it’s initial release.

There’s just something kinda sterile about the whole experience. The older Elder Scrolls games thrived on their offbeat and quirky moments, alongside a wealth of choices for how to build your character. Skyrim is just missing that strong personality and it’s definitely lacking in character customization and identity compared to the previous games. Plus the key narrative mechanic of Skyrim, the dragons, just ended up feeling like a nuisance about 20 hours into the 130+ hours I spent playing the damn game. If the reaction a player has when they see a DRAGON appear in your game isn’t terror or awe, but annoyance and exasperation, you’ve designed your game badly.

The trophy list was very extensive and required completion of the majority of the quest content in the game, which took a very long time and only further highlighted how repetitive the game was. There wasn’t that much grinding, just a lot of walking/fast travelling back and forth resolving mostly uninteresting storylines. I think it’s worth mentioning that after 130 hours I doubt many games would be able to prevent feeling stale and repetitive. This might be my fourth or fifth game on this list that I spent over 100 hours playing, so I guess that has to count for something.

Platinum Trophy Unlocked 3:31am on the 1st of November 2019

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I was a bit concerned coming into the third entry of the Trine franchise. The reception for it was considerably more negative than the very positive reviews the previous two entries received. I gotta say, personally, I think the critics got it wrong. Trine 3 is a joy.

I really respect Frozenbyte and the Trine series. Each of the three games have tried to do something completely unique. The first game felt more like an RPG, with it’s swappable equipment unlocks. The second game focused much more on the puzzles. Trine 3 is more like an Action/Platformer with puzzle elements, but by far it’s biggest departure of all three games is with one major mechanical change – Trine 3 is fully 3D.

As a result of this dramatic change, Trine 3 has been simplified mechanically. A lot of the extra abilities the three characters had the previous games have either been completely removed, or limited in their functionality. Personally, I don’t have an issue with this. As much as I enjoyed the intricacies of the gameplay in the previous two games, Trine 3 had me immediately hooked on it’s action-focused gameplay and the myriad of simple yet creative puzzles throughout it’s short runtime.  

One of the best additions to the series were optional “flashback” stages where you play as only one of the three characters. It was a fun way of learning the various capabilities of each role, as each level was a structured challenge. It was a nice change of pace from the usual experimentation/exploitation that the rest of the game encouraged. 

The trophy list was unfortunately a bit lacklustre, and as a result, it is the most commonly achieved Platinum trophy of the three games, including the original release of Trine 2. Though at least the list still had trophies for finishing the game and getting all of the collectables. I would say one of the major contributing factors to the Platinum being so much more common is due to the quality of life improvement that aided in finding those collectables. When replaying levels, you are now able to jump straight to any checkpoint and you’re given a very handy checklist of how many collectables have been obtained at each checkpoint. I really hope they have carried this feature over to the sequel, which I intend to play some time soon. 

Icing the Cake Unlocked 11:27pm on the 5th of November 2019

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I picked this up through one of the rare Playstation Humble Bundles, along with a bunch of other games. Innerspace looked interesting, though I could already tell this was going to be another one of those games that really shouldn’t have gotten a Platinum trophy. I can confirm that is definitely the case.

Innerspace isn’t much of a game to be honest. There’s hardly any conflict or failure condition and it has a story that is intentionally vague but not at all compelling. The gameplay involved some rudimentary flying and mainly involved scouring kinda bland environments for collectables. 

Honestly I had more difficulty (and a hell of a lot more fun) with Flower or Journey than I did with this game. Their trophies were much better too. Innerspace shouldn’t have gotten a Platinum and I probably shouldn’t have bothered going for it, but I guess I was kinda hoping the game would actually get interesting at some point. It didn’t.

Cartographer Unlocked 6:32pm on the 14th of November 2019

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Oh dear, another game that is generally considered the better game of their respective franchise that, yet again, I didn’t think was all that good. Yeah, I didn’t really like Last Light…

I think I would have enjoyed Last Light a lot more if I hadn’t already played 2033. As it stands, Last Light only really served to highlight what made 2033 so good. 2033 was an organic journey with gameplay in the survival shooter genre. Last Light is a survival shooter clip show.

Throughout the campaign I played through pretty much every survival shooter “cliche” in a sequence that was inorganically bookmarked by big scripted set pieces and mandatory boss fights, along with a forced love interest. It just didn’t feel like a sequel to 2033 at all. The main story conflict heavily involved a macguffin and primarily revolved around human enemy encounters. It was like Metro meets Call of Duty. 

The trophy list was a list, though it had some annoying trophies that involved completing some optional “DLC” chapters that had no real connection to the main story. It was just more “Call of Metro”. It’s times like these that I wonder how a game like Metro 2033 got made in the first place, when the sequel missed the mark so heavily on what made 2033 so amazing. 

I feel as though I need to address something in my last few entries – over half of them have been negative. Unfortunately, I think that is the result of the number of games I have played. It’s safe to say that if I haven’t Platinum’ed an old game 147 Platinums in, it’s either because it’s difficult, or because I didn’t like it that much. Dishonored 2, Innerspace, Skyrim and Last Light fall in that latter category. In the future, I think I’ll be a little more discerning about what ends up on this list. The third game in the series has been released and I’m not sure if I’m actually going to play it yet.

Platinum Trophy Unlocked 10:27am on the 15th of November 2019

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I started playing Far Cry 2 and I’m very unlikely to finish it, but I appreciate it’s focus on realism and how completely different it was from the first game. It seems as though, at least for the first three games, the Far Cry series isn’t meant as a continuing narrative, but instead as an overarching theme of an increasingly nonlinear survival shooting structure. Far Cry 3 is the culmination of this design process, as is evident by the clear lack of innovation on the future games in the series. More on that maybe later?

I don’t know if I should be disappointed or impressed that a game released in 2012 is still the benchmark for open world game systems. But on the other hand, I struggle to think of how those systems could be improved. Everything from the interactive world map to the varied world traversal methods and creatively hidden side objectives were so elegant in their design. Combat was fluid and satisfying, and even when it started to get a little stale, new mechanics were introduced that provided more creativity in approaching the various settlements that enemies occupied.

And… um… I don’t really have anything more to say? I really liked this game when I first played it, but now that I’ve played so many other games that really are just “Far Cry 3 with “insert gimmick here” the formula has gotten a little stale to me I guess. Now that that I’ve played games like Just Cause and learned how fun a game can be when the developer just lets loose and creates a game that’s entirely their vision, Far Cry 3 feels a little bit too processed, a little too “factory standard”. It was a fun game with a good story and a decent trophy list, but I’ve played too many differently skinned Far Cry 3’s for it to really leave a lasting impression on me.

Mastered the Jungle Unlocked 12:13am on the 23rd of November 2019

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Dead Space is probably the closest I have to a Horror game on this list. Though, it’s more like “Baby’s First Horror”. Some argue that it’s just an action game with horror elements. I would say that if you play Dead Space in a dark room on Hard Difficulty, it’s straight up horror.

Regardless, Dead Space is awesome. I first played this game a long time ago at an old friend Theo’s place in my hometown of Whakatane, on his XBOX 360. Back then it seriously put me out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed cautiously exploring the zombie/alien infested corridors of the USG Ishimura. I was completely sucked in by it’s dark and oppressive atmosphere and was caught out more than a few times by the deviously placed jump scares throughout the first chapter I played.

