Platinum #71 - Infamous 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

It's actually really easy to say what makes this game different to it's predecessor, despite both trophy lists being an almost identical copy of each other.

Everything that presented a challenge within the Infamous 1 trophy list has either been changed to make it more accommodating for the average trophy hunter, or even excluded completely for the sake of an easier list.

The "Just One More" trophy, awarded for picking up all blast shards scattered around New Marias, is the exact same trophy as seen in Infamous 1, but much less hassle this time round.

The shard hunt in Infamous 1 is still one of the most gruelling collectible ventures seen in any game to date (and that's almost 6 years on from the release of the game), but everything that made it difficult has been improved to make it much easier this time round.

Not only does the shard count drastically reduce (by well over 100 shards), you also get in-game support to assist you in tracking them down, rather than having to rely on a manual checklist/map as you had to do with Infamous 1. Simply clicking R3 will emit an electrical pulse that will show the location of any nearby blast shards, which makes collecting them hassle free, and just turns into a standard fetch quest, albeit a fairly lengthy one, as there are still 305 blast shards to collect in total, and they will need to be done in one play-through, which is important to note in a game that will require a minimum of 2 full plays to achieve the Platinum trophy.

On the subject of which, the whole concept of good vs evil is also still fully integrated in the trophy list. The "Fight the Good Fight" and "Forging Your Own Path" trophies, awarded for unlocking the good ending, and unlocking the evil ending, respectively, confirm the need to play through the game at least twice.

There are also, as before, a collection of trophies awarded for completing karma specific missions which can only be left down to each good and bad play-through, so it's just a matter of knowing which choices to make in order to unlock the correct trophies during the critical story points where you have to make a choice. This does also apply to certain side missions that are locked out when the opposite choice is made, but these are easily distinguishable by their blue and red icons that clearly represent each karma stance.

The first play-through of the game will be fairly meaty, simply for the reason that this should be utilised for covering alot of the extra content that will unlock most of the other trophies in this list, which are either just tied to side missions, exploration or racking up totals for various actions. However, you can smash through the main story alone within 10-15 hours on a second play-through, even on the hardest difficulty, as long as the story is your only focus and the only trophies you need left are the progression based trophies tied to whichever karma stance you didn't choose in your first play-through.

The "Pain Builds Character" trophy, awarded for finishing the game on hard difficulty, isn't hard at all. Again, it's about the same level of challenge as what was present in Infamous 1, with just a couple of potentially sticky points that might require a bit of patience, but nothing more than that.

You will also need to unlock the hard difficulty by beating the game once, but that's not really terribly important to mention given the fact the game requires at least 2 play-throughs to fulfil the requirements of both the good and evil endings anyway. It is recommended to go through the game casually first time round and unlock practically every trophy available that isn't related to the opposite karma stance you're playing towards, in order to make sure that all you need to focus on in the second run is merely beating the game.

The "UGC Veteran" trophy, awarded for playing 25 user-generated missions, is a new concept to Infamous whereby you can create missions for other players to beat. This is actually an online trophy, so it is not entirely accurate to say this is a Single Player trophy list, even though the mode is actually integrated into the story. It isn't a challenging trophy in any way, but it does rely on server support, and will make this Platinum trophy unachievable one day, so it's definitely one to look out for and make note of.

One final thing that I feel is also quite important to mention is the fact there are no trophies for completing the stunt list in this game, which was one of the decisive elements of the Infamous 1 rating, and subsequently why Infamous 2 is also an easier game. There are powers unlocked through pulling off stunts, but there isn't an actual list of them to go through, nor are there are trophies on offer for performing them all. This was one of the more difficult elements of the previous game, so the fact it is omitted from the trophy list is a big part of the reasoning behind the lower rating of this game.

Overall, this is a much easier offering in comparison to it's predecessor, The game itself isn't really challenging, even on it's hardest difficulty, and even 2 play-throughs of the game, along with completing all of the side activities and extra content that award trophies, can be beaten within 30 hours collectively. 

Even the harder parts of the original Infamous game have either been stripped down to be made easier, or completely excluded, which is a telling factor in this list. There are a small handful of online trophies to watch out for, and a couple of instances where the game can be tough during hard difficulty, but this is list you can beat with minimum drama within a very reasonable timescale. 

Notable Trophies -

Just One More - Pick up all the blast shards scattered around New Marais
Fight the Good Fight - Unlock the good ending
Forging Your Own Path - Unlock the evil ending
Pain Builds Character - Finish the game on hard difficulty
UGC Veteran - Play 25 user-generated missions

Hardest Trophy -

Pain Builds Character
Finish the game on hard difficulty

Platinum #70 - Call of Duty : Black Ops 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10

Call of Duty titles are hard to predict, it seems. Their general difficulty ratings spike up and down so erratically, it makes for a tough list to call on each year.

Black Ops 2 moves towards the upper end of the scale, with a list that proves to be both challenging and time consuming in equal measure, and it's a set of trophies that takes a slightly different guise to Call of Duty games of the past.

There are still certain things that haven't changed, most notably in the Single Player portion of the list.

It is still, for the most part, a progression based game, with a large chunk of trophies awarded for beating each level in the game, along with a further batch of trophies that are awarded for performing certain actions at specified points in the story.

The "Black Ops II Master" trophy, awarded for Completing the campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty, gives the player an option, which has been a trend in the more recent Call of Duty lists, but also retains a few trophies that require you to beat certain levels exclusively on Veteran, so it doesn't really make any sense to play through on Hardened difficulty anyway.

As far as a challenging experience goes, Veteran difficulty doesn't come anywhere near certain previous titles in the series, and the story itself is still relatively short lived, clocking in at anywhere between 8-10 hours. (This estimate includes the new Strike Force missions, which are optional to the main story, but compulsory to the trophy list).

