DLC #140 - The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone

As a general rule of thumb, I do always try to acquire the Platinum trophy for a game prior to completing any DLC there may be for it. This naturally makes sense, and for the most part, is followed to these standards, but situations do arise where the necessity to deviate from the norm arises.

So, without the Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt Platinum trophy in tow, comes the first of two DLC packs for the game in Hearts of Stone.

Just for clarification purposes, I didn't deem the "Munchkin" trophy, awarded for Reaching character development level 35, in the main list, within reasonable enough grasp for the content I had remaining in the main game - Thus, I turned to the DLC content knowing that the new questlines within would give me the experience points required to also achieve level 35 simultaneously whilst going through this pack.

Hearts of Stone is a stand-alone, story-driven expansion which follows Geralt through a brand new questline to fulfil the requests of both protagonists Gaunter O'Dimm and Olgierd Von Everic.

Geralt fulfils an early Witcher contract for Von Everic, which turns out to be a set-up for the Witcher to get caught up in a pact with Gaunter O'Dimm after being captured pending death, where O'Dimm frees Geralt for a promise to return the favour in exchange. This leads to the revelation that Von Everic and O'Dimm are closely associated, and the returned favour is fulfilled through a series of tasks to be completed for Von Everic, driven by his debt to O'Dimm. It's an interesting plot that takes various twists right up until the finale, and maintains one of the games key strengths throughout, in it's excellent story-telling.

There are 13 trophies on offer within this pack, which is a fairly large quantity for any DLC offering.

Whilst there are no trophies to really specifically call out for the difficulty or length, there are 6 related to the main story, though these are a little bit more than just standard progression-based trophies. Out of these 6 trophies, 2 of them are awarded naturally, where the other 4 require you to fulfil specific tasks that are considered missable throughout the main story quests, which means, despite being story-based, aren't necessarily guaranteed.

This is an approach that unfortunately blighted the story a little bit, purely because I had to read up on the requirements of all missable trophies, which naturally contained spoilers. Under normal circumstances, I would approach story-driven games blind and then focus on trophies for subsequent playthroughs, but without the necessity to play through this DLC more than once, I reluctantly had to expose myself to the spoilers contained within the trophy descriptions, so this in itself is important to point out.

The remaining 7 trophies aren't actually related to the content. They just seem to be added to pad out the trophy list, requiring you to complete a string of relatively simple tasks. Combat, Crafting/Buying equipment and Gwent are all covered off within these remaining trophies, so they span across a varied range of elements of the game.

The questline is around 8-10 hours in length, and is not bound by difficulty, so you're free to play at your own pace. Due to the fact the main trophy list requires you to beat the game on "Death March" difficulty, which is the hardest difficulty setting in the game, I carried this story on from where I left off with the main game. Death March difficulty can be quite challenging at times, and I did struggle on the very first quest because you have a boss fight thrown straight at you which instantly peaks the challenge. Aside from this section of the DLC, it wasn't too bad throughout the remainder, though you don't need to worry about the consequences of toning the difficulty of the game down, because the trophies here are not difficulty sensitive.

Upon completion of the questline, the remaining trophies will probably take 2-3 additional hours, perhaps longer depending on your level of success with the "Killed It" trophy, awarded for winning a round of gwent with a total strength of at least 187. This is luck based to an extent because it'll depend on the draw of your cards within a deck, but ultimately still achievable without hopefully too much trial and error.

Providing you're fully aware of the missable questline trophies, this is a very casual completion - An unnecessary way to do them, in my opinion. Why not just make them naturally progressive, to avoid giving away spoilers for those that don't want to have to potentially miss them and replay the story again - Nobody else does it this way...

Once you've wrapped up the story, the rest is just a very standard clean up process, and should take no longer than 15 hours total. I did manage to grab a few more trophies towards the main list too, so will also re-assess how plausible the Platinum is before beginning the final piece of DLC now I've managed to reach level 35.

DLC #139 - Crash Bandicoot : Warped - Future Tense

Just as with Lost Treasures, Future Tenses adds a solitary level to the N'Sane Trilogy, along with a further 2 trophies to go along with it.

Where Stormy Ascent within Crash Bandicoot was a pre-existing level which was cut from the final build of the game, Future Tense was brand new, and built specifically for the N'Sane Trilogy, bundled in as DLC to compliment Crash Bandicoot : Warped.

However, unlike Stormy Ascent, the challenge here is much more leisurely, with 2 trophies that can be mopped up within just 1 casual playthrough of the level.

Beating the level and collecting all boxes will award 1 trophy, with the other being awarded for using the bazooka to shoot any of the UFO scientists that can be seen occasionally travelling through the background of the level.

It should take no longer than 20-30 minutes to beat the level whilst earning all boxes. There are a couple of tricky sections, and there is a death route to account for, but if you've beaten the Lost Treasures pack prior to this, then this is a nice come down to complete the Trilogy.

Once you've managed to reach the death route, dying becomes inconsequential for the rest of the level, and it is a little bit surprising there isn't a trophy for beating the level in time trial mode for a Gold Relic, which had a heavy emphasis throughout the entire Trilogy, including the other piece of DLC within. We could have had to tackle another Stormy Ascent-esque challenge here, but it wasn't to be, and ends up being a nice and easy note to finish on.

DLC #138 - Crash Bandicoot - Lost Treasures

Lost Treasures adds a solitary level, considered as DLC, rather than just part of the main game, to the original Crash Bandicoot within the N'Sane Trilogy series.

Perhaps the reasoning behind this was because the level in question, Stormy Ascent, was eventually not included in the original Crash Bandicoot after being cut from the game, and it finally makes an appearance with a vengeance right here.

Despite there being only 2 trophies on offer for it, it turns out to deliver the toughest level in the game. None of the Crash Bandicoot levels really come close to the challenge on offer here, not even High Road, making you quickly realise why this level never made the cut in the original game.

The "Crown Jewel" trophy, awarded for "Seek and destroy" simply requires you to earn the level Gem for breaking all boxes. Simple.

However, that merely exists to whet the appetite and lure you into a false sense of security for what's to come;

An Ancient Antiquity - Do hard time.

The "An Ancient Antiquity" trophy, awarded for "Doing hard time", simply requires you to earn a Gold relic or better on the Stormy Ascent level. I say "simply", purely in theory.

As previously aforementioned, this is the toughest level to Gold relic in Crash Bandicoot. To take a direct quote from the development team; "It was too long and too hard and we ran out of time".

The completion time to qualify for a Gold relic is 4 minutes and 30 seconds, and it's important to note firstly, that this is plenty of time. You don't need to be faultlessly quick, which becomes an important tip to understand, because the best way to get past certain segments of this level without dying is to take your time.

Another key thing to note is the fact that, you're going to have to practice this run. A lot. The level is set on the side of a castle, and contains hazards such as sliding staircases and platforms that move and change direction at varying speeds. There are also awkwardly placed spike traps that can obstruct your path, particularly when jumping. You're only going to get closer to achieving this trophy but putting a minimal amount of hours in, understanding which points within this level are the hardest, and finding an approach that works to get past them. Then you just have to string it all together into a deathless run within the required time limit.

I would suggest I spent around 8 hours on this trophy altogether. I didn't track the amount of attempts it took me, and nor does the game, but I did manage to get it within 3 sessions. Video guides do help slightly, but such is the basic nature of Crash Bandicoot, and understanding that all you literally have at your disposal is the single jump action, the skill element purely boils down to timing, which is something a video can't really teach you. It's just mostly about practising the route, hitting a rhythm and most importantly, not being phased by the reality that this will test your patience.

