Platinum #116 - Metro 2033 Redux

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

Most of my gaming purchases have a certain basis of judgement to them. I don't tend to stray too far from what I know well, and the Metro collection was a new venture for me.

I never knew it was based off a popular novel going by the same name. I never knew the term "Redux" effectively meant "Remaster" and I never knew my Latin needed some work either.

The Metro Redux package includes the first 2 Metro games bundled into a single box, originally available on the Playstation 3, and Remastered for the Playstation 4.

Metro 2033 is the first of these two games, a First-Person shooter which sees you take control of Artyom, a soldier attempting to save the fate of the Moscow Metro, where survivors of a Nuclear war have taken refuge. The aftermath of the war has made the surface uninhabitable for humans due to high radiation levels and low atmosphere, mutated creatures and warring factions fighting for whatever spoils they can find. Arytom's goal is to rid Moscow of these dangers and restore it to safety for it's civilians.

The gameplay is fairly standard FPS. You go through linear levels, mostly within the Metro system itself, though you will sometimes venture to the surface for a change of pace. This isn't exactly an even split though, and I would say around 80% of the game is spent navigating the Metro system, usually at populated stations or via underground tunnels/sewers that connect them to one another. The game needed a more even split. The Metro environments are way too similar and lack identity, as are the segments exploring tunnels and passages in-between. The lack of variety within the environments you transverse make the game dull and less engaging.

I actually harbour the same feelings towards the other core elements of the game. The spread of weapons on offer lack creativity and aren't really that fun to use and the combat is hampered by bad AI and mundane execution that make it lack excitement. There are some more interesting gameplay mechanics. You'll need to collect air filters for your gas mask when you're exploring anywhere above the surface so you don't run out of oxygen and darker portions of the game require the use of night vision goggles, which require you to charge a battery in order to use them at full functionality. It is cool having to play certain segments out from a different perspective via night vision, and having to always be conscious of your air filter time whilst above the surface adds a strong element of survival, but it's not really enough to make the game stand out, and you get a finished product which leads to a very average FPS game.

Metro 2033 is purely a Single Player experience, with all 50 trophies distributed across various tasks within the main Story. There is a minimum requirement of 2 Play-throughs of the game, courtesy of having to play on both "modes", which is not to be confused with difficulty level.

The game needs to be beaten in both Survivor and Spartan mode. Survivor Mode is more focused on stealth gameplay, where resources are less abundant and the player may have to be more savvy with how they progress, whereas Spartan Mode has a much greater emphasis on combat where fighting is encouraged more often, with a higher distribution of resources, but more enemies to kill.

If you want a challenge, then the game will give it to you, and once you've chosen which mode you want to play the game in, you'll then be offered the difficulty level. These rank as Normal, Hardcore, Ranger and Ranger Hardcore, however, the trophies don't make you beat the game within a specific difficulty level, so for the purpose of unlocking the Platinum trophy, you have the freedom of choice, which is the reason the Survivor and Spartan mode trophies won't get a notable mention in this game.

I chose Normal difficulty on both occasions, and the game is rarely a challenge, regardless of whether I was playing through Survivor or Spartan mode. Most enemies are easy enough to put down and the checkpoint system is about as generous as any I've played in any game, never putting you too far back from the position you may have died in, so the consequences of death lend themselves to a much more care-free style of play.

I personally don't think the game is good enough to warrant 2 play-throughs, but it is at least only an 8-10 hour Story, so the overall experience fits into the "could have been worse" category.

The "Enlightened" trophy, awarded for finding the truth, is definitely the trophy to watch out for in this list, because it's doused in mystery and there are things you'll need to know about how you progress through this game in order to unlock it.

It's never made obvious to the player, and perhaps that's intentional game design, but Metro 2033 works off a moral system hidden away in the background, where certain actions you perform throughout the game will either grant or deduct moral points to or from you. This is never introduced, nor explained, relevant actions that lead directly to positive/negative consequences are never indicated when fulfilled and the amount of moral points required to achieve access to the correct ending are not measurable or visibly quantifiable. You just have to go through the game under the assumption that you've earned enough positive moral points, through mostly positive actions, in order to be able to choose the correct ending.

