Topic: Achievements/unlockables/full completion

[scottws]

iPPi's post about putting achievements in DLC for Assassin's Creed 2 got me thinking:  what is the last game I tried to fully complete?  I thought about this awhile, and I can only think of three games that I ever tried to get everything:

• Goldeneye 007 (N64)
• Super Mario 64 (N64)
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64)

I surprised myself with how short the list is.

Goldeneye 07 I sort of consider my crowning achievement in gaming.  I was able to unlock 007 mode.  To do that you had to complete all the levels on 00 Agent (the hardest difficulty).  Some of the levels weren't too bad, but some were ridiculously hard like the Silo and especially the Aztec level.

At the time I played this game, I was at Miami University and in a fraternity.  Out of my fraternity brothers, I was the best at this game.  One day some of my friends there call me and say, "Hey, can you come over and beat this level?  We've been trying for hours and just can't".  So I get over there and it's Aztec on 00 Agent.  I hadn't beaten it myself yet, but I hadn't tried too many times.  So I play and after just a few tries I'm able to get to the shuttle launch but die as it is launching.  I play for awhile longer but never come as close.  Still, as I play I learn the level:  what the best path is to complete the objectives, where all the enemies hide and come from, when the dudes with the Moonraker Laser start coming.  I don't end up beating it for them after a couple hours trying, but I go home later and start taking some cracks at it.  It took me playing the level a several times a day for a little over a week but I finally got it.

The Egyptian level after that wasn't too bad so I was looking for a challenge and decided to get all the cheats.  I got all the easy and medium difficulty ones, but I was never able to get invincibility or invisibility myself.  Someone did get invisibility on my game somehow.  I don't know who or when or how they did it but I tried to make the time you need and came no where close.  Invincibility was ridiculously difficult.  If a certain NPC isn't in a certain place (he can be at any one of three places each time you play), you have no hope of beating the time and you don't find him until near the end of the level so it can be pretty frustrating.  You have to basically run by people and hope your shots killed them so you don't get shot in the back.  You have no time at all to stop for any reason.  Ultimately I came close only once after playing it tons of times and gave up.

For Super Mario 64, I wasn't as dedicated as I was with Goldeneye 007, but I did try to collect all the stars.  Ultimately the clocktower was my undoing and I never got them all.  Those tiny, spinning, triangular platforms were ridiculous to navigate with that crappy camera in that game.

In Rogue Squadron I was able to get every single upgrade and ship, including the TIE Interceptor.  Some of the levels were tough to beat within the limits you needed to get the unlocks, but none were anywhere near as difficult as some of the stuff in Goldeneye 007.

[idolminds]

The last game I did to 100% was Prince of Persia (2008) where I collected all 1001 light seeds. I think part of that was because the game was fairly short and easy but I liked the general mechanics and exploration so much that it allowed me to spend more time with it. Otherwise I'm never really concerned with beating a game to 100%, or getting all the achievements/trophies (and part of that is due to a lot of trophies being multiplayer only so I'll never get them all anyway).

[iPPi]

I got 100% completion for a couple games the last three months because I didn't have much to do during this time (note the 6 platinums on my PSN sig.  Each platinum indicates completing all non-DLC related trophies/achievements).  Full retail titles have platinums, most PSN games do not.

So just for the last three months, I fully completed:
Uncharted 2
Modern Warfare 2
Trine
Assassin's Creed 2
Prince of Persia (less DLC -- didn't feel like paying $10 for it)
God of War II

I haven't managed 100% completion for any Xbox360 game though.  For the Wii, it's hard to gauge since there's no achievement system or they are all built in.  I did 100% Metroid Prime 3, A Boy and His Blob, and Super Mario Galaxy (for Mario, I didn't do Luigi).

For older games, I recently went back for some retro gaming and 102% completed Donkey Kong Country 2.  I've completed Mega Man X, X2, and X3.  Other than that it's a little hard to measure full completion for SNES games.  N64, Super Mario 64 is the only game that comes to mind.