8 hours might not seem like alot, but it's one of those trophies that mentally wears you down. The repetitive action of replaying the same level and failing at the same spots over and over has a very robotic notion to it, and causes you to dip in and out of focus. I died a reasonable amount of times purely through lapses in concentration bought about the monotony of the task, which never previously existed in any Crash Bandicoot Platinum across all 3 games.

The most challenging parts of this level are also right at the very end, so you don't tend to get as much exposure to these as you do the earlier parts of the level. Both the last 2 segments are tricky, but you get limited opportunities to practice them, and they effectively come down to just whether you can nail those last few segments with a bit of blind luck. This is where the video guide comes in handy, where you can pause to regroup, just watch the video for reference, and take your shot based on that, which is what ended up working for me. I only reached the final segment of the level twice, such was the challenge reaching that point.

This isn't the sort of the trophy you'll manage to just fluke on a few attempts. It requires sufficient enough knowledge of the level to be able to pull off some of the requirements necessary to reach the end of the level and nail the correct timing depending on where you are. Practice will make perfect, but it will also require potentially alot of patience, something I ran out of twice before coming back for my third session and finally completing this pack.

It did give me a good sense of accomplishment, despite the fact my attention started to wane significantly throughout this challenge, and even though my eventual Gold relic time was 4 minutes and 4 seconds, which was 26 seconds within the tolerance, it still felt like a hard fought victory.

Platinum #106 - God of War (Part of the God of War Collection on the Playstation 3)

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

Having recently gone through the process of assessing my PS3 collection, which isn't too far off full completion, I have decided to apply some heavy focus onto finishing it, given the fact the Playstation 5 has now finally arrived.

This brings us to God of War, originally released on the Playstation 2 in 2005, and bundled in with the later released God of War 2, in order to create this HD remaster on the Playstation 3.

Just as a quick side note, I won't be completing God of War 2, purely for the reason that I'm looking to finish my Playstation 3 backlog at this point, and certainly not looking to add to it, so unfortunately, God of War 2 will remain untouched for this reason.

God of War marks the very beginning of Kratos' journey, as the leader of a successful barbarian army. This is until one day, where Kratos is forced to call upon the original God of War, Ares, to save him and his army from an impending defeat, which is a wish that is granted by Ares in turn for Kratos' service to him and his army.

Ares ends up using this to manipulate Kratos, leading to a situation where he is trapped into accidentally killing his family. As a consequence, a story of revenge is born, where Kratos pledges to serve other Gods in order to rid himself of his guilt. Eventually becoming tired of this, he is tasked with the job of killing Ares to be relieved of his service to the Gods forever if he can fulfil this task.

This is a purely Single Player experience, like every God of War game prior to this, where the vast majority of this medium-sized trophy list is focused around the games story mode, with a very subtle change of direction for a few extra-curricular activities outside the main story.

The "Prepare to be a God" trophy, awarded for Beating the Game on any Difficulty, requires you to finish the story on any difficulty level, within any given amount of time (This is relevant to mention because there is a speedrun trophy to touch upon later).

It's actually quite rare for trophy lists that are heavily focused around story-driven games to not have difficulty related trophies, and out of the previous 3 God of War Platinum trophies I've earned, 2 of them have required you to defeat the game on the games hardest difficulty mode, so this is a slightly surprising change in stance here.

In the spirit of upholding traditional values, I decided to tackle this game on "Hard" difficulty, which is one below the hardest (God), and despite at least wanting a reasonable challenge, I still managed to clock the story within just under 10 hours. There weren't many parts of this game that caused any great challenge, and the standard of beating a story-driven game in less than 10 hours would be considered short in modern day terms - A stark reminder that this is an old game, where standards of game length were more within these expected timeframes back then.

What makes this easier is the fact that the game mechanics seem to have stood the test of time. Combat is slick, the camera functionality is steady and despite there being situations where it can feel like you're overwhelmed, it never seems unfair or insurmountable. It all contributes to a relatively painless experience, and even the big set-piece boss fights that God of War would become known for, and where you would expect the challenge of the game to peak, doesn't really achieve that. It may be a different story on the "God" difficulty setting, but I had no reason to pursue that option.

Upon completing the game for the first time, I had 31 out of the 36 trophies on offer. Discounting the Platinum trophy, that left me with just 4 trophies remaining to complete the list.

Of these 4 trophies, 2 of them were to be unlocked away from the main game, 1 of them was to be unlocked on a subsequent speedrun playthrough, and the final trophy I missed was for missing a very early on mini-game, so I managed to get through a very hefty portion of this list barely realising it.

Upon reflection of the rest of the list, it is very progression-heavy, with practically every trophy being awarded for either reaching certain plot points within the story, or defeating a certain enemy type whilst meeting them for the first time, or a significant boss battle. There are a few other trophies to obtain which require you to perform story-driven tasks within a certain way, meaning you can still miss them if you're not aware to them, but even with these requirements, this didn't seem to stop me in my tracks at any point. It is important to note though, if you do miss these, you will be required to playthrough the game again in order to reach these specific points, due to the absence of any sort of chapter select feature.

This will also apply to the small handful of trophies related to collecting all upgrades and maxing out all weapons and magic - If you miss any of the collectible upgrade chests, or don't manage to collect enough red orbs throughout the story, then you'll need to replay through the game in order to achieve these trophies. The upgrade chests, despite being collectibles, are generally easy to find, even when hidden around corners and breakable surfaces, and providing you're using 1 playthrough to take your time and scour every part of the game world, this won't be an issue (This is also the main reason I would recommend doing the speedrun on a separate playthrough, where you will be a little bit more pressed for time).

Speaking of which, the "Speed of Jason McDonald" trophy, awarded for Beating the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty, will require you to race through the game from start to finish in what is a reasonably lenient timeframe. It is dependant on a couple of very important points though;

Firstly, you need to be able to bypass many areas of the game that would usually require you to clear groups of enemies, rather than stick around and fight them. There are certain parts of the game that won't allow you to physically pass into the next area until you beat all enemies in the current area, however, where you can just walk past enemies, it is important to stick to that approach. Secondly, despite being an action/combat game, there are a reasonable amount of puzzle sections that would usually require you spend some time to think about how to solve them. Having to complete the game within 5 hours won't afford you the luxury of this, so it is better to make sure you pause the game (which stops the timer), and just familiarise yourself with how to complete the puzzle so you can avoid spending so much time on it.

The fact you can fulfil this trophy on any difficulty level is a massive help though, and if you've chosen to the beat the Challenge of the Gods, which you'll need to do to unlock this Platinum trophy, you'll also get an array of skins to choose from which grant you specific abilities. I went for the Dairy Bastard costume, which grants unlimited magic, and comes in handy when clearing those sections where you have to beat alot of enemies quickly in order to progress. I also chose the "Easy" difficulty level, which is the lowest in the game, and ended with a clear time of 4 hours and 26 minutes.

So far, so good, but we do have to close on the only real notably hard trophy in this list, and does end up contributing significantly to the rating of this game.

The "I'll Take the Physical Challenge" trophy, awarded for Completing the Challenge of the Gods, requires you to step away from the Story mode, and take on a series of 10 challenges, set with specific parameters for completion. This mode is unlocked upon beating the game once, and requires you to beat what is a varied range of challenges, mostly, but not limited to, combat.

In terms of the challenges themselves, most of them are actually fairly easy, and you just simply have to beat the current challenge to move onto the next. However, challenge 8 and challenge 10 are significantly more difficult than any of the other challenges.