These actions range from the fairly obvious, such as donating currency to homeless people when prompted to do so or saving people from hostage situations, to the less obvious, such as finding hidden areas or interacting with enemies during nightmare sequences. You'll need to use a guide though, purely for how good the game is in keeping the moral system under wraps, and to also avoid the situations where you can potentially earn some negative moral points without realising it.

The theory behind this trophy is, the game ultimately comes down to a solitary decision that you make as the very final action. The "Dark Ones", seemingly an apparition of Artyom's nightmares that appear at frequent points throughout this game, are actually attempting to make contact to Artyom as a signal of peace, and protect him throughout various dangerous plot points in the game in an attempt to communicate this message. This is what the trophy description refers to as "finding the truth" - The realisation that the Dark Ones are a force for good and have helped Artyom reach the conclusion of the story.

The strategy for eliminating the threats now plaguing Moscow is to reach D6, obtain some vital documents on where to find nuclear explosives and plant these on the Tower ready for detonation. If the player has collected enough positive moral points, the final decision the player will make is whether or not to kill the Dark One that attempts to sabotage the detonation. To finalise the requirements of the "Enlightened" trophy, you need to shoot the detonator and NOT the Dark One that attempts to destroy it.

If the game has deemed that you have not collected enough moral points, you won't have this decision to make and will be awarded with the default ending, where Artyom shoots the Dark One and successfully triggers the detonation. Incidentally, if you do manage to accumulate enough moral points, but choose to shoot the Dark One anyway, you will also miss out on the trophy. Finally, if the game deems you to have not accumulated enough positive moral points, you will also miss the trophy and receive the same outcome. All of these scenarios will trigger the "If it's hostile, you kill it" trophy, awarded for becoming a true Ranger, which is effectively just any ending where you allow the detonation to commence.

It makes sense to marry both ending trophies up with the respective Play-throughs of Survival and Spartan Modes, dedicating one to each, but you'll need to follow a guide closely to make sure you get more than enough moral points throughout the game so you don't miss out on the chance to trigger the true ending. The opposite ending is much easier to achieve, as emphasised above through the multiple scenarios in which you can receive it - The fact the game doesn't give you any guidance regarding the moral system makes guidance essential. I made sure I carried out every positive moral action I could, and left nothing to chance, just purely because the game never makes it clear how many of these actions is enough to trigger the correct ending scenario. I'd like to think it's fairly lenient, but you're going to be best off just leaving nothing to chance.

Outside of the trophies determined by how the game ends, there isn't really much else that stands out here. The game opts out of Progression-Based trophies, which is unusual for Story-Driven games, and, as mentioned above, also excludes any difficulty-based trophies.

Instead, there is a very heavy focus on kill accumulation trophies, requiring the player to fulfil a multitude of different tasks tied to obtaining a specific number of kills with the games variety of weapons, as well as killing enemies in certain ways. Trophies that fall into this category, by my reckoning, account for around half of the entire list, which is alot to keep track of.

However, the game comes in clutch with it's checkpoint system, allowing you to farm these trophies extremely easily via the ability to just restart at the previous checkpoint and still count the kills obtained in doing so. You can exploit this really easily by replaying segments with loads of enemies until you've achieved the necessary amount of kills for a specific weapon or situation, and being able to reload each time will not only allow you to quickly move onto the next trophy, but also make your previous actions consequence-free, which is great for making sure killing too many people doesn't impact your moral points at the same time.

At one point during my second Play-through, I farmed 7 of these trophies within a matter of 30 minutes by just playing out a heavily populated segment of the game and reloading back to a prior checkpoint to constantly clear out enemies and continue my kill accumulation progress. It's a lifesaving, trophy-hunter friendly feature and given that some of these trophies require to reach up to 100 kills in some instances, it becomes extremely useful and definitely something everyone should take advantage of on their way towards the Platinum trophy.

It is perhaps important to note that, these trophies cannot be earned across multiple Play-throughs though, and progress will reset to zero if you begin a new game. However, this is where Chapter Select comes in to save the day. Any outstanding trophies post-game can be obtained within Chapter Select, which also includes the small handful of chapter-specific trophies the list offers out. You can also use this feature to go back through and obtain any of the 51 collectible diary entries you may have missed for the "Blogger" trophy, progress for which would also reset upon starting a new game, so it's imperative to highlight the importance of the Chapter Select feature and how it makes the clean-up process very easy for the player. This is typically how most games with the ability to replay individual chapters works anyway, but it's a great alternate option to the checkpoint farming method should you need/prefer it.

