Platinum #155 - Sackboy : A Big Adventure

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

Cut straight from the knitted cloth of the LittleBigPlanet franchise, a change in direction for the series? It could perhaps be considered a spin-off, though I personally get the impression that the development takeover of Sumo Digital is beginning to tell in it's purposeful shift of LittleBigPlanet.

Sackboy : A Big Adventure makes some brave decisions to shake off some of what you know about LittleBigPlanet and the formula that made the game such a success.

The biggest change centres around the absence of the "create" element, a consciously made decision by Sumo Digital to shift the entire focus of the game into a pure, story-driven adventure.

This was naturally a controversial decision. Many people would argue that LittleBigPlanet earned it's reputation through it's ability to provide the user with the tools to master their own creations and share them with others. It was the biggest USP of the franchise and gave it that charm it became known for. The limitations to the create tool were almost endless and purely bound by the imagination of the user.

It wasn't something I was ever overly interested in. I didn't have the time or patience to invest into being anything other than just about good enough for what any trophy list may have required of me, but I always appreciated how great some people were at it. Many of the levels were developer standard and it was amazing to see a game that had the ability to organically produce additional content through the submissions of it's userbase.

I understand the comparisons are perhaps unfair. It's not called "LittleBigPlanet 4" and probably should be treated under it's own merits as a spin-off - but the creation element of the franchise was huge and definitely worth noting, given the fact there's a possibility it never returns.

Outside of this, alot of familiarity still exists. Sackboy returns in a story of heroics as he attempts to save Craftworld from the villainous clutches of Vex, who captures Sackboy's friends and forces them to build his Topsy-Turver - A machine constructed to destroy Cratfworld and turn it into a land of nightmares and gloom. 

Previous LittleBigPlanet games have always included a story, but due to it's more adventure-driven focus, you'll notice a more fleshed out cast comparatively to any previous LittleBigPlanet game. These include Scarlet, a retired Knitted Knight who aids Sackboy on his quest to save Craftworld from the aforementioned Vex, the main villain of the piece. There are also a handful of supporting characters attributed to each themed world in the game, including King Bogoff, N.A.O.M.I and Mama Monkey. 

The levels are clever, varied and full of personality. I always enjoyed the creative flex of LittleBigPlanet developer-generated levels, and the standard is upheld well, despite development team changes. The story is mostly made up of good, old-fashioned platforming, but enough variety is added to keep the vibe feeling fresh. The music is also great, mixing soothing self-composed melodies with massive hits through the decades into a handful of levels. I never thought Toxic by Britney Spears would work here, but it absolutely does - As well as many others.

There are a couple of small gripes. Sackboy's movement isn't terribly fluid - He often feels weighted down and heavy, especially when it comes to stages of levels that require sharp, faster movement. I also think the story is ultimately a bit weak too. It was never exactly a strong point in LittleBigPlanet, but at least there was the excuse that it wasn't necessarily a focal point there. The conscious move to a story-driven angle should rightfully put more scrutiny under the story, and it's a very basic, heroic tale with inevitable conclusions. I think it's a respectable effort overall, but I preferred LittleBigPlanet.

In terms of trophies, this is standard-sized list, clocking in at 46 trophies, including the Platinum trophy. There is a mix of story-driven and Multiplayer-focused trophies, but both are very much interconnected within the requirements of the list, and efficiency can be driven by playing through the levels with others where possible. 

The "Wonderplane Workout" trophy, awarded for Showing off what you've learned and finish the Wonderplane's final challenge, is the last trophy awarded upon completing the story, which is naturally the first port of call for this list.

There are 47 main levels that span across 6 different worlds, as well as a series of other side activities that sit separately to these - which also have trophies attached to them. The main method of progression revolves around orbs. Each level contains 5 orbs to collect, and you'll need to acquire enough of these orbs within a world in order to unlock access to the next world. Repeat this process until you reach the end of the game.

The game doesn't offer difficulty levels, so naturally, the trophy list isn't bound to this either. It's a fairly straight-forward platformer, seemingly aimed at a younger audience, and whilst it does sometimes have slightly challenging elements, it's never something that pushes any real limits, and the generous checkpoint system is a testament to this. LittleBigPlanet has always been based on accessibility, and that runs through the entire game.

Including this trophy, you'll earn a total of 9 progression-based story-related trophies tied to reaching specific points of the story, but you'll be able to collect a ton of miscellaneous trophies along the way too.