Challenge 8 requires you to defeat all waves of enemies, which contains soldiers and Gorgons, and challenge 10 requires you stay on a platform whilst defeating enemies on the platform to raise it high enough to reach the end goal. It's the first time the game seems to lose it's aforementioned fairly balanced combat, with both challenges seemingly overwhelming you with enemies to the point where constant failure becomes normal, and trial and error quickly takes over. Challenge 10 is the toughest, where you're constantly having to find ways to stay balanced on a platform where even blocking enemy attacks can end up knocking you off and failing the challenge.

What's even more frustrating is the fact that you have to beat all 10 challenges in succession. There is no ability to save your progress after each time you successfully complete a challenge, and if you quit the game, you'll have to start from the beginning. Once I'd managed to surpass challenge 8, I had to leave my console on for 2 days because I didn't want to have to go through that challenge again, and accepted I would leave it on for as long as it took me to also beat challenge 10, which is certainly something not to be overlooked here. I would estimate I spent more time on this mode than it took me to Speedrun the game, and it only really comes down to 2 out of the 10 challenges. It ends up making this trophy the only genuinely difficult one in the whole list.

When I look back at the previous God of War games I have the Platinum trophy for, this is certainly the easiest. The fact you're not under any obligation to beat the game on a specific difficulty level, unlike other God of War games, which require you to beat the game on the hardest setting, is a big factor in the overall rating.

The fact I managed to unlock around 88% of this list by just simply playing through the game in order to purely take in the story is telling, and the Speedrun can be comfortably beaten with time to spare, providing you follow the key tips outlined above.

I finished my main playthrough within 9 hours and 42 minutes, and with a subsequent speedrun time of 4 hours and 26 minutes, that means I've managed to collectively beat the game twice within 15 hours, and one of those playthroughs was on "Hard" difficulty, proving that this wasn't really that challenging.

The Challenge of the Gods mode does stick a large spanner in the works though, and probably added another 5 or so hours on top of the experience for me, as well as being the first time I felt genuinely challenged whilst going through this list. If it wasn't for this trophy, I would probably be angling this within the region of a 3/10, but this definitely does enough to notch an extra mark on top of it, and despite the difficulties it caused me, this was still a Platinum trophy earned within just over 20 hours, making it an incredibly short experience, justifying it as my easiest God of War Platinum trophy to date.

Notable Trophies -

Prepare to be a God - Beat the Game on any Difficulty.
Speed of Jason McDonald - Beat the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty.
I'll Take the Physical Challenge - Complete the Challenge of the Gods.

Hardest Trophy - 

I'll Take the Physical Challenge                                                               Complete the Challenge of the Gods

DLC #137 - Call of Duty : Black Ops - Annihilation Map Pack

This one's been a long time coming and it's purely down to what is possibly one of the most frustrating Easter Egg experiences across the entire Call of Duty franchise.

Despite the fact I haven't had a terrible amount of exposure to these Easter Eggs, and since their introduction within Black Ops 1, I've only sampled them within 2 other Call of Duty games (Black Ops 2 and World War 2), so they may make my prior statement a little bit underqualified, but I still say it with enough conviction based on my own personal experience with this pack, and having also completed the Escalation Map Pack, whose Easter Egg related trophies were a complete breeze in comparison.

The Annihilation Map Pack adds a further 5 trophies to the Zombies mode within Blacks Ops 1, focused around the new Shangri-La map, an exotic jungle-themed setting with some interesting game mechanics, which are explored within the requirements of the trophies on offer here.

Out of the 5 trophies, 4 of these are fairly simple tasks, requiring you to obtain kills on the 2 new types of zombies (The Shrieker and the Napalm zombie), in specified ways, along with an additional trophy which requires you to use the new 31-79 JGb215, which will be referred to as the Shrink Gun from here on out, on each type of zombie. 

It is more than possible to obtain these naturally through normal play, but the final trophy is where the challenge of this pack properly kicks on;

Time Travel Will Tell - In Shangri-La, acquire the focusing stone.

The "Time Travel Will Tell" trophy, awarded for acquiring the focusing stone, is a complicated Easter Egg, which requires 4 people to achieve successfully, which is the first barrier to mention here. 

Within the previous Escalation Map Pack, you could achieve the Easter Egg trophy with just 2 people. This is also the same for the Rezurrection Map Pack, which I have yet to write up about, for which the Easter Egg trophy can be earned with just 2 people, making them much easier by sheer logic of requiring less preparation and co-ordination.

The frustrating thing is, the only reason you need 4 people is because you have to stand on 4 tiles simultaneously spread out around the map in order to activate the staircase in the spawn area which turns out the be the focal point for a few steps throughout the Easter Egg.

The completion of the Easter Egg is also subject to some classic RNG, requiring you to pull the Shrink Gun out from the mystery box, and then holding onto it long enough to be able to Pack-A-Punch it for a later step. The later you pull it, the more difficult the game becomes as natural progression takes you into higher waves, and if the person with the Shrink Gun dies, the weapon is lost to the void and will need to be pulled again.

My honest take, irrespective of anything else, is to hope to pull the Shrink Gun as early as possible. If you start getting into the latter rounds without still having it, you're going to struggle to fight off the hordes and the map is very small and compact, making it difficult to survive on for prolonged periods of time. With some groups I attempted this trophy with, we reached round 11/12 without having pulled the Shrink Gun and would call it quits under the belief it was just better to restart the game, which is a frustrating reality of this trophy.

Just incase that wasn't enough, you'll also be subject to some further RNG, because you'll need to spawn a Napalm zombie in order to help fulfil a step which requires some gas leaks to be lit by the fire he emits. This isn't anywhere near as bad as the RNG around the Shrink Gun, but the Napalm zombie will blow up if players get too close, or can just sometimes blow up seemingly after a certain period of time, which did cost us a run one time where the Napalm zombie just seemed to disappear and did not spawn again before we all succumbed to a higher round anyway.

I'm not too sure how many attempts this took me in the end, but just to share a final painful experience;

I should have had this trophy when I first went for it at the time I gathered the rest of the trophies in the pack, getting to the final few steps before realising that the person in the party who had the Shrink Gun had accidentally forgotten to save enough points in order to Pack-A-Punch the weapon, which meant we had to play on a few more rounds in order for this person to accumulate 5000 points. We didn't manage to and failed on the subsequent round, which is actually the main reason I left this trophy for so long.

I did re-visit it for a few attempts on a very irregular basis since then, but every failed attempt killed my motivation to spend more time going for this, but it did dawn on me recently how old this game was, and with a new console generation recently born, I figured now would be as good of a time as any to start completing some of these incredibly old Playstation 3 titles.

I'm slightly surprised I managed to finally unlock it, and had this game down as a very high risk one towards 100% completion, purely for this trophy alone, so I'm glad to finally have it. I can't really offer much more strategic advice, because you will mostly be at the mercy of RNG. If you want to attempt to play on through the higher waves and hold out for the Shrink Gun, it is still doable, but I always felt like it was time-efficient to just restart the game, rather than battle through the possibility of higher wave rounds. The fact you need a willing group of 4 people is also not to be understated, and something I would consider to be a concern at this point in the games life cycle too.

With my final 2 trophies within the Rezurrection Map Pack achievable on a solo basis, at least the pressure is off with the accomplishment of this pack, and that's always the main thing.

Platinum #105 - Geometry Wars 3

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10

I recall reviewing Angry Birds once upon a time, and posing the question how something with such a simple concept could end up being so challenging.

