It is a good feeling to complete a game, the sweaty fingers tightly gripping the joypad as you hope that special ability your character just let loose will be the one to finally eat away at the big bad boss’ health bar. The frantic dashing about as, with his death impending, the boss throws everything it has at you. Then it happens, the screen blacks out for a second and the cut-scene begins…you did it! A warm afterglow filters through your body; after 8-12 hours of foreplay, the game finally gives you satisfaction. Yeah okay, so its been a year or two…

Times are changing though. No longer is it about just finishing the story or campaign, or levelling up, or winning the deathmatch. Now you need to claim all of the achievements too, after all, that is when it is really completed, right?

Achievements come in all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of difficulty to obtain and, just like a box of chocolates, “you never know what you’re gonna get”. I spent 8 hours on Terminator Salvation to get 1000G, yet Blue Dragon at over 200 hours for a depressing 360G. Titles such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy or JRPG’s as they are collectively known are generally the worst offenders for the grinding and collecting achievements in my experience.  They not only require the levelling of all characters and abilities to the max (usually about 200 hours extra grinding more than the main storyline lasts), but also collecting everything possible to collect in the game. It’s almost as much work as levelling a character in an MMO!

Now, whilst most people enjoy a little treasure hunting, devoting hours on end or getting near the end of an 80 hour story just to realise the one missing collectible was only obtainable on the 3rd chapter is soul destroying. Likewise collecting 420 flags was a little overkill by Assassin’s Creed developers on the collection front.  With the choice now afforded to gamers in both the range of releases to choose from, as well as options on gaming platforms, the days are dwindling when I would spend weeks on a game like in days of yore. I played Elite and Wing Commander almost daily for significant lengths of time. Other than World of Warcraft (which is now relegated to my gaming past) I haven’t spent a month on a game or revisited a game after completion more than 3 times in a very long time. Mass Effect 2 will be the first where, having gained all of the achievements previously, it is a playthrough purely for the enjoyment of the game with no other achievement hunting purpose.

I don’t think achievements are to blame for lack of game replayability per se, I was heading that way before the Xbox360 brought about the revolution, but it certainly hasn’t encouraged a return to ‘completed’ games. When I complete a game there are usually two or three more out there I’d like to get my hands on. That in turn fuels new achievements and then replaying old games feels like I am not gaining anything.

When once I’d play games for the thrill of enjoying the game, it became an achievement hunt, especially with collectible achievements where I found myself playing a game via a guide and really not playing the game at all in the way it was intended. There are a few exceptions as always – Alan Wake was a straight playthrough for example, but I haven’t actually gone back to it to collect all of the pages. 6 months previously I probably would have, but I have recently come to a revelation regarding achievements. Basically, “I want my fun back”.

I find collections dull, it is rare that they actually add anything to the game – Assassin’s Creed’s flags being a prime example. I have my own collection puzzles when I try to locate my recently washed underpants in the bomb-site that is my living room, I don’t want to waste my weekends frustrated because a developer thought it’d be hilarious to place an object somewhere that can only be seen from one specific location when it’s midnight and a badger is in your inventory. I play games for the escapism, to get sucked into an alternate world where my actions mean something. I want to get whisked away from getting angry at the rise in Council Tax, VAT and fuel or sitting at a desk, mind-numbingly bored or disinterested in the job at hand for 38.5 hours a week. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Xbox360, achievement fever took grip and gaming became tethered to my reality. I had to get a better gamerscore, I had to complete the games, even if they were rubbish; I worked from a guide or something else that destroyed the magic of gaming. As soon as achievements became the sole purpose of playing I lost my way. Now though, I have my fun back.

I know what you may be thinking, “Oh another achievement hater”, well actually no because achievements have brought about some great things too. I’m now a lot more open to co-op modes. I’ve never really liked player vs player and so I generally stayed within the comfy walls of solitude, taking my hero up against the forces of evil on his lonesome. But thanks to great games like Rainbow 6 Vegas, Gears of War and Borderlands, teaming up has never been more fun. Initially co-op was just a way to get achievements, but now I’d drop any game for a bit of Horde or a co-op playthrough because its just good fun. As most of my childhood gamer friends have spread themselves around the UK, the Sunday evening horde sessions became the equivalent of our nights out at the local boozer.

