DLC #209 - Grid Legends - Classic Car-Nage

Demolition derby has always been one of the lesser touched upon aspects of racing in Grid. I never even knew it existed in Grid 2 or Grid Autosport until I looked it up. Perhaps this was finally the time for Classic Car-Nage to do justice to the art of destructive racing? Not according to the trophies.

More on that shortly. As well as 5 new vehicles to thrash around 4 new track variants, the package also adds a brand new collection of events to the Grid story, which encompasses the new cars and tracks well, but unfortunately leaves everything feeling a little bit on the lean side for overall content.

Unfortunately, the disappointments don't stop at the lack of new content. There is an absence of any sort destruction derby arena - the best form of destruction racing - and we don't even get a new career mode branch. Even the 4 new track variants are limited to 2 existing locations in Havana and Yokohama.

The story is also pointless and just made up of a string of corny cutscenes featuring Valentin Manzi just talking at you - Harping on about how great destruction derby is in as many different ways to fill the gaps between chapters as possible. It's really forced and feels like they didn't have any genuine ideas for a developed story angle.

The AI is really wonky when it comes to course correction during demolition events too. Cars will pile up after collisions and just sit there stationery in the middle of cross junctions causing huge obstructions, or they just stick to walls, waiting to be moved by another car.

Damage models are also really underwhelming and don't give off a true sense of destruction that should be the absolute minimum in this type of racing. I'm aware of the restrictions that exist on damage models for manufacturer vehicles in games, but if it wasn't for a clearly labelled health bar slapped on the side of the screen, you wouldn't even be able to tell your car had been in such events most of the time. I didn't actively dislike it, but it certainly leaves much to be desired, which is a shame, because demolition derby is really fun when it's executed well.

Regarding trophies, there are 10 added here as part of this package, and the journey naturally starts with the new story branch.

There are 8 new events included, with 3 of the trophies awarded for completing all 8 chapters. The only requirement to progression is that you have to achieve the primary objective for each race, and this doesn't require you to win the event in the majority of instances. The most challenging objectives revolve around having to deal a certain amount of damage per event, which occurs in 3 of the 8 chapters.

For some reason, it's really difficult to deal damage, which is a huge irony in something focused around destruction. The points threshold for each of the events that require a certain number of damage to progress is quite high, and even when you absolutely plough into other cars, you don't seem to deal much in terms of damage. These events are the ones that caused me the most issues and halted progress. I ended up deliberately ramming into dormant cars on the track to improve my damage output as the tactic to achieve the points threshold in these events - By far the easiest way to accumulate damage.

The rest of the trophies beyond this are very straight forward, but you'll need to rack up some hard mileage to tick off all of them.

This includes the "Will you sponsor me?" trophy, awarded for Completing any Classic Car-Nage sponsor event. If the Platinum trophy has taught you anything, it's to make sure you pick this before you do anything else. You get 3 new sponsors to choose from, and the Achevee sponsor objective is probably the most favourable of the 3 options, though important to note it comes with a requirement to clock 99 miles in Classic Car-Nage cars.

Add a further 2 trophies awarded for reaching Tier 3 upgrades for both the Dumont Ute Pick-Up and the Beltra Hot Rod, which is another 70 miles on top for both combined. Then, for the icing on top, you'll need to accumulate 99 miles in the Beltra Frostbite ice cream van for another trophy in the list.

In theory, you could bundle the 99 miles for the Beltra Frostbite and the Achevee sponsor objective into one, and this wouldn't be a terrible idea, but even if you chose this approach, you would need to accumulate at least 169 miles to earn the remaining trophies. That'll cost you around 3-4 hours of aimlessly lapping the track of your choosing. Fun.

It would have been more befitting of the content to perhaps add some damage accumulation trophies instead of just requiring the player to drive a random number of miles. It's a little bit of an ironic twist of fate that a story that messages to the fanbase "Oh how we've all missed demolition racing" - and then goes on to implement a trophy list that ensures the majority of the time you spend on this package ends up being based around aimlessly driving around to grind miles just to earn over half the trophies in the list.