This is the same sort of logic I'd like to place on Geometry Wars 3, a game with a simple concept made challenging by intense dynamics.

The game is simply about controlling a vessel over a map/grid, eliminating enemies as they come at you in certain ways, depending on the specific shape. A large part of success within this game is to memorise the patterns of shapes and how they make any given level play out, developing your strategy to success based around this.

There are a variety of game modes, where some will be as simple as reaching a target score within a certain time limit or number of lives, where other variants will include clearing waves to trigger extra time and only being able to accumulate a score by moving between safe zones.

The variety within the different game modes makes for a relatively immersive experience, with an addictive pick up and play element. The game also contains a Single Player Adventure Mode, a Co-operative Adventure mode, a full selection of "Classic" game modes and Bonus levels, all of which are spread out evenly across the requirements of the medium-sized 31 trophy strong list.

The "Geometry Warrior" trophy, awarded for Earning 3 Stars on all 50 levels of Adventure Mode, is the main focal point of this journey, and will require you to achieve all 150 stars on offer throughout the Single Player experience.

Each level has 3 score requirements, scaling up depending on how well you perform within that level, and these seemed to be very hit and miss in terms of difficulty.

My personal recommendation would be to just reach the conclusion of the Adventure, which simply requires you to "pass" the level in order to move onto the next. This merely requires you to earn 1 star for each level. As you progress through the Adventure Mode, and get further towards the end, you'll be able to unlock upgrades for your vessel, which are important to maximising the 3 star requirements from certain levels. This is why it's better just to go through the Adventure Mode to completion, and come back with a full arsenal to tackle this trophy.

Prior to the commencement of each level, you'll be required to choose a "Drone" and a "Super". The Drone is how your vessel attacks the enemy, and the Super is the power you can trigger externally to support your Drone. The final Super you unlock is the Turret, which was pretty much a failsafe for me whilst going back through these levels. I didn't have any reason to chose anything else once I had unlocked this, and since you obtain it very late on during Adventure Mode, this is another reason to backtrack through the game once you've passed it.

In the end, there were about 9/10 levels which caused me any sort of genuine difficulty, but perseverance is the key to all of this, and the most common theme within this game. Spend time remembering the patterns within the levels and you'll eventually get there. That's not to say skill isn't required though. You'll need to think and act fast, as well as display some crucial sleight of hand to get through this mode and earn this trophy. Things get manic, and fast in some situations. Enemies come at you from all angles and it's an assault on the senses with millions of different things happening on screen at any one time.

As you go through Adventure Mode, you'll pick up a small handful of other trophies along the way, but for the most part these are spread out quite broadly across the game.

The "BFF" trophy, awarded for Achieving 3 Stars on all 10 levels in Co-op Mode, will require you to beat the shorter, but arguably more challenging Adventure Mode within the game. This is exactly the same blueprint as the Single Player Adventure Mode, a series of levels culminating in a final boss level.

The important caveat to this is the fact that the Co-op mode with Geometry Wars 3 is actually local Co-op, and not Online-based. My initial strategy was to attempt this with someone else, and whilst you can probably beat the Co-op mode with somebody who is merely a means to an end, obtaining 3 stars on every level in order to unlock this trophy is a different matter, and the person I chose just simply wasn't good enough to help me get to where I needed to be for this trophy. It's certainly designed in mind of playing with someone with a reasonable level of competence at the game, and that just comes with a learning curve that is simply too steep for another player who is new to the game.

This meant my alternative option was to play solo with an idle controller as the second player, and this ended up being a bigger challenge to me than the Single Player Adventure Mode, despite the Co-op Mode only containing a fifth of the levels.

It may seem like an obvious statement to suggest that I struggled within a mode that was built with scoring targets benchmarked against the assumption that more than 1 player would actually play the levels out, but this is the exact reason this trophy ended up being worth mentioning here. The approach of leaving the second controller idle whilst I chased around attempting to get 3 stars solo felt like chasing a lost cause on numerous occasions, with around 2/3 of the levels especially making it feel like I was reaching a point of questioning whether it was actually physically possible for 1 person to achieve a 3 star score threshold designed for multiple people to achieve together.

I trusted the faith in the tip-off that someone had told me they had managed to do it solo, and stuck at it, eventually getting there. I'm sure it may have been quicker and much less challenging to actually play with somebody else, but the availability of the other person to be with you physically when you need them is a big barrier, compared to just being able to pick it up and play solo whenever you wanted to give it another shot yourself.

Either way, this trophy was worth a couple of notches on the difficulty rating alone, and as soon as I realised this was local Co-op only, I knew this would present it's own challenges at some point.

Once you've beaten both Adventure Modes with 3 stars in every level, you'll actually have only put a dent in this trophy list, such is the vastly spread-out approach here. There are a fair amount of extra-curricular trophies awarded for beating developer high scores across certain levels and fulfilling certain requirements within specific additional game modes away from the Adventure. Most of these are fairly straight-forward, and shouldn't take more than a handful of attempts, however, herein also lies the most challenging trophy within this whole list.

The "Retro" trophy, awarded for Scoring over 10 million on Evolved Classic Level before losing a life, is a tall order, and really tests the skills you'll have picked up along the way whilst tackling this trophy list.

Evolved Classic is one of the more vanilla game modes, where you have 5 lives to accumulate as many points as possible before those lives expire. However, you need to be able to reach 10 million before even losing just 1 of these lives in order to fulfil the requirements of this trophy, and this is tough.

The level reaches certain points where there's a ridiculous amount of things happening on screen at any one time, to the point where it becomes genuinely confusing. Within the early stages of attempting this trophy, which was incidentally the one that triggered the Platinum, I knew this would cause me issues. It wouldn't have felt right for this game to end on a light note, without having one last obstacle thrown at you.

I did find good success in using whirlpools to my advantage, allowing them to suck up enough enemies before destroying them, which releases big scores and Geoms for multiplier purposes, accelerating your score significantly. You will still need large slices of luck in order to somehow not die as you approach the 10 Million score mark, and the 5 bombs you get can be timely saviours when you need them most, but this is still the most skill-reliant trophy in the game, and I spent sessions going for this to no avail before I achieved, and given that this was the final trophy I needed for the Platinum, that was wholly frustrating.

The "Gatherer" trophy, awarded for Collecting 1 million Geoms in Adventure Mode, is worth a final shout purely for it's grindy nature.

The trophy only counts Geoms collected through the Single Player Adventure Mode, and once I had collected all 150 stars in accordance to the above "Geometry Warrior" trophy, I still needed around 300,000 Geoms in order to achieve this trophy, which essentially just required booting up a specific level and replaying it over and over in order to accumulate the excess amount of Geoms left over. It was long winded and unreasonable. 

I felt like I spent a decent amount of time with the Adventure Mode to getting to the point of collecting all 150 stars, and still ended up way off the requirement of this trophy, so it was frustrating to carry on playing the Adventure Mode without any real reason to continue it further other than for the fact that there was another trophy that was reliant on the Platinum. There are a few games that fall victim to having trophies that outlast their content, and this is one of them.

Overall, this list provides a strong challenge. The Single Player Adventure Mode is well fleshed out and contains a reasonable level of challenge that prepares you for some of the extra difficulties that lie ahead.

The difficulty experienced within the Co-op mode will be purely based on which approach you decide to take when tackling it. The Solo experience is probably the hardest method, but the reliance of another person will still require them to master the game to some extent, and I suppose that will be dictated by your own circumstances and how accessible a partner is to you and how inclined they are to stick out a game that requires alot of patience to beat. I found it the harder of the two Adventure Mode trophies purely for the fact I didn't really have a feasible local Co-op option, despite attempting it this way before choosing to just go with it on a solo basis.