It took me a few years to come back to it, this time on PC accompanied by a good friend and one of our longest standing flatmates, James. Fueled by the company of James and copious amounts of alcohol, we eventually finished the campaign together. 

A few months later I was ready to approach the game again, by myself and this time on PS3. I finished the campaign alone over two days, aided by the fresh memories of playing through with James. I only played through on Normal difficulty and I found that it was much less scary as a result. But there was a trophy to finish the game on the hardest difficulty, Impossible.

It took me over an hour to get past the first chapter on Impossible difficulty. By the end of the chapter I had no ammo, no health kits and no money. I remember frantically beating a necromorph to death with my fists, with half a bar of health remaining. Impossible sure was living up to the name.

Even though I now knew every jump scare and came to understand that the “horror” of Dead Space wasn’t really that psychological and was more akin to a cheesy 90’s pulpy horror movie, the significant difficulty jump to Impossible made everything that much scarier. Knowing I could die in one or two hits if I made the slightest mistake really accentuated the horror elements of Dead Space. Eventually the pressure got to me, some time around Chapter 10. I only had 2 chapters left to go, but I’d reached my limit for the tension and stress.

Over four years and a half later, 27th of November 2019, I achieved One Gun for finishing the Dead Space campaign using only one weapon. I figured this would be a good way to prepare myself for the challenges ahead that I had long since forgotten about in my dormant Impossible save file. I returned to Impossible and laughed out loud at the manner in which I had supposedly played through the campaign. I had apparently hoarded as many upgrade points as possible, at the detriment to my un-upgraded health and weapons. I’m not sure what my intention was four and a half years ago, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was masochism. 

A day later I finished Dead Space for the last time and after a few grindy trophies I achieved another Platinum trophy that I wasn’t sure I’d ever manage to get. I’m not sure what my next horror game will be. Maybe it will be Dead Space 2. More on that later?

Concodrance Officer Unlocked 11:54pm on the 28th of November 2019

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Back when I didn’t have access to a console, the only thing I could play games on was an ancient laptop. It was a poorly treated thing that used to blue screen twice a day and it struggled to play anything made after the year 2000. I guess this is why I eventually decided to give the Trackmania series a go, since it was one of the only games on Steam that would run on my computer at the time. Oh and best of all, it was completely free.

While Mirror’s Edge was the first game to get me interested in trophy hunting, Trackmania Nations Forever was the first game I played that I actively sought to improve my completion times. I loved the creative track design and asynchronous racing format that meant I didn’t have to worry about other racers, and instead focus simply on the track itself. 

I have Trackmania to thank for introducing me to the trial and error mindset, and how rewarding that can be once I took the time to learn every intricacy of a track and perform the perfect lap. Without the gradual conditioning of the first Trackmania game I ever played, I may not have found the resolve to persist through Mirror’s Edge.

Eventually I purchased the premium version of the game and almost immediately regretted that purchase. The “upgraded” game introduced three new vehicle types and their corresponding tilesets, but I couldn’t stand driving any of them except the original free vehicle. Maybe it was just because I was so used to that original car, or maybe the other cars controlled like oily bricks on ice. It was definitely the latter.

I finished all of the tracks available to me in the free version of the game and then I even played a decent amount of the multiplayer, in which the majority of the tracks were made by players using the game’s very robust and user friendly track creation option. Eventually I moved on from Trackmania, mainly because of my transition to playstation games, but I would play it periodically with various family members whenever I made my intended annual trips back to Whakatane.

Many years later, Trackmania: Turbo was released for PS4. I have to admit I was initially not as keen to pick it up because, similar to Unite, Turbo advertised four different types of car. I was worried I’d encounter the same issues that I had with Unite so I decided to hold off purchasing the game. It wasn’t until Trackmania: Turbo became available on PS+ that I’d finally give it a go.

It turns out my fears were completely unfounded. I loved all four of the different cars almost equally. The canyon car excelled at drifting, but without sacrificing handling and was very satisfying to drive. The Valley car felt completely different and transformed the game into an off-road rally game while still maintaining the classic Trackmania track creativity. The Lagoon car was probably my favourite of the lot, with absurdly tight turning capability and speed potential on a track layout that often consisted of an exhilarating anti-gravity rollercoaster design. The last car was, of course, old faithful – the Stadium car. It controlled exactly how I remembered from the very first Trackmania I played, but with even more creative tracks.

On the subject of the tracks, THERE ARE 200. Every single track felt unique and they ramped up in difficulty fast. I was determined to get that Platinum Trophy though. If I did, it would be the most rare Platinum I have achieved in years, ranking at 0.6% on PSNprofiles. This is for good reason, because Trackmania: Turbo gets HARD.

4th of April 2018 at 3:50 a.m I achieved my first Gold medal and the forebodingly named trophy 1 down, 199 to go. By the 9th of April I had beaten the White, Green, Blue and Red track series which consisted of 160 tracks and moved on to the final track series, Black. On the 10th of May I had barely achieved Canyon Black Clear for reaching the finish line on the 10 of the final 40 tracks. But Trackmania: Turbo did not consider that to be sufficient to unlock the next tracks. No, in order to do that, I’d have to achieve the Gold time on all previous tracks, including the 10 Canyon Black tracks I just struggled through.

On October 2019 I finally unlocked the Black Valley tracks. It took me over a year of sporadic play, sometimes playing for hours a day for a week straight, sometimes giving up for months at a time, before I’d finally progress in Trackmania: Turbo. The last 40 tracks were absurdly difficult and required almost perfect control of each of the cars. If they had controlled anything like how the cars did in Unite, I’d have given up a long time ago. But Trackmania: Turbo’s cars were so much damn fun and the tracks were so incredibly well designed, that even through the frustration and hopelessness, I had fun every second that I played through those tracks.   

Though, once I hit the Valley Black Tracks, I hit one hell of a wall. Spurred on by my success in the canyon, I played for hours a day, learning these new tracks, each one more difficult than the last and attempted to achieve that coveted Gold time. It was around my fourth hour on, as I later learned, the infamous 178th track that my resolve started to fail.

I was so damn close to that Platinum trophy, yet so fucking far. 178 broke me. Sitting in my room invariably failing the extremely specific turns and jumps over and over and over and over again, accompanied by nothing but the dissenting voices in my own head,  I gave up. I had no intention of going back to that game. I loved Trackmania: Turbo but I couldn’t bring myself to attempt that track anymore. 

14th of October 2019 I had finished writing up my Diablo III entry and showed my good friend Rei. The conversation shifted to what games I was playing, in which I divulged my fruitless attempts in Trackmania. Rei suggested that I stream it for her and I figured there’d be no harm in trying, because I really needed some vindication that the track was just stupidly difficult as I thought it was. Little did I know, this conversation was the catalyst to my achieving the Trackmania: Turbo Platinum trophy.

That night I started up the Stream and Rei kept me company for over three hours. An hour and a half in, out of nowhere, we were joined by England’s best Trackmania player. Rei and Legionn provided some great encouragement and tips, and later that night, I beat 178.

After that greatly successful night, I streamed most of my progression going forward. The earlier Lagoon tracks were so simple compared to the later Valley tracks, so I only streamed the latter ones which I beat in a few days, once again accompanied by Rei. 