Overall, the breakdown of Metro 2033 is very simple. Play through the game twice on both available game modes, and match up both endings accordingly. There's no pressure to play the game to a certain difficulty level and everything you miss can be obtained through a generous checkpoint system that retains your progress no matter how many times you go need to go back. When you add in Chapter Select, it's a trophy list gifted to any trophy-hunter on a plate. Both runs should also only take you a combined total playtime of around 20 hours too.

The lack of explanation around the Moral system is probably the only aspect of the game that makes you figure anything out for yourself, and even that isn't really too difficult to understand when you've got a guide that points out the positive moral points you'll need to fulfil as you go through the game. There are a couple of missable trophies that cannot be achieved via Chapter Select to watch out for, but even these are still slightly forgiving and can be picked up at multiple points throughout the game. You would need to devote an entire Play-through to these in worst case scenario, but this is a minimum 2 runs anyway, so even that shouldn't be an problem.

Notable Trophies -

Enlightened - Find the truth.

Hardest Trophy -

Enlightened                                                                                                    Find the truth

Platinum #115 - Dead Rising 2 : Off the Record

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to believe that it was a good idea to go straight back in for another serving of Dead Rising 2, having played the original game right through to it's bitter end.

I think I may have had my arm twisted by a friend at some point, who would have convinced me to give the Co-op element a go. Naively believing that it probably wouldn't be that bad to put myself through a second helping, here we go again.

In fairness, Dead Rising 2 : Off the Record isn't actually that bad, but it is aided by a handful of gameplay changes that make this experience much more bearable in comparison to Dead Rising 2.

I didn't exactly dislike Dead Rising 2, but it was hard work, and the route through to the Platinum trophy was a big grindy chore I vowed I'd never get myself into ever again, but somehow, here we are.

This game takes place as an alternative plot to the same story of Dead Rising 2,but this time you view the events of Fortune City from the perspective of Dead Rising 1 Protagonist, Frank West, as opposed to Chuck Greene in Dead Rising 2.

The previously well-covered zombie outbreak from Dead Rising 2 is in full-swing, and Frank West's aim is to take advantage of the unfortunate events and use them to "get back in the game", by uncovering the ulterior motive underlaying the outbreak, spill the truth behind the incident and become a relevant journalist again.

The game, for the most part, still plays in the exact same way. The combat, movement and the core gameplay elements present in Dead Rising 2 still exist here. Combine items to craft overly powerful weapons that make a mockery of the games difficulty? Check. Horrendous survivor AI that will make you want to bludgeon them yourself? Check. Spend large periods of the game waiting for time to pass because the game insists that you play by it's rules? Check.

So, there is alot of crossover worth mentioning here, and in the interest of balance, the game is clear what it's about. It doesn't masquerade as a sequel. It retains the "2" for it's title and does feel like more of the same. A 2.5, if you will. There are some crucial additions/tweaks that come up big though, especially when it comes to speaking from a trophy hunting perspective, which we'll touch up as and when relevant, and one of these changes could include the trophy list, which, despite having sprinklings of  unwanted crossover, is fairly refreshed. Some of the things that made me dislike certain parts of Dead Rising 2 stemmed directly from the trophies and these have been mostly addressed here.

This is a big list that comes in at a total of 51 trophies, giving the player the option to complete them in either Single Player or Co-op experiences. A handful of these trophies do have to be obtained specifically in Co-op though, so you're going to need to rely on someone else to a lesser or greater extent.

How you tackle this list is exactly the same as you would with Dead Rising 2, going through the game and working through the case files in order to complete the main story on time to ensure that your game doesn't finish prematurely, whilst trying to fit whatever else you can in-between. The refreshed trophy list has stripped back alot of trophies that previously existed in Dead Rising 2 that would require you to dedicate entire Play-throughs to them, which has reduced the amount of time and runs required for the Platinum trophy.

I always felt that the biggest challenge behind Dead Rising 2 was the fact that it limited the player's flexibility in how they tackled the trophy list. The game has a pre-determined time limit to when it starts and ends, so you had to dedicate an entire run of the game towards getting 72,000 kills with little room for others. Then you'd have to dedicate an entire run of the game towards rescuing 50 survivors, which, again, would leave you little room for other trophies in-between. There are other examples of this, but you get the picture, and it quickly amounted to 5/6 entire runs of the game to achieve the Platinum. It was the list that wanted you to play the game to death and Dead Rising 2 : Off the Record is not that game, and I only had to actually go through this story again twice in order to achieve the Platinum.