The clean up operation is seamless for the most part, with developer high score trophies and classic game mode trophies not really causing too many issues, especially after having the practice of going through 2 Adventure Modes that peak the difficulty of this game. However, the "Retro" trophy will act as a final curveball to test your skills once more as the exclamation point on this list.

Due to the trial and error nature of the game, it's difficult to put a time range on it for total completion. My personal experience was probably somewhere within the 50-60 hour range, though this isn't tracked anywhere in-game, and my completion time from first to last trophy spanned a period of 5 years and 11 months, due to the fact this was a game I picked up and played on a very sporadic basis, making it even harder to nail down an actual completion time.

If you have the patience, this will go along way to beating this game, but you'll need the skill to go with it too.

Notable Trophies -

Geometry Warrior - Earn 3 Stars on all 50 levels of Adventure Mode.
BFF - Achieve 3 Stars on all 10 levels in Co-op Mode.
Retro - Score over 10 Million on Evolved Classic Level before losing a life.
Gatherer - Collect 1 million Geoms in Adventure Mode.

Hardest Trophy -

Retro                                                                                                                  Score over 10 Million on Evolved Classic Level before losing a life.

Platinum #104 - Crash Bandicoot : Warped - (Part of the Crash Bandicoot N'Sane Triology for the Playstation 4)

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10

Originally released on the Playstation 1 in 1998, Crash Bandicoot : Warped, would serve to be the final title of the traditional Crash Bandicoot Trilogy.

Whilst Crash Bandicoot 2 didn't really seem to make massive strides in terms of differences to Crash Bandicoot 1, there are much more noticable differences within Warped compared to Crash Bandicoot 2.

The level design is the most notable of these, with a host of new types of level dynamics added to the game that go beyond the traditional platforming Crash Bandicoot was known for. Levels within Warped now include dynamics such as road racing, underwater platforming, flying and hanging, and allow for much greater level variety than previously seen.

The trophy list remains consistent with the prior 2 installments, with a moderately sized list checking in at 27 trophies in total, and the approach being exactly the same as before in terms of strategy.

The "Cortex N.Carcerated" trophy, awarded for Defeating N.Cortex, caps the game off after the now standard protocol of collecting 25 crystals has been achieved, along with beating the relevant boss for each area. One of the other notable changes within Warped compared to it's predecessors is that the levels are grouped into 5 across 5 different time-zones, each of which is relevant to a specific era in time and contains it's own themed levels, providing more of the variety mentioned above on top of the new game dynamics.

As before, you'll also earn a series of progression-based trophies for each of the bosses you defeat as you make your way through the 25 levels that award crystals, and it's still an incredibly easy journey up to this point if you're simply looking at just beating the game and defeating Dr. Neo Cortex to reach the conclusion of the story.

Naturally, the greater challenges come from going back though these levels and earning the gems and relics, which serve exactly the same purposes as before. 

The "Bringing Down the House" trophy, awarded for Earning 42 Gems, is where most of the post-game work will come from. 

As before, gems are awarded for either collecting all boxes within the levels, but in some instances where a level contains 2 gems, the second gem is awarded for a secondary requirement, depending on the type of level it is. For example, if it's a road race, the gem will be awarded for beating the other competitors to first place within the level, or if the level is set within a futuristic theme, the gem will be awarded for having to backtrack from a future starting point to collect certain boxes that were not previously available first time round. There are also 5 coloured gems which have to be earned in order to unlock specific routes within other levels which will also award a secondary gem in some instances.

It is also important to note that, once you beat the original 25 levels within the main game, a bonus zone is unlocked that not only contains 5 fresh levels that award their own gems which will count towards this trophy too, but there are also an additional 2 gems awarded within a couple of secret levels which can only be found through performing certain actions that can take you to these levels, though these are attached to a couple of the secret trophies on offer. This is also the only way to achieve 102% completion, upon the achievement of which will award a further trophy.

The "Boo-Yah, Grandma! Boo-Yah!" trophy, awarded for Earning 30 Relics (gold or better), sets the same requirements as previously outlined within the other Crash Bandicoot titles, and despite still being the most challenging trophy in the list, isn't actually as tough as it was in comparison to the previous games.

The main reason for this is the fact that you unlock the run ability once you've collected all 25 crystals and beaten Zone 5, which subsequently makes speedruns for relics much easier, if required. It is important to note though, I did actually manage to achieve the gold relics as I went through each zone, and didn't have to rely on the benefit of the run ability in order to succeed here, even with a couple of the more slightly challenging time trials, of which there are literally only a few.

Some of them took a slight degree of mastery and multiple attempts, but there was nothing to stop me in my tracks, and progression was still relatively seamless throughout the journey. I did opt to come back to a couple of time trials at the end once I'd cleared everything else, but that was the only extent to which the troubles went.

The list does also contain a handful of secret trophies, some of which already alluded to are tied to unlocking additional levels you'll need the Gems and Relics from in order to fulfill the requirements of other trophies within this list. The others are for just for fun, and reference a couple of cool Easter eggs along the way.

Despite the fact the game itself does have some obvious differences in game advancement compared to the previous 2 Crash Bandicoot titles, the trophy list has remained consistent to such a degree that it can be hard to produce a fully elaborate review without feeling like you're repeating much of what has been said before. Maybe this is just a trend to expect for Naughty Dog games in general, but it has the same feeling as the Uncharted series, trophy list wise.

What I will say is, I actually felt like Warped was the easiest out of all 3 games contained within this trilogy. One of the obvious things that stuck with me about the other 2 games was how challenging some of the time trial requirements for a gold relic were, where I didn't have any real issues with this during Warped. The trilogy peaks at Crash Bandicoot 1, and if you can get the Platinum trophy for that, you'll be absolutely fine the rest of the way, though that's not exactly suggesting that Crash 1 is challenging and the difficulty just drops off a cliff for the subsequent games, but more the suggestion that if you find Crash 1 manageable, it's all downhill from there and should get easier.

However, the trophy list is so similar to the previous games, and the game itself still does not have set difficulty levels to voluntarily increase the challenge on offer, which is by default very casual. This Platinum trophy also took me somewhere within the region of 20-25 hours in total, which also fits in line with the standard completion time based on the previous titles.

With all of these similarities considered, it just makes the most sense to be consistent with the rating and complete a full house for the trilogy by giving Warped a 5/10 too.

Notable Trophies -

Cortex N. Carcerated - Defeat N. Cortex.
Bringing Down the House - Earn 42 Gems.
Boo-yah, Grandma! Boo-Yah! - Earn 30 Relics (gold or better).

Hardest Trophy -

Boo-yah, Grandma! Boo-Yah!

Earn 30 Relics (gold or better)

DLC #136 - Bioshock Infinite - Burial at Sea - Episode 2

Upon conclusion of Burial at Sea - Episode 1, it quickly becomes obvious why this DLC content was split into 2 parts, and although both these episodic DLC packs do lead on directly from one another, they take on very contrasting gameplay scenarios.

Burial at Sea - Episode 1 ends with the version of Booker DeWitt you play as dying to the hands of a Big Daddy, which does make you question how Burial at Sea - Episode 2 picks this up.