The Stadium tracks were practically relaxing by the end. The final track of the game was a short, technical sprint to the finish. In some ways I’d call it anticlimactic. I had no idea how difficult 178 was in comparison to the other tracks. Over the next two months I came to learn that it was the hardest track by far. Once that hurdle was cleared, it was a straight climb to the end. 22nd of October I beat every Lagoon track. 26th of October I achieved Ghost Buster for beating the hidden and super challenging Green medal times on 50 tracks. 29th of November I achieved Gold on every Stadium track, followed by a long awaited DING.   

Trackmaster Unlocked 7:41pm on the 29th of November 2019

 

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I’m 30 now. I’ve been playing games passionately for over 25 years. Almost 12 of those years have been on Playstation. Of my 150 Platinum trophies so far, I’d say I’m very happy with the vast majority of them. There aren’t many that I felt I achieved purely because I wanted the trophy, but because I wanted to complete a journey and tell a story.  I want to maintain that feeling. I want to only play games that I genuinely enjoy, and not get caught up in the numbers game. 

I’m going to be a lot more discerning about what Platinums I go for in the future, which also means that I’m going to be a lot less “picky” about which games I play. There are some games I elected to not play simply because they had some multiplayer trophies. That will no longer be a factor in my choices. If the game makes an impact on me, regardless of the feasibility of the Platinum trophy, I’ll find some way to talk about it on here. Each entry will still by numbered by Platinum, otherwise it will go into the honourable mentions later on.

This retrospective has been a direct result of the immense love and passion I have for the art form that is gaming. There’s so many more games to play and I’m more excited than ever to play them. To those who have read this far, I want to say thank you. I hope you got something out of reading through my journey as a gamer. 

 

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I did not expect Styx to get a sequel, so that was a pleasant surprise. The reviews for it were pretty positive, but at this point I’m kinda wary about stealth game sequels (see:  Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2) so I waited for a special… and yeah I’d say Shards of Darkness regressed from it’s previous game. 

It’s fine. I have no real complaints, it’s basically more Styx, but there was something missing from the sequel. The levels were more linear, the enemies were less intimidating due to now having a set of new powers that didn’t seem to have the challenges balanced around them. The story and dialogue were just as terrible, so yet again I played through the game in complete silence. But even that wasn’t enough to invoke the tension I got from the first game.

The trophy list was a similar fare to the first game, with the usual tracking of various completion conditions. It was fun enough to learn the layouts of maps and beat each level without being spotted or killing anyone. It wasn’t a bad game and I guess I don’t really know what I was expecting. It was more Styx, for better or worse.

Gobelin Master unlocked 2:30 a.m on the 6th of October 2020

 

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I find myself in EB games and JB Hifi quite often trawling through the many preowned PS3 and PS4 games on sale. Though, my last few outings I’ve left empty handed, maybe on account of the 161 games I’ve completed and over 400 that I’ve owned already. But my outing in the afternoon of the 2nd of October 2020 was more productive than usual, with the purchase of a game that wasn’t even on my backlog, but I’d heard very positive murmurings of in the past, Velocity 2X.

I didn’t really know anything about the game other than it was a 2D platformer with some ship flying segments. I also deduced that the “2X” in the title may indicate it was a sequel. Me being me, I endeavoured to find the first game in the series first.

And so I returned to the trusty PS3 to purchase another game on the 14 year old console, Velocity Ultra.

I started the game at around 11:15 that night and finished my session at 4:33 the next morning after getting the A Perfect 10 trophy, awarded for beating the 10th level in the game with a “Perfect” rating.  

Velocity Ultra is awesome. It scratched exactly the itch that I had from wanting to replay Hotline Miami, of all things. While it was very different aesthetically, looking more like a galaga remake, the gameplay was this great balance of twitch-based shooting and puzzle elements in a series of progressively complicated stages in an auto-scrolling environment. One of the more interesting features was that you’re given the ability to speed up that auto-scroll at will.

I returned to the game a couple of days later and finished the campaign in another four hours of play. Following that was an intense evening of achieving a ‘Perfect’ rating on all 50 stages. I knocked off some of the more obscure trophies in a pretty well done trophy list and platinumed one of my favourite video game experiences in a while.

Show Thumb Respect unlocked 2:53 a.m on the 6th of October 2020

 

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I tend to be overly critical of sequels, especially if I play the game directly after the first one. I got my first trophy, High Flier for getting my first ‘Perfect’ rating on October 6th, 2:58am, 4 minutes and 38 seconds after I achieved the platinum trophy for Velocity Ultra. Here were my initial thoughts about Velocity 2X, directly after platinuming the previous game.

2X is FAST. Velocity Ultra was pretty fast paced, you’d hope so from a game called ‘Velocity’. 2X base scroll speed is as fast as the optional ‘fast’ scroll speed of the first game. With an added optional speed, which makes it even faster again. The devs found their audience and knew that they could push them to their limits this time around.

2X is pretty. They managed to keep the retro art style of the first game but really glamour it up. Going immediately to the second game gave me such an appreciation for all the little details that they added to the original assets to really make it look like the PS4 game it deserved to be.

2X is… ambitious. Maybe a little overly so. As I mentioned at the start of the Ultra review, I was aware that Velocity 2X had platforming sections. Ultra did not, and at no point did I lament their absence because the game was already substantial. 2X did indeed add fairly seamless 2D platforming sections to the majority of the stages. The platforming is… serviceable. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed everything about 2X, but I will say I enjoyed the platforming sections the least. They felt a little too spread thin, design-wise. 

2X is hard. Velocity Ultra had 50 stages that I perfected in effectively two days of play. 2X took me about two weeks. The later stages, which thankfully were purely ship based, introduced a ‘mirror’ mechanic, where you controlled two ships that you controlled individually. And these weren’t actually mirrored inputs, there were some absolutely cruel situations where you had to purposefully offset one ship from another in order to achieve certain mission-critical goals. The last stage took me about six or seven hours to beat.

Overall, 2X was excellent. It improved over the first game in pretty much every way. Sure the platforming sections were a little cumbersome at times, but it didn’t detract from a very fun experience. It is one of the platinums I’m proudest to have on this list. Though I’m not done with it yet… because there is still DLC, which is nigh impossible.

Yipee Kai Yay unlocked 10:22 p.m on the 17th of October 2020

 

164

This is a game that I have returned to a few times now. It isn’t normally my sort of thing but I wanted to give it a good try. Ether One is ostensibly a point-and-click adventure game built in the Unreal 4 engine. It is quite relaxing but it has a pretty compelling story that kept me interested, even if the gameplay was a bit foreign to me. Previous point-and-click games experience includes the first, maybe, 10 minutes of Myst, although I did finish the Myst dev’s latest game, Obduction, with an old friend of mine on PC. It is now on PS4, so more on that later maybe?

Ether One was on PS+ back in May 2015 which is why I own it. I don’t think I’d ever have purchased this game of my own accord. I got the first unmissable trophy for it on the 7th of May 2015 and then got my first optional trophy Clever Clogs on the 28th of August 2015, assisted by the aforementioned old friend, Rueban, almost a year before we’d play Obduction together. Rueban and I reached the same point in the story that I reached solo before we gave up.

January 2021 I booted up Ether One again, older and wiser, and on the 27th at 2:03pm I got my second optional trophy Smarty Pants. I finished Ether One at 4:27pm. 