You still earn loads of progression-based trophies, as you so commonly do with Story-driven games, but knowing I wasn't exposing myself to spoilers, I could research this list properly and understand exactly what would be required of me and waste little time in working on it as effectively as possible.

There are still trophies attributed to collecting combo cards in order to craft weapons, but you already know what most of these are and how to get them, because most of the combo weapons have been carried over from Dead Rising 2, with only a small handful of truly new additions.

The re-introduction of Frank West also opens up opportunity on the list for trophies related to taking photos using Frank's camera, which was heavily focused in the achievement list for Dead Rising 1. I counted 12 trophies here that make use of Frank's camera, which is over a fifth of the whole list, so the photography gameplay element is a big part of the refresh on this list too.

The "Purewal Memorial Cup" trophy, awarded for not consuming any meat, dairy or alcohol until the military arrives was where I started in terms of marrying up trophies with beating the story. It may seem like this selection of food groups severely limits your options, and in reality, it does, but as long as you're always conscious to being stocked up on orange juice, then you're rolling. Not only is it not any of the above, it also gives you great return on your health. You just have to make sure you always have surplus, because you don't want to be in situations where you fight certain bosses and desperately need health, but the items within your environment would infringe the requirements of the trophy, so always double check your inventory.

With Dead Rising 2, I'd have to jump straight back into a New Game and work out which trophies to get next, but I could now do that without starting over, and this was courtesy of the games biggest addition. Sandbox Mode.

Sandbox Mode just throws you into the Fortune City map and lets you do as you please without having to work against the games deadlines or time constraints, which are hugely distracting when it comes to focusing on other trophies you're trying to achieve.

The "Six Digits?!?" trophy, awarded for Killing 100,00 zombies is a great testament to this. In Dead Rising 2, it was 72,000, which you had to do within one Play-through of the game. No margin for error and no way to really catch-up if you were running behind, or off the pace for whatever reason. Of course, it'll take you longer to kill 100,000 zombies, but in Sandbox Mode, where I can just stop for a bit when I'm feeling bored or mix it up with other trophies to break up the monotony of the task, it's a much better fit for when they still insist on grindy, massacre-based trophies.

In regards to the trophy itself, 100,000 is still a heck of a lot, and will take you around 10-12 hours to reach this milestone. The methodology is still the same. Grab the Sports Car on the Silver Strip and race repeatedly up and down mowing zombies over on mass until the car wears out and you can jump into another area, before jumping back in and respawning everything. It is still just as tedious as it was first time round (or should that be around a third more tedious than last time?), but Sandbox Mode alleviates the pressure of having to get it done within harsh time constraints and it's important to not underestimate that. I actually still consider this to be the toughest trophy in the game. Despite Sandbox mode taking the pressure off, 10-12 hours is a long time to be doing such a boring and monotonous task, and they increased the requirement by 28,000 kills compared to Dead Rising 2.

The "Even More Help From My Friends" trophy, awarded for getting a gold medal on all Co-op challenges, is another addition to Sandbox Mode. Challenges are also a new element to the game and a refreshed aspect of this list that did not exist in Dead Rising 2, requiring you to complete 30 Co-op specific challenges to a Gold medal. Co-op challenges aren't integrated into the main Story mode, and have to be played in Sandbox mode exclusively.

The challenges range anywhere between easy to medium in difficulty, but the latter goes by the assumption you've got a good partner with whom you can communicate effectively. My initial attempts bought me to jumping into random Sandbox sessions with other players who either were more interested in ploughing through zombies with a lawnmower motor strapped to their head or just didn't understand the most effective ways to beat these challenges.

For example, in the challenge where you have to drink as much alcohol as you can in 3 minutes, the amount of units required for Gold is 30. You'll start being sick after 2 drinks, which massively slows you down to the point where you probably won't make it. So the twist to these challenges is to find ways to beat them using very specific methods. In this case, you'd both need to grab a sports fan outfit that makes you immune to being sick from alcoholic items. They're not all this intricate, but random players who aren't specifically in this for the Gold medals won't know this, so finding a like minded partner is essential. The Co-op challenges are an exact copy and paste of the Single Player challenges, but they just double the medal requirements to account for 2 people tackling them as opposed to just the 1. The Single Player challenges are a good way to cut your teeth so you know exactly what to expect as you move into the Co-op equivalents. 