It's a complete swing and miss. The mileage trophies should never have been the focus of a package intent of reviving the art of demolition racing. It ends up doing a disservice to the genre and comes across lazy and devoid of ideas. The rest of the DLC has some seriously heavy lifting to do.

Platinum #146 - Super Meat Boy

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 10/10

32,665 deaths. Every single one of them either part of a learning process or an agonising run-killer in an attempt to string together 20 levels without dying. A soul-destroying, demoralising victory. But a victory nonetheless.

Just to make sure the headline gets the immediate attention it deserves - This is the hardest game I've ever earned a Platinum trophy for, and I'm really proud to finally have this one in the collection.

Super Meat Boy was originally developed over just a 3 week period and released on Newgrounds back in 2008, before being further developed for console release. It's console debut came on the Xbox 360 and was later ported to the Playstation 4.

You control Meat Boy - A boy made purely from meat (surprise) - with a love interest in Bandage Girl, who is subsequently kidnapped and held hostage by Dr. Fetus. You'll transverse a multitude of different worlds, all with their own theme, in an attempt to rescue Bandage Girl and defeat Dr. Fetus. Each world comes with it's own series of individual levels to beat, littered with traps and hazards, which you'll need to avoid to make it to the end of each one. You'll also encounter boss battles and warp zones on your path to rescue, as variations of the core game.

It's a sharp, fast-paced platformer, with most levels lasting a small handful of seconds, which gives it a strongly addictive, pick up and play foundation. Aside from moving side to side, you only have 2 other prompts - Run and Jump. It's a really simplified gameplay concept, but the intricacies are what set this game apart. Timing, weight of jump, landing accuracy and speed all make up the list of skills you'll need to perfect in order to reach the required standard of the trophy list and it's brutally unforgiving levels of mastery.

Despite the emphasis on Meat Boy, there are also a series of unlockable characters you can choose to play from too. They're acquired by collecting bandages, which are hidden throughout the various levels in the game, and all come with their own different abilities. Gish can stick to surfaces, Spelunky can explosive dash and Commander Video can hover. If you recognise some of the names, all of the unlockable characters are based off other popular platformers, which is a nice touch, but most importantly, they all offer alternative ways to tackle levels.

The graphics are pretty basic. This is a 2-D platformer after all, but the colour palette is strong and each world is captured with it's own shades and tones really well through the graphical design. The sound is also great - From the way too familiar splats of death to the techno beats that introduce every world and overlay each level.

It's a real gem within the indie catalogue, and whilst not absolutely overflowing with depth and content, it has enough to keep you engaged, and that's where the trophy list comes in;

Super Meat Boy is a small-sized list, containing 24 trophies, including the Platinum trophy, but don't let the packaging fool you. This is about as gruelling as it gets.

Firstly, the structure of the game is split down into 7 chapters. Generally, within each chapter, there is a light world and a dark world, with 20 levels contained within each. The exception to this rule is chapter 6, which only includes 5 levels, but still contains a light and dark world variant, and also signifies the end of the game. Chapter 7 - Cotton Alley - is effectively a bonus chapter, but follows the same rules.

Progressing through this story is the natural first step. Beating all 20 levels in the light world will unlock the dark world variant, as well as the next chapter of the game, and it's a good way to get familiar with the controls and ease yourself in with some of the easier stages. This is necessary because things get rough later on and practice absolutely matters.

Levels contain some hidden secrets you'll need to look out for too. A total of 7 trophies are awarded relating to finding all 100 bandages and beating all 30 warp zones - Both of which are hidden within various levels of the game. Bandages are especially important because every 10th bandage you acquire will give you a new character and these become imperative to success in the no death runs later on. The warp zones are not as important to clean up as quickly, but there is a warp zone where you unlock The Kid - The most important unlockable character in the game.

Throughout the natural progression of the story, you'll be actively working towards one of the main trophies in the list.

The "I'm A Golden God" trophy, awarded for getting 100% on Super Meat Boy, start bragging! requires you to fulfil a series of tasks that contribute towards achieving a 100% rating. Your completion percentage is monitored under the statistics menu on the front page, however, the exact requirements do not accompany this and aren't actually listed anywhere else within the game menus. 

