Platinum #125 - Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 9/10

Looking back, for benchmarking purposes, I was somewhat surprised to realise that Metal Gear Solid really hasn't featured that much within my trophy collection. This is only the third Platinum trophy I've acquired for this entire series, after Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid V : The Phantom Pain.

I've passed up on alot of Metal Gear Solid through the years, though this is mainly down to the fact that I'd already beaten many of these games way before trophies made them relevant again, and my desire to re-visit them has been practically non-existent.

However, Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance, was completely brand new, no Remaster required, and therefore makes it into the collection.

Set 4 years after Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots, you control Raiden, the now main protagonist, transformed into a killer cyborg after years of playing second-fiddle to Solid Snake, as the plot revolves around stopping a private military company from making war profits via the destabilisation of world peace.

As the plot thickens, you uncover another dark secret. The same group are also harvesting the organs of children in order to develop their own cyborgs ready to fight within wars. It then becomes a matter of Raiden simply stopping this group from executing their plan.

This is still Metal Gear Solid, but not as you know it. The gameplay focus has shifted from traditional stealth and tactical combat, to a pure, bloody, action-packed hack 'n' slash that plays at 100MPH and never apologises for it. Eerie and slower-paced environments have been ditched for heavy rock music that booms over the top of fast-paced battles and boss fights, to specifically amplify the intensity of the combat. Solid Snake is nowhere to be seen, and instead Raiden is thrust into the limelight, given a cyborg makeover, and equipped with a plethora of weapons that can be used to dissect enemies into hundreds of different pieces, shapes and ways. If it looks like a spin-off...

The changes and major step outside the comfort zone might be too dramatic of a shift for some, but I thought it was brilliant. The combat is fast-paced, fun and engaging, and it's also great to be able to use a ton of different weapons to slice enemies up in such brutally different ways. The characters, especially the main bosses, are full of personality, and this has always been a strong suit of the Metal Gear Solid series, so it's good to see this continue to be a key trademark.

Key fights and boss battles are punctuated with appropriately fitting rock music to match the high-tempo gameplay. Dialogue with other key characters who you don't see as much, through the codec conversations, does well to pad out various elements of the story with solid context and expansion, even if it did end up becoming a bit of a thorn in the side. It's also a very intuitive game in that, "easy to learn, hard to master" kind of way - and that becomes very relevant when we move onto the trophies.

Speaking of which, this game contains 51 trophies in total, including the Platinum, spanning across 2 main game modes. This is purely a Single Player experience, and the vast majority of this list focuses on the Main Story. There are just 2 other trophies to earn outside the story, both related to the VR Missions.

The story is broken down into 8 individual chapters (called "Files"), and whilst there is technically no requirement to play through the game more than once, I would personally strongly recommend an initial run to get used to the game, enjoy the story and pick up whatever you can along the way as you naturally progress through.

There are a range of 6 different difficulty modes, from Very Easy right up to Revengeance, and you'll need to beat each of the games 8 files on Revengeance difficulty, whilst obtaining an S-Rank for every file along the way. 

Throughout the story, there are a wide variance of trophies included for beating each file for the first time, completing specific tasks within each file and killing a number of different enemies a certain number of times cumulatively across the game, all of which will come fairly naturally, but at the very worst, can just be picked up later on, either via Chapter Select, or a secondary playthrough. This is the one of the reasons I would personally recommend a soft run to begin with. You won't want to be juggling all of these additional trophies along with the levels of focus required to beat this game with S-Ranks on it's most challenging difficulty.

There are also a selection of collectible-based trophies too, though these are both fairly easy to come across, as well as relatively low in volume. In some instances, they're directly linked to unlocking other content. For example, you'll need to find 20 laptops that correspond to the 20 VR Missions, and you'll only be able to play the relative VR mission once you find the corresponding laptop in the story. 

The "Stormbringer" trophy, awarded for Completing story mode on Revengeance difficulty with all S Rankings, is the hardest trophy in this list. I know that will split opinion, and many people will feel the VR missions are tougher, but I felt like this was where the greater challenge overall lay.

The game has a steep learning curve. If you're not looking to beat this game for it's trophies, you won't need to master it. However, beating this game on it's most challenging difficulty setting, as well as obtaining an S Rank simultaneously, requires acknowledgement to a number of things.

Firstly, Revengeance difficulty. Enemies will mostly kill you in 1 or 2 hits, but for the purpose of this trophy, it's important to realise that your best approach actually involves ensuring that you don't take any damage during combat whatsoever. This will tie back into the S Rank element of this task. Enemy awareness is also sharper, and attack patterns are way more frequent, meaning you'll have to master the counter/parry mechanic - This part in particular, is integral to success. Similiary, enemies will also be dealt more damage on Revengeance difficulty, so there is at least something working in your favour, but it still presents a solid challenge.

Secondly, S Ranks. Each file contains a certain number of fights, which are graded and award you a ranking based on performance. Your performance is scored at the end, and you must meet a certain criteria of points to be awarded an S Rank. These include measures such as time taken to clear the fight, highest combo and total number of kills. There are also bonus points awarded for every fight you pass without taking any damage, and in most instances, this is the difference between an A Rank and an S Rank. This is why it's important to focus on beating each battle without taking any damage, because these bonus points will end up being the difference.

You'll know the rank awarded on the summary screen at the end of each fight, and if you haven't achieved an S Rank, you'll need to quickly restart the last checkpoint before the game saves your progress, otherwise you'll have to restart the entire file from the beginning. Each file contains a specific number of ranked fights, and the overall file score is not actually based on an overall average like you think it would be. For example, in file R-01, there are 10 ranked fights. If you obtained an S Rank in 9 of them, but an A Rank in 1, you may be forgiven for thinking that your overall score would still be an S Rank, based on the statistical nature of averages. However, you would still get an overall A Rank. In other words, every single battle that scores you needs to be an S Rank and therefore, there is zero margin for error.

It is important to note, many of these battles are fairly easy, and you're allowed to carry through any customisation upgrades you've acquired along the way, which is also another key reason you should playthrough the game on a soft run first - To unlock some new weapons and earn enough Battle Points to upgrade them. Infinite Wig B will allow you to stay in Ripper Mode without having to refuel, and obtaining secondary weapons like the Sai, Pincer Blades and Polearm are all necessary to this task and how you approach certain fights. The Fox Blade is also meant to be the recommended primary weapon of choice, but this was inaccessible to me as a pre-order bonus, and I had to use the High Frequency Blade, which was still fine for the most part.

Despite the right equipment and set-ups, this will still significantly challenge you though. A small handful of the ranked battles are tough, and will require a bit of persistence, but one thing this game showed time and time again, was the fact that it would just throw up a massive barrier to progression, seemingly out of nowhere most of the time. Within this particular challenge, this comes via the boss fights. 

Each file contains a boss at some point, and getting through these fights within the S Rank parameters is the hardest challenge within this trophy. The reality is, you won't achieve the no damage bonuses if you can't block, parry and counter your opponents, and this increases the required skill level, as it forces you to be great at the hardest element of this game. Memorising bosses attack patterns, dodging when you can't block and perfectly timing a parry to open up a counter attack are all high level skills that you'll need to perfect to a flawless standard.  

During boss fights, these come thick and fast, and at speed, so your reflexes and quickness will also be tested. I don't think the game design does you any favours either. You have to hold the left analogue stick in the direction of which the attack is coming from, and press square at the right moment to block/parry an attack, which I personally feel is awkward and counter-intuitive. 

