DLC #62 - Bulletstorm - Blood Symphony

More Echoes, More Anarchy!

The trophy structure of the Blood Symphony list follows the same pattern as the previous Gun Sonata DLC.

There are 3 trophies attached to the new Anarchy levels, all awarded for performing certain skillshots with the said levels. As before, none of these are particularly difficult, and you can easily unlock them all within half an hour or so.

The only attempt this DLC package makes of offering a challenge comes from the 2 trophies tied to the new Echo levels.

The "Up-Lifting" trophy, awarded for killing all enemies whilst riding the lift in the Monorail Factory echo, isn't exactly hard, but you do need to be aware of the fact that all enemies in the previous room, prior to the lift section, do also need to be killed for the trophy to unlock, which isn't expressed within the trophy description, and could very easily catch you out.

The " Fast Track" trophy, awarded for killing all snipers on the rooftop before the DNA bomb explodes on the Mean Street echo, also requires a slight element of skill, though this is mainly down to the fact you have to kill 10 enemies with just 10 bullets at your disposal, given the fact the rooftop section has no dropkit available to replenish your ammo, so efficiency is important.

Even still, this is another short DLC package that takes roughly the same amount of time to complete as the Gun Sonata pack, clocking in at around 1-2 hours.

DLC #61 - Bulletstorm - Gun Sonata

Indulge in some more death-fuelled
showboating.

Gun Sonata adds 5 trophies to Bulletstorm, catering to the Echo and Anarchy modes of the game.

There are 3 trophies distributed to the new Anarchy levels added by the DLC package, all of which are awarded for pulling off certain skillshots within the anarchy levels. With the correct tactics applied, you can snap all of these up well within half an hour or so, which is very generous when you consider the "Heart Attack" trophy, awarded for killing a boss with the Hot Dog cart in the Hotel Elysium map, is actually a gold trophy.

There are also 2 trophies allocated to the new echoes levels, but again, there's nothing here that will cause you a great amount of trouble.

Just for the sake of stretching things a bit, the "Last Blood" trophy, awarded for killing all enemies on the walkways before the explosions do, at the end of Guns of Stygia, requires some fast reactions and deft shooting skill. However, the only thing that's slightly frustrating about the trophy is the fact you have to get to the end of the level again every time you fail, in order to reach the point at which you can retry for the trophy, but once you realise you can run straight to it, it makes it much less of a burden if you actually do need more than a few attempts.

Regardless, you can still unlock all 5 trophies within 1-2 hours of gameplay, making it a very easy DLC package.

Platinum #48 - Shift 2 : Unleashed

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 9/10

Most of the single player portion of this list is centred around the career mode, and winning enough events to reach the final branch of races within each discipline.

The "Dominator" trophy, awarded for beating all the rivals, is definitely the core focus of the career mode, and beating all 9 rivals in the game will require heavy mastering of various disciplines and winning a whole host of events in order to earn final races against said rivals. Some events are seriously punishing in difficulty too, with the Drift, Time Attack and Endurance branches deserving of notable mentions when it comes to the latter stages and the eventual rival event.

You'll also need to beat a number of career events to unlock the rival race, so there is a distinct time-based element to this trophy too. You won't need to beat them all, but each branch will need a large amount of progression towards the end before you unlock the eventual rival race and get a shot at beating them all.

The "Bounty Hunter" trophy, awarded for earning a total of $10,000,000 during your career, can be accumulated along the way, but it's a hefty figure to knock off, and there's a highly likely chance you'll be grinding this one out beyond the end-game of the career mode. Given how long the career mode can be, it's a pretty huge total to accumulate, and the best way to go about it is through replaying the final events over and over again, which is where the most prize money is handed out. 

The latter events within the game are where the biggest amounts of money are paid out, and you're best off just grinding out these area of the game for any additional funds you need to accumulate. Needless to say, this does eventually become fairly tedious, and does add a good few hours onto the total Platinum time.