The requirements include beating every light and dark world, beating every warp zone and collecting all 100 bandages, beating all boss fights and unlocking every available character. This is mostly achieved as you naturally play through the story, though you'll have to go out of your way to find many of the bandages and warp zones. Not only are they well hidden, but sometimes tough to obtain.

One thing to note about bandages is that you have to collect them within a level without dying, and some of them are placed in tricky spots that increase the difficulty of beating the level as a result. You'll need to pull off a dangerous manoeuvre or go through an alternative, usually more challenging route to beat the level. It's not always the case, but it's enough to elevate the challenge of this trophy.

Further to this, warp zones can also be tricky to beat. There are 3 stages to a warp zone, and you only get 3 attempts to beat it. If you die 3 times, you'll reset back to the initial stage. Again, this condition to completion elevates the challenge slightly. Some warp zones also contain some of the bandages you'll be hunting down at the same time, so there's a further requirement to beat some of these warp zones without dying too.

There's also one final requirement to this trophy, which is to beat every level in the game with an A+ rating. To achieve this, you'll need to beat them all within a certain amount of time, which is set specifically to each level. This is where the skill requirement goes up a notch, and this part of the trophy is best tackled once you've beaten the story and you've more than adequately honed your skills to a reasonable level.

Playing with flawless speed is something you're going to need to master if you want the Platinum trophy, and this part of this particular trophy is good practice for that. You'll probably beat a fair few levels within the time required naturally, but some will require practice and their time constraints are so tight, you can't afford any margin of error or loss of speed.

If you've managed to unlock this trophy, you're ready for the next stage of this Platinum. I know a lot of people who have drawn the line at 100% completion knowing the fresh hell that lies in wait, but if you've achieved the prior trophy, I'd say you're well above average standard by this point and if that applies to you, then you're at least ready to start tackling the other half of this list. That's because, if there was ever a game that sorted the meat from the mince, Super Meat Boy is it.

There are 12 trophies awarded for beating each light and dark world variant in the game, excluding chapter 6, but including the Cotton Alley, without dying.

This means you need to run through 20 consecutive levels to the end flawlessly. A gentle reminder I amassed 32,665 deaths by the time I'd finished this game. I understand that's well above average, but it measures personal qualities you can't quantify by numbers.

The Forest and Hospital chapters were easy. When I mentioned above it was important to get all the bandages as early as possible, this task is the specific reason why. You're not tied to just using Meat Boy for these trophies, and some levels are made much easier by the abilities of some of the unlockable characters, which is a necessity when tackling these no death runs. 

Further to this, there is also a warp zone where you can unlock The Kid. I ended up using him for around 70-80% of this whole task. He moves quickly and most importantly, can double jump, allowing him to do things other characters just simply can't, including breach larger gaps, obtain more height and greater escapability, especially when you're about to either fall short of a landing or jump directly into a hazard. He does also come with his own trophy for unlocking him, so you'll need him for the Platinum too.

Salt Factory and Hell are where I began to see noticeable differences in the difficulty scaling, but with The Kid now by my side, I knew I had everything I needed to drive onwards. The dark world variants of Salt Factory and Hell were where I started to hit progress walls, with some trickier levels that would often end no death runs, but I still had them both beaten within a week of conquering their light world equivalents, and though it was obvious I was now taking longer to beat these stages, I was still making it closer to the overall goal.

Rapture light world. Easy. I felt like the skill level I'd developed by this point was obviously shining through. I was making light work of at least the light world variants of each chapter. After all, I beat Rapture light the very next day after beating Hell dark. Rapture dark took almost 2 weeks after Rapture light, and I was nervously starting to wonder what the fuss was all about. I'm not saying that I wasn't finding this difficult. I was still committing large gaming sessions to these trophies and often walking away from my console empty handed after an entire day of failure - But I knew I was getting closer each time. Then we hit the wall I was dreading.

The "Girl Boy" trophy, awarded for Beating Cotton Alley light world without dying, is where I thought the journey was about to end. 

Cotton Alley is a secret world you unlock upon beating the game, where Meat Boy is kidnapped by Dr. Fetus, and as a result, you play as Bandage Girl. She has exactly the same properties as Meat Boy, so this isn't really an issue. However, I'd heavily relied on the unlockable characters to this point, and Cotton Alley does not allow you the luxury of character select, which instantly increases the difficulty of this challenge.

