The advances in the Xbox360’s Achievements put the kibosh on one of my ideas, which was to be a handbook of bastard-difficult boasts which people could share and add to. I thought up some simple ones which – while being very hard to get – managed to stay within the realms of the do-able. It is pointless to ponder the possibilities of such tasks while the spectre of cheats hangs over the process, but the idea isn’t so much about the accumulation of achievements as the achievement itself.
I’ll explain better, because the prospect takes some getting used to.
Think about GTA: Vice City for a moment (which was one of the games I had included in the outline), and you will see some hardcore gaming opportunities. If you can complete the game to 100% in one sitting, and managing to avoid being busted or wasted, then that would qualify as seriously hardcore gaming. Similarly, the Thief games are well-known for their unforgiving combat, so completing the game without saving at any point would also buy you major bragging rights.
Call Of Duty. Use only handguns. I know, you can’t complete the game without the rocket launcher, but still… No rifles. Ever.
Deus Ex. Play without using upgrades, and kill no more than twenty people in the entire game. It isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially near the end stages.
Hostile Waters. Don’t collect any more energy once you have four units, and keep them alive until the end of the level. And, to make things even more interesting, don’t use the ship’s cannons in portions of the game where they are non-critical.
There was going to be strata of difficulty, so that people who didn’t play games compulsively weren’t left out of the fun, and I came up with some simpler challenges that everyone could partake in. You did find the hidden message on the wall in GTA III? Didn’t you? Or find the part of the roof which could only be reached by climbing onto it from a van, then you fall through a whirlwind of colors before being plonked back on the sidewalk…
The main thrust of the idea was to get people thinking about games in a completely different way, to look beyond what you’re meant to be doing, and see what is possible with the game. There’s a world of opportunities waiting if you look beyond the traditional linearity, and a massive amount of fun in trying to break personal records.
Achievements has, as with all popular concepts, degenerated into a mindless mess. People aren’t getting the brilliant games and struggling with hard levels in the numbers they should,, and the shitty film tie-ins (are there any good ones?) are being used to boost Gamerscores to ridiculous levels. It should have been so much more important than a way to shift an otherwise unexceptional game.
“Hey kids, want 1000 points? Shitty Generic Film Tie-In 2: Even Worse Than The Original will give you those points in less than two hours of gameplay…”
Bragging rights on the size of your Gamerscore is now suspended…
The Graveyard 