Some of the bosses weren't too bad, but I really struggled on others, such as Monsoon, Sam and Senator Armstrong. Monsoon alone, the most challenging boss by general consensus, took me 3 days to defeat to an S Rank standard. It's also worth noting that the trophy list awards individual trophies for beating each key boss in the game without taking any damage, and whilst you only need to do this on hard difficulty, I felt it made more sense to tandem this alongside this trophy. It made the requirements of the task more difficult, but given the fact most bosses require the no damage bonus to achieve an S Rank, it just made more sense.

It's a classic case of practice makes perfect, and you'll need to develop some strong levels of resistance to failure, as some of these bosses will strip away hours of your time. It's one of the hardest Story-based difficulty feats I've tackled in some time. Upon reflection, I'm certain I wouldn't have been able to fly into this challenge straight away, and a soft run in order to get to grips with the combat basics, understand the enemy attack patterns, study boss behaviour and master blocks, parries and counters, were all necessary to my own success. I'm not a stranger to going into Story driven games at the highest difficulty where I feel I can do so, but this was not one of those games.

The good news is, once you've finished this, and providing you've done at least one prior run, you'll have almost reached the conclusion - At least in terms of trophy volume anyway. However, the bad news is, the remaining few trophies focus on the VR Missions.

The "Virtually Flawless" trophy, awarded for Setting the highest score on every VR Mission, will bring back some ghosts of the past for those who have played Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of the Patriots, and it's ludicrous requirement to beat all 511 VR Missions. Thankfully, there are only 20 to beat on this occasion, but don't be lured in by this seriously lighter number.

You will need to unlock the capacity to take these missions on. As previously mentioned, there are 20 laptops scattered across the landscape within the main story, and accessing these will unlock a respective VR Mission. The trophy then requires you to achieve the first place target score on all 20 of these VR Missions.

For maximum clarity, the majority of these aren't too bad to get through, and will only take a handful of attempts at best. I did mention above, that this game specialises in throwing barriers up in front of you seemingly out of nowhere, and this is a theme that runs through every aspect of this game. The VR Missions are another prime example of this.

VR Missions 18 and 19 give this trophy a valid case for being the hardest in this list, and whilst I personally don't agree with that, I don't object to any difference in opinion here. VR Mission 18 requires you to beat 4 waves of enemies where the difficulty is set to Revengeance, meaning everything kills you in 1 hit. You'll face Fenirs, Mastiffs, Berserkers and a GRAD too, and asking you to beat all this within 10 minutes in order to earn a first place finish means you'll have to find the perfect balance between speed and efficiency. Rushing will cause you to take risks, and more often than not, becomes a necessary evil. I don't know how many attempts it took me, but it was the hardest VR mission and required alot of trial and error to beat.

VR Mission 19 requires you to beat 3 waves of enemies via Zandatsu, which is the slow motion slicing mechanism that allows you to drain the health of an enemy if you execute a cut across a specified hit box. It's a cool game mechanic, but you control the slice with the analogue stick, and I found it be very fiddly and inconsistent at times. You'll need to pull off a string of Zandatsu's, which can be tough, and if you kill an enemy via a non-execution move, you'll fail the mission. I didn't spend anywhere near as much time on this mission, but it was still long enough, and combined with VR Mission 18, it made for a rocky experience.

Even with the benefit of mastering the block, parry and counter to a relatively strong level, I still struggled. I did start to suffer a bit of mental exhaustion at this point too. Beating the story on Revengeance had taken it out of me, and slogging through these missions over and over just continued to weigh down heavily on my progress. Having the mental resilience to refocus and continue with repeat attempts is an underrated trait when trophy hunting difficult lists.

One final thing; The camera in this game is awful, but it becomes blatantly obvious within these VR Missions. When you get too close to a wall within an arena, it will completely flip your perspective, and this will hurt your timing on blocks, parries and counters. These are always executed based on the input of where you direct your analogue stick, so when the camera flips your perspective suddenly, you'll be blocking in a different direction, and won't be able to counter attacks. It ended many a mission here, and it's a very frustrating aspect of the game they overlooked that works against you in something that doesn't need bad game design to conspire against you on top of everything else.

Finally, the "Amateur Radio Operator" trophy, awarded for Listening to most of the codec conversations, also deserves a subtle mention, just for it's absurdity alone.

Throughout the story, you'll be able to interact with your team, who will be available for codec conversations on a variety of different subject matters. Some of these are triggered by specific events, such as facing a certain enemy or boss, picking up a certain piece of weaponry or equipment or performing certain unique actions, like saving a civilian or hiding in a box. The rest of the conversations outside of these special actions are just available organically as you progress.

There are a couple of challenges with this trophy though. Notice how the description is purposely vague - "most of the codec conversations". I hate trophies that are never quantified properly enough for you to reasonably track your progress on them. There's never any clear indication about how much you need to hear, so you're forced to just keep opening the codec and checking for new lines of dialogue every 5 minutes. It's repetitive, disrupts the flow of the game horribly and just feels like a silly exercise.

It was made even worse that I played through both a soft run, and a Revengeance run - the second of which I was fully conscious to this trophy - and religiously stuck to the task of ensuring I was pulling up the codec as frequently as possible, and STILL didn't have the trophy by the end of it. I don't mind trophies with a basis of trial and error attached to them, but the end goal has to be at least clear to the player, and not make you feel like you're just taking aimless stabs in the dark.

I eventually just began the game again from the very beginning and looked for potential unique dialogue options that I didn't think I had heard yet, in the hope this was enough to trigger the trophy. I managed to unlock it during file R-02, so I didn't need to go that deep, but it was still frustrating that I had get part-way through a third playthrough, purely because of the vague rules around the trophy description.

Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance has the perfect blend for what makes a trophy list difficult. A genuinely high skill threshold, a varying degree of challenges that will test the skills you've acquired to their limits and a necessity for never giving up. It also has some reasonable longevity - My save file clocked in at 57 hours, but you can perhaps add a handful more due to some save game trickery along the way. This is a bit complicated to explain, but it acts as a safety net when jumping between ranked battles in story mode to ensure you can continue from where you left off if you mess up, but you've managed to hold a spare save file, rather than repeat entire chapters over from the beginning. I won't deep it at this point though.

It doesn't quite top the dizzying 10/10 heights of Metal Solid 2 : The Sons of Liberty, and it almost feels like a bit of a disservice to suggest that this still isn't the toughest Metal Gear Solid game in my collection. However, it's certainly on the doorstep at the very least, and one that feels good to add to the collection after such a long time.

Notable Trophies - 

Stormbringer - Complete story mode on Revengeance difficulty with all S Rankings.
Virtually Impossible - Set the highest score on every VR Mission.
Amateur Radio Operator - Listen to most of the codec conversations.

Hardest Trophy -

Stormbringer

Complete story mode on Revengeance difficulty with all S Rankings

Platinum #124 - Call of Duty : WWII

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

The conclusion of Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 earlier this year wrapped up a 6 year streak of completed Call of Duty titles.

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare did not have trophy support when it was released back in 2007, but it was where this journey began.

Full completions for World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Blacks Op 1, Modern Warfare 3 and finally, Black Ops 2 all eventually followed - and I vowed to never play a Call of Duty title again.

I've stayed true to that word since, mostly. However, Call of Duty : WWII, released 5 years after Black Ops 2, is the anomaly in the collection. Reason? I always had a soft spot the World War 2 era, so felt like it was worth revisiting, just for a little bit of personal nostalgia.

The game is broken down into 3 main offerings - A World War 2 campaign, Online Multiplayer and of course, Zombies. The origins of Call of Duty games were all about a strong campaign offering, and this is another decent outing, with a story that focuses on a squadron as you play out their part within the Second World War, told through a series of different missions that throw up plenty of variety. Standard ground-based combat is accompanied by the opportunity to control tanks, dogfights and play out some famous World War 2 set-pieces.