Some of these other trophies are atypical of previous LittleBigPlanet games, including Acing levels, but you'll also need to achieve sub-goals for each level to earn some newly introduced trophies as well. This includes earning Gold on the scoreboard across 50 different levels - A new gameplay mechanic that adds a score requirement per level, achieved by collecting score bubbles, defeating enemies and grabbing collectibles. These would previously all contribute towards a 100% completion requirement within previous LittleBigPlanet titles, but that is absent this time around.

By the time I'd earned this trophy, I had unlocked a whopping 33 trophies, which is 3/4 of the entire list. You can unlock many of the others trophies without even gunning for them, and if you choose to play through the story with other players in Multiplayer co-op, you'll also be able to earn some of these passively too.

On the subject of which, previous LittleBigPlanet titles would heavily promote Multiplayer by including certain areas within levels - or whole levels entirely - that could only be beaten with a specific number of players. This was always a bane for trophy hunters because it felt like it took the achievement of trophies completely out of your own hands, and many people, including myself, would just resort to using additional controllers to earn any trophies locked out behind these Multiplayer segments.

The requirement to rely on the community still exists here, and the list has a fair share of Multiplayer trophies. You'll encounter a few levels per world that are Multiplayer only, and must be beaten with at least 2 people. This is immediately preferable by virtue of the fact previous titles would mandate 3 or 4 player sections, which was always frustrating because collectibles you needed to earn for trophies would be left stuck behind paywalls with no way around them other than to find others to play with.

I would generally avoid playing with others unless I had to, and progressed the majority of the story on my own. It's important to note too that, if you're trying to Ace levels with other players present, everyone has to get through the level without dying, so relying on other players who could easily halt your own progress is not conducive to progression and best avoided. 

However, there are 10 Multiplayer only levels, so you're going to need to navigate this hurdle to some extent, so it's best done with just 1 other player to improve your odds of success. Also - and I don't want to sound too mean when saying this - the user base of games of this nature are very young and the limited capacity for kids to help productively is borderline annoying. Any time I lost a bit of flow with the story was due to attempting to ace Multiplayer only levels with someone who has the cognitive development of a limp fish. 

Overall, this is a game that knows it's target market and this reflects in the story mode. It doesn't want to be off-putting to a younger audience through it's difficulty. It will take some time to get through all 6 worlds, especially if you partake in much of the side activities - Which this list will require you to do. The peak of the challenge came through attempting to navigate the Multiplayer levels and relying on your partner not to die. It will still take somewhere in the region of 30 hours. There's much to get through and complete and you will more than likely require multiple runs of many levels to collect everything you need to fulfil the requirements of the trophy list.

The "String it Together" trophy, awarded for Getting a Gold on the Knitted Knight's ultimate trial, is the only trophy in this list that I would consider to be genuinely challenging.

I mentioned the side content above, and fairly early on in the story, you're introduced to a collection of side missions called the Knitted Knight trials. You have to find the golden rubix cube within the normal levels in order to unlock and play them. There are 15 rubix cubes to find in total, equalling 15 different trials.

They're essentially timed obstacles where you need to reach the finish line as quickly as possible, and once you earn a Gold trophy in each of these 15 trials, you'll unlock a finale called "The Ripsnorter". This combines the previous 15 trials into a single, giant gauntlet, which you'll need to earn a Gold trophy in order to unlock this trophy. The Gold time requirement is 10 minutes and you'll only be able to take 1 hit from enemies before you die, which will take you back to the beginning.

I mentioned above how the controls make Sackboy feel weighted down and heavy, but this is mostly just a gameplay observation, and isn't really that detrimental until you reach this task. Most of these trials require intricate, quick movements to evade enemies and obstacles, and the clunkiness causes errors that I feel wouldn't be anywhere near as prominent with more fluid control over Sackboy. 

As individual trials, this isn't that much of an issue. Stand alone, they only take around 30-40 seconds, but chaining them together to create a 10 minute gauntlet requires alot of practice and memorisation. The trials weren't that fresh in my head, and I had to gradually reveal more of the course in order to anticipate what was to come next. I would mostly die by seeing something new too quickly and not being able to react quickly enough to navigate it, which is where the frustrations of this trophy mainly lie.