Honestly I’m not sure what really changed over those six years that made me so much more receptive to Ether One’s style of puzzle, but something really clicked this time around. And, while I will admit I consulted a guide for a couple of the more obtuse puzzles, I beat the base campaign with very little external help. Things just fell into place. I think the puzzles were pretty great. I was rarely frustrated, the solutions were logical and often quite elegant. It was a rewarding game to beat, with a pretty cool story and presentation.

Validation unlocked 7:12 p.m on the 27th of January 2021

 

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I bought this with the intention of playing a good ol’ 3D mascot platformer collectathon and… it delivered kinda?

Fe is ok. It could have been better. I feel like it was trying to be the fun and addictive gameplay of the big mascot platformers, but also be a more artistically presented game like Rime or Ico. Fe is no Jak or Ratchet & Clank, or Rime or Ico. It is a middle budget platformer with a serviceable art style and simplistic platforming and stealth-focused combat.

It was no Innerspace or anything, It was compelling at points and the trophy list was actually fairly enjoyable to work through. Some of the collectables required some cool level breaking platforming in order to find, so I appreciated that.

I don’t regret playing it, I think it was a nice change of pace from my previous games and there were certainly some memorable moments. 6/10, wouldn’t play again.

Sustain Forest Love unlocked 1:56 p.m on the 28th of January 2021

 

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So, um, before we talk about Rise of the Tomb Raider, we need to talk about Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider: Underworld and also Tomb Raider. Confused? Good.

The latest Tomb Raider entry on here is Tomb Raider: Legends which I really enjoyed. I moved on to Anniversary soon afterward and it was also pretty good, but I just wasn’t really in the mood for it. Legends had given me my fill of Tomb Raider. Next in the list would have been Tomb Raider: Underworld, which is actually one of the first games I had ever played on PS3. I obtained one trophy for that game back on the 10th of December 2009, and that is likely to be the only trophy that I ever obtain for it. Oh and special mention to the ‘Lara Croft’ games, more on that later.

On the 21st of November 2019, I finally got around to starting ‘Tomb Raider’, the first game in the latest Tomb Raider reboot. I’d heard many things about this game over the years, like “it’s Uncharted with tits” or “it’s just a big boring movie” and other fairly reductive criticisms. I’m a little ashamed to admit that one of the main reasons I didn’t play it earlier was because it had pretty horrible multiplayer trophies that would have taken about 40 to 50 hours of boosting in order to get the platinum trophy. But as I said after #150, platinum hunting is not my main goal anymore, what is my goal is playing interesting and compelling games, regardless of their platinum viability.

So this is my opportunity to sneak my ‘Tomb Raider’ entry in here, because I never did platinum it, nor do I ever intend to. I obtained the majority of the single player trophies, including No Stone Left Unturned for obtaining all of the collectibles and Inconceivable! for beating all of the challenges, 2 weeks and 1 day after I started the game. So yeah, it’s safe to say I really enjoyed ‘Tomb Raider’.

I was immersed in ‘Tomb Raider’ from the very beginning. The gameplay was fun, the atmosphere was excellent and the ambient sound design was some of the best I’ve experienced in a game. The plot established this new Lara as a fleshed out character who becomes increasingly independent in a really organic way. The supporting characters were well written. Some of the action set pieces were actually fantastic, the burning village escape around the midpoint of the game is one of the more engaging interactive set pieces I’ve seen in a game.

After I beat it, I held off on playing the sequel for a little while. Because I’d heard such mixed reviews about the first game, which I disagree with the vast majority of criticism for, I had also heard that the sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, was much better.

I started Rise of the Tomb Raider on the 11th of February 2020 and finished it three months later. It was a good game, I wouldn’t say otherwise. For the most part it plays exactly how the first one does, with a few improvements that could only come from having a bigger budget. I appreciated that. What I didn’t appreciate was the regression of Lara’s character.

The first game established Lara as a character who grows and adapts to her surroundings and finds her own motivation. Sure, she’s following in the steps of her father, but she made her own discoveries and learned truths that her father never knew. “Surely,” I thought, “the next game will be all about her forging her own journey and ‘Rising’ as the Tomb Raider we know and love.” 

Nope. It’s about daddy again.

It just felt a bit lazy, honestly. Rise could have had such a good story that built off the foundation of the first game, but not only did it not feel like Lara from the first game, it felt like an even younger and more inexperienced Lara than that. Plus the supporting cast, both friendly and otherwise, just weren’t as strong as the first game in my opinion.

Otherwise it was a fun game. The set pieces were decent, though none of them were more memorable than the aforementioned village escape from the previous game. I can say this pretty confidently since I have now played through every major section of Rise of the Tomb Raider at least twice, some upwards of ten times, due to some trophy requirements I’m still not sure how I feel about.

Instead of multiplayer trophies, Rise of the Tomb Raider has ‘score attack’ trophies, where I was required to play through every major section of the game as efficiently as possible. This is a fine idea in theory, I mean, I’ve played many games on this list that had speedrun requirements for trophies. But for Rise it just felt a bit antithetical to the whole design of the game. Rise is a pretty non-linear game that features multiple environments that encourage patience and exploration. These trophies required me to forgo that, and construct very specific and linear routes. I had to play through these wide open areas with tunnel vision, focusing only on the, rather out of place, shiny blue floating orbs that now occupied every level which now existed to increase score multiplier. A score multiplier that would completely drop off if not increased within about ten seconds.

I’m not sure how much fun I had doing all that. Now, I could have simply just not done it, and left those trophies unobtained like I did with the first game, but I managed to get some amount of enjoyment out of it by streaming a lot of the process with my trusty pal and Tomb Raider aficionado, the one and only, Rei. So there was that at least. 

In short, Rise of the Tomb Raider was good, but I’m glad I got to play and then talk about the first game because I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it. Next up, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which has had a pretty mixed reception. More on that later.

Platinum unlocked 8:45 p.m on the 25th of February 2021

 

167

Well, it’s been ten games since I’ve played a Metroidvania, time to play another!

Jess has been trying to get me to play Axiom Verge for years now. The purchase of the game was somewhat inadvertently funded by her, when she assisted the purchase of another game, ‘.hack//G.U.’, more on that later,  the $12 I had left over was exactly the amount that Axiom Verge was on special for. So thanks Jess!

Axiom Verge is excellent. True metroidvania goodness and it certainly wears it’s Super Metroid inspiration on it’s sleeve. There’s not much else to say about it that I haven’t said about other metroidvania’s, because it is certainly that but done very well. The remote teleport upgrade was a cool concept that I took a little too long getting my head around, thanks to Jess for helping me out there. The art style was great, the gameplay was very solid and the bosses were entertaining.

The trophy list was relatively demanding, but I managed to achieve all three alternate play trophies, Overclocked, Low% and Mostly Invincible for beating the game in under 4:00:00, only obtaining up to 39% of the total available items and not dying once, in my second playthrough. This took around two and a half hours, in the company of Stuart, the new man in my life. It was a fun afternoon of planning my route and executing it. After that was the standard metroidvania trophy fare of “collect all the things”. Great game, looking forward to the sequel, more on that one day!

PatternMind unlocked 8:52 p.m on the 25th of February 2021 

 

168

 

This has been a kinda long time coming. I’ve been eyeing up the Hitman franchise for a while now. A stealth game series with the focus on disguise and deception sounded like a lot of fun. From what I understood though, the games have been pretty hit and miss. After having briefly tried the first game years ago on PC, I can see what people mean by that.