It's short, as it usually is, but it captures authenticity well, and many of the missions are based off real experiences.

The Multiplayer also follows a fairly traditional blueprint. Multiple different game modes, mainly 6 v 6, but other variants added and removed from rotation at certain points. It's also the first time I've experienced the Multiplayer component of a Call of Duty title having been shown some love within the trophy list too.

Zombies is still just Zombies - A quirky alternative game-mode that prides itself on Easter Eggs and a mysterious backstory tying them all together, but is ultimately different compared to previous iterations. The noticeable progress of Zombies would make sense, given the fact there are 5 years between Black Ops 2 and WWII, and it does feel like a much different experience that has gone through the natural course of evolution. Gameplay actually feels way less hectic and much smoother than previously, which ultimately works out for the best, but it is also still where the hardest part of this trophy list resides.

Speaking of which, there are 51 trophies in this list, spread across all 3 aforementioned game modes, and there's something to touch upon within each.

The Campaign mode stretches across 11 missions, and this is where the bulk of the list is focused, where a whopping 35 of the 50 trophies are obtained.

The "Distinguished Service" trophy, awarded for Completing the game on Veteran difficulty, is the main standout trophy within this large grouping, and has become a staple for Call of Duty games.

Beating the Campaign on Veteran has previously gone down in infamy, but this did gradually become a watered down experience after the dizzying heights of World at War. I was intrigued to see if anything had changed whilst I was gone, but if anything, it's actually become easier than it ever has, and this is down to a couple of notable differences within the game mechanics.

The automatic health regeneration system is gone, and has now been replaced with a request feature. Your squadron will all have specified roles, whether this is to supply you with ammunition, first-aid or air support, and these can be requested on demand as your progress through each mission. If you're low on health, tap the corresponding prompt on the d-pad, and you'll be issued a med-kit by the medic, which makes it much easier to stay healthy compared to having to duck for cover and pray you can recover health quickly enough via regeneration. It's a more realistic system, but on-demand med-kits to heal up instantly, and air support to quickly supress enemy fire, makes the game easier, even on Veteran difficulty, which also just feels way less punishing in general.

The rest of the Campaign trophies are earned for various tasks specific to the 11 missions across the story, as well as beating them for the first time, so it leans heavily into the progression angle. There are also a small handful of collectible-based trophies to acquire, for picking up mementos distributed throughout the landscape across the Campaign, as well as performing specific Heroic actions, which are prompted to the player at chosen points throughout each mission.

Chapter select makes these easy enough, giving you the power to venture back into any mission and gather the mission collectibles, which are also well signposted on the navigation menus, so you always know which missions you may need to dive back in to in order to grab anything you may have missed. It'll also allow you to obtain any outstanding trophies tied to performing specific tasks related to certain missions too. It's exactly how chapter select should be used.

Moving into the Multiplayer, and this is the first time in any Call of Duty game I've played where at least a small portion of the list has been dedicated to the online element of the game. There are only 5 trophies here, but it'll require a reasonable level of dedication in order to pass through this portion of the game on your way towards the Platinum trophy.

The "General of the Army" trophy, awarded for Entering Prestige 1 in Multiplayer while playing online, is a fairly standard levelling grind, which simply asks you to play enough Multiplayer to reach level 55, and eventually choose the option to Prestige.

To Prestige just simply means to start over, and once you acquire enough experience points to hit the end of level 55, you'll be able to do this and begin the cycle again from level 1, but more importantly, grab your trophy.

You'll need a total of 1,457,000 experience points to reach the end of level 55 and unlock the option to enter Prestige mode. This is a fair chunk of experience, and under normal circumstances, will probably take you somewhere in the region of 20-25 hours of gameplay, which is a modest grind. If you wish to, you can potentially hold off and take advantage of double experience points special events, and this will slash the amount of time it takes significantly, but I'm not sure how common these are, or even if they're applied to older Call of Duty games anymore, so whilst I don't think it's fair to set this as the standard benchmark, it is still worth noting.

You should unlock the remainder of the Multiplayer trophies naturally as you progress through this levelling venture. There aren't any real recommendations to levelling up - Just choose your favourite game mode, stick at it and you'll get to where you need to be eventually. War and Search and Destroy was my personal preference.

Finally, we have the Zombies mode, which equates to the remaining 10 trophies within the list. I have garnered a love/hate relationship with Call of Duty Zombies experiences over the years, and my overall experience with any Call of Duty trophy list has been heavily influenced by my satisfaction levels within Zombies. Sometimes it's been good, sometimes it's been about as bad as imaginable.

On that scale, this probably fits somewhere around the mid, with most of the trophies requiring you to fulfil fairly simple tasks, which you can do solo or within an online lobby/private group. However, there are still a couple of trophies attached to the old Zombies Easter Eggs that we've all become well acquainted with over the years, and this is where the challenge of the overall list hits a few extra notches.

The "Dark Reunion" trophy, awarded for, saving Klaus in The Final Reich, plays out exactly how you expect any Zombies Easter Egg to play out - by carrying out a set of specific actions across the map in certain orders, culminating to the final stage, which, in this instance, is defeating the final boss on the map.

A couple of things about Zombies as a general note compared to my previous experience;

Movement is fluid and the map is bigger, which actually helps the game flow better. It felt so easy to get overwhelmed by the undead in previous versions of Zombies, and maps always felt tighter, so you never had anywhere to go when things got a bit hectic. Better movement mechanics, which always used to feel more stagnant and rigid in older games, and a larger, more open map generally avoids these frustrations, and makes for a better quality of life experience within the Zombies game mode. I frequently reached round 25-30 and even sometimes higher where necessary, which would just never happen previously, and that makes it more fun - There was never anything more demoralising than going for a trophy and dying so late into a game knowing you probably had to spend at least another couple of hours grinding back up to that point.

There's also a change in how the health system works here too. Previously, unless you had the Juggernaut perk, you'd take a couple of hits and die, and there was never a visual indication of your health. This has been addressed, and not only are you now shown a visual health bar, to allow you to understand how close you are to dying, but you also have the ability to purchase shields, which give you 3 when fully stocked. If you get hit enough times, it will break a shield, then you'll have the cushion of 2 more before you go down, but most importantly, you can visualise your health, and also have the ability to purchase more shields if necessary, providing you better protection in general. It's definitely the most positive change.

The Easter Egg comes in 2 forms, and you can obtain the trophy for the shorter form of this Easter Egg fairly easily, because it's the main goal most people play towards in public lobbies. The steps are mapped out on the screen and give a clear indication to the player on what they have to do to reach the end - Something that has also never existed previously in Zombies.

However, not all the steps are documented for the "Hardcore" version of the Easter Egg, and this requires a list of hidden steps in order to reach the conclusion, which is where it gets a little bit more complicated.

At the point where you're told by the game to trigger the ending of the shorter Easter Egg, you'll have the option, unbeknownst to everyone in the lobby, to take things further, and complete a handful of additional steps to trigger an alternate ending. Whilst it means you have to advance a bit further to complete this, that isn't really the issue - The issue is making sure that the players in the lobby don't trigger the ending for the lighter Easter Egg conclusion, and almost everyone will do this because the game instructs them to.

I attempted this a couple of times with a group, and this isn't exactly an issue with the game, so it wouldn't be fair to blame the game for this, but there are alot of people who are looking to unlock Easter Egg trophies in Zombies and just simply come unprepared. These challenges are further complicated when they don't use a headset or cannot respond to verbal instructions, and if these steps aren't carried out like a well-oiled machine, then things will go wrong.