It's nothing a bit of practice won't eventually solve, but it did take me around 3/4 hours just to meet the Gold time requirement, and is the only trophy in this list I would attribute to being challenging in the truest sense of the word. The 10 minute time requirement doesn't leave much margin for error, and you'll need to move through the gauntlet at a fairly continuous pace. You'll also get opportunities to pick up clocks along the way that freeze the timer - These are important to stick within the required time limit.

Once I'd managed to get over the hump here, that was where the list peaked. The handful of remaining trophies were a simple matter of clean-up protocol, and required nothing more than just jumping back into a few levels to dust off whatever was left.

A much more refined trophy list focusing down on a single game mode makes this one of the easier LittleBigPlanet Platinum trophies available. The Multiplayer elements of the list lean into the more competitive side, rather than the co-operative one, which is much better from a trophy hunting perspective.

No more trophies blocked behind 4 player level sections, no more trophies centered around level creation, no more trophies that require you to invest in peripherals - All previous note-worthy barriers to some of the games in the series. I don't think it's necessarily a stronger step forward in the context of the game, but it is for trophy hunting, and comes with a score that definitely leans in towards the lower end of the difficulty scale.

Notable Trophies -

Wonderplane Workout - Show off what you've learned and finish the Wonderplane's final challenge.
String it Together - Get a Gold on the Knitted Knight's ultimate trial.

Hardest Trophy -

String it Together

Get a Gold on the Knitted Knight's ultimate trial

Platinum #154 - Resident Evil 3

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

I like to think I'm fairly open-minded, but I knew Resident Evil 3 had a rough reputation.

Sandwiched between the excellent Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 4 - Which is largely regarded by most as the absolute oracle of the series - It was always going to be a tall order to maintain the lofty standards the franchise has reached over the years.

Originally released in 1999 on the Playstation 1, Resident Evil 3 (sometimes codenamed : Nemesis) follows Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira as they attempt to escape from Raccoon City during the T-Virus outbreak.

Jill is a former S.T.A.R.S police officer who soon runs into Carlos, a Mercenary working to evacuate those fortunate enough to still be alive. I enjoyed the tandem approach of Resident Evil 2 with Leon and Claire, and it also translates well here too. Jill is persistently being hunted by Nemesis, a biological weapon produced and programmed to track down and eliminate S.T.A.R.S survivors which adds a terrifying new dynamic to the game. Nemesis is persistent and habitually pops up to keep you on your toes, adding to the survival horror element. Mr. X in Resident Evil 2 felt like an annoying sub-character who served mainly to roadblock your progress towards another objective. There's no mistake that Nemesis is a much bigger problem and his relentless pursuit of Jill quickly becomes the focal point of the story.

So why does it get a bad rap? It may be important to note that this is a watered down version compared to the original. Apparently, the original Resident Evil 3 contained much more content and level design that has been stripped out of this remake. I never played the original, so it would be remiss of me to comment on whether the removal of this content is ultimately to the detriment of the game, but it is something raised as a general consensus, so it's worth noting.

On it's own merits, I think the game is just fine. It's not an improvement on Resident Evil 2, but I like the Nemesis angle. The concept of being hunted down religiously, and never knowing when he may pop up next is an excellent survival horror mechanic. It's still fully scripted, so the novelty is limited to your first playthrough, but the first time is still an edgy experience that keeps you on the edge of the seat.

The game uses the same graphics engine as Resident Evil 2, and character models and environments look sharp and crisp. It also still carries over that mixed vibe of adventure game puzzling and frenetic combat that worked so well previously.

I do think the story is a little bit too short and it doesn't contain the same level of bonus content that Resident Evil 2 contains. It does come with unlockable difficulty levels that alter the game parameters, as well as a challenge section for you to earn points and use these to shop for items - but that's about it. The puzzle elements of the game are also shallow and lacking. This could all be a by-product of the sacrificial content, which would be a great shame, because I think the puzzle-based progression was a strong suit of Resident Evil 2 and should have been built on accordingly. It's still present, but only just about, and takes a big back seat comparatively to it's predecessor. 

It's fine for what it is, but also definitely feels somewhat lacking, and I think you can tell there may have been a bit more to this game once upon a time when you begin to notice it's weaknesses and lack of true depth.

In terms of trophies, this is a medium-sized list, clocking in at a total of 33 trophies, including the Platinum trophy, and draws alot of comparison from Resident Evil 2.

