It's also the most challenging set of DLC trophies by some distance, eclipsing the previously reviewed Survivors pack with ease.
Siege mode adds 5 new trophies to the list, and is a team-based game, where one team is tasked with protecting a single BSAA agent from the other team, who are player-controlled creatures attempting to kill the agent as quickly as possible. The maximum number on each team is 3.
The defenders will win the round if the agent survives the onslaught by the end of 3 minutes, where the attackers will win the round if the BSAA agent is killed. You will get the chance to both defend and attack once per game, and in the event that both attacking rounds end with death of the BSAA agent, the team which kills the BSAA agent quickest will be the team that wins the game.
The premise of the game mode is very straight-forward, but this is something that does not translate across the trophies. You can knock out a couple of easy ones early though, for winning 10 games of Siege and defeating the BSAA as a creature without dying once (you can sit back and let your team do the work and still obtain credit for this trophy).
However, the challenges contained within this pack are big ones, and there is some serious graft required if you're looking to earn the trophies which contribute to this challenge;
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| Everybody Dies - Defeat 100 player-controlled agents and 100 player-controlled creatures Civilian Casualties - Defeat the BSAA 100 times |
Defeating 100 player-controlled agents is where the challenge lies, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, player-controlled agents are equipped to make light work of player-controlled creatures, stacked with weapons and explosives which make them undeniably tougher to kill. Even melee attacks from player-controlled agents are strong enough to take out creatures in a couple of hits, so you will find yourself on a the back foot often and respawning a lot when attempting this half of the trophy.
Secondly, player-controlled creatures don't really deal a terrible amount of damage on their own due to some very basic attacks, meaning it can take a while to down a player-controlled agent. This isn't really ideal when you're fighting against 3 minute rounds either, and trying to accumulate what is ultimately a pretty steep number in 100 kills. Well drilled teams of player-controlled agents will seldom struggle here, but against less coordinated groups, you could rack up a couple of kills per game, just don't expect this to often be a quick accumulation exercise for the reasons mentioned above.
The game mode is deliberately designed to be "few against the many", so it makes sense to offset the overwhelming numbers of creatures by making player-controlled agents stronger and more powerful. It just makes it a touch frustrating that there doesn't seem to be any common sense applied when making the kill requirements the exact same number of kills for both parts of this trophy. This half should be a lower total, but alas, it is not.
There are a few tactics which can work in the favour of player-controller creatures. The hordes of creatures that will also accompany players will create a notable distraction, creating openings of vulnerability towards player-controlled agents. This will allow for greater opportunity to achieve kills whilst player-controlled agents are busy focusing on other computer-controlled creatures. Maps also have BOW's dotted across them, larger or more aggressive zombies, which can be released into the fight, and will also cause problems for player-controlled agents, and allow for further openings for player-controlled creatures to accumulate kills.
The "Civilian Causalities" trophy, is actually the more difficult of the two trophies mentioned here, purely for the reason that, in order to "defeat the BSAA", you have to deal the killing blow to the BSAA agent yourself, and teammates contributions will not count towards this trophy. This can be a real challenge when you consider the fact that you're suddenly put into a situation where you're competing with your team-mates to deal the killing blow, and the realisation you have to do this on 100 separate occasions to fulfill the requirements of the trophy is daunting.
With the "Everybody Dies" trophy, there are multiple opportunities per game to accumulate kills, because of the respawn factor. However, no such thing exists here because the death of the BSAA agent triggers the end of the round, so you'll only be able to achieve a maximum of 1 kill per game of Siege, which puts into perspective how grindy this trophy will become. This is especially true when you also further consider the fact that, if you're playing Siege with a team, there is also the added possibility that your team-mates may kill the BSAA agent, rather than you, which is a wasted opportunity.
This is the single most grindy trophy in the entire DLC collection. The amount of times I went through games drawing a blank because my team-mates killed the BSAA agent instead was practically countless, and this trophy alone makes it the most challenging DLC package in the set. The only saving grace is that games of Siege can be played at a relatively fast pace, because they naturally last for only a few minutes, but some regularly prolonged dry spells effectively negated this, so you need to be prepared to be in it for the long haul.
It's tough to put a timescale on the package. According to the statistics screen, I spent 24 hours playing Siege, which is 8 hours longer than I invested in the Survivors DLC, and the "Take 'Em All Down" trophy, which, by my own admission felt like a long slog. It turns out I plugged an extra 8 hours into this package, so there's the added context for you. Both time and skill-wise, it's the most challenging DLC package out of the bunch.
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