Throughout these no death runs, my general strategy was to prioritise the hardest levels first and work an order where you leave the easier levels for later on in the run. I would personally create 3 blocks and segment the 20 levels in a world between them, with the 3 blocks being labelled as "Hard", "Medium" and "Easy". This may have just been purely a psychological tactic to help it seem less daunting by breaking down the levels into sections, but I felt like it worked well knowing that once I'd reached the medium and then easy categories, I knew I had the harder parts behind me, giving me extra motivation to push to the end.

I'd start each session by just warming up and running through levels to find my rhythm. I'd watch a lot of other players runs to pick up tips and tricks. If I failed on a specific level, I'd play through it religiously to squeeze out every inch of perfection to make sure I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. The categories I'd created were fluid. Levels would move between each one based on the principle that opinions can change. This task had suddenly become a full blown science experiment. I don't think I've put this level of research, trial and error and strategical tweaking into a game before. This was suddenly as much about will to win as it was skill.

Cotton Alley also throws every game mechanic at you. Air propellors, saw blades, missiles, lasers and gravity magnets. So many different hazards to get past. If you're curious, these are the following levels I categorised as "Hard" in Cotton Alley light world;

• Level 6 - Panic Attack
• Level 7 - Tunnel Blower
• Level 11 - Train Eater
• Level 16 - Hopscotch
• Level 19 - The Rash
• Level 20 - 4 Letter Word

Almost a month after beating Rapture dark world, I'd finally managed to unlock this trophy. This was the first point where I had serious doubts about my capabilities. I'd come a long way though, and it would have been criminal to quit so I made the necessary adjustments and committed myself to a clear strategy to help me along, but we still weren't finished.

The "Impossible Boy" trophy, awarded for Beating Cotton Alley dark world without dying, was the last trophy that stood between me and my proudest Platinum to date.

There's one thing I need to mention that I haven't touched upon yet, and this became a huge influencing factor to the success and failure of these later stage runs. I could influence my strategy, skill and tactical approach, but there was something  else I had to manage that was very much outside of my own control, which came with the territory of dealing in such high stakes tasks. Nerves.

The approach of tackling levels from hardest to easiest is generally accepted as the best strategy. The game gives you the flexibility of beating all 20 levels in a world in any order you wish, and you don't necessarily need to go from 1-20. Beating the tougher levels is half the battle. However, every time I'd reached the latter stage of medium, or the easier levels, I had this terrible bout of nerves that I suddenly had to combat. Knowing I was so close to my end goal was instantly nerve-wracking. Levels I could almost beat 9 times out of 10 suddenly had me making catastrophic mistakes. I came within a single level of beating Cotton Alley dark world alone 3 times before making errors I would never have made under normal circumstances.

A game that requires precision platforming is your worst enemy if you cannot control your nerves and this is something that cost me multiple times throughout, but it was always felt most during Cotton Alley. There is never a guarantee you come within just a single level of earning these trophies, and I unlocked this trophy a month and a half after beating Cotton Alley light world.

Numerous lengthy sessions without success. Times where I'd come so close and had to put the game down because it was just way to demotivating to start over at that particular moment in time. Another cheap death because I couldn't control my heart from racing at the prospect of being within touching distance of one of the most prestigious Platinum trophies you can get your hands on.

It finally happened though. I will bang the drum all day for the key to success being the determination to succeed. Your skill will only take you so far. The deaths are unavoidable. The fact the game has a statistic that tallies how many times you die should give you a clue. Here are the following levels I categorised as "Hard" in Cotton Alley dark world;

• Level 1 - White Noise
• Level 6 - Bone Machine
• Level 8 - In Line
• Level 9 - Salt Shaker
• Level 10 - Master Blaster
• Level 19 - xoxo
• Level 20 - Brag Rights

Knowing I had finally booted this game up for the last time was a priceless feeling and that's not the sarcastic comment it sounds like. I genuinely loved this game, but it didn't love me back, and I say that as a testament to how rewarding this Platinum trophy is after all the effort that went into it. I would sometimes spend 6-8 hour sessions attempting some of these no death run trophies and the common outcome was to put the controller down and try again another day. It's confidence crushing but I was too far down the line to just give up, and for all the skill needed to surpass this challenge, you won't get anywhere without the determination and will to overcome it.