The toughest part of the Single Player portion of this list comes in form of the "Giant Accomplishment" trophy, awarded for Completing all challenges in Black Ops II. This is a completely new concept to the Single Player part of Call of Duty games, adding a total of 160 challenges to the 16 levels contained within the game. They're essentially just a collection of in-game objectives to go through and complete in check-list fashion, and although the majority of them are relatively hassle free, there are a chunk of them will test your patience, and to a lesser extent, skill level.

There are also generic challenges that pop up in each level, including finding all intel and getting through the entire level without dying. You'll be subjected to playing each level through multiple times in order to fulfil all 10 objective criteria, and sometimes excessively for the handful of levels that contain more difficult challenges (of which I'd personally say are about 4/5). It does get laborious when you consider you'll have to play through each mission at least 2/3 times in order to lock off every single challenge, and the consistent repetition is enough to make it feel harder than it actually is, even though you can speedrun most of the levels by lowering the difficulty level.

It ends up actually being quite a time consuming part of the game, mostly down to the sheer repetition required through beating the levels over again in the name of beating the game, completing challenges and fulfilling conditional trophies influenced by decisions made at critical mission points.

Unlike alot of other Call of Duty lists, the Multiplayer portion also gets some trophy consideration this time round, though there isn't that big of an emphasis in terms of quantity. 

The "Welcome to the Penthouse" trophy, awarded for Prestiging once in a Multiplayer Public Match, will require you to level your character to maximum level at least once. The maximum level in this instance is 55, and most people will be aware that entering prestige mode will reset everything, which is something you'll have to deal with if you want the trophy. There's nothing really out of the ordinary from what you'd expect from a standard levelling affair, but it will take somewhere in the region of 20-25 hours to reach level 55 and enter prestige mode for the average player, which is a reasonable length of time for a single trophy.

The final part of this list relates to an old Treyarch favourite, with the Zombies mode getting a generous helping of trophies added too. Most of them aren't terribly challenging, and can actually be earned in solo mode without the need to rely on a group of other players to help you out.

The "Tower of Babble" trophy, awarded for obeying the voices in TranZit, is one of the favourite cryptic zombies trophies that have popped up in previous Call of Duty titles (and also within the DLC packages for this one). It is effectively just a step-by-step process that you need to follow in order to come to a specific conclusion, but it can't be done solo and some of the steps can be tricky to fulfil depending on certain circumstances. You'll need at least 2 players, though 3/4 is actually recommended, mystery box luck is also required, because you'll need someone to pull out the EMP grenades to fulfil a step that requires you to kill the electric zombie that is spawned through activating the power and further multiple steps require players to perform actions at the same time at different parts of the map, which is borderline impossible without some form of communication.

If you can find a dedicated group who are committed to achieving the trophy, there's every possibility that this won't take too many attempts to crack, but it isn't one you'll be able to just jump into a random public game and beat on the fly. It's just way too specific in it's instructions for random players who will just be playing zombies mode in it's purest form, and half the battle can be getting together a like-minded bunch who are dedicated to cracking the Easter Egg and earning the trophy.

Even then, it still requires a fair amount of preparation and you might need to be willing to play out a few games in order to gel a strategy together and make sure everybody knows their role and is capable enough to get through each step beginning to end. Things can very quickly get out of control in zombies mode, so teamwork is of high importance when it comes to these Easter Egg trophies, and it turns out to be one of the most challenging trophies in the game.

Finally, the "You Have No Power Over Me" trophy, awarded for defeating "him" without being attacked by "him", refers to beating the electric zombie that spawns after the power is turned on in TranZit. Again, you'll need to pull out an EMP grenade from the mystery box, then it's just a matter of drawing him out and making sure you kill him quickly in order to prevent any damage taken from his attacks.

There are actually a couple of methods you can try for this, both of which I exhausted plenty without any success until I managed to get lucky with the EMP grenade. Some people will recommend purchasing the Galvaknuckles for 6,000 points, which will take a couple of close combat hits to banish the electric zombie, but that's alot of points to accumulate, and being that close to "him" is a dangerous approach. I eventually managed to find success with the EMP grenade, which is a 1 hit kill, but it's just a matter of getting lucky with the mystery box, and when he appears (which is apparently meant to happen between rounds, but I experienced him popping up during rounds on a number of occasions, which can lead to cheap hits when you're surrounded by normal zombies too), just spotting him out straight away before he gets an attack off. 

The rest of the zombies trophies are easy enough, and as a whole, so is the majority of the list, but the small selection of trophies that present a challenge will push you and make you work hard for this Platinum trophy. 

Overall, both the challenging and highly time consuming nature of this list contribute to it's score. The Single Player portion of the game is ultimately a heavy grind with it's fair share of frustrations, and it's a journey that will test your patience as you re-tread old ground time and time again in the quest to unlock every trophy. The Multiplayer part of the list is mostly a levelling fare, but still a fairly lengthy one at that, and the zombies mode trophies have a few stumbling blocks to throw into the mix, with the "Tower of Babble" trophy, which many people will consider to be the toughest trophy in this list.

It's a very different list to what you can usually expect from a Call of Duty title, but it's still another Treyach Call of Duty game that provides a solid challenge to the series.

Notable Trophies -

Black Ops II Master - Complete the campaign on Hardened or Veteran difficulty
Giant Accomplishment - Complete all challenges in Black Ops II
Welcome to the Penthouse - Prestige once in a multiplayer Public Match
Tower of Babble - In TranZit, obey the voices
You Have No Power Over Me - In TranZit, defeat "him" without being attacked by "him"

Hardest Trophy - 




Giant Accomplishment
Complete all challenges in Black Ops II