The first thing that's important to note is the structure of the story. Resident Evil 2 made you choose between Leon and Claire and both characters stories contained subtle differences. It also created alot of duplication within the trophy list, requiring you to beat the game multiple times under different parameters with both characters. It made the trophy list feel a little bit exhaustive in the end.

Resident Evil 3 takes a different tact by making the story a linear experience and alternating gameplay segments between both Jill and Carlos. This is going to reduce our necessity to play through the game as many times as Resident Evil 2 required for it's Platinum trophy.

Firstly, a normal playthrough of the game, but learning from the experience of Resident Evil 2 to pick out and focus on some of the specific trophies that require you to beat the game under certain conditions, which can easily be done on some of the lower difficulty levels.

The primary focus on my initial playthrough was to complete the game without using the item box, which is fairly easy to achieve on standard difficulty level. The game contains assisted, standard and hardcore difficulty levels from the outset, but does also contain a further 2 hidden levels locked behind pre-requisite requirements which we'll talk about later, as these are also well represented within this trophy list.

Completing the game without using the item box on standard difficulty will earn you 12 progression-based trophies for reaching certain plot points and finally beating the game under these conditions, which is just over a third of the list. This initial playthrough of the game took me just under 8 hours, accounting for additional exploration. I also managed to naturally unlock a further 9 miscellaneous trophies related to non-progression based feats, so my first casual playthrough of the game ended up in an accumulation of around two thirds of the whole list.

Dropping straight back into a second playthrough of the game to complete 2 primary goals. Firstly, earning the trophy awarded for completing the game using 1 or fewer recovery items. This is easily achieved on assisted difficulty, which gives you automatic health regeneration whenever you take damage, so you'll naturally never have to use a health item anyway and, just as it did for Resident Evil 2, tandems perfectly for the purpose of achieving this trophy.

Secondly, gathering the remaining collectibles. This includes 56 lore files, 20 Charlie Dolls and 20 padlocks, safes, lockers and pickable lockboxes (I had already earned this particular trophy on my initial playthrough). Collectible progress carries across and doesn't need you to find them in a single playthrough, and cleaning these up on assisted difficulty allows you to explore at the leisure of not being under too much pressure. There's nothing out of the ordinary here and these collectibles are easy to find.

To this point, everything is plain sailing. The playthrough specific challenges thus far are made much easier by the freedom of choice you have on being able to select the difficulty setting of your preference, and the remainder of the list does potentially change this, however, it purely depends on the route you decide to take from here.

When mapping out the rest of the Platinum trophy, it quickly becomes clear that the game wants you to do what Resident Evil 2 wanted you to do - Play it to within an inch of it's life. I was forced into this for Resident Evil 2 and there wasn't a workaround present, but a shortcut exists here that the game offers up to you on a plate.

At this stage, I was faced with some fairly standardised Resident Evil trophies to see out the rest of the list. Beating the game acquiring an S Rank. Beating the game within a specific time parameter - 2 hours in this instance - and beating the game on it's most challenging difficulty level. To be specific, there were 6 trophies remaining and they all focus around beating the game in a certain fashion.

I referenced 2 hidden difficulty levels above. Nightmare difficulty is only unlocked once you beat the game on Hardcore difficulty, and further to this, Inferno difficulty is only unlocked once you beat the game on Nightmare difficulty. This would involve another 2 playthroughs, purely on this basis alone, and I hadn't even worked out how I was going to fit in a speedrun to unlock the trophy for beating the game in less than 2 hours. I started to explore other options that potentially allowed me to avoid playing this game more times than I really needed to.

The "Jill Valentine" trophy, awarded for Completing the game with an S Rank on Inferno, is the peak of this trophy list in terms of overall challenge, but I'd discovered a method that would allow me to unlock all of these remaining trophies at once, and knew this would be exactly what I was after.

In preparation of tackling the game on Inferno difficulty, the general recommendation is to purchase the infinite rocket launcher from the shop. This requires circa 64,000 points, and is the most expensive item available for purchase. The challenges linked to points are awarded for certain in-game feats, and you would need to grind through various playthroughs of the game to accumulate enough points to purchase the rocket launcher for use on your Inferno run. There are certain parts of the game you can farm weapon-specific kill challenges, but with the absence of any sort of chapter select feature, you'd need to reach these points in a fresh game, and I wasn't feeling that approach either.