The events of Burial at Sea part 2 are a direct follow up from the end of Burial at Sea 1, and the goal is still the same. To retrieve "Sally", though within this second part of the story, you play as Elizabeth for the first time in the whole of the Bioshock Infinite package. She is apprehended by Atlas who steals Sally, and threatens to kill her until she reveals she can help him and his gang escape from the sunken part of Rapture they're still inhabiting, at which point Atlas agrees to let her free to execute this plan and will give Sally in part exchange for holding up this end of the deal.

You will then take control of Elizabeth properly and go through the remainder of this mini-story to finally provide closure to the Bioshock Infinite experience, and will instantly notice the stark contrast compared to playing as Booker DeWitt.

Elizabeth is built for stealth. Her main weapon is a non-lethal crossbow that is supplied with tranquiliser ammunition and her lockpicking skill is developed to allow the user to pick the locks themselves and bypass doors/turrets with successful picks. She can also access areas via air vents and small tunnels underneath floorboards in order to bypass enemies without conflict and this episode also introduces the Peeping Tom plasmid, which allows you to become invisible in order to either sneak up on enemies to knock them out undetected, or just bypass them altogether.

She also does not have access to a shield like Booker, and her damage threshold is very low, meaning her character isn't built for run and gun, full force combat in the same ways that Booker DeWitt is, and since this is such a big and sudden shift in playstyles, it does feel strange at first. You will still get access to offensive weapons, but Elizabeth's skillset forces you into situations where stealth is the best way to get past most segments in this game, and is also compulsory to full completion of this trophy list anyway.

As before, Burial at Sea 2 adds 10 new trophies, with a similar assortment to that of Burial at Sea 1 on offer, containing an even mix of trophies based towards both progression and actions involving some of the new additions to the DLC.

It's important to note straight away, the "Taffer's Delight" trophy, awarded for Completing Burial at Sea - Episode 2 in 1998 mode, will be the difference between whether you have to play this episode through multiple times or not.

If you're sharp enough, you'll notice 1998 mode is exclusive to Burial at Sea - Episode 2, and requires you to beat the episode by non-lethal means. You'll only have access to the Crossbow and the Air Grabber, and whilst it doesn't really make the episode any more challenging, it is easy to overlook the importance of it to the trophy list when selecting your mode option at the very beginning.

I played through Burial at Sea - Episode 1 on 1999 mode under the assumption that one of the secret trophies would be awarded for such, but this was not to be the case. It would be easy to assume this here too, but Burial at Sea 2 flips this rationale over and now awards a secret trophy for completion of 1998 mode, so this would be a forgivable mistake to make if you ended up having to go through the episode more than once in order to complete the list based on prior experience.

Episode 2 is a slightly longer offering than Episode 1 too, clocking in at around 8 hours, so you'd probably prefer to dodge any sort of necessity to replay.

As for the remainder of the list, there are 3 progression-based trophies awarded at various plot points, including the conclusion of the Episode, and the rest awarded for menial actions with the new tools provided as part of Elizabeth's arsenal, including the new plasmids, differing types of crossbow ammunition and lockpicking. As previously, anything you manage to miss by the end of the episode can be collected within the chapter select option via the main menu, which has been a God-send throughout the entire Bioshock Infinite experience.

This package is very similar to the first installment, at least trophy-wise anyway, and despite being around double the length, shouldn't cause too many issues.

DLC #135 - Bioshock Infinite - Burial at Sea - Episode 1

After Clash in the Clouds, it was hard to believe they could make Bioshock Infinite any more challenging by going back to something more story-driven, and this turns out to be a fairly solid statement.

Burial at Sea - Episode 1 sees you return to Rapture, the underwater city setting from Bioshock 1 and 2. You're still playing as Booker DeWitt and you're tasked with saving an abducted girl called "Sally" on behalf of an older verison of Elizabeth who still accompanies you along the way. The details of her relevance and why you need to find her are kept purposely vague, and do become clearer by the end of the Episode.

The package blends Infinite and Bioshock vibes together. You have the same Plasmids and weapons from Infinite, but enemies are splicers, NPC's you see and hear within Audio Logs are all from Rapture, and you'll encounter a Big Daddy, all of which are synonymous with the Bioshock world.

The package contains 10 trophies in total, and is a much easier list than Clash in the Clouds.

There are 3 progression-based trophies awarded for reaching certain plot points in the very short episode, which clocks in at around 3-4 hours with maximum exploration.

The rest of the trophies can be obtained through various forms of combat. There are 2 new additions to the game via this Episode of DLC, in the form of Old Man Winter and Radar Range, and a further 5 of the trophies within this list are awarded for executing specific actions whilst using these 2 new combat methods.

Old Man Winter is a new plasmid that allows the player to freeze enemies and kill them by shattering their frozen body. It also acts as an environmental dynamic, allowing you to freeze water which can enable you to bridge gaps to both story areas and hidden areas. Radar Range is a new weapon which emits a beam of light that causes enemies to explode and can also cause splash damage to any enemies nearby. The requirements of all 5 trophies related to these new mechanics are very simple to achieve.

There is also the seemingly Bioshock token nod to Audio Logs, with a silver trophy accounted for, for collecting all 17 of these along the way. Some of them are locked within areas that you'll need lockpicks for, so that is something to be aware of, but you should find plenty if you scour the environment well enough, and failing that, Chapter Select is also back to save the day for any you might have missed to prevent you replaying the episode in it's entirety. 

There is also not a requirement to play though this DLC on any specific difficulty. I did choose to play on 1999 Mode, purely for the reason that, when I scoured the trophy list for the first time to scope it out, I made the assumption that 1 of the 3 hidden trophies was for beating the episode on 1999 Mode, and I'm not really in a position with this game to want to playthrough anything twice. This wasn't the case though, but the secret trophies are disjointed in the way they appear on the trophy list, which also threw my intuition off a bit, and gave me the impression that the isolated hidden trophy at the very bottom was not progression based, and was for beating the episode in 1999 mode.

It meant that I ran into a few complications with certain trophies, because I died a few times on some of the more hectic areas, and the price to revive as part of 1999 mode, just like it was the main game, meant that I didn't have enough money to upgrade Old Man Winter twice for the "Fully Equipped" trophy, awarded for Purchasing any two upgrades for Old Man Winter or Radar Range in Burial at Sea - Episode 1. I was able to load an earlier chapter via Chapter Select and continue my progress whilst accumulating enough money to just unlock it for the trophy though.

Even with this slight hiccup, this was still all wrapped up within 3-4 hours. It's a very casual experience in comparison to Clash in the Clouds, and that was even going through it in 1999 Mode, which you don't even need to do to earn all 10 trophies.

Platinum #103 - Grand Theft Auto V

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 9/10

This review was never meant to exist. The game was condemned to be forever "unachievable" as the first ever in my entire collection that became impossible to obtain 100% of all trophies.

I had come to terms with the fact this just wasn't meant to be, and for someone who has always aspired to trophy hunting as a completionist, it was a tough one to accept. However, there were still ways, and I had to just cling onto that hope knowing if luck played it's part, things could align.

That it did and here we are. Talking about Grand Theft Auto V, physically represented by a Platinum trophy, rather than talking about it as a "What if?". It's an even sweeter feeling when you consider how roller-coaster this journey is from start to finish, so let's begin. There's much to talk about.

Grand Theft Auto V, for the first time, sees you take control of 3 different characters. Franklin Clinton, Michael De Santa and Trevor Phillips. The plot revolves around a previously botched Heist job where Michael and Trevor are initially acquainted. Michael is alleged to have been killed at the scene by police and Trevor escapes, only for it be revealed that Michael actually also escaped and is placed under an unofficial witness protection scheme, relocated under a new identity with his family and allowed to live as a free man, for reasons which become apparent later, but won't be revealed here in the name of keeping things spoiler free. 