It doesn't really matter for the shorter version, as instructions are clearly signposted right through to the end, and I even grabbed this one naturally whilst going through my own process of understanding and learning. However, the "Hardcore" version has too many extra steps for players to just walk in unprepared, and I failed on a few occasions due to botched attempts caused by a couple of people who were either just clearly looking for a carry from others, or just did the wrong things, such as triggering the ending for the shorter version of the Easter Egg accidentally or just simply not knowing what to do next when they needed to play their part.

To have a defined ending within Zombies is a big change. Zombies games were infinite to the point where everyone died, so the fact you can now trigger a boss fight, which will end the game automatically once complete, makes it a pain when this ends up slipping out of your control.

Ironically enough, my success eventually came from playing with a random player who I noticed was level 1000, and I chanced a direct request for support, which he duly obliged with. This identified another positive with the Easter Egg, whereby you can still achieve it with just 2 players. Large parts of my disdain for Zombies in the past has come from those Easter Eggs that contained steps that mandated the need for 4 players, so it's great to see that this isn't the case here.

But, it also just proved the importance of playing with people who know exactly what they're doing. Easter Eggs in Zombies have always been about intricacy and attention to detail. Research and study are important, and there are just too many people out there who want to be the beneficiary of the effort of others, and this isn't viable in Zombies for the vast majority of the time.

The Single Player Campaign is not the gruelling experience it was once infamously known for on it's Veteran difficulty, and being able to freely dip back into chapter select to go back for any mission specific tasks or collectibles, makes it a seamless journey. The Multiplayer element of this list is no more than a minor commitment to grind, but still doesn't stack up against some of the truly grindy levelling tasks that sit out there within the wider trophy community.

In reality, the majority of this Platinum difficulty rating rests on the Zombies experience. It wasn't as straight-forward as I had it planned out, but that was mainly due to the deficiencies experienced from attempting to achieve the end-game with players who just didn't have the same common goals, or weren't good enough to keep an Easter Egg attempt rolling into the latter stages of a game.

Being able to just call on the support of a random player I happened to get into a lobby with, partly based on their Zombies level, but also pure instinct, was just another example of being resourceful. Sometimes, trophy hunting is just about seeing opportunities you don't necessarily look for, and playing by ear, especially when it comes to seeking help from others.

If I rated in halves, I'd give this a 6.5/10. Outside of the Zombies trophies, I don't think the wider experience does enough to propel this into the upper echelons of the difficulty scale. I enjoyed the foray back into the Call of Duty experience. It wasn't enough to bring me permanently out of hiatus, but it was fun to revisit something that's important to remember gave me alot of enjoyment over the years, and that is always worth it.

Notable Trophies - 

Distinguished Service - Complete the game on Veteran difficulty.
General of the Army - Enter Prestige 1 in Multiplayer while playing online.
Dark Reunion - In The Final Reich, save Klaus.

Hardest Trophy -

Dark Reunion

In The Final Reich, save Klaus

DLC #177 - Rocket League - Supersonic Fury

After 9 packs later, which is incidentally the most out of any game in my current collection, we're finally there.

I was actually a little bit surprised to see from the stats screen that my overall completion time for Rocket League clocked in at just over 30 hours. It seemed a little bit light for a game that came with a Platinum trophy, as well as 9 DLC packs, but this does also equate to almost 400 games, which sounds more reasonable for the amount of time I feel like I've spent with this game.

This final DLC pack, which was also actually the first one released for the game, is purely a customisation pack. I know Utopia Colosseum preceded this, but those trophies were released as part of a content update (just like the Clubs update was), and was not an officially listed piece of DLC obtainable via store download. 

The customisation items include a couple of new car shells, a handful of decals and paint-jobs. Some new wheels, boost trails and a few other things are also thrown in. It's a very vanilla piece of DLC, though given the fact it was the first one released, it was probably treated as a warm-up for everything else that was to be subsequently released later down the line in the form of more fleshed out content packs with new game modes, features and arenas.

There are 6 new trophies on offer, most of which are related to performing specific tasks whilst using the 2 new car shells. These are very easy requirements too. If you equip the Dominus shell, stick a decal on it, play a game, and perform a 180 slide in that game, you'll grab 3 trophies in 1 go.

You'll also need to complete a Season Championship using the Dominus shell in every game, which isn't too bad against a team of bots, depending on which level of bot difficulty you choose to play against. I personally opted for All-Star bots, which is the hardest, and loaded up a Season of 10 teams, playing 18 games, followed by 3 knockout rounds. I actually lost a couple of knockout games going for the trophy, which caused me to have to start over. A little frustrating, but this was always a good way to pad up the shots on the goal for the "Rocket Repleter" trophy in the AquaDome pack, so it never felt like the effort was ever in vain.

The other trophies within this pack for using a specific boost, and travelling 10km with a specific set of wheels, can both be accumulated whilst progressing through a Season Championship. They haven't all been as straight-forward as this, and I think 9 DLC packs culminating in 88 total trophies is a little bit too overcommitted, but the variety has been enjoyable on the whole.

DLC #176 - Rocket League - AquaDome

One of my favourite things to experience in games is references to other games that have driven content or sparked inspiration, especially when the crossover is so unexpected.

This is exactly what AquaDome does. It adds the underwater arena reminiscent of the sea-based environments of Bioshock, and the references are even less subtle within some of the trophy requirements.

The AquaDome arena is cool. It's dynamic with sea creatures that roam on the outside of the playing area, such as sharks, jellyfish and turtles, and just about visible through the murky waters are other synonymous objects such as shipwrecks, coral and seaweed.

A couple of new car bodies are also added, as well as the new Rumble game mode - A variation on Soccar where modifiers are triggered at set intervals that influence the flow of the game. These include the ability to freeze the ball dead, reverse your opponents controls and magnetise the ball. It's a wild game variation and I was a little bit disappointed it didn't have a heavier focus within the trophies on offer here.

Speaking of which, there are 7 available, with a random assortment of tasks throughout.

As mentioned, there are a couple of trophies dedicated to Rumble mode, but these are fairly easy to obtain, as well as a couple of nice references to Bioshock for performing specific goalscoring actions on the AquaDome arena - Slightly more challenging, but easy enough to set-up yourself in exhibition mode.

However, the random nature of these Rocket League lists means you never know what's waiting for you next, and courtesy of this, there is a standout Gold trophy that will require some decent grinding;

Rocket Repleter - Make 535 Shots on Goal

The "Rocket Repleter" trophy, awarded for Making 535 Shots on Goal, isn't exactly cryptic in it's description, but it is a seriously high volume.

I didn't initially have this on my radar, because I felt that, despite this being a pretty big total to amass, I would be able to make fairly great strides towards it as I went through the other DLC packs over the course of time.

However, as I approach the end of this journey, I had to consciously check my progress, and whilst at first it didn't appear I was that far off my target, I also didn't realise that the "Shots on Goal" statistic recorded within the profile menu, is actually also not an accurate reflection on my progress because the progress towards this trophy is only tracked as of the AquaDome update, and everything recorded before this is unaccounted for.

So when my profile read 470 underneath the "Shots on Goal" statistic, I was in actual fact, on around 370. The trophy triggered for me on exactly 700, and I ended up just having to play the game casually to accumulate the remainder - Which wasn't really an issue, it just meant it took longer than I anticipated because the trophy overworks you for what is already a fairly steep requirement.

I did accidentally discover a solid tactic fairly late on this journey. There is a game mode called Heatseeker, where every time you hit the ball, it'll gravitate towards the opponents goal. This is a guaranteed shot on goal every single time, and is an easy way to accumulate towards this target. It would have saved me alot of time had I discovered it sooner, and I probably wouldn't be talking about this particular trophy in the same way, but we live and learn.