The solution? For £3.99, you can purchase a DLC pack that unlocks fast track access to both Nightmare and Inferno difficulty levels, as well as instant access to every item from the shop, including the infinite rocket launcher. No need for any additional playthroughs of the game to unlock higher difficulties or grind for shop points to acquire weaponry that significantly nullifies the challenges of these difficulty levels. Some people won't agree with the validity of this shortcut, but if the game is offering paid for benefits that allow you to bypass unnecessary grinding, then I'll almost certainly explore this option.

Regarding the challenge around the trophy itself, Inferno mode increases enemy health, reduces the amount of damage you can take before death and alters the availability of typewriters and storage boxes throughout the game. The trophy will also require you to complete the game to an S rank standard. This requires a clear time of less than 2 hours and 5 or less manual saves. The infinite rocket launcher completely trivialises this challenge - To the point where I can't honestly comment on the difficulties experienced around Inferno.

It will kill most enemies within a couple of shots, has a quick rate of fire, doesn't need to be reloaded (since it's infinite) and doesn't impact movement speed. Most importantly, there aren't any consequences to the player by using it in close proximity. You can fire it off at your feet and won't suffer any damage consequences, which makes it incredibly forgiving and the biggest reason as to why this becomes so trivial as a result. It even makes light work of Nemesis during the various boss fight stages, though I did struggle with the final boss battle a little. His final form has some punishing one-hit kill attacks on Inferno that I struggled to read and dodge, which did take some time to overcome. It was only a case of learning the attack patterns and gradually getting used to dodge timings, but I spent more time on this final boss battle than I had leading up to point.

I did also die a couple of times cheaply through getting grabbed and not being able to respond to the input prompts quick enough to free myself from an instant animation death. This would also cause a loss of a small chunk of progress, due to the limitation of having to restrict your hard saves. Inferno difficulty switches off the autosave feature, and death will always set you back to your last hard save, so it's important to pick your manual save areas strategically. I found that using a save prior to each Nemesis boss encounter was a relatively solid approach.

However, I still managed to clock this trophy with 1 hour and 23 minutes on my save file and only had to manually save at 3 recommended points throughout the game. This unlocked other trophies linked to completing the game with an S rank, completing the game on Hardcore and Nightmare difficulties as per difficulty stacking rules and completing the game in under 2 hours, with the Platinum trophy on top in one fell swoop. A much more time efficient and easier way of unlocking this list than going through the possibility of 4/5 further playthroughs of the game.

I don't think Resident Evil 3 is a bad game, but did it make me want to play it to that extent? No. It isn't a very long story, but it is repetitive and much more linear in nature compared to Resident Evil 2, and I don't think it warrants this time dedication. Your game has to be something special if your list demands me to play through it that many times, so the option to fast track the finish was very much a welcome opportunity, and one I ultimately couldn't refuse.

Without fast-tracking options considered, this would be a slightly higher difficulty score overall. You'd need to beat the game 4/5 times and either tackle the games hardest challenge without making use of the shop collectibles, or grind over 64,000 challenge points to unlock them, both of which would be a hefty time sink. This did still require 3 playthroughs, even with the purchased bundle that unlocked all content to reduce the overall time commitment. Inferno is made a cakewalk by the infinite rocket launcher and it's overpowered features, though I did have struggles with the final form of Nemesis. This was mainly down to judgement of dodge patterns and no margin of error due to his one-hit kill nature on that difficulty setting though.

I'm unsure of how much more difficult this Platinum trophy could get. Inferno will remain an unknown entity due to the methods I chose to go after this list, but it is a unique difficulty level to Resident Evil 3 and it's rare to see any Resident Evil game that contains 5 levels of difficulty. Minimising the time requirement is a big factor in assessing difficulty, and even navigating the challenges tied to not using storage boxes and healing items was simplified by the ability to play these on any desired difficulty level. The easiest Resident Evil Platinum to date, albeit with a slight asterisk. 

Notable Trophies -

Jill Valentine - Complete the game with an S rank on "Inferno".

Hardest Trophy

Jill Valentine

Complete the game with an S rank on "Inferno"

Platinum #153 - Uncharted : The Lost Legacy

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

Here are some things you wouldn't normally do to build on the success of a decade long franchise; 

Remove one of the most popular protagonists of all time. Squeeze a full retail release out for an idea that was originally scoped with just enough content to be Single Player DLC. Reduce the length of the story offering.