[Cobra951]

I did get 120 stars in Mario 64.  It depends on the game, but in general I'm not nearly as obsessive about completion now as I was in the past.  There are very few 360 games I've gotten everything in.  There's always some bullshit achievement(s) that I leave behind.  For the latest example, Fallout 3, a game I have trouble putting down even after many hours, requires 3 different playthroughs at least to get all achievements, because you need to reach certain levels with good, bad, or neutral karma.  So either you play the game all the way through 3 times, or you reload saves near each benchmark level and do all sorts of perfunctory crap to change your karma as needed, then grind to level up.  Either way it's bullshit, and as far as I'm concerned, it has nothing to do with actual completion of the game.

I did get 100% in Metroid Prime 1, and I think also 3.  2 was too hard for me to even complete.  It got way too frustrating at the end, and I lost interest.  I'll have to think about others besides the old 8- and16-bit cart games.  I completed just about every one of those I played back in their day.

[Edited in a crucial missing word.  Sheesh!]

[W7RE]

I'm sure there's a few that I've completed 100%, but I can't really remember because it's been so long. I sort of like the achievement system on Xbox Live as a guide to tell you, though I've yet to complete any 100%. Some of the closest though:

Mass Effect 2- 1 ach. missing: complete the game on insanity difficulty
Assassin's Creed II- 2 ach. missing: collect all the feathers, and one related to a cape that unlocks from collecting all the feathers

[MysterD]

About full completions - ugh, I dunno. Not really my thing, in most instance. I'm going to play a game as much or as little as I see fit - and that's it. If it so happens to be that I enjoy it so much I want to get all achievements, so be it. If I can rack some achievements - whether trying to or most often NOT trying to get them - so be it. If I don't get 100 percent completion and/or if I don't get every Achievement - it ain't gonna bother me to not do so.

Though, I agree w/ Achievement support - as long as we can upload them to the designers/game company. I feel the designers do have a right to know what quests/missions and ridiculous accomplishments I did and didn't do - so they can improve my gaming experience for next time around. And yes, I do feel Achievements should be set for doing certain (important) Main Quest and Side Quest stuff.

Achievements I think are more important to game designers as a test-bed or focus group type of thing than to us gamers. I mean, you don't hear me constantly touting about crazy X Achievement I got in L4D2 or Borderlands, do you?

[scottws]

I should note that my 3-game list wasn't games I'd completed 100% of, rather games that I tried to.  I only completed 100% of Rogue Squadron.  Usually I'm pretty content just beating a game on a couple difficulty levels.

[W7RE]

Achievements I think are more important to game designers as a test-bed or focus group type of thing than to us gamers. I mean, you don't hear me constantly touting about crazy X Achievement I got in L4D2 or Borderlands, do you?

I always assumed that's because achievements are more prevalent in Xbox games than anywhere else, and not a lot of people around here play their Xbox anymore. I don't grind away at achievements, but I have had some frustrating times trying to get some. I spent about an hour trying to get the damn asteroid shit in Dead Space done with above 50% shields for the achievement. In Mass Effect 2 I found locations where I could use certain powers on and then constantly hit the enemy with it then reload my save, repeat X25 until I got the achievement.

[iPPi]

Some achievements are well designed... others are not.  I particularly like the Modern Warfare 2 achievements/trophies.  They are challenging, but don't require you to do retarded things like get X kills with a certain weapon or something.  Nearly all the achievements/trophies pertain to progression and difficulty level, rewarding people who elect to play the game on Veteran difficulty.  A couple relate to completing certain things like killing 4 people with 4 shots during a slow mo breach but it's not anything out of the ordinary.

I totally prefer progression and story related trophies and achievements.  If it's something that requires a grind or is extremely time consuming, I probably won't do it.  For example, Dragon Age Origins requires 3 playthroughs to get all the achievements/trophies.  I'm probably not going to do that. 

[W7RE]

I totally prefer progression and story related trophies and achievements.  If it's something that requires a grind or is extremely time consuming, I probably won't do it.  For example, Dragon Age Origins requires 3 playthroughs to get all the achievements/trophies.  I'm probably not going to do that. 

Same here, I like progression based ones. Mass Effect 1 had an achievement to finish a second playthrough. There were also enough achievements based on weapons and abilities that you had to do a partial 3rd playthrough if you wanted them all. ME2 on the other hand gives you credit if you order an ally to preform an attack, and the second playthrough achievement is given to you if you just finish once with an imported character.

[gpw11]

I don't think I've played any game to 100% completion really.