The "Alpha v Omega" trophy, awarded for having Denyce attack and damage Sgt Boykin, seemed to be one of the toughest challenges in this list. I'd probably already awarded this one the "hardest trophy" accolade in my head. In reality, it wasn't actually that bad. Denyce is the very first survivor you encounter in the game, and she has to remain in your party without being transported to the safehouse right up to case 7-2, where you fight Sergeant Boykin. This is really just a matter of keeping Denyce safe from harm, and saving often to make sure you don't have to go too far back if disaster strikes.

There are a couple of genuine threats to this trophy though. Some Psychopaths deal hefty damage to survivors, so it is possible for her to die pretty quickly if she ends up the primary focus of any Psychopath fight. This is where being a high level really helps because you can take Psychopaths out fairly quickly, though even with this, there were a couple of times she took some big hits because I couldn't interfere fast enough. This is the primary reason I would tackle this trophy near the end of the list, so you can go through it in New Game+ with your maxed out character that makes light work of Psychopaths.

Also, prior to starting case 6-1, where you fight the Helicopter that TK attempts to escape in, if you try to take Denyce into this fight with you, she'll be automatically transported to the safehouse and won't make it to act 7-2 with you. This is a nasty little scenario that will end the run, so you need to be aware of it, and leave her behind in a safe spot where you can come back for her after you exit the fight. As with all survivors that get left behind in another part of the map, her health will begin to deplete gradually for as long as you're engaged in the Helicopter boss fight, so you need to also make sure you defeat it quick enough to get back to Denyce alive.

One final thing to mention, which was touched upon briefly above, the horrendous NPC AI will do it's best to work against you here. Dencye (and this is a common issue with any survivor) will just randomly stop following you from time to time, and it will require you to physically tell her where to go with a command prompt until you reach a new area whereby the glitch will magically fix itself, only to happen again at a random point later on. Even if you give her a gun to defend herself, which is highly recommended (the gun will never run out of bullets if a survivor is using it), she'll still need you to come back and help her whenever she gets grabbed by a zombie, which is something that I'm convinced purely exists to waste your time and annoy you. 

As long as you're aware of all of the above, there is a fairly painless route through to this trophy, but I would definitely recommend doing it once you've reached a certain level and your character can make light work of any enemy, especially psychopaths. The game gets incredibly easy to deal with enemies when you're of a higher level, so take advantage of that.

Just one final thing about the game in general. When going after certain trophies, especially towards the end of the list when you don't have much left to do, there is alot of dead time in this game. Just waiting for time for pass is still, unfortunately, a staple feature of this game. Whether that's to just simply progress the story, wait for opportunities to recruit survivors that only appear from certain points onwards, or get to a certain stage in the game for a trophy you can only achieve at that specific point. This was one of the things I didn't like about Dead Rising 2 and this is still prominent here. The trophies will make you reach certain points in the completion journey when all you can do is sit there and watch time pass, and that's just not a great experience.

There's no doubt that this a more palatable list than Dead Rising 2. When I challenged my own judgement about going through this game again, that was purely based on my experience with Dead Rising 2 - A game with a trophy list that felt laborious and exposed some bad gameplay mechanics that didn't lend themselves well to the trophy list they were paired up with.

On the whole, this has been addressed well in Dead Rising 2 : Off the Record and the same challenges simply don't exist here because, Sandbox mode, and the fact the game just simply doesn't shove loads of time-consuming trophies at you that require you to use up the full 7-8 hours per Playthrough just to unlock a couple of trophies at a time.

I only had to beat the game in it's entirety twice this time round, and I reckon I easily halved the completion time compared to Dead Rising 2's estimate of 80-100 hours, though it is admittedly difficult to give a true approximate of the overall completion time as the game tracks your progress absolutely nowhere. Whilst there is still a bit of overlap here and there, the addition of Co-op challenges and some new trophies with different requirements is enough to keep me fairly regret-free because I actually still kind of enjoyed it a bit. I can't even say I'd do it again with convinction anyway because Dead Rising 3 went back to being an Xbox exclusive and was never released for the Playstation.