These are risks you can get away with when you've developed a franchise with as much love as Uncharted, and the Lost Legacy is a solid addition to the series, even if slightly a bit too obvious that it sits off to the side at the Uncharted family dinner table.

As mentioned, it was previously touted to be delivered as a form of DLC post-Uncharted 4, focusing on the side story of Chloe Fraser and Nadine Ross. You'll play out the entire game as Chloe, navigating the various chapters with Nadine by your side as they both seek to track down the Legendary Tusk of Ganesh. On the other side, a warmonger called Asav also has a vested interest in the piece of treasure, tying up a very typical Uncharted plotline. You want a very valuable piece of treasure, but so does everyone else.

There's no sign of Nathan Drake, Elena, Sully or any other deeply rooted character from the series even making as much as a sniff of an appearance, and Chloe and Nadine are left to take the spotlight completely uninterrupted. Some people will naturally feel like the absence of such a charismatic cast will zap the personality out of the game, especially after witnessing this group develop over the 4 previous games in the series and lend so well to the lore and story. There's no doubt it's felt here, but it's also important to distance the Lost Legacy and treat it by it's own merits. It isn't trying to fit in or be a sequel and this should be taken into account.

The better news - It's still Uncharted down to the bone. The game still proves that, no matter what they do with the cast, Naughty Dog are still the masters of their own creation. It mixes the perfect blend of puzzling, combat, exploration, cinematic set pieces and gorgeous, larger-than-life scenery. The pacing is perfectly executed and the edgy relationship that Chloe and Nadine have is portrayed brilliantly, and very akin to that of Nathan Drake and Sully.

If you miss Nathan Drake too much, you can either don his unlockable brother's skin in the bonus menu (about as close as you're going to get), or just take solace in the fact that the gameplay mechanics are still true to the Uncharted formula. The combat system, that balances stealth and all out gunfights, is still punchy and fluid. The platforming will see you climb huge buildings, stone carvings and rock faces - All shot from different angles to show off their true size and scale. The graphics still make Uncharted top of it's class too, full of vibrant environments and impressively detailed character models.

It will naturally draw comparisons and some people will see it as a step back, but it still has enough of what made Uncharted so great to be worthy of a look at the very least. Any Uncharted fan who chooses to pass on this just because of a weaker cast (by general consensus, at least) is only doing themselves a disservice. I would agree it doesn't reach the heights we've seen the series produce, but it's a good addition to the franchise that shows enough ambition to make you pay notice.

In regards to the trophies, this is a large list, containing 50 trophies, including the Platinum trophy, and delivers in classic Uncharted format.

Everything you know about Uncharted trophy lists is still well represented here. Beating the game on the infamous Crushing difficulty level, a host of collectibles, specific kill accumulation feats and chapter-based tasks are all present and make up the vast majority of the list, and there isn't much newly sprinkled into the formula here.

The "Progress Demands Sacrifice" trophy, awarded for Completing the Game in Crushing mode, was the first step on route towards the Platinum trophy. This may seem like an unusual place to start, because the prerequisite to unlocking Crushing mode would previously require the game to be beaten on any difficulty level in every Uncharted game I've previously played.

However, Crushing mode is accessible from the beginning in The Lost Legacy, and doesn't seem to require unlocking. I use the word "seem" because it looks like the option is greyed out on the selection menu, but doesn't actually prevent you from selecting it. I'm not sure if this was the intention or not, but given the experience I have with Crushing mode, I decided there wasn't much point in wasting time and jumped straight in with my first playthrough of the game to test my skill.

For those who have experience of Crushing mode with Uncharted games, it can and has been notoriously brutal and unforgiving, and the hardest versions of it across the series have gone down in folklore for their difficulty. The Lost Legacy, however, is not the same. Infact, it's nowhere near it, and Crushing difficulty in this iteration of the series is the easiest out of every Uncharted title I've played.

There are a couple of factors that contribute to this. Firstly, the game is much shorter than every other Uncharted game in the franchise, and only contains 9 chapters. Anything that effectively halves the normal length of it's usual story mode would almost certainly reduce the challenge too right? Not necessarily always true, but it is in this instance.