The Hitman series appears to be a passion project of some ambitious developers whose ambition did not quite match their budget or ability, at least at first. The first game is an overcomplicated mess that didn’t even get ported out of PC. Considering a console controller doesn’t have nearly enough buttons to incorporate the countless keybinds of the first game, I can see why. I didn’t even finish the first level before I gave up on it.

I briefly considered playing the sequel, Silent Assassin, because I did want to at least get to try Blood Money at some point, as that is the game that is pretty widely considered to be the best Hitman game. After playing the first one, I thought, that’s not really saying much…

Eventually an HD release of three early Hitman games, rather conspicuously forgoing the first game, came to PS3. Eventually I picked it up and decided to give the series another try with the second game, Silent Assassin, this time aided by the lure of a platinum trophy… to similar effect to the first game. I made it to the third level this time though! The game was still a clunky and unreliable mess. NPCs would randomly see through disguises, which is a bit of a problem when disguises are, you know, the whole key element of the game. The gameplay and combat was unresponsive and messy. 

I first attempted it on the 18th of July 2015 where I was awarded 1st Kill, for, well, killing someone. Followed by Killed the wrong guy for killing someone innocent, six seconds later. The last trophy I got was in October for beating the first level. Unfortunately, three months was still not enough time to endear me to this fundamentally flawed game. So that was that. The Hitman franchise was just not for me.

26th of February, 2021 I decided I’d just give Blood Money one look, see if it really did live up to all the hype. I finished the campaign about a week later. Blood Money is superb.

This kinda reminded me of the progression of the Splinter Cell games, although at least their first two entries were playable. But Blood Money, in comparison to the previous entries, is a completely different game in all of the best ways. It is the developers vision of a Hitman game immaculately brought to life. In some ways, I like it more than Chaos Theory. 

Blood Money was just fun. The whole concept of disguise and deception was fully realised in nine unique levels, starting in an abandoned theatre and ending in the fucking White House. The escalation of the story was perfect and the levels were large and deviously challenging. The voice acting and writing of even the most minor character in the world had so much effort put into it, and I am so impressed with whatever witchcraft they used to make some of those levels run on PS2, especially the Mardi Gras level which featured literally hundreds of different people parading through the streets of New Orleans. 

The trophy list was challenging, but also quite lenient. Of the nine available levels, only five of them needed to be done with the Silent Assassin rating, which was only awarded if you beat a level by killing your Primary targets and no one else, the kill of which has to, either, never be discovered or made to look like an accident. You can’t ever be identified as anything other than what you’re disguised as, and you have to finish the level in the suit you started with. It was a challenging set of criteria that required a lot of planning and a bit of trial and error, especially on the hardest difficulty.

Hitman: Blood Money is filled with so many cool details, like the post-mission briefing formatted in the style of a newspaper, where the key words about the various levels will change based on your performance. It was little touches like that, that made me just fall in love with the game after the first hour. Next up, Hitman: Absolution. More on that later maybe?

Perfect Assassin unlocked 11:50 p.m on the 14th of March 2021

 

 

169

“Umm, Zero?” 

“What now.” 

“Can I go find a bush? I need to pee.”

Those are the first words you will hear when you start up Drakengard 3, even before the title sequence. What follows is a haunting melody and various scenes that showcase a woman with a flower instead of a right eye, and a dragon. The woman’s name is Zero. The dragon is the one who needed to pee.

So, Drakengard 3 is made by Yoko Taro. If you’ve played Nier, this will become quite evident as you play it. Yoko Taro’s game signature is about as unique as Suda51’s, but Yoko Taro’s games are also very fun to play. Sick burn, sorry Suda.

Drakengard 3 is a trip. It is as funny as it is tragic as it is raunchy. Definitely the horniest game I’ve played in my life, far more so than something like Saints Row, and unlike Saints Row which is constantly taking the piss out of itself, Drakengard 3 is played completely straight-faced even as you’re hearing the 50th euphemism for genitalia spew from the mouth of the quirky and kinky supporting cast of the game. It’s kinda fucking brilliant.

Drakengard plays pretty differently to Nier, it is a more linear experience. It’s almost like Yoko Taro’s take on Bayonetta, complete with having nasty performance issues on PS3. But it was worth it to push through the rough frame rate, because it was a consistently entertaining game that never got boring.

Getting the platinum for it was quite a chore though. I think this is officially the biggest grind I’ve done for a platinum now. I’m actually quite surprised at how common the platinum is, but I guess most people who bought this game knew what they were buying into. Even simply finishing the game requires a grind that took tens of hours. Oh, and, on the subject of finishing the game, Drakengard 3 has one of the coolest final boss fights I’ve ever seen, or more importantly, listened to. The very sudden gameplay switch won’t be for everyone, it was certainly for me.

I hope Drakengard 3 gets a remake one day, in the vein of Nier’s recent re-release. I’d happily play it again. Let’s send this off with a quote from the quirkiest and kinkiest supporting character of them all, Octa.

“I wish my lady would open her pleasure barn to me while her dolls were watching.”

Coda 1:27 a.m unlocked on the 15th of March 2021

 

 

SUPER HOT SUPER HOT SUPER HOT 

SUPER Trophy Hunter HOT 2:09 a.m SUPER 15th March HOT 2021 SUPER

 

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I don’t think I have ever purchased a game for a more superficial reason than when I purchased Wildfire. I was scrolling through the games that were on sale at the time, and the thumbnail caught my eye. I took a cursory glance at the trailer and purchased it immediately, with no prior knowledge of its existence. I’m very glad I did, because Wildfire is now one of my all-time favourite games.

At first I thought it was going to be a charming pixel art 2D platformer, which tends to be a persistent gaming itch I need scratched. What I didn’t expect was for Wildfire to be one of the best stealth games I’ve ever played. After Mark of the Ninja I didn’t think I’d ever play a 2D stealth game that was going to impress me, without just copying Mark of the Ninja. I was wrong. Wildfire is an entirely unique experience to the stealth genre, due to a focus on an oft-overlooked or underdeveloped stealth mechanic: Distraction.

Where most stealth games are primarily based around sneaking and avoiding detection, Wildfire plays best in the complete opposite environment. Wildfire quickly lives up to its title by giving you the ability to set things on fire. It is then strongly incentivized that, instead of slowly sneaking past various enemies like your usual stealth games, you can set everything around you on fire and scare your enemies away. Instead of being silent and subtle, Wildfire told me to make as much noise and chaos as possible. This was so much fun.

Wildfire was a lot of fun solo, but what I didn’t expect was how much more fun it would be co-op. Alongside the usual array of stealth game trophies, there was one to finish the game in co-op. I could have just done this by setting up another controller and manually finishing the game again but I decided this would be a good way to get acquainted with our new flatmate Tim. We finished the game together over a very entertaining afternoon of setting everything, including each other, on fire a lot. It was an experience that only improved my opinion of the game. 

I’m so glad the thumbnail caught my eye, there’s a good chance I’d have never heard about the game otherwise. I’ll definitely be keeping a lookout for what Sneaky Bastards develops next. 

Your Spirit Will Fly unlocked 9:10 p.m on the 28th of March 2021 

 

172

It has been a while since I was able to relive a past gaming experience in HD, though I have to admit I’d already done that with Psychonauts when it was released on PC years ago. So this playthrough on PS4 marks possibly the fourth or fifth time I’ve played through Psychonauts now. It’s still just as great as the first time.

