We Heart Achievements
Everybody loves achievements, right? Be they the achievements on Steam, World of Warcraft, the Xbox 360, or the Achievements covered in tin foil that are known as PS3 Trophies. The concept of the high score is nothing new to gamers, any one that spent their youth hanging around arcades trying to get on the leaderboards of games like House of the Dead, Street Fighter 2, or Crazy Taxi can attest to that.
With the release of the latest generation of consoles, and the introduction of achievements, the entire concept of the high score has changed. Now rather than just showing off how good we are at one game, we get to show how good we are at games in general, and can compare scores with not only our friends, but the entire world. So yeah, achievements are great. But achievement farming can be a real chore, and there is nothing sadder than playing a bad game in order to get those precious easy achievements – trust me I’ve been there! So, in light of the season, and to follow up on tom01255′s “Confessions of a Trophy Whore”, we here at Newb review thought we would share with you, our beloved readers, a list of games that have easy achievements/trophies, that are also a lot of fun to play. Because while achievements are great, having fun while playing is more important than anything else.
** For the purposes of simplicity I will be mainly talking about the Xbox 360 achievements, however in most cases they are the same for the PS3 trophies and Steam/Games For Windows Live achievements**
BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM (PS3/360/PC)
Arkham Asylum may be a horrible place filled with all of Gotham’s most terrible villains, but there’s also a fantastic game with a number of easily achievements. The majority of the achievements are awarded for playing though the story mode and discovering the Riddler’s riddles, which are all easy enough to find when switching on Detective Vision. There are very few challenging achievements in the form of earning all of the Medals on the combat challenges and beating the game on the highest difficulty. Even when playing on the highest difficulty there was only one instance where I had some difficulty in proceeding. The simplicity of the achievements are only made sweeter by the fact that this is such a well designed game, with a well written story and excellent voice acting to round it all off.
EASY ACHIEVEMENTS: Approximately 500 achievement points are awarded for game completion on Normal Difficulty, with a further 160 points for solving all of the riddles. There are a number of other assorted achievements that you will earn during the single player which will easily bring your total close to 800 points.
DIFFICULT ACHIEVEMENTS: Earning all medals on the combat challenges will take a lot of practice, as will performing a combo that utilises every move in Batman’s arsenal. Once you achieve this, beat the game, find all Riddles, then you will earn the 100% completion achievement.
ASSASSIN’S CREED 2 (PS3/360)
Taking place in the near future, you control Desmond Miles a man who has been placed in a machine called The Animus, which allows him to relive the memories of his ancestors. This time Desmond controls his ancestor in Renaissance Italy, Ezio Auditore, as he seeks revenge on those that betrayed his family. It is a little convoluted, sure, but does that really matter when it is such a well put together game? What makes this sweet game even sweeter? Easy achievements.
EASY ACHIEVEMENTS: On my first play through the game I unlocked a whopping 930 achievement points without putting too much effort in. Most of the achievements are unlocked through playing the game, although there are a few side ones that you should be able to unlock pretty easily.
DIFFICULT ACHIEVEMENTS: Collecting 100 feathers that are strewn out through the world is more time consuming than hard. Once you find all 100, you earn a special cape that is required for unlocking another achievement. Finding all 20 glyphs in the game may take up a little time, but it is not particularly difficult.
FALLOUT 3 (PS3/360/PC)
Bethesda’s post apocalyptic RPG may seem a little dated to some, but it is hard to argue against the game’s quality in terms of achievements! With the release of 5 add ons (Operation Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and Mother ship Zeta) the game now has a total of 1550 achievement points on the 360. If you do not already own the game then it might be worth picking up the Game of The Year edition, which includes all of the add ons. Check with your favourite retailers to see if they have a decent deal for it.
EASY ACHIEVEMENTS: The majority of the achievements are earned through completing missions, with a few achievements awarded for killing set numbers of enemies, and hacking computers or picking locks. Essentially, you just need to play the game to unlock most of them. Having said that, this is a game where it is possible to clock up over 100 hours of play time.
DIFFICULT ACHIEVEMENTS: The hardest achievements in this game are the collection achievements, particularly the Vault Tech Bobble Heads, as a number of them can only be obtained at a set time. If you miss them, then that is it, you cannot get them again without loading up an old save. Which really, really, really, sucks.
BIOSHOCK (PS3/360/PC)
Venturing in to the deep sea city of Rapture, overrun with mask wearing disfigured junkies, can be a frightening experience at times, but these easy achievements will more than make up for any frights you might have. With the addition of a free piece of downloadable content, the game has a total of 1100 achievement points available, with the vast majority of them being pretty easy to obtain. On the PS3 there is a challenge mode downloadable add on that will add about a dozen bronze trophies that seem to be reasonably achieveable.
EASY ACHIEVEMENTS: At least 300 points are awarded to you just for playing through the story missions, with a good 250 to 300 points that you will probably unlock just through playing the game. The other achievements revolve around photographing your enemies enough to learn everything about them, which is not really particularly challenging.
DIFFICULT ACHIEVEMENTS: There are a number of 100 point achievements that you earn for completing the game without using any Little Sisters, and for beating the game on the highest difficulty without using a vita chamber – which essentially means beat the game without dying. It’s not as hard as it may sound – all you need to do is save regularly, and if you die load up an old save.
FABLE 2 (360)
The latest game from British industry legend Peter Molyneaux, Fable 2 is a game where every choice you make has a consequence, be it a change in your own appearance, or the economic fate of a town. As well as being an entertaining fantasy game with light role playing elements, the game also features a ton of easy achievements. Two downloadable add ons have been released which bring the achievement total to 1350. If you purchase the game of the year edition, which includes both add ons, then you are potentially looking at a big pay off from playing this game.
EASY ACHIEVEMENTS: There are dozens of simple achievements that award 5 or 10 points each ranging from shooting rabbits to making love 25 times. Beating the story mode without playing any more side missions than necessary will earn you approximately 400 points, but it would be almost impossible not to pick up a few other achievements along the way. You do not even have to do the achievements yourself in most cases, all you need to do is play a co-op game with someone and have them perform the necessary deed, and the act of witnessing it alone will grant you the achievement.
DIFFICULT ACHIEVEMENTS: One achievement in particular is especially difficult, the doll catcher achievement requires you to trade online in order to own all six in game collectible dolls. Each profile can only unlock one doll and in order to trade you will need an Xbox live gold account. It is incredibly frustrating without first making the proper arrangements online in forums or what have you. The game also includes achievements that are rewarded for destroying 50 gargoyles (and find their hidden treasure), collecting 25 silver keys, and earning all abilities, pet tricks, and expressions, which may take a long time.
And there we have it! A small selection of decent games that will (hopefully) increase your gamerscore as well as bringing you extreme joy. This is of course just a small selection of great games with easy achievements, so if you have any other games to recommend then feel free to leave a comment below. Let us share the love.
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