Secondly, The Lost Legacy makes stealth options much more accessible to the player compared to previous Uncharted games that were much more combat-centric driven. The game still contains plenty of encounters that can get hairy if you end up in a gunfight, but there almost always seem to be a solution via stealth that will allow you to bypass many areas of the game and avoid combat, which makes a significant difference on Crushing difficulty. I would always take advantage of these scenarios where I could, and adopted a stealth first approach to the game at all times. The stealth mechanics are somewhat questionable though. It's borderline impossible to fall back into anonymity once your cover is broken, and you're better off giving up and restarting the checkpoint, but this can be annoying when you've slowly made progress via stealth and have to redo it all.

There are still a couple of areas where you'll have no choice but to fight your way out, and you do still take damage incredibly quickly on Crushing difficulty - but it just never seemed as brutal or unforgiving as it has before. Some of those earlier Uncharted titles are forever etched on my brain for how brutally tough certain encounters are, and some of them had me stuck for hours wondering how I was ever going to get past them. To the contrary, I managed to beat my Crushing run of The Lost Legacy in just under 10 hours, and probably won't recall any stand out areas a few years from now - Unlike the pirate ship section towards the end of Uncharted 4.

There aren't any story-based progression trophies in this list, which isn't too surprising. Uncharted has never been big on these. However, perhaps a little more surprisingly, there is an absence of difficulty stacked trophies on this occasion. Previous Uncharted games would include individual trophies awarded for beating the game on each of it's difficulty levels, which would be awarded if you beat the game on a tougher difficulty than the trophy requirement. The only other trophy you'll earn for beating the game on Crushing here is for simply beating the game and that's it.

The remainder of this list after this is purely clean-up protocol, and there won't be any necessity to play the game in full again if you chose the same tact as me and beat Crushing difficulty straight off the bat. The only reason you ever needed to play through this game more than once previously was to unlock Crushing difficulty, and if you've played Uncharted before, you'll more than likely be fine to jump straight in without needing to spend any additional time on the story.

I proceeded to just pick off the rest of the list completely at random, fulfilling all the tasks that either required you to accumulate kills, perform specific tasks/actions and work on gathering all the collectibles.

Many of these tasks are really simple, and the efficiency of the chapter select feature really helps out here. The majority of the leg work in the post-game clean up comes from the collectibles though.

These have always been a staple of Uncharted games, and they're not sold short here either. Not only do you have to indulge in the familiarity of finding all 68 pieces of treasure and engage in all 17 optional conversations spread across the game's 9 chapters, but there are also a few newly added categories of collectibles to discover too. These include stopping in 28 specific locations to take advantage of a photo opportunity and picking 21 lockboxes. The latter does cross over with the treasures, as some lockboxes need to be opened to unveil hidden treasures you'll need for the trophy. That's a total of 145 collectibles across the game and individual trophies are linked to finding all of each of these collectible categories.

Just a specific note on the treasures, the game also adds the Queen's Ruby collectible, which plays a massive supporting role in gathering treasures. During Chapter 4, you need to collect 11 Hoysala Tokens as part of a larger puzzle. Once you've collected them all, you take them to a shrine to unlock the Queen's Ruby, a bracelet which pulses and chimes whenever you're close to a collectible treasure. This is a great help in picking up treasures as you go through the game and not having to reference a visual guide for all of them. I was able to significantly improve my success rate of picking up treasures during my Crushing difficulty run, and this minimised the necessity to backtrack post-game as I'd already collected the majority of the treasures I needed with the help of this accessory. It's definitely worth side-tracking for.

The game is incredibly clean-up friendly too. There is very clear signposting on which collectibles you're missing for each chapter, and not only can you drop back into chapter select in order to gather the missing collectibles, you can go a step further and drop into specific encounters that will start you from within a certain point inside the chapter, minimising replay necessity as much as possible. This is great for farming kills quickly and ensuring you don't spend too much time retreading old ground just to collect a missing treasure piece. Big seal of approval from a game design perspective.

Picking apart the remainder of this list was just a matter of dropping back into specific checkpoints where I could farm kills or start from the closest point to a collectible I may have been missing, and even if you've beaten the game on Crushing difficulty, you'll still be able to drop the difficulty level right down to the bottom and just walk through levels to hasten the process of polishing off the remaining trophies.

A final, and somewhat different task, requires you to make it to the outskirts of Halebidu in Chapter 5 without using a firearm or explosive. This will require a final partial run of the game, and ended up being the last trophy I invested into for this list. It has the potential to be challenging enough to become a notable trophy, however, the lack of restrictions on difficulty level means you can just boot up a brand new game and play through on Explorer difficulty. A difficulty so easy it makes a mockery of any possible challenge to be sought here, and you can practically run through most sections like a bullet sponge with the generosity of health it gives you.