Psychonauts is actually one of the first games I ever finished, back when I was about 15 and got my hands on PS2. I don’t remember how I even learned about the game, though I want to say that Jess introduced me to it. What I do remember, and what I think remains the case even today, is that Psychonauts is possibly the funniest game ever written.

This isn’t too surprising when you know that Psychonauts was created by Tim Schaefer and Double Fine, who have been making very funny games for decades now. But Psychonauts was quite a mechanical departure from their previous games which were mostly point & click adventure games. Psychonauts is essentially a collectathon platformer, and a really good collectathon platformer, which is then enhanced by its entirely unique and quirky atmosphere. It has some of the most memorable gaming moments, mention the word “Milkman” to anyone who’s played Psychonauts and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

The trophy list was what you would expect from a collectathon and I really enjoyed replaying the game, especially in its original intended difficulty since the PS4 game is the emulated PS2 version and not the PC version which had the difficulty of it’s final areas “tweaked”. But the best thing about the trophy list was all of the easter eggs it promoted, and led to a bunch of dialogue I would have missed had I not known about the very specific actions that led to those trophies.

There really is nothing like Psychonauts, even today. It’s hilarious but it never strays into parody and it obeys its own absurd universe the whole way. Better yet, a sequel was successfully kickstarted and has since been released to pretty much universal praise. More on that later.

Brainiac unlocked 12:00 a.m on the 28th of May 2021 

 

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I’ve talked about playing games alongside various friends in quite a few entries now, but Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is the first game on this list that I would not have finished without those friends.

It took a couple of attempts to find the team I’d finish it with though. I first started Lovers back in April 2017 with Alex and Brendan. We played a few levels but didn’t get too far that night. We reconvened in October, accompanied by Clinton this time. A fourth person made all the difference and we successfully beat the first boss and also got the optional Trophy Fight With Care, Bear for not getting hit by his main attack. Despite that success, that would be the last time that we’d play Lovers for almost four years. 

On the 12th of March 2021, Jess and Dave, having moved back to Wellington a few months prior, came over to their old flat for a good ol’ game night. Joined by Clinton, It was time to revisit Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. 

The difference in our organization as a team was immediately noticeable. Back in 2017 there was a sort of chaos around who would fill each role on the ship. Each of us were uncertain and fluctuating between the use of the Engines, Shields and Weapons. But Jess, Dave, Clinton and myself just sorta fell into our roles so naturally. I helmed the engine, Jess controlled the shields and Dave and Clinton quickly found an efficient method for use of the four surrounding weapons. We beat the first and second boss that night, complete with the second boss’s optional trophy Underwater Expedition for killing it in a specific manner.

We continued our Loving onslaught on the 27th of May, beating the third boss and obtaining the optional boss kill trophy SPF 1000 and less than an hour and a half later we had collected every optional thing and killed the final boss. We weren’t done yet though, we agreed to reconvene and finish the game with 100% completion, hopefully so we could all obtain the Platinum trophy together.

I worked through the other optional trophies alone over the next couple of days and that was definitely an inferior experience to playing with my friends. Though it gave me a chance to try out the other ships, one of which would have been an absolute nightmare multiplayer, since its gimmick was that when it rotated, the entire ship rotated, which meant that if you turned it 180 degrees, up was now down, left was now right. This worked quite well for single player though, because of the AI companion (who is an adorable and cute doggy) who I could command to man a gun turret and I could use the engines to point at the targets I wanted it to shoot.

On the 3rd of June Jess and Dave returned and, with Clinton, we knocked out the remaining trophies. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get our platinums concurrently, due to one trophy that required a single player playthrough for each person and a general lack of time due to how long it took us to complete it. Though, since then, Jess has obtained her Platinum too.

I really need more games like Lovers in my life. I think it’s almost the perfect co-op experience and I hope other developers manage to see what makes it so good. The light hearted tone and simple yet in depth gameplay was a perfect mixture for many entertaining nights with my friends.

Master of Spacetime unlocked 9:11 p.m on the 3rd of June 2021 

 

174

I’m so glad that I finally get to talk about Dragon’s Crown. Mirroring the previous entry, Dragon’s Crown is another game that I doubt I would have Platinum’ed without the help of friends. But unlike Lovers, Dragon’s Crown was a journey I realised I had to finish alone. 

I learned about Dragon’s Crown soon after I started my job and subsequently my hunt for multiplayer games to play with my new workmates. From what I gathered, it looked like a really fun 4 player 2D beat-em-up that would be great to get drunk and jam with the buds for an hour or so. During a brief fling with one of those workmates, he was kind enough to purchase Dragon’s Crown for me.

The next available night I got those workmates together to indulge in a drunken night of gaming and I popped Dragon’s Crown in the PS3. I handed around the controllers and we picked our characters. That was when I had my first realization about the actual quality of this game. The art style is absolutely phenomenal. Even through my drunken haze I realised that we were about to embark on an adventure that I wouldn’t fully appreciate until a later day. But the revelations didn’t stop there.

Once we selected our characters and ignored all of the various tutorials, we eventually found our way into the first dungeon of the game and about an hour later we emerged on the other side of the dungeon after many deaths, all of us thoroughly confused by the onslaught of systems and mechanics presented in the dungeon. We were rewarded with a loot screen that displayed a series of weapons and armours each with multiple stats and various options for identification or sale. It slowly dawned on me. Dragon’s Crown wasn’t some casual 2D beat’em’up. Hiding under the surface of this game was the complexity rivaling a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

 

That was the first and last time I underestimated Dragon’s Crown. The next time we were all more sober. I warned them about the journey that was ahead. We approached the game with  caution. We read each of the many tutorials and even that wasn’t enough for us to truly grasp how complex this game was. We made our way through the dungeon more knowledgeable than last time, but not much further than that. But we played enough to know that if Dragon’s Crown was going to be beaten, it would have to be fully committed to. 

About two months later, on Monday the 2nd of February 2015, Brendan, Jess, Dave and myself made that exact commitment. We would play Dragon’s Crown every Monday night until we beat it, or it beat us.

I stepped into the Dragon’s Crown world for the third time, accompanied by my flatmates. Brendan was the Tank of the group, Jess and Dave were the two casters, Necromancer and Wizard, and I was the Amazon. We talked about our respective roles and made sure we fully understood each tutorial. We asked each other questions, we planned strategies, we beat the first dungeon without much trouble. Over that night we proceeded to beat the second and third and fourth dungeons as well. 

Dragon’s Crown is something truly special. It was a game that demanded our full attention at all times. The learning curve was very steep, but also very rewarding. Jess and Dave still have memories of myriad challenges we faced, navigating the trap filled rooms and finding the elusive hidden treasures. I remember when we first discovered runes, and the discussions about the “rune meta” for each dungeon that followed. We all remember how gorgeous the art was throughout the entire game. Each of the characters were drawn in such a compelling way, with a particular body feature greatly exaggerated. One particularly notable feature was also the reason that Dave named his character “Titties”.

In fact, the art was so good, that Dragon’s Crown was the first game I think we were all genuinely excited about unlocking concept art for. After each quest we completed, we’d receive some experience and money or something, but we’d also receive new concept art that came with accompanying lore. We just gawked at almost every piece of art we unlocked for at least a minute each. There was a particular concept art featuring owlbears that was so adorable, Brendan felt bad every time we had to kill them after that.