Michael starts life anew in Los Santos, and ends up getting acquainted with Franklin when he catches him trying to steal his car, but when they accidentally destroy the house of wealthy gangster, Martin Madrazo, they have to find a way to pay him back. This gets Michael back into his old line of business, pulling heists, to raise the funds and appease Madrazo. This starts the slippery slope, and as with any classic Grand Theft Auto plot, you end up working for a large selection of different and crooked characters looking to take advantage of some increasingly dire straits, which become even more dire as a consequence, and this in turn becomes cyclical as more plot twists develop along the way.

Trevor is introduced into the story part way through when he makes the discovery that Michael is not dead, and tracks him down within Los Santos. Franklin, by this point, has become somewhat an understudy to Michael and his criminal tendencies.

The game lends to this Multi-character angle really well, with a variety of different missions bounced between the 3 characters, along with a handful of missions where you switch between all of them to play out the various roles required to complete the job, which really comes to the fore when you go through the story heists and other big set piece missions.

The trophy list is large, clocking in at a total of 51 trophies, and is split between Single Player and Multiplayer. It follows the same sort of blueprint as Grand Theft Auto 4, with a lot of obvious similarities between both games, but this list does create some fresh challenges which do end up being significant differences.

We'll start with the Single Player side of this list first, and the main focus will be going through the game's 69 main story missions following the previously outlined plot above through to the very end, whilst undertaking a broad range of side activities which will also contribute towards 100% completion of the game.

The "To Live or Die in Los Santos" trophy, awarded for Completing the final mission, caps the main story off and is awarded upon finishing the 69th mission. The standard requirements of merely beating the game are not really that challenging though. You can respawn within missions an infinite amount of times until you beat them, and checkpoints are also quite generous. There also isn't a difficulty preset, though I did personally opt to change the controls from the traditional GTA headshot aim-assist to free-aim mode, in order to add some balance to the difficulty element, but still found it a relatively casual experience.

There are 11 progression based trophies including this one, and these are split fairly evenly between the game's 2 main focal points, which include both traditional story missions and Heists, which frequently pop up as a way of integrating Michael and Trevor's past into the current story.

The "Career Criminal" trophy, awarded for Attaining 100% Game Completion, is where one of the obvious similarities to GTA 4 can be drawn. Thankfully, there were no dramas with the journey towards 100% this time round, unlike GTA4, but there is alot of additional effort required for getting this extra mileage out of the game.

Aside from the 69 main story missions, you'll need to beat a series of other requirements, including races, parachute jumps, stunt jumps, Stranger and Freak side missions and a whole host of collectibles, aswell as various other activities. So there's a good mixture of new and old, and the trophy list covers many of these requirements with their own individual trophies to spur you along.

Some of these activities can be challenging, but mostly exist to prolong the game, and going for 100% will do exactly this, mainly in thanks to some very collectible-heavy requirements, which are worth mentioning collectively purely for their sheer volume, and even though the 100% checklist doesn't require you to collect all of them in some instances, there are individual trophies awarded for that instead, so you'll still need all of them regardless of what the 100% requirement asks of you. The collectibles include 50 Letter Scraps, 50 Spaceship Parts, 30 Submarine Parts and 30 Nuclear Waste Barrels. There are also vehicular-based collectibles, including 50 Stunt Jumps, 50 Under the Bridge and 15 Knife Flights, and expect all of this to contribute heavily towards the overall completion time of the list.

I also found some slight irritation within some of these collectibles, notably Stunt Jumps, that don't always seem to register properly, causing you to unjustly retry them, and Under the Bridge, which includes a few bridges that need a specifically small chopper to navigate underneath, and cannot be done with just any standard sized chopper. Some of the other collectibles are also positioned within awkward places and, as a general observation, require you to trawl across every single corner of the map.

The "Close Shave" trophy, awarded for Completing all Under the Bridge and Knife Flight challenges, is one of those aforementioned instances where there are part-requirements for 100%, but full completion required for the trophy, and these are the hardest tasks within the Single Player game. This is mainly down to the certain level of mastery required with air-based vehicles, which needs to be of a fairly high standard for the required tasks here, especially the Knife Flights.

The Under the Bridge part of this trophy isn't too bad, though, as just touched upon above, you will need a specific helicopter to fit under certain bridge gaps that are too narrow for a traditional helicopter to fit between, but the Knife Flights are a different beast. These require you to glide a plane sideways between a gap, usually consisting of 2 buildings, and make it through the other side unscathed. 

You can get some practice executing Knife Flights through the training school, completion of which is a 100% requirement under Hobbies and Pastimes, but these don't really prepare you for the eventuality of having to guide a plane through some very tight gaps. The general recommendation is to use the fighter jet, due to it's compact size, but I actually found Trevor's seaplane to be a sound option. It's slow and easier to handle as a consequence, but I used up a good chunk of time on this trophy, most of which is spent watching loading screens after you've clipped a skyscraper and wasted yourself. It's the hardest individual trophy contained within this series of mini-tasks that make up the 100% checklist, and does require some genuine skill, even though there are only 15 Knife Flights.

The "Solid Gold, Baby!" trophy, awarded for Earning any 70 Gold Medals on Missions, Strangers and Freaks, adds yet another layer on top of the Single Player experience, requiring the player to score a Gold medal on any 70 missions across the game. This is one of the new elements introduced to the trophy list that did not exist within GTA 4 (nor Red Dead Redemption for that matter), but would go on to feature within the Red Dead Redemption 2 trophy list.

Every Story mission will rate the players performance based on certain objectives, which are only originally revealed upon beating the mission for the first time. You'll get either a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal depending on how many of the extra objectives you manage to fulfill, and these do add the extra element of challenge the regular game lacks. When you include the Stranger and Freaks missions as part of this trophy, you do have some flexibility to pick and choose, and I would also recommend some of the Stranger and Freaks missions that do NOT contribute to 100% completion, but will still provide additional options for this trophy. It would be tempting to miss some of these out because they won't fulfill your 100% obligations, but Stranger and Freaks missions are good ways to pad this total of 70 because they are generally shorter and easier to get Gold medals on in comparison to main story missions.

If you were to Gold medal every single Story mission, you would still be 1 short of this requirement anyway, and some of the main Story missions can take anywhere between 20-30 minutes, and that's potentially alot of rework, especially if you still don't manage to meet the Gold requirements after playing through them again, something which is only known upon clearing the mission, and therefore certainly something to consider when you're tactfully making your choices.

I managed to get through most missions without too much struggle, but as the field of scope gets more narrow, I did have to bite the bullet and tackle a handful of challenging missions within the last 10-15 in order to get this trophy, so it did create a slight uplift in difficulty, as well as a greater investment of time on top of this. It is frustrating to go through a lengthy mission and still miss an objective or two, though it is important to mention that you don't need to fulfill any objective you have already achieved, so you can go into some missions where you maybe only need 1 or 2 objectives. I only had 14 Gold medals across both Story and Strangers and Freaks missions by the time I had finished everything once, so there was a lot of extra time required post-game to oblige to the requirements of this trophy too, which has to be taken into account also.

The statistics screen within the 100% checklist breaks down your play time between all 3 characters, and this reads a collective total of 79 hours for me, which is probably about standard for a Rockstar open world game, but still a pretty hefty portion of time for any Single Player experience that doesn't insist on multiple playthroughs or tons of repetition.

However, the Multiplayer portion of this list is a completely different beast and I just want to caveat this with a couple of general notes before I touch on specific trophies.