Slightly tied into this, the "Leno Would be Proud" trophy, awarded for having at least 1 car from every manufacturer in your garage, will also take a fair chunk to time to achieve, and also be very costly in the process. Some of the more prestigious car dealers only offer cars worth millions of dollars, and with almost 50 manufacturers in the game, the amount of money required to own a vehicle from each of them is towards the larger end of the scale. Some cars can be awarded for free through the career mode, but the vast majority will have to be purchased, and this most often includes the more expensive cars in the game.

The "Day Walker" and "Night Master" trophies, both awarded for mastering every track in the game under day and night conditions respectively, adds a huge element of skill to the list, with a variety of tracks that require pinpoint precision and accuracy to master. Mastering a track requires perfection of the racing line and every corner, and certain variations of tracks are seriously difficult to pull off without some extent of trial and error and/or sheer skill. 

These trophies alone definitely ramp up the overall difficulty of the list, especially with almost 100 different tracks and locations to master in total. The vast majority of the tracks just simply become matter of loading the track up in a quick event and blasting out a routine lap or two, but some of them are seriously difficult to nail, and will require genuine racing skill and prowess in order to achieve mastery. 

There are a couple of other trophies that will attempt to stumble you, including the "Race License" trophy, awarded for winning 75 career events on hard difficulty, which is a very steep difficulty level that definitely sets a high skill benchmark for the player, though you can actually play the opening events repeatedly to rack up this number, which are easier in comparison to the latter stages, so it might not seem so bad for those who may struggle later on. However, the harder difficulties in the game pay out alot more prize money, which is an extremely useful thing to take note of when you consider how much cash you need to accumulate for some of the aforementioned monetary based trophies.

Regarding the Multiplayer portion, there is no let up on the difficulty presented within this list.

The "King of the Hill" trophy, awarded for winning your first Driver Duel Championship crown, is without doubt one of the toughest bronze trophies available in any game, and requires you to win 7 events in the row without being beaten. Starting from round 1, every win takes you a step closer to the Championship round, and a loss at anytime takes you back down to stage 1. 

In all honesty, it's the blatant design flaws of the game that make this trophy difficult to achieve. You'll never get matched up with anyone else who isn't at the same stage as you, which means you could quite conceivably sit within a round for hours and not encounter a single opponent, especially at the latter stages of the tournament. There's also no ghost mode enabled for races, meaning rounds just mostly degenerate into glorified destruction derbies where it will effectively come down to whoever can ruin their opponent first and race ahead. It makes the whole thing an arduous, and also nerve racking slog, and this trophy alone is a massive achievement in it's own right.

Apart from that, the "Notorious" trophy, awarded for playing for 10 hours in total online, is self explanatory, but you will most definitely knock most of this, if not all of it, out during the King of the Hill quest. 

The same goes for the "I. Am. Iron. Man." trophy awarded for winning 5 consecutive online events, but you need to win a total of 7 rounds to become King of the Hill and unlock that trophy, so it's better to go for these two trophies in tandem. It just becomes a harder task if you try and race multiple opponents and attempt to beat them all for 5 consecutive races, so despite how hard the King of the Hill mode is, it's still probably the easiest chance you have of accumulating 5 wins in a row anyway.

This Platinum has practically everything, with a large element of skill required and plenty of time to invest too. There are alot of frustrations along the way, and certain trophies will require much persistence and determination to achieve. However, it makes for a very rewarding Platinum, and comes extremely close to the full 10. Is it tougher than Motorstorm : Pacific Rift? No, but it only just misses out.

Notable Trophies -

Dominator - Beaten all the Rivals
Bounty Hunter - Earned $10,000,000 total during your career
Leno would be proud - Have at least one car from each manufacturer in your Garage
Day Walker - Mastered every location in day or dusk
Night Rider - Mastered every location at night
Race License - Won 75 Career events on Hard difficulty
King of the Hill - Won your first Driver Duel Championship Crown
Notorious - Played Online for over 10 hours total

Hardest Trophy -

King of the Hill
Won your first Driver Duel Championship Crown