Our journey through Dragon’s Crown took place almost every Monday from that day forward. The next week we finished the night on a major story milestone. Two weeks later, on the 23rd of February at 7:02pm is when I think we truly reached the heart of the game. In one night, we successfully completed a consecutive run of all nine dungeons in the game without returning to town. This meant managing a series of different equipment loadouts, otherwise our gear would have broken three or four dungeons in, and gear was only able to be repaired in town. It also meant we had to be conservative in our use of potions and even skills, all of which were finite resources. Once we completed that run, we returned to town to manage the loot and as Dave recalls it, “we spent 20 minutes of post-boss mathematics where we all became amateur accountants.” 

We achieved access to the Final Boss (on the first difficulty) an hour later.

The encounter took us two weeks to prepare for. We tried and failed to kill it. The titular Dragon was not giving up his crown easily. We returned to the dungeon loop and built our characters to better prepare for the fight. On the 16th of March at 7.08pm we’d proved our further knowledge of the game by mastering the post-dungeon cooking event, another brilliant layer of complexity. At 8:10pm that night, Brendan, Jess, Dave and myself beat Dragon’s Crown for the first time, over a month after we started. We beat the Dragon on Hard on the 11th of May. We completed the hardest difficulty of Dragon’s Crown together, at 8pm on the 22nd of June 2015 and further secured that victory 1 hour and 45 minutes later when we beat the post-game content and the secret true final boss.

There were still quite a few trophies to obtain, but that seemed like a good place to call it a day for Dragon’s Crown, for the time being. A couple of months later, Jess and Dave moved to Auckland. Five years later, they came back and we proved how little had changed by coming together to beat Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime. Dragon’s Crown remained untouched. 

The next trophy I got in Dragon’s Crown was on the 2nd of June 2021, though I had actually returned to it a couple of days prior. We were making great Lovers progress and so I started looking into how viable it would be to get the old team back together and beat those final trophies. This wasn’t the first time I’d looked at this. I’d gazed wistfully at those remaining trophies at least once a month since we stopped playing. The bitter realization was that if we were going to achieve those remaining goals with all four people, it probably would have taken us twice as long as it did to beat the game in the first place. The remaining trophies were… gruelling. The most gruelling of which was to kill the Dragon on the hardest difficulty in under four minutes. 

So on the 30th of May 2021, I played Dragon’s Crown again for the first time in almost six years. I returned to my Amazon and took the day to get reacquainted with her. I judged my previous character building decisions and ended up re-specing her entirely. I attempted and failed the speed kill achievement repeatedly. But I was determined to get the Platinum trophy for this game. 

On the 3rd of June 2021, a few hours before Jess and Dave were coming over to complete Lovers, I finished some absurd amount of consecutive dungeon clears, armed with NINE different equipment loadouts. I had put more thought into maximising my character than I had put into any other game prior. I had to platinum Dragon’s Crown. I sifted through the lists of loot and tried to put together the strongest dragon-bane loadout I could. Still, every attempt ended in failure, sometimes by mere seconds. I trawled through forums, read wikis, changed my skills loadout back to a similar setup to what I had originally, still no success. Jess and Dave arrived as I failed yet again.

We beat Lovers, I got the Platinum trophy. We said our goodbyes and I decided I’d try one more time. After that, I didn’t know if I’d bother. I realised I had previously set up a Dragon kill on Hard difficulty. I did a casual kill of that, because it gave pretty good loot. The kill dropped a weapon. Some good stats… and +35% damage to Dragons. My previous was +20%. This was it, I was done with Dragon’s Crown, one way or another.

I started the Infernal difficulty encounter. The Dragon was slain, encounter time 00:03:52. Ding! The Destroyer. I Platinumed Dragon’s Crown.

I loved every second of playing Dragon’s Crown. I loved the complexity, I loved the art, I loved playing with my friends, I loved the way the Amazon played, spinning through the air like a murderous beyblade. I loved the constant challenge. I loved it all. Thank you Atlas and Vanillaware, you made a masterpiece. 

Dragon’s Crown unlocked 1:24 a.m on the 4th of June 2021 

 

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Well, this certainly was more Shantae! 

Sequin Land Hero unlocked 10:11pm on the 10th of June 2021

No but seriously. It is a fun series of games and I enjoyed this one just as much as the previous ones. They’ve found their formula and it works great. See you in the next one.

 

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Just Shapes and Beats had been on my radar pretty much since release. I came very close to purchasing it back when it was only on PC but I never got around to it. I kept hearing about how good it was and I just hoped that it would eventually make its way to PS4. It turns out that it came out on PS4 the same day as PC and for some reason that had completely passed me by. 

Over two years later, when I finally realised my error, I immediately purchased it and promptly completed it 24 hours and 2 minutes after I bought it. Just Shapes and Beats is exactly my kind of game and I wish there was so much more of it.

“Rhythm TouHou” is the best way to describe this game. Two genres that could not be more my taste. The gameplay was snappy, the graphics and presentation were exactly what they needed to be and the entire story mode did, in fact, feature solely Shapes as well as Beats. Really good Beats. Beats that I have listened to multiple times outside of the game (special mention to Barracuda by Noisestorm).

I had a fun few hours blasting through the campaign and then a not-quite-as-good several more hours working through the fairly grindy and repetitive tasks needed to get the trophies, but the tasks were ostensibly to just play the game over and over again so it wasn’t that bad. I’m very happy I got the chance to play Just Shapes and Beats, it was exactly what I was hoping it would be. 

No rocks unturned unlocked 10:40 p.m on the 11th of June 2021 

 

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Gravity Rush 2 is the Gravity Rush I knew and loved, but more. It was hard to think how the first game could have been improved on, aside from just being more, and here it is.

There isn’t too much more to say. It looks considerably nicer than the first game, now running natively on PS4. it’s impressively large, with not only a brand new city to explore, but also the original city in its entirety. The gameplay is improved in every respect and everything about the game seems designed with the singular goal of ensuring the player has as much fun as possible. The gravity manipulation mechanic has been explored in every angle, so to speak, and every possible good idea has been put into the game somewhere. It was the definitive Gravity Rush game.

Ultimate Shifter unlocked 6:17 p.m on the 21st of September 2021 

 

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When I played Supergiant’s previous games Bastion and Transistor I was a little disappointed about how similar they were in terms of gameplay. This is not a criticism I have of Pyre. Not only is Pyre very different to their previous games, it is also very different to any other game on this list.

Out of my 178+ platinum’ed games and possibly even out of my 428 played games, I don’t think a single one of those are either Sports or Visual Novel/Dating Sim genre. Pyre is all of those.

Pyre is awesome. Beautifully animated, as is now expected from Supergiant, alongside another fantastic OST and very well crafted gameplay that does share the mechanical foundation of their previous games, but this time it is presented in such a unique and compelling way. Pyre plays in two very distinct modes that compliment each other flawlessly. 

Though, what I think is most impressive about this game is that there is a very real possibility that you will not meet two people who have had the same story experience playing Pyre. This is because Pyre’s story has over 20,000 ending variations.

Pyre is all about making hard choices and living with those choices. To me, it was intended as a narrative experience where failure was not just an option, but would sometimes even improve the experience. Unlike most games where if you lost a match you’d be expected to reload and try again, Pyre would move forward regardless of a win or loss and the whole story would change based on each outcome. One of my most memorable moments in the game was a result of me losing a pivotal match. At the time, I thought it had the potential to jeopardize a trophy that would have required another full playthrough to get. Regardless, I was so compelled by the narrative impact of the loss, that in itself was worth it.