You should be able to naturally tandem this trophy with everything else across all DLC packs. After all, that was always the plan - I just wasn't aware of the fact the shots on goal only counted from the update onwards, and were not retrospectively tracked, which made things a bit grindier than I first thought. Had I also discovered Heatseeker sooner, this would have been a complete breeze.

Either way, just one more pack to go before we finally put Rocket League to bed for good.

DLC #175 - Rocket League - Clubs Update

There's not actually too much to say about this content pack. It wasn't released as an open piece of DLC, but was instead included as part of a patch update.

In fact, the update doesn't seem to add much at all. No new customisation items, no new arenas or game modes and no new features, although this makes sense given the fact this was a content update, and not a piece of downloadable content. What doesn't make much sense is how dull this update actually is.

The new clubs system allows you to now invite friends into your club, where they'll sport certain chosen club colours and a club tag, but that is literally it.

It's a little bit confusing how bare bones this feature is, and even to this day, it still hasn't been fleshed out with any new additions or ideas over time. It feels like the framework for something bigger that just got ignored and left to fall by the wayside.

You can access your club from the main menu, and from within, you'll be able to see the clubs members, set the teams colours/club tag and create private matches - Presumably to play amongst each other.

I did some additional research, just to make sure it wasn't just me missing something glaringly obvious, but it just seems to be a hub for absolutely nothing. No club leagues or tournaments, no club levelling system, no ability to openly challenge other clubs, no club records. It not only feels like a wasted opportunity for something that could have added something great to the game, but it also feels utterly pointless. Strange.

However, it does add 6 new trophies, and you'll need at least 1 club mate to tackle them with.

Creating your club and completing an online tournament game can be done on a solo basis, but the remaining 4 trophies will rely on playing with a club mate, so you'll need to grab a co-op partner to complete this list with.

None of the requirements are too strenuous, and you should be able to achieve all the trophies within the same amount of time it takes to complete 10 matches with a club mate, which you can do through either Tournament, Competitive or Casual play. It's recommended to start at Tournament play, as you'll need to win the MVP award in a Tournament match for one of these trophies.

The "Squad Goals" trophy, awarded for Scoring a goal while in a Club Match, has the potential to be tricky, because you'll need to matchmake against another club, and not just 2 random people who have been matched together against you, and whilst this happened normally for me, this is down to random chance, and I'm not sure how many people who play together are also part of the same club, so just be aware.

Outside the 2 solo trophies, I managed to grab the 4 co-operative trophies within less than 2 hours according the to trophy timestamps - This was also achieved within just 1 game session, so my experience here was seamless. It's an easy pack if everything falls into place, but just be aware that you may need to play longer than anticipated if you can't find another squad within the matchmaking environment to score a goal against.

DLC #174 - Rocket League - Dropshot

It's become apparent to me that one of the strongest suits of Rocket League is their variation of game modes. Having previously reviewed the Neo Tokyo pack - which introduced Hoops and Snow Day - this pack further introduces the Dropshot game mode.

Where Hoops and Snow Day were easy to explain off as just variations on Basketball and Ice Hockey, Dropshot is a little bit more complicated to explain. The new arena in which Dropshot takes place (Core 707) is a Hexagonal shaped field, split into 2 halves, with each half containing a certain number of hexagonal tiles that make up the floor.

The goal of Dropshot is to break through the floor of the oppositions side of the arena using the ball, exposing gaps, and subsequently scoring via knocking the ball through any space in the ground.

In regards to the goalscoring process, the floor consists of 3 stages. A weak shot (which does not electrocute the ball) will damage a single floor tile. A stronger shot (which will electrocute the ball) causes radial effect damage to a number of surrounding tiles. Any damaged tile which is subsequently hit a second time will cause the tile to break, exposing the floor below it, and giving you a goalscoring opportunity if you can then knock the ball through that space.

The more you do this, the more of the overall floor you'll expose, thus increasing your chances of scoring. Games are the standard length of 5 minutes and whoever has scored the most goals within that time, wins the game. It's a simple, but fun concept, and it's probably my favourite Rocket League mode.

As ever, the pack also adds a bunch of additional cosmetic items, some new arenas to try out and 6 additional trophies. Half of these are focused on random requirements and the other half are focused on Dropshot itself. Most of it is fairly easy, but you will need to spend a reasonable amount of time in Dropshot here for one particular trophy;

Full Course - Score a total of 18 Goals in Dropshot.

The "Full Course" trophy, awarded for scoring a total of 18 Goals in Dropshot, might not seem like anything too tasking on face value. However, for as much as I enjoyed playing Dropshot, it is a game mode that feels like success comes at a premium when it comes to scoring goals.

This isn't like Soccar, or even Hoops and Snow Day, where you can score with a single shot and witness games just erupt into pure goalfests out of nowhere. The nature of Dropshot outlined above means games are generally very low scoring, and in my personal experience, it was rare to see games end with anything more than 3 or 4 goals between each team.

When I say "the nature of Dropshot", what I mean is, there's alot to do to score a goal. Floor tiles need to be broken before the process of scoring is even possible, and when you do eventually score, the opposition's floor completely resets, so you have to begin the process all over again. When you combine this with the fact games are still only 5 minutes long and Dropshot is played on a 3 v 3 basis, meaning tough competition to score against team-mates, it does mean 18 goals is a slow burner.

I'm not sure how many games it took me to do this in the end, but when I was attempting to keep track, I was playing out alot of games without even scoring. This is mainly down to limited opportunity, but I do also believe it's a much harder variation of game mode to play and learn, especially compared to traditional Soccar.

I suppose perseverance is the key. You may get lucky with some flukey touches that go in and will credit you with the goal, but that's Rocket League all round. As long as you're prepared to watch the games go by where you chalk up a big zero, then it's OK, but almost certainly don't be expecting to get this done within a handful of games. There are a couple of other trophies to earn from Dropshot in tandem, one of which is awarded for damaging 320 tiles across all games, but I had this done way before I notched up 18 goals.

A fun mode, at least, which prevents the looming feeling of pointless grinding, especially when you start to rack up the games where you draw a blank. If you're going to get nowhere, you might as well have fun doing it, and it always make the trophy a bit sweeter when you do eventually grab it.

DLC #173 - Rocket League - Revenge of the Battle-Cars

I've decided to pick up the pace a bit with Rocket League now. It's a well overdue full completion and I think I can make some decent headway towards the finish line with a reasonable level of focus at this point.

The Revenge of the Battle-Cars DLC pack celebrates Rocket League's roots, paying tribute to Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, originally released in 2008 in the Playstation 3 era. Incidentally, it was also one of the very first Playstation titles that adopted the trophy system, which also debuted in the same year.

Due to this being a tribute pack, the Scarab and Zippy car bodies are added - both of which featured in the original SARPBC title, and with it, comes a heck of alot of cosmetic additions. These include new decals, paintjobs, toppers, wheels and boosts, amongst other things. It is purely a visual content pack that focuses on customisation, and even goes as far to add a couple of filters to existing arenas that alter the time of day you can play them in.

The 5 new trophies have a mixed focus and look like they've just been thrown in randomly for the most part. You'll have to exercise either Scarab or Zippy for a couple of the trophies, which should emphasise the nostalgia a little bit, but you earn the remaining trophies through equipping an assortment of different cosmetic items and beating up on a couple of bots through the Exhibition mode.

If you're lucky, and work this the right way, you can actually achieve all 5 trophies within a single Online match, and a single Exhibition match. The parameters of the 2 online trophies will require you to both win a game and be the MVP with either Backfire, Scarab or Zippy, and this is easy in 1 v 1 match.