It has to be said that achievements have been the cause of many email conversations in our group and the source of rivalry and banter as well as some astonishing feats of gamer prowess and determination. Nothing has yet beaten the look on my friends’ faces as my brother aced the Veteran difficulty CoD4 plane level to get a couple of them the ‘mile high’ achievement. Jaws were dropped, almost as if Kate Beckinsale or Gemma Atkinson had just wandered into the room naked. Likewise, four of us held down a horde marathon for almost 24 hours to get our Gears of War 2 level 100 achievement. Naturally, the following weekend Epic announced another XP bonanza, but I didn’t care, it was a great weekend with exhilarating highs and soul-crushing lows – a true gaming roller coaster.

Maybe I am a spoilt gamer. Games have been getting easier, relatively speaking, for a while. Back in the day there were rarely save points. If you died, it was game over.  No restart from checkpoint an unlimited amount of times. But at the same time, the level of complexity and AI back then didn’t offer up the challenge you get today. I certainly didn’t remember the Goomba circling around Mario and looking for a flanking manoeuvre or Mario requiring a fast moving quick time event or 8-button combo to defeat Bowser. Obviously I am exaggerating a little, but you get my point.

As I said earlier, not all achievements are created equal and my most hated of achievements are the non-achievements. Those that require nothing to unlock. Microsoft Games Room issues 5G on the first time you enter. This permanently added 5G to my gamer score. 5/1000G instantly, meaning that, unlike most games which you can turn off with disgust before it taints your profile with a pitifully low score, it was there forever, unable to be removed. It instantly messed up the gamerscore/completed game ratio and caused completionists everywhere to cry out in pain and anger, much like when Vader destroyed Alderaan. Likewise, achievements such as ‘reading the credits’ are just insults. They require no effort. I have no place for gimmick achievements in my perfect gaming world.

Achievements when done well are excellent at adding longevity to good games. Dragon Age: Origins for example has achievements for taking various factions sides, encouraging a different track through the story.  One that I much prefer to the Fallout 3/Mass Effect 1 method of reaching level X with good/bad persona, etc. Playing a game just to be nasty is less fun than playing how you’d like your character to act but taking a different path through the story, being rewarded for the choices made at forks in the road rather than how you acted in those situations.

Multiplayer is another bugbear of mine. Naturally, not liking competetive multiplayer, I’m an obvious spot on the rare occasions I do venture into player vs player environments. I find myself either muting the TV, making a party of 1 or getting killed every 3 seconds because I was in the menus blocking and muting every player that is hurling abuse and generally being a **** (what I did there was allow you to place your own rude word into the fray. This article just got interactive!). The animosity coupled with the volume of games/wins required to obtain the achievements just makes it the worst gaming experience possible. There is also the time factor. Wait too long on an unpopular game to get online and there is no-one to do battle with (Blood Bowl on 360 for example), or even worse, the publisher/developer pulls the plug (LOTR: Conquest – a shameful act on EA’s behalf there). This makes those games impossible to complete and, in my opinion, shows a very poor implementation of achievements.

But before I get too deep into foaming at the mouth, Daily Fail levels of anger and hatred, I’ll move onto the conclusion. I both love and hate achievements. They add a great value to a lot of games, enhancing the experience and encouraging players to break their usual mould and really explore the various game modes or worlds inside the games. Equally they can cause frustration, anger and just plain suck the fun from a game. Arguably we are replacing the singular ecstasy of completing a game with a whole bunch of mini-highs.

Achievements are ever-changing and evolving and good developers are learning the best ways to inject achievements to enhance the gaming experience, not distract the player or cheapen the immersion into the games universe.

Last five articles by Stu

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• Best of 2013: Next-Gen: #Fail
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