I've never had to really deliberate over the games I've given a 10/10 difficulty rating to before. They've all deserved to be given maximum marks for their own reasons, but Super Meat Boy was the easiest to score. It requires levels of mastery I've rarely seen before with dedication that somehow outstrips. I used to stare at this game in my trophy list with visions of glory and it now has it's rightful spot as my toughest Platinum trophy of all time.

Notable Trophies -

I'm a Golden God! - You got 100% on Super Meat Boy, start bragging!
Girl Boy - Beat Cotton Alley light world without dying.
Impossible Boy - Beat Cotton Alley dark world without dying.

Hardest Trophy -

Impossible Boy

Beat Cotton Alley dark world without dying

Platinum #145 - Resident Evil 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 6/10

I never had the chance to play the earliest Resident Evil games. They were a little before my time. The first title in the series I ever played was Resident Evil 4, so the eventual remasters of every game prior to this gave me the perfect excuse to go back and plugs those gaps.

Originally released in 1998 on the Playstation 1, this 2019 remaster of Resident Evil 2 maintains the formula for what made Resident Evil such a big hit with it's fanbase. It's fair to say that the series has changed and evolved a lot through the years, but people are fiercely loyal to the roots of Resident Evil.

Taking place just months after the Resident Evil 1 outbreak that started it all, Resident Evil 2 takes place in Raccoon City - Completely overrun by the zombie apocalypse.

The main characters are Leon Kennedy, a rookie police officer on his first day in the job and Claire Redfield, a college student just caught up in the incident, and whilst both have slightly different plots and back story, the overall goal is to trace the origins of the outbreak under the belief that Umbrella Corporation are responsible for releasing the virus. This instalment marks the playable debuts of both Leon and Claire.

The gameplay mixes combat, survival horror and puzzle-based level progression. The entire game is played across 4 different environments, each of them with their own series of puzzles you'll need to connect together to access different rooms, reach vital items to enable further progress and ultimately piece it all together in order to advance to the next major part of the game. When I said above that people are fiercely loyal to the roots of Resident Evil, the heavy puzzle-based focus is exactly what I was referring to.

I really enjoyed the strategic level of thought required from this sort of gameplay experience. Discovering items lying around and working out where they need to be used and how they link together with different parts of the level was an experience I got deeply engrossed in. You'll need to scour the entire environment in detail, always pulling on mental notes of where a key may go or where you find a combination for a safe. Some items combine together to make a different item, some items that you may need immediately can only be accessed by retrieving another item first - For example, a key for a locked room - and some items may not necessarily be needed to progress the plot but do contain a path to some nice secrets, such as a new weapon or a hip pouch to increase inventory space.

There is some heavy some backtracking involved, but it's really well constructed with clever thought processes behind it to piece it all together and make it work. A lot of people are critical of some of the later Resident Evil games that shift their focus to all action shooters, and I can completely understand why after playing this. You still get the perfect blend of zombies to navigate past on your way to your various objectives, and may find yourself in perilous situations where you're either low on ammo, health or both, which is the deft reminder that you're still playing a survival horror game at heart. Your escapades will also be interrupted at regular intervals by Mr. X - An unkillable and relentless Tyrant zombie - He's cool, especially when he gatecrashes the party for the first time, but becomes a bit of annoyance once his novelty wears off.

The graphics are excellently sharp, it nails the perfect blend of gameplay mechanics and the story had me hooked throughout. It's a great instalment to the series and I'm glad the game was still as good back then as it is today, as someone who jumped on the bandwagon later and has had to find reasons to go back and explore it's past.

In terms of the trophy list, there are a total of 42 trophies, including the Platinum Trophy, and you'll know this game inside out by the time you unlock them all.

This is because of the fact the trophy list will require you to beat the game multiple times over on your way towards the Platinum.