For the remaining 3 trophies, equip a certain decal, topper and boost, choose a 2 v 1 with All-Star bots and roll a game on the Urban Central map. Then, use your boost at any point during the game, win, and you'll get all 3 trophies at once. If you miss any, just load up a new match and fulfil the requirements on another attempt.

This can easily be done within 30 minutes and up to an hour if things don't as smoothly for you as outlined above, and certainly makes this the easiest Rocket League DLC yet.

DLC #172 - Rocket League - Neo Tokyo

In the latest venture of "jumping back into Rocket League at completely random intervals with no logical reasoning whatsoever", we're now officially half-way through the DLC content in terms of packs completed.

Neo Tokyo's main event is the addition of the Neo Tokyo game-field, which acts as a replacement to the previously discontinued Neo Underpass game-field. Neo Tokyo has some sort of cultural significance to Japanese Anime, but that's all lost on me so it's just a new arena as far as I'm concerned.

There are a couple of other solid additions though. The Snow Day and Hoops game modes are introduced - Variations on Ice Hockey and Basketball respectively - and a trading function, allowing players to trade items with each from within the game. Incidentally, this is due to be discontinued imminently and may render a few trophies unachievable, or potentially a bit more difficult to earn, which has some relevance here.

Participation on the Neo Tokyo arena isn't actually incorporated into the trophy list. However, all other previously aforementioned additions are, with a clear emphasis on Snow Day, Hoops and item trading.

Earning the 4 trophies for requirements tied to Snow Day and Hoops are easy, and should require no more than a handful of games on a casual-play basis. The 2 trophies related to item trading - Not so much;

Certifiable - Earn Veteran status for your Certified item.

The "Certified" trophy, awarded for Earning Veteran status for your Certified item, is actually broken down into a small handful of stages, as follows;

Step 1 - Obtain a Certified item, which is earned through random award each time you level up. When I checked my inventory, I only had 2 certified items, so I'm not entirely sure how rare these actually are. I don't play Rocket League much at all, so they may seem rare just by default of that exact fact, but you used to be able to obtain them through the Rocket Pass too. However, certified items are no longer available through the Rocket Pass, and with the in-game trading system also about to be removed, this will also close off the potential avenue of being gifted them by other players. This will, in theory, make them more difficult to obtain, as you're left with just purely hoping on random luck each time you level up as your sole method of obtaining a certified item.

Step 2 - Understand which statistic drives the progression of your Certified item and how many of these you'll need to reach Veteran status. Each Certified item is attached with a specific in-game statistic that you'll need to accumulate in order to level it up. The item I settled on required you to clock up Centered balls, of which I needed 200 in online matches, to reach Veteran rank. Some tasks attached to Certified items will require less than this total, but are also generally considered to be tougher to accumulate in comparison, such as goals and MVP awards, and this sort of high volume, whilst simple enough, still requires the grind.

Step 3 - Accumulate the total number of actions required to level your Certified item all the way to Veteran rank and unlock the trophy. Centering the ball requires you to play the ball to within the centre of the pitch, and as mentioned, you'll need 200 of these to reach Veteran rank. This took me around 10 hours or so, and because you have to clock this up within a competitive environment, the game doesn't allow you to just boot up exhibition matches against uncompetitive bots. This can make progress slow, and I was averaging around 3/4 centered balls per game, so 200 felt a little grindy, and 10 hours is a long time to spend on a trophy like this.

The bigger reason for note, is the fact there may be very limited ways in which you can obtain Certified items going forward, with the imminent removal of in-game trading and the fact you can't get them as Rocket Pass awards any more. If you don't already have a Certified item to roll with, then I'm not sure what your prognosis of success looks like, as it seems the only way you'd be able to acquire one is through natural levelling progression.

The rest of the pack is very straight-forward, but this is definitely one to watch.

DLC #171 - Uncharted 4 : A Thief's End - Survival Mode

There's no such thing as straight-forward when it comes to Uncharted DLC. It's proven to be the peak of the series when it comes to delivering a genuine challenge to the player, and the free-to-play Survival Mode in Uncharted 4 is no exception to the rule.

Survival Mode is effectively a horde-based game mode for up to 3 players, taking place across 10 different stages. Each stage consists of 5 waves, and in order to beat a stage, you'll need to successively complete each wave by fulfilling the requirements set for it's completion.

Each stage can be tackled on 4 different difficulty variants. These include Easy, Normal, Hard and Crushing, but if you're familiar with the typical demands of Uncharted trophies, you won't be surprised to know that the primary focus within this DLC pack is towards the higher end of that difficulty scale, and you'll be competing within the Hard and Crushing difficulty levels if you want to grab all the trophies on offer here.

As far as horde-inspired game modes go, this is solid for the most part, and that's mainly down to the excellent combat Uncharted delivers, which has always been a strong point of the series. Great mechanics are essential to these kind of games modes that focus heavily on combat, otherwise it can make the product stale and dull, and despite being a frustrating experience at times when aiming for full completion, it's still a great game mode which I enjoyed through to the end.

There are 12 new trophies on offer, and the roadmap to full completion has very clear direction. You'll be awarded 10 of these trophies just for beating each of the 10 stages on any difficulty level to any star rating, which is measured on a scale of 1-3, and is based on how quickly you can clear the 5 waves on any given stage.

However, despite a plethora of trophies thrown at you for some very simple requirements, there is a standout trophy;

...It - Earn three stars on all Survival stages on the Crushing setting.

The "...It" trophy, awarded for earning three stars on all Survival stages on the Crushing setting, requires you to earn every star possible (30) across all 10 stages - and in typical Uncharted DLC fashion, this is not an easy feat.

Each of the 10 stages contains 5 waves to beat, and these will either be Survival, Siege, Marked Man, Treasure Hunt or Warlord. Warlords are bosses, and these occur every 10 waves, with the exception of Stage 10, where there are Warlord waves at 49 and 50 to end the game. To spice up the challenge, waves will also come with modifiers. Survival, but only headshot kills count or Siege, but enemies are revived by Saviours in the local area, for example.

There are a couple of important pre-requisites to point out before tackling this trophy in earnest. These are as follows;

• It is not compulsory, but is highly recommended, to be at least character level 40 before you attempt anything on Crushing difficulty. Each time you level up, your character will receive a 3% permanent boost to their HP and damage output, which will both significantly help on Crushing. You can level your character up through playing on Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty variants of the Survival stages.

• You will need to just beat each stage at least once on Hard difficulty in order to unlock Crushing, so you will be forced to cut your teeth on the preceding difficulty level before being able to jump into the same stages on Crushing.

• Collecting gun upgrades to reach level 5 is extremely useful when dealing with Crushing mode, and whilst also not compulsory, is highly recommended too. Defeated Warlords will drop an upgraded weapon, and a weapon to level 5 will give you more damage from that weapon, which is a great asset in Crushing difficulty. You can only obtain level 4 drops from Warlords on Hard, and you'll need to play Crushing to earn level 5 drops, but this is extremely useful for overall character development.

These things are all important to know, and should ultimately be where your focus lies in order to adequately prepare for Crushing difficulty, however, it is absolutely fundamental to success to have good teammates.

Some of these 10 stages are brutal on Crushing difficulty, and this is down to certain factors. 3 stars are awarded for beating the stage's 5 waves within a certain time limit, which gradually decreases the amount of stars you earn down to 0 depending on the amount of time you take to clear all waves.

You can somewhat cheese certain stages though, and you'll find that sitting in specific positions can create enemy spawn patterns that will lead them in a specific direction towards you, which also creates a chokepoint where you can pick them all off at will. This is sometimes complicated by wave modifiers, that force you to move, such as Treasure Hunts and Sieges, which will add an extra dimension of challenge, but on the whole, is a relatively assured tactic.