The narrative impact of loss is completely unavoidable in Pyre. Even if you win every match, you’ll still be forced to make very hard decisions periodically, decisions that will not just affect the narrative, but the entire play style you think you’ve become comfortable with. It really is a special experience. It achieves a tone of melancholy that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in another game before. Supergiant Games does it yet again. Next up, their latest game, Hades. More on that some time soon…

Heard of the Scribes unlocked 11:05 p.m on the 29th of September 2021 

 

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I was checking out a bargain bin in EB Games and Dex was one of the only games in the bin that I’d never played, or even heard of. It was advertised as a “Cyberpunk RPG” in 2D. I think the last time I’d played a game in the Cyberpunk RPG genre was Mankind Divided, which didn’t exactly scratch that itch as well as I was hoping, so I figured there was no harm in trying it.

Dex stayed in my backlog for a few months, then after one particularly gruelling raid night in WoW (fuck you Painsmith) I decided I needed a bit of a palate cleanser before bed, so I installed Dex and planned to play half an hour or so of it before bed. Well, it ended up being closer to two hours and I had a hard time pulling myself away from it. I finished it in two days.

Dex is another kickstarter venture and I’m very happy it succeeded, and kinda sad that I had never heard of it before. It is a tonal mixture of Deus Ex and Fallout, with a very well animated 2D Cyberpunk world reminiscent of the original Deus Ex, alongside a perfectly dark sense of humour infused throughout it’s world. Some of the themes it tackled, especially in the side quests, were completely unique to anything else I’d encountered in a game like this, one standout side-mission dealt with celebrity obsession and identity theft in a really graceful way. Sex trafficking, black market organ selling and the journey of an idealised homeless man are just a few of the many other really well written and compelling ideas in Dex.

 

The gameplay is about as good as I could expect from a 2D kickstarted action platformer. It wasn’t exactly the main attraction of the game, it could just have easily been a point and click game, though I’d probably have been less inclined to play it in that case. The platforming and combat were serviceable and the “hacking” mini-game was a great bit of twin-stick shooter fun.

The trophy list was exactly what I would want for a game like this, and ensured that I didn’t miss out on a single side quest. It wasn’t really a grind at all and I had a blast the entire time. It thoroughly scratched my Cyberpunk itch, so at least now I don’t have to think about 2077 (more on that maybe one day if it’s ever worth playing). On the other hand, it’s not going to stop me from buying Stray as soon as I know the playdate.

Dex unlocked 4:45 p.m on the 1st of October 2021 

 

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I loved Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It is the best Tomb Raider game I have played. And it has given me a lot to think about not only the state of the series, but the state of gaming and it’s constant mutation.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider starts off similarly to Rise, with a big action setpiece teaser and then a jump back in time to establish that teaser. To be fair, I enjoyed Rise’s intro level. It was a well paced delve into a tomb, exactly the kind of thing you want from a tomb raider game. But Shadow’s intro was exceptional. It promptly revealed Lara’s post-rise character and immediately I got the sense that this was a character who had learned and grown from her previous adventures. The scene starts off in Mexico, on the night of Dia de los Muertos which was absolutely gorgeous to look at in HDR. It was a truly immersive experience walking through the festival crowds and interacting with the optional NPCs, all of whom spoke their native language and had something interesting to say. Shadow of the Tomb Raider made an excellent first impression.

After not too long, Lara is faced against her usual enemy and the way she responds to this threat is such a contrast from the previous game. Lara actually felt as though she had some agency. Not long after that, she is faced with the first tomb of the game which was a joy to navigate and solve the puzzles for. But it was when she reached her goal in the tomb that the story developed in a way that engaged me completely. 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider feels like an appropriate deconstruction of Lara’s character. The supporting cast and villain are actually interesting and developed well throughout the game. The playable environments are bursting with personality and filled with well rendered flora and fauna appropriate to their areas. The layout of these areas is just the right balance of linearity, promoting ample exploration before moving on in the story. 

The gameplay is an improvement over the previous games in every way. Lara feels better to control and has a unique new arsenal that bolsters both her stealth and action based abilities. I consider Shadow of the Tomb Raider to be an essentially flawless Tomb Raider experience.

Though, I think part of what bolstered the experience for me was the inclusion of a difficulty (and accompanying trophy) called Deadly Obsession. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has a lot of difficulty settings, in fact it allows you to customize the difficulty of every facet of the game  individually, whenever you choose. Or, you can play on Deadly Obsession, where every difficulty option is permanently locked at max. Oh and there’s no autosaving outside of the campfires littered sparsely across the map. This led to an experience that I had forgotten how much I missed from games.

Which also brings me to want to add my two cents on the hot button topic of game difficulty.

Back in the 80’s, in the relative infancy of gaming, difficulty was used as a means of robbing kids of their hard earned pocket change in arcades. A lot of the time this difficulty was unfair, commonly known as a “quarter muncher” game. Once gaming became more popular in people’s homes on consoles like the NES, games slowly “grew out” of that mentality and started to be more fair. Deaths would be the result of player error rather than random bullshit. However, heavy penalty for death remained. A Game Over generally resulted in losing all progress and starting from the beginning.

As gaming became more and more popular, the penalty for “failure” in a game reduced in intensity. Not only that, but the providing of more options for how difficult you wanted your gaming experience to be became a popular trend. Even the naming of those difficulties has changed over time. What was known as “Easy” mode a couple of generations ago is now referred to as “Story” mode. Even light ribbing for selecting the easiest difficulty, like in Wolfenstein which portrayed BJ Blastovitz as a baby on the difficulty select screen when selecting the easiest difficulty, is considered a faux pas now. Furi actually had an optional easy mode, but playing in that mode would make you ineligible for any trophies.

And then there’s what I consider to be the worst answer to “dfficulty” in a game called Celeste. Celeste is widely known as a very difficult 2D platformer, however, the developer added an easily accessible option called “Assist mode” which was essentially a developer-sanctioned cheat mode, providing the player access to time dilation, flight and, well, just straight up invincibility. These options were not just available in the story mode, but also in the purely challenge focused optional levels as well. And of course, all trophies were completely attainable in that mode, resulting in one of the all-time hardest platformer games having a trophy list far more common than its “intended” difficulty suggested. 

I guess, probably unsurprisingly, therein lies my stance about difficulty. I don’t care how many difficulties there are, but awarding the same trophies for playing on the easiest difficulty (or while literally invincible) as the hardest seems a bit antithetical to the purpose of a trophy.

That rant aside, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the aptly named “Deadly Obsession” difficulty was exactly the breath of fresh air I needed. Death was always just around the corner and punished with a hefty loss of progress, but the game was always fair and death was completely avoidable with enough skill. With the exception of piranhas. Fuck piranhas. But I even appreciated those moments and their callback to the quarter munching days that started it all.

Deadly Obsession forced me to adapt to the game in a way I don’t think I would have done on any other difficulty. I used every tool and resource at Lara’s disposal and was rewarded with a challenging and compelling campaign. The trophy list was able to be done almost entirely in that one playthrough which was very satisfying.

I don’t know what the future holds for Lara Croft but I would be ok if this was the last Tomb Raider game. It was the perfect experience for me in every way I wanted the previous games to be.

Chalice of Torment unlocked 12:51 p.m on the 4th of October 2021 

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