Firstly, the Playstation 3 version of this game is plagued with cheaters and modded lobbies, which can seriously impact your progress, both positively and negatively, all of which is completely out of your control and depends on who you run into. Trophies aside, it makes for a bad gaming experience, compounded further by the level of dedication required to earn all of the trophies. Ironically enough though, it was an integral part to me achieving a particular trophy which would otherwise be unobtainable, so it seems strange to be critical, though still wholly warranted.

Secondly, the Multiplayer design choices leave a lot to be desired. You have to navigate though too many pre-game menus, lobbies have far too much dead time between matches and the general feel is one that is clunky, does not flow well at all and constantly under-performs with bad stability issues. It leads to a seriously heavy grind, and ultimately is not really an enjoyable experience, and there is a reasonable amount of dedication towards the online portion of this game within the trophy list.

The "Above the Law" trophy, awarded for Reaching Rank 100, is the fairly typical level-based venture Rockstar trophy lists are known for, and this is a toughly chosen winner for the most difficult trophy in this list.

It requires 1,500,000 experience points to achieve level 100. If this seems like a lot, then that's because it is. I would generally target myself to achieve 1-2 levels per day playing the game for anywhere between 2-6 hours, which would be dependent on various factors such as activity levels of other players to play against, server stability and individual performance. Some days would go quite smoothly with a nice flow of games played with a reasonable amount of players, and other days would just be broken up by unstable lobbies and would feel unproductive, especially if my performance was bad. It was a real mixed bag.

Experience is earned by winning matches and completing in-game challenges, though one of the logistic challenges is the fact that experience gain is based mostly on the number of players you're competing against. For example, if you win a race in a lobby of 8 players, you'll pick up much greater rewards than if you were to win a race in a lobby of 3 players, and having played through much of this journey at a time where this game had a version available on Playstation 4 that isn't plagued by hackers, this seriously impacted the community volumes and it was rare to even get half-full lobbies the majority of the time, so experience gains always felt slower.

Despite there being a whole host of game modes available, I mostly stuck to Deathmatch and races. Deathmatches because custom made levels can net you some very good experience if you play 15-20 minute variants, and races because you can finish them relatively quickly and get into a nice flow if you can keep an active lobby going, but these are both best case scenarios. The additional experience awarded for killing opponents in Deathmatch mode separate to the end-game experience is also an important touch to mention, and although I won't address it on it's own merits, there is also a trophy for earning 30 Platinum medals, and these are also an effective way to accrue experience points on the way towards level 100.

Each category is tiered from Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum and awards a new amount of experience for each tier. When you include the Heists DLC, which comes with it's own new set of medals, you have many to go after and it's worth keeping tabs and working on them because they will give you those incremental step gains that are good for motivational reasons, as well as general progress. 

My overall completion time to reach level 100 was a whopping 8 days and 17 hours, which converts into a grand total of 209 hours, and the predominant reason as to why this is the greatest challenge of this whole list. It is a shame that many of these challenges that exist, and have been mentioned here, were born through negligence of care to the game, and could have been addressed if the desire was there for the developers to do so. It makes for a tough online leveling journey, and one of the most challenging I've ever completed.

The "Run Like The Wind" trophy, awarded for Surviving with a Bounty on your head, is the sole trophy that effectively made this Platinum make or break.

Just for the purpose of background, I was always fully aware of the fact that, if I ever wanted to resume with Grand Theft Auto 5, there was a distinct possibility I could never have the Platinum, and it was specifically down to this trophy. In my mind, I had 2 options. 

One of those options was to accept that I could just be wasting my time, effectively give up, and move on. The other option was to commit to just keep plugging away, knowing that there was a way for me to fortunately stumble upon a chance to still achieve this trophy, long after it had officially become technically unachievable. If there was never a chance, I would never have carried on.

The bounty feature within Grand Theft Auto Online allows any player to place a bounty on another players head within a public lobby, which would then allow others players to earn that bounty by killing the player in question. When hackers grew to prominence within this community, one of the ways they'd transfer large sums of cash among themselves, was via the bounty system, which prompted Rockstar to permanently disabled this feature, for it to never return. The catch is, hackers can still access this feature and place bounties on other players anyway, which is where the slim hope I was clinging onto came from.

I knew the leveling journey was a long one ahead of time, and methodically, I also knew that, due to the amount of time I was anticipating to spend with this game, this would potentially be long enough to luck out and get this trophy before I managed to hit level 100, and it eventually happened. A hacker in a random public lobby planted a bounty on me and I knew exactly what to do to earn the trophy, which was to just flee and hide in my safe house without dying for the required 40 minutes until achievement.

It's a very innocuous trophy, and has alot of notoriety attached to it within the trophy hunting community, but it ended up being the difference maker within the whole list.

The rest of the Multiplayer trophies can be earned either naturally, or just by slightly going out of your way within free-roam. There are 3 other trophies awarded every 25 levels up before you hit level 100, so there is a little bit of progressive motivation, and the rest are just smaller tasks that pale in comparison to the greater challenges ahead. You do need to be prepared to stick out a bad experience though, and I don't even think that's down to a matter of opinion.

When I look back, and realise that I gave Grand Theft Auto 4 a 10/10, I feel like I would be underselling the Grand Theft Auto 5 experience by not giving it a similar rating. Grand Theft Auto 4, whilst not too dissimilar in the nature of it's trophy list, contained heightened challenges that fully justified its rating at the time. I had to play through the entire Single Player game to 100% completion 3 separate times and it contained an online experience that required you to play well co-operatively with other players, which was also very grindy and ultimately born out a lot of complications that became frustrating factors.

I wouldn't say I had the same level of frustrations with this list but I have put almost 300 hours into it, and from my own memory, I don't recall ever having to mention that I had almost exceeded such a time-frame for any game I've previously finished. There isn't as big of a skill element required compared to Grand Theft Auto 4, and for the amount of time I spent with the game, it was mostly down to steadily progressing through to level 100 and picking up the other online trophies along the way.

The Single Player portion of the list is mostly an enjoyable experience, with a couple of good challenges, but mostly about playing through the main story and finishing up the side activities, with some added repeatability from the Gold medal requirements. The Multiplayer is a greater test of patience, and where it can be interesting in doses, the badly designed menus and lobbies, along with a diminishing online community full of hackers leaves a bitter taste. The Heists DLC pack was the highlight of this overall journey though, and contributed some added uplift to a dour leveling grind.

It's not quite a 10/10 though. If it had that added skill challenge that was present in some of the trophies Grand Theft Auto 4 had, then it would be, and there's no doubt that the state of the Multiplayer landscape creates a lot of extra difficulties that won't be present on the Playstation 4 version of the game. The amount of time it's taken me to achieve this Platinum can't be overlooked, and that is absolutely accounted for within the final rating. All of the games I've given 10/10 to have at least something in them that fronts up a strong element of skill, which isn't quite present here, but given the fact this review wasn't even meant to be exist, it's fair to say we've come a long way to reach this point.

Notable Trophies -

To Live or Die in Los Santos - Completed the final mission.
Career Criminal - Attain 100% Game Completion.
Close Shave - Complete all Under the Bridge and Knife Flight challenges.
Solid Gold, Baby! - Earn any 70 Gold Medals on Missions, Strangers and Freaks.
Above the Law - GTA Online : Reach Rank 100.
Run Like The Wind - GTA Online - Survive with a Bounty on your head.

Hardest Trophy -

Above the Law
GTA Online : Reach Rank 100