I did mostly play with random players, and you notice how chaotic things can get when you play with people who don't understand this tactic, and the importance of it to clearing certain stages within some fairly slim timescales. If you've got one player (and this mode is for only 3 players) running around doing their own thing, it creates a level of disorganisation you can't afford to have if you want to reach 3 stars on Crushing difficulty.

Stages 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 all include Warlord bosses. Stage 10 has 2 of them. This is where things really pick up because they have high HP, wield powerful weapons, spawn in tons of smaller enemies to assist them and use powerful attacks that can down you instantly. You'll need to be able to deal with these Warlords quickly and efficiently if you want to achieve a fast enough time to earn 3 stars on Crushing, and this is where the importance of good teammates will really come to the fore.

I was lucky enough to find a solid pairing to assist me, especially with stages 8 and 10, which both caused me problems when trying to earn 3 stars, and did require multiple attempts. Part of the issue is, if you all die and have to restart the round, the clock does not reset, so the margin for error is practically none-existent and failed attempts will just eat into the time limit.

The approach for dealing effectively with Warlords is to make sure you have the right offensive weapons and perks equipped. For me, the quick revive perk, in order to help revive downed teammates faster, is essential to success, as is the enhanced radar perk, which allows you to see all enemies on the map as red dots. I also pretty much exclusively used sniper rifles, alternating between the HDR and M14. If you play with good players, they'll probably have their guns ranked up to level 5, and will be familiar with the strategies to success outlined above, so when you combine it all together, and you're all on the same page, things will click and you do have a solid recipe for success.

I did spend some frustrating runs attempting to beat some of these stages with random players who just didn't know what was required for victory, and the stage would pass us by as the time limit ticked beyond the 3 star requirement, so I would definitely go as far to suggest that good quality teammates are imperative to unlocking this trophy. You'll need to do your bit too. There's no wiggle room for a carry here, so you'll have to bring something to the table yourself. It's a genuine collective team effort, and even then, it's still a tough challenge, so you will have to be prepated to fail along the way.

However, the important thing to note is, you will succeed, but only if you stick to the correct strategies. This won't be achieved through fluke, or being carried, or without the right approach, so it's important to understand that you'll have to work hard for this completion. It's a reasonable time-sink too - somewhere within the 20-25 hour mark, and some of these latter stages will take 20-25 minutes each time. It's a worthy completion to add to the collection, and maintains the high standards required by the player from Uncharted DLC content.

Platinum #123 - Infamous : Second Son

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 2/10

It seems a long time since - but I recall the Infamous games well. The karmic choice system, the increasing plethora of unlockable abilities and having to collect a bucket-load of shards which was, pardon the pun, Infamous in trophy-hunting at the time, and possibly still is. Despite a new direction for the series in multiple ways, not much of that has actually changed.

It's been over 8 years since I grabbed the Infamous 2 Platinum, and over 10 for the original Infamous title, which was one of my earliest ever Platinum trophies.

Infamous : Second Son, following up as a non-sequel to Infamous 1 and 2, but still technically the third game in the Infamous timeline, sees you take control of Delsin Rowe, the successor to Cole Mcgrath from the first two Infamous titles.

Delsin resides in Salmon Bay, home of a fictional native tribe called the Akomish. Nearby, a group of conduit prisoners are being transported across the country by the D.U.P, a specialist force whose purpose is to eliminate the conduit presence in the country. The convoy is destroyed and the conduits escape, and whilst rescuing one of them amongst the wreckage, a struggle ensues and the conduit transfers his powers into Delsin's body, thus also transforming him into a conduit being.

Delsin works closely with his brother, Reggie, who is a police officer, to use this to their advantage, and take down Augustine, the leader of the D.U.P, and the mastermind at the forefront of the extermination of the conduit race.

I was never massive on the original Infamous titles. They were solid, but ultimately just OK. It's a series, that, for me, could have benefitted from radical change and a degree of reinvention, but Second Son doesn't do that, and staleness ultimately sets in here. You end up just getting a game that feels exactly the same as the original Infamous titles, only with a much less likable main protagonist. I think Delsin is a weak character whose depth only runs as far as a few quippy one-line exchanges with his brother throughout the game.

You still have 2 clear karmic paths to follow, with the same set of in-game actions dictating which one you're steered toward. The same cluster of side quests are repetitively plastered across each of the whole open world districts and you still have to collect shards to upgrade an extensive list of abilities via a loose skill-tree system. Combat, movement and gameplay all look and feel exactly the same, and even the trophy list has a very familiarly recycled look to it.

There are new powers at your disposal that you'll discover throughout the story, in the form of Smoke, Neon, Video and Concrete (the latter is only briefly presented at the end of the game though). These are fun to use and alternate between, though I did end up heavily favouring Neon purely for how easy it is to get around with the dash ability, but the variety and effects from special powers do keep the game feeling somewhat fresh, and they are a graphical treat. Each special power has it's own set of abilities too, but a projectile attack in Neon moves the same way as a projectile attack in Smoke, and a bomb in Video still moves in the same way as a bomb in Concrete. You ultimately still feel like you're driving the same car - It's just the car has different paintjobs, but it is the still the stand-out mechanic in the game.

However, the overall lack of reinvention also extends out to the trophy list too. The game contains 48 trophies, all earned through the Single Player, story-driven experience, and these follow the exact same template of the previous Infamous games.

Just straight off the bat, there is a minimal challenge to be had from this list, and the roadmap is very clear. Beat the game once, ensuring you choose the good or evil karmic path, then beat it again on Expert difficulty, choosing the opposite karmic path you didn't choose first time round. This should take you through to the very end of the list, with a very linear methodology that doesn't require any deviance away from this route.

The karmic trophies account for 23 trophies within this list, which is just shy of half the overall total. To further break this down, 12 of them are awarded for making the relevant good/evil choice with specific branches along the way in the main story, and the remainder are for fulfilling karmic-specific actions within the open world setting through side activities, but these can be easily achieved within either playthrough, regardless of whether you're going through your good or evil path.

The story is also a fairly short experience, spanning across a total of 25 missions for roughly 8-10 hours of gameplay. The Infamous titles have never been renowned for their length, but this is the shortest story by a considerable distance in comparison to previous games.

Outside of this, there are a host of trophies related to the side quests within the game. The open world element is a still a big focus within Second Son, as it was within the previous Infamous games, and Seattle, which is where the game's open world is based upon, is split into 14 districts, each controlled by the D.U.P. The other half of this game, away from the story, is all defined around taking back control from each district by fulfilling a number of side objectives which will gradually reduce the total control the D.U.P hold to 0%. This will clear that district from D.U.P influence.

These include disabling security cameras, tagging graffiti messages onto billboards and destroying radio towers, amongst other things. This will take a while, and quickly becomes fairly monotonous once you realise the objectives required to clear each district are all the same. The big positive is, you won't need to do all of this twice - Some open world games will only allow progression through clearing a certain amount of side content, but Second Son will allow you to go through the main story path and leave the side content untouched to whatever extent you so wish, which is a massive plus point in a game that struggles with justifying it's replayability, but will still require you beat the game twice in order to achieve the Platinum trophy.

The "Unstoppable" trophy, awarded for Finishing the game on Expert difficulty, is the only trophy of any reasonable note here, and even that is a stretch. The only condition that changes on Expert difficulty is the fact enemies hit a little harder, and thus, your health will deplete at a quicker rate. However, the dash ability is the ultimate equaliser, turning out to be perfect for running away from fights and allowing your health to automatically regenerate when you remain outside of conflict for a short period of time.