You have the option to play through the game in 4 different ways. Leon and Claire both have an "A" and "B" variant of their stories. There are subtle, but noticeable, differences between all 4 variants, but the majority of the game is still the same. Their stories naturally crossover anyway, and the differences mentioned will include things like the placement of key items and the weapons both characters have access to. Leon and Claire also have an entire different segment of the story personalised to their own relationships with additional characters they both meet along the way.

To just break this down in thorough detail, there are 2 silver trophies awarded for beating Leon's story in any capacity and Claire's story in any capacity. This was an ideal starting point to simply enjoy the game for the first time completely blind to the plot. Despite it's challenges lying in wait, there is a lot of free fodder in this list along the way, with trophies awarded for some extremely simple and automatic tasks as you progress through the story. By the time I'd finished focusing on these 2 trophies, I already had 23 trophies in the entire list - Which equates to just over halfway.

You can choose from 3 different difficulty settings. These include Assisted, Standard and Hardcore. Assisted difficulty is great for 2 further playthroughs of the game - Another silver trophy is awarded for beating the game without opening the item box, and another silver trophy is awarded for completing the game without using a recovery item. Assisted difficulty gives you aids such as automatic firing lock-on, health regeneration and weaker enemies that consume less ammunition before death. These 2 trophies could be earned in tandem on the same playthrough, but I ran through them separately.

It was then time to turn up the heat just a touch, with yet another 2 further playthroughs of the game. Completing Leon's story on Standard or Hardcore with an S rank, as well as the same requirements for Claire's awards 2 gold trophies. Obtaining an S rank is classic Resident Evil, though the requirements are much more straight-forward than usual here, with time being the only determining factor of overall ranking at the end of the game.

You also have the flexibility of beating the game on Standard difficulty too, which is what I favoured for these 2 playthroughs. Standard difficulty is a little more lenient on completion time and you'll need to beat each story in under 3 and a half hours to make the S rank requirements. This makes it very akin to a speed run, and this is a fairly tight time requirement. There are a few crucial bits of detail to know for these trophies. Watching cutscenes and examining your mini-map will keep the clock running, so it's really important to skip cutscenes and rely more on muscle memory from previous playthroughs which means you won't be wasting too much time consulting your mini-map.

The most crucial thing to know is that, every time you die, hitting continue will take you back to your last save point, but the progress you've just lost will still count on the timer. If you hit quit to main menu instead, and manually reload your save from the main screen, the timer will reset back to where you last saved. This is an imperative tactic to know to be comfortable with these time requirements. The game isn't that long, but 3 and a half hours is still short enough to keep you on your toes, so you can't afford to lose progress that still clocks up against you when you die.

Truth be told though, all of the above is just a warm up for the true main event of this trophy list - Hardcore Mode. Every run through of the game prior to now effectively exists to allow you enough opportunity to equip yourself well enough to take on this challenge. You need to know the majority of the game like the back of your hand. Any hesitation, forgetfulness or lack of efficiency is truly punished.

The "Hardcore Rookie" and "Hardcore College Student" trophies, awarded for Completing Claire and Leon's stories on "Hardcore" game mode is where the majority of this game's difficulty rating comes from. I'm going to talk about both of these trophies in tandem due to their almost parallel similarity in terms of strategy, approach and tactics.

Hardcore mode limits the player in various ways. Firstly, you have to collect ink ribbons in order to save your game, meaning you can't just liberally use the typewriter whenever you want to in order to save your progress. It adds an extra layer of strategy to how you approach the game. Do you save knowing you'd lose 45 minutes of progress just before that section where you might have to fight a couple of lickers, or do you gamble it and kick on knowing you may need that ink ribbon later? It's a genuine dilemma and it's always important to have checkpoint targets in your head based on how well you know the game and what's due to come next. The decisions may not be as big as say, Dead Space 2 Hardcore - Where you only get 3 saves, but it will make you think carefully enough about your save game strategy. I did lose progress on a couple of occasions taking gambles and it's a tough one to accept, so make sure you know when to use them.