Notable Trophies -

Purewal Memorial Cup - Don't consume any meat, dairy or alcohol until the military arrives.
Six Digits?!? - Kill 100,000 zombies. [Host Only].
Even More Help From My Friends - Get a gold medal on all co-op challenges.
Alpha Vs. Omega - Have Denyce attack and damage Sgt Boykin.

Hardest Trophy - 

Six Digits?!?!                                                                                                 Kill 100,000 zombies. [Host Only].

DLC #155 - Resident Evil 2 - Another Survivor

Having recently started tackling the Resident Evil 2 reboot for the Playstation 4, I did notice an extra bit of DLC containing a single trophy with a very vague description.

For not wanting to potentially expose myself to spoilers, I didn't read up anything about it and left my imagination to ponder what the solitary "Chasing Jill" trophy actually entailed.

The description just simply briefs you to read a letter left behind by Jill.

It turns out to be less cryptic, and much more literal. Whilst playing through Leon's campaign in the main story, there's a moment just after you escape the Police Station, and right before you enter the Sewers where you stumble upon a fairly obviously placed note addressed to Kendo from Jill Valentine.

You have to move through Kendo's Gun Shop whilst transitioning across to the Sewers via the Police Station, so it's not even as if the document is well hidden. It's actually just sitting there on a counter inside the store and all you need to do is pick it up and read it.

A very accidental completion. They don't come much easier than that.

Platinum #114 - South Park : The Fractured But Whole

 Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

The "Franchise Prequel", that's actually a sequel. Following on from the Stick of Truth, the Fractured But Whole is a direct continuation from the endgame of it's predecessor.

Dropping the Humans vs Elves craze in favour of Super-Hero Alter-Egos, Cartman has an idea to launch a new Super-Hero movie franchise, but after yet another disagreement amongst the group around how to make enough money to get the plan off the ground, we're suddenly presented with the perfect plot for some more South Park cartoony warfare. Coon and Friends vs The Freedom Pals will take you to all corners of South Park, torn between both parties in order to make it to the big screen.

The gameplay formula remains mostly the same in it's concept. Combat is still turn-based, though is much more expansive than before, with the ability to move freely across tiles on the battlefield being the most notable change, which adds layers of dynamism to combat strategy.

The RPG elements have also been retained, but hugely improved upon too. Characters have different move-sets, which can be mixed and matched to produce tons of variety in battle/squad combinations, which is a crucial element to progression. Moves, Summons and the ability to craft battle items using consumables also add to the variety of options within the players arsenal, and being able to collect DNA Strands and Artefacts, placing them in various character slots that become more available as you level up your character, all heavily contribute to the RPG feel. The vast array of options and character customisation really make it look like they've levelled-up the RPG experience.

It's a solid sequel that improves upon the original game in practically every element, which is also reflected in the 36 trophy-strong list.

I know you can technically beat the Stick of Truth in 1 Play-through, using some save-game trickery to reload at certain points and make alternative choices where multiple trophies are earned, but I played through that game twice anyway. I wanted to enjoy the story and had also missed a couple of trophies that I wasn't aware were missable until it was too late.

So, the big improvement on the trophy list for the Fractured But Whole is the fact that none of that exists anymore. Nothing is missable that can potentially force a second Play-through of the entire game, there aren't any split decisions to make during the Story which will block out certain trophies that make them unachievable if you make the opposite choice and everything you do miss can still be mopped up at the end once you've beaten the main story arc.

In fact, after a completely casual run focusing purely on beating the main story, just shy of 30 hours, I'd already unlocked 30 out of the 34 trophies required to achieve the Platinum trophy. This is a bit of trophy list anomaly, especially within story driven games. It's rare to unlock so many trophies through relatively natural progression and it was a bit of a surprise to reach the end and realise how far into the trophy list I'd gotten. When things come across this straight forward, it makes analysis somewhat challenging, but there are still a few main things to look out for;

"The Token Experience" trophy, awarded for Creating a Black character and completing the game on Mastermind Difficulty, will ensure you have to make the right decision at the very beginning of the game during character creation, and if you're to avoid a second Play-through. When you select the darkest skin tone, the indication is that you'll automatically play the game on the toughest difficulty, though it becomes quickly apparent that this is purely for comedic value and you actually choose the real difficulty at some point a little bit later. This is where you have to ensure you select Mastermind difficulty, so there are a couple of things to pay attention to here. I don't technically count this trophy as missable, as it's a decision that's made before the game even begins, and can be easily pre-empted as long as you do your research.

