For the past few days I've been playing the brand new Tomb Raider, and it really got me thinking. The thing is this Tomb Raider also has an online mode to go along with its single player, and it also has a set of online achievements/trophies to get, but is that really a good thing? After thinking it over for awhile, I decided to go ahead and ask you guys the same thing... Do you think online based achievements/trophies are good for games, or would you rather keep them single player only?
Now before I say anything else, let me tell you all how I feel about the achievement/trophy system. I know I've covered this before at the old Game Room, but now we're in a different location, and I'm sure not many of you have read the old post. So anyway, let me explain.
Personally I love the achievement and trophy system in games, but at the same time I don't take it too far. For me achievements really help expand the game, and they give me a reason to keep on playing. A lot of the time I'll find myself playing a game I really love, but once I finish the main story there really isn't much to push me to go back for a second time. This isn't an issue with the achievement system however; whenever I come across a game I really like, I always look at the achievements/trophies, and then I decide rather or not to try and get them or not. If they are reasonable ones that actually add something to the game (for example achievements you get for beating extra missions), I'll shoot for them, but if they're something just flat out crazy (like play 10,000 online matches), I skip on them. Really I love having rewards to help push me to complete goals, but at the same time I don't flat out obsess over them.
So anyway, with that being said, what about online achievements and trophies? Do I feel the same about them? Well, really, no... Personally I'm not a huge fan of online based achievements, and I'm sure a lot of others out there feel the same. Now while it is cool to get extra rewards for playing online, a LOT of games are just extremely cheap with them, and sadly Tomb Raider is one of them.
Now I'm fine with "play each game mode" achievements/trophies, or win your first online match, but what about when they become unreasonable? A lot of games have achievements which require you to play online modes for hundreds of hours (it counts your play time), some require you to reach max level/rank online, and others have LUCK based achievements as well (such as ones that require you to kill an enemy with a set weapon, at a set location, as the enemy is doing a specific thing). These achievements really don't require skill, and you just never know when you'll be able to get them. But so what right? I mean achievements and trophies are just extra, so why spend your time on them? Well that's true, but this can also create another problem.
Some games out there actually reward you with in game unlockables for getting achievements and trophies, and online achievements can really cause problems. Take the game Halo 3 for example; if you played it before the patches, the game only had 1000 achievement points for you to unlock, and by unlocking all of the achievements you would actually unlock a katana for your online character. Most of these achievements were completed from the single player mode, and they were completely reasonable; however that all soon changed. Later on a patch was released which added MORE achievements to the requirement, and just about all of them were in fact online based achievements. Most of these achievements were achievements that required you to get specific types of kills in specific types of maps, get double kills, or by doing specific actions in specific game modes. On top of that, some achievements couldn't even be gotten in Halo 3, but instead you had to buy Halo 3: ODST to get the Halo 3 multiplayer disc.
These types of achievements really making completing a game a lot harder than it should be, and they also make it impossible for people without online to finish. Although I do like the extra push they give you to play online, I still feel that they should all be extras, and NOT required for that platinum trophy, or unlockable rewards. Just look at games like Uncharted 3, it's multiplayer trophies are all extra and NOT required for the platinum; that is how it should be done.
So, what do you guys think about online trophies? Do you agree with me? Or do you actually love them? Please feel free to express your opinion! Just leave a comment below! No registration is required!
Now with that being said.... Time to go reach level 60 in Tomb Raider.... Yep, this is going to take awhile.....