Secondly, the limited inventory space also gives further strategical consideration to Hardcore mode. On other difficulties, there are 7 pouches to collect that expand your inventory size to a healthy level. Hardcore contains just 3, which makes inventory management way more crucial here. It's great picking up attachments for guns until you realise that the shotgun now takes up 2 inventory slots, rather than 1, giving you less room for equally critical items like healing remedies and ammunition. I was constantly visiting storage cases to stock up on items I'd found to use later and chop and change what I was carrying at all times. It's also worth noting you have to carry around items tied to progressing puzzles, and these are permanently required to take up space in your inventory until you no longer need them. The game does a good job of marking items that are no longer needed once they've been fully used for story progression, but they're still a burden.

Obtaining the big hitting weapons like the Lightning Hawk and Grenade Launcher , as well as Stockpiling ammunition for them specifically to use in boss fights was the main tactic that got me through to the end. I knew that, in between these boss fights, the main areas full of regular zombies were easy to control with my handgun alone, which meant I could save my ammo for when it mattered most - Taking down the bosses. Within this, I cannot overstate the importance of the unlimited ammunition Samurai's Edge - A pistol you earn for beating the game with an S Rank. Some people will believe this goes against the essence of Hardcore mode, but having access to a gun you can use consequence-free that preserves ammo is a gamechanger, and if it's allowing me to use it, it's fair game as far as I'm concerned.

All of the above ultimately works by developing an extensive knowledge of the game through previous playthroughs of the game. Knowing the layout of each area, understanding where to go to acquire certain items and knowing all the game's secrets. It really does make a huge difference when the game is fresh in your mind and you can tackle Hardcore mode with the speed and efficiency required to beat it.

There is genuine peril. It's tense and nerve-wracking. It makes the game feel like a true survival horror experience. Running from Mr X whilst your health is hanging on by a thread. Losing your perceptions as a consequence and trying to re-establish your next route to safety because you're facing the prospect of losing 45 minutes of gameplay. Making it to the safe room where you now decide it's a good time to spend an ink ribbon on a save. Knowing trophies are hanging in the balance. It injects that terrifying rush of adrenaline.

I would say Claire's story is slightly easier than Leon's, mainly just down to virtue of the fact I'd gotten a little extra experience of tackling Hardcore mode through Leon's story, but I do also think Claire has a better arsenal to deal with the G boss fights - especially the Grenade Launcher and it's acid rounds. The Stage 3 G in Leon's story had me stuck for hours and was the biggest pain point across both Hardcore runs.

The rest of the list does include a couple of things to look out for. There are a small handful of hidden trophies for defeating the various stages of G within certain parameters. They will naturally become missable, as they're technically story-related, but you're required to play through this game so many times, you shouldn't really miss them if you look up their requirements. 

There are also a couple of collectible related trophies for reading all files scattered across the game, which are generally difficult to miss, but there are also 15 Mr. Raccoon figurines to identify and shoot, which are much more difficult to spot and will more than likely require a visual guide to find.

Finally, there's a single trophy for completing the 4th Survivor alternate game mode scenario - Where you have to backtrack through parts of the map from the sewer to an extraction point outside the police department as Hunk - An Umbrella Security Service Operator - who has been left behind in the outbreak. It's not really noteworthy, but there is a piece of DLC that focuses on individual survivors and their scenarios within Raccoon City to which this could be a taster of, though I am hoping they're a bit more engaging than this was.

Even though Resident Evil 2 sits just above average on the difficulty scale, this is mainly down to it's Hardcore mode challenge. I played through this game 6 times in total. My longest playthrough took just over 12 hours, and the shortest was just over 4, but trophy lists that demand you play through the story this many times are making brave decisions over the longevity of their games. Some people may believe that this is overkill, and I don't necessarily disagree with that. I didn't feel like this was as grindy as it should have been, and I feel like the experience stayed relatively fresh, though I did spread these playthroughs out over long-ish breaks away from the game.

The key to the Platinum trophy is making everything you remember about the game stick. Hardcore mode will still test you and you should expect no less, but if you give yourself every chance to succeed, then you more than likely will.

Notable Trophies -

Hardcore Rookie - Complete Leon's story on "Hardcore" game mode.
Hardcore College Student - Complete Claire's story on "Hardcore" game mode.

Hardest Trophy -

Hardcore Rookie

Complete Leon's story on "Hardcore" game mode