Mastermind difficulty isn't the highest difficulty setting in the game. It sits just below Diabolical. However, you may expect a tougher challenge than what you get in reality. There are a few challenging fights that will keep you on your toes, but finding the correct battle strategy was never more than a few tries away and once you discover artefacts and start to level your characters "might", these battles start to become a matter of going through the motions as you progress towards the end of the game.

Even after clocking the main story at around the 30 hour mark, which did include a little bit of digression here and there, the 4 trophies I had remaining only took me a further 4 hours to grab. To fit in with the aforementioned point around the lack of digression away from the main story, these included discovering and mastering every toilet in the game, collecting all 40 Yaoi posters for Clyde's Dad, unlocking all combat TimeFarts and finally, defeating Morgan Freeman.

Speaking of which, the "Farts Over Freckles" trophy, awarded for Picking a fight with Morgan Freeman and defeating him, is the best example of one of the rare times this game will seldom challenge you. He has 9999HP and some devastating wide-spread, one-hit moves which can take out your entire team if your positioning/strategy is caught wanting. He also has multiple battle phases you'll need to contend with, where he'll clone himself as a "Young" Morgan Freeman, as well as another phase where he'll use the "Soothing Voice" move to Charm a member of your team.

Before quickly touching upon the fight itself, it's important to note that, Morgan Freeman won't fight you if your character is still black, which is more than likely to be the case if you've been following the requirements of the trophy list as per "The Token Experience". Thankfully, you can change your skin colour via PC Principal, located at Crunchy's Microbrewery, and this will all your to initiate the conflict.

You should be fairly well-prepared by this point, but I made sure I bought alot of healing/revive items into the fight, which were definitely needed. His vast amount of HP means this is a long fight anyway, but they become longer when you get closer to the end and one attack takes out the whole team, so it's important to have healing items to hand. It's also important to chain together status effects which deal damage per turn. Anything that causes bleeding, shock or gross out will do, and it's also important to make sure these are consistent throughout the fight in order to continually whittle that HP down. The Morgan Freeman clone phase isn't too bad to deal with, but the second phase when he starts to use the "Soothing Voice" ability to charm your team is where I lost the majority of my attempts. Not only will this take a turn away from you per round, but the damage inflicted against your team is something you can't really afford with how powerful Morgan Freeman already is.

He's the real end boss for good reason, and the majority of the time dedicated towards trophy clean-up was specifically on trying to beat him. I spent around 3 hours attempting to do this, and when you consider the overall completion time of around 35 hours total, this ends up being almost where 10% of my time was spent.

Before I knew it though, that was it. The full trophy list clocked in a single 34 hour Play-through. No need to run around gathering tons of collectibles or worrying about what you might have missed along the way during the story, a stark contrast from the Stick of Truth, and certainly a welcome change of pace. I've always believed it's completely unnecessary to overload trophy lists with tons of missables, and some games are still guilty of that, so the change in direction for the sequel is refreshing to see. A much more traditional trophy list with clarity and no frills.

Looking back at my previous rating of the Stick of Truth has put me a tricky spot. I've perhaps slightly under-rated the Stick of Truth in hindsight, and there's no doubt the Fractured But Whole is a much simpler experience designed to make life easier for Trophy hunters in comparison to it's predecessor. My gut reaction was to give this a 4/10 too but can I really give them both the same score when I've already made the point that this is definitely a more casual experience? Probably not, though the Stick of Truth was rated without anything to relatively compare it to. I will nudge this down to a 3/10 though, as I believe that's the fairest reflection on both games. This is an easier trophy hunting experience and the scores of both games should reflect that as fairly as possible.

You can simply enjoy The Fractured But Whole journey as if trophies don't even exist and the progress you make throughout will be rewarded as you go along. Collectibles are hugely watered down compared to the original game too and everything can be polished off in a single play-through. Wins all round.

Notable Trophies -

The Token Experience - Create a Black character and complete the game on Mastermind Difficulty.
Farts over Freckles - Pick a fight with Morgan Freeman and defeat him.

Hardest Trophy -

Farts over Freckles                                                                                             Pick a fight with Morgan Freeman and defeat him