To the naked eye, the difference between Normal and Expert difficulty was barely noticeable, and even on the toughest difficulty mode, this game doesn't do alot to stand in your way. 

To further cement the case for Second Son being the easiest Infamous Platinum trophy to date, there is no longer any collectible-based requirements contained within the trophy list either. Blast shards still exist, and you'll still need to collect them in order to upgrade abilities for Delsin, but they are no longer incorporated into the trophy list. Collecting all 350 blast shards from Infamous 1? Gone. Collecting all 305 blast shards from Infamous 2? A thing of the past.

The requirement has been reduced to an absolute zero for Second Son, and given the fact these games are so similar, this is a big difference maker in the conversation around whether this is the easiest of the three infamous Platinum trophies as a consequence of this exclusion.

The list does also contain a host of miscellaneous trophies to make up the remainder, though these are incredibly easy and much less grindy than some of the trophies within previous lists. It really is one of the most straight forward games I've ever played.

To conclude with a final answer, I do feel as though this is easiest Infamous Platinum trophy to date, though the bar was never set terribly high to begin with. Infamous 2 peaked at a 3/10, so would it feel fair to rate this the same, whilst claiming it to be the easiest Infamous Platinum trophy simultaneously?

I am going to follow up with what makes the most amount of sense though. Despite having to beat the game twice, as well as regain 100% control over every district on one of these playthroughs, you can still comfortably earn this Platinum trophy within 25 hours. The lack of necessity of having to collect every blast shard is a huge differentiating factor, and is ultimately the reason I can't justify scoring this the same as Infamous 2. 

Even beating the game on Expert difficulty level was a low touch challenge, and the game practically rolls out a red carpet for you on your way towards it's Platinum trophy. I barely came away with a scratch here, and neither will you.

Notable Trophies -

Unstoppable - Finish the game on Expert difficulty.

Hardest Trophy -

Unstoppable

Finish the game on Expert difficulty

DLC #170 - Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 - Uprising Map Pack

After having now played through 8 different Zombies maps/experiences across 2 Black Ops games, the level of creativity is something I have to give out some serious credit for, despite not always enjoying Zombies as an overall experience.

These packs have taken us far and wide. Different eras in time, different references to popular culture and different game mechanics to suit the themes these maps are based around.

Zombies in Uprising is set in within the famous walls of Alcatraz prison, and even includes an Easter Egg where you have to attempt a prison break - A nod to the popular culture of belief that genuine prisoners of Alcatraz island have attempted to escape on numerous occasions.

The "Mob of the Dead" also references the cast of gangsters, all taken from a variety of different mob films, emphasising an obvious theme throughout. It's good fun, and if you understand the history behind Alcatraz, or have a penchant for gangster films, you'll be hooked in. 

There are also a number of different game mechanics added in with this round of Zombies.

For the first time, death isn't treated in the conventional way. Instead, upon death, you'll be given a second chance through Afterlife mode, where you'll control a ghostly spirit of your own character, and if you can find your downed body in time, you'll be able to revive yourself from beyond the grave.

In a clever twist, you can also purposely trigger Afterlife mode in order to perform certain actions that you can't when alive. These include restoring power to perk machines, mystery boxes and traps. You can also access certain areas of the map only reachable in Afterlife and clear zombies quickly with the use of electricity as an offensive weapon.

The mode also sees the introduction of prison guard, Brutus, a terrifying presence who spawns in at random and will relentlessly hunt you down as a bigger, stronger and faster version of the traditional zombie. He's slightly reminiscent of the Panzer Soldat from Origins. Other smaller additions include the new perk Electric Cherry, which produces an electric shock with area-of-effect damage each time you reload and the Blundergat, a new weapon combining the mechanics of a Blunderbuss and a Gatling Gun, which can be crafted from parts at a crafting bench. Extremely fun to use too.

Alcatraz is also a very perilous map, full of close quarters action that can get you into trouble at any given moment. Narrow walkways and dead ends around the prison cell area, confined rooms and even limited space in the very few outdoor areas in the dock and rooftop. There were plenty of hairy moments when hunting these trophies down and it creates genuine tension.

Speaking of which, the trophy list adds a further 10 trophies as part of this final zombies experience, though the overall challenge isn't too daunting.

The Easter Egg is a little bit unusual here, in the sense that, the required steps will strive towards finding 5 parts in order to build the plane on the roof, and once done, launching the take-off sequence to escape the prison. This is one variation of the Easter Egg, and will net you the "No One Escapes Alive" trophy. I managed to get it done within just 6 rounds.

However, the plane will crash land and you'll end up back inside Alcatraz, and instead of collecting plane parts, you'll need to collect fuel tanks to refuel the plane and take-off a further 2 times, which earns you the "Making the Rounds" trophy, but again, I was only at round 9 by the time I'd done this.

Finally, there is an alternative way to complete the Easter Egg, whereby you can break the cycle and experience a different ending than just looping the map. If you engage the plane take-off in Afterlife mode, you'll end up having to revive yourselves in Afterlife once you land the plane on the bridge. However, whichever person is controlling Albert "Weasel" Arlington will revive as a target for the other players, and killing him earns everyone the "Pop Goes the Weasel" trophy.

As I said, it's a little bit unusual, and may need to be done across multiple games, but the steps are incredibly easy, and don't require you to venture too high into the later rounds at all.

However, there was still a little bit of resistance here that lay away from the Easter Egg related trophies;

Full Lockdown - In Mob of the Dead, Brutus completes his patrol.

The "Full Lockdown" trophy, awarded for allowing Brutus to complete his patrol, requires you to tick off a list of objectives where Brutus has to destroy a variety of different objects around the map in a single game.

Brutus will spawn in at random, and is noticeable from most parts of the map. When you can't see him, you'll hear his footsteps and the screen will shake to indicate his close proximity, and if he's close enough to certain objects, he'll destroy them. There are 9 objects for him to destroy in order to fulfil this trophy. These include 5 perk machines, 2 crafting stations, any single mystery box and the Plane frame located on the roof.

He spawns amongst any normal zombie wave every 6/7 rounds, but if you can keep him alive, he'll spawn in with every wave, which does help, as the rounds will climb quickly as you wait for him to respawn and this will naturally make it tougher to survive the longer this continues.

You'll basically need to reduce the wave to the final few zombies and drag them around the map with him. Every time he gets near the objects, he'll destroy them, and all you need to do is effectively lead him around the map to the relevant areas where these objects are located. It does sound simple enough, but you're still having to fight off zombie waves in a very congested map, as well as ensuring you leave a couple alive to allow you to complete the patrol quicker.

I did also find it very buggy. Brutus will regularly run straight past objects he's meant to destroy and zombies waves will just randomly end if you perform certain actions, such as use the Gondola or Plane which are quick ways to get to different parts of the map. Brutus will still spawn in, but a new wave will start, which heightens the risk against the trophy as you're having to compete with a fresh horde every time this happens.

I dragged one attempt out to round 18 once and then died with just 1 object left to destroy, purely because Brutus wouldn't focus on the plane on the roof. As I ran a new wave in circles, I eventually got overwhelmed, died and left feeling cheated by the buggy AI.

I did manage to get it within another couple of attempts, but I have always found it hard to stay motivated with zombies mode when you have to start right from the beginning at wave 1 after losing loads of progress, which goes for any trophy-related challenge I've ever attempted within zombies mode.

It did recently come to my attention that I'm not entirely done with zombies - A misconception I was carrying through this entire clean up process for Black Ops 2 as I made my way closer to the end of the experience. I still have unfinished business with Call of Duty : World War 2, but that's a venture for another time.