There also isn't much combat throughout the opening 5 chapters of the game either, especially in comparison to the second half, where most of the action packed portions of the game are. It's easy enough to run through everything just hitting the melee button and turning your fists into weapons of mass destruction. It may take a couple of hours, but it's a straight-forward exercise, especially for a Gold trophy.

This is the easiest Uncharted Platinum trophy I've earned to date. Crushing difficulty may still have a couple of smaller challenge spikes, but just generally feels incredibly watered down in comparison to all 4 previous Uncharted games I've played. It certainly ranks the lowest out of the 5 titles if I were to rank them. The collectibles are aided by a very user-friendly chapter select feature and the importance of the Queen's Ruby in tracking down treasures without having to break up gameplay to acknowledge a visual guide further adds to this.

The plethora of miscellaneous trophies and their requirements are a giveaway, even the final Gold trophy on the list. If you've beaten Uncharted games prior to this, you won't have any troubles with this one.

Notable Trophies -

Progress Demands Sacrifice - Complete the Game in Crushing mode.

Hardest Trophy - 

Progress Demands Sacrifice

Complete the Game in Crushing mode

Platinum #152 - Dishonored 2

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

They say variety is the spice of life, and Dishonored 2 is a classic testament to this philsophy. No 2 playthroughs are the same and the multitude of options give the player a genuine sense of freedom and choice that are only constrained by the limits of your own imagination. 

Set 15 years after the original, Dishonored 2 is a tale of reclamation. After the death of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin in Dishonored, Emily Kaldwin, the natural heir to the throne, is due to take her rightful place as bloodline successor.

The ceremony is crashed by Delilah Copperspoon, claiming to also have royal blood and therefore, an entitlement to succession. The ceremony becomes violent and Emily Kaldwin and Corvo the Protector are framed as killers following the massacre that ensues.

This immediately gives the player your first crucial choice of the game, and one of the biggest gameplay differences in Dishonored 2; Who you choose to play the rest of the story as. Emily Kaldwin or Corvo the Protector. This choice will influence various other gameplay elements, including the subsequent supernatural abilities you'll have access to and the playstyles of each character.

Whoever you don't choose is bound into stone by a spell cast by Delilah Copperspoon, giving you your key motive for the rest of the story - To free your counterpart from the spell by exacting revenge on those responsible for attempting to overthrow your rule.

I thought Dishonored was a strong entry into a new series, and I think Dishonored 2 does enough to build nicely on that. 

The level design is borderline genius, with multiple different ways to bypass objectives and deal with elimination targets, giving you plenty of power over how you beat levels. If you're looking to earn the Platinum trophy, the trophies will dictate how you play to a certain extent, but the depth of possibilities is still to be admired, and every level location has great attention to detail with the options it lays out for you. They're not always obvious and in plain sight either, rewarding exploration and experimentation.

On the subject of level design, it's also important to shout out some of the level mechanics too. The Clockwork Mansion adding the extra level of intrigue by transforming it's layout based on the pull of a lever, and how this can be used to find secrets, new routes and plan escapes. Aramis Stilton's Mansion - Where you find a timepiece that allows you to go back in time to when certain areas of the building contained different features that help you progress objectives. It's so clever and is the standout feature of the game.

Dishonored 2 also builds on the supernatural powers system, offering a bespoke set of powers depending on which protagonist you choose to play as, and also includes a general complimentary balance to both sides of utter chaos and absolute stealth, depending on your playstyle. Acquiring Runes will allow you to unlock more abilities, and most abilities are tiered and can be upgraded to provide stronger benefits.

There are also much greater dialogue options too. Corvo was a silent protagonist in Dishonored, which left much of the lore down to the interpretation of the player. Both Corvo and Emily contribute large dialogue to what unfolds around them, naturally fleshing out the story. I wouldn't necessarily say it improves the story much though, which is a little bit disappointing given the fact the game actively opened up speech contributions for it's main characters. Alot like Dishonored, this is a tale driven by revenge and there's not much more to it than that.

The game does have other flaws too. Melee combat is unpolished. Hit detection is so wonky to the point where you could take as many as 5-6 swings to hit an enemy and still not register a blow. This also extends to the usage of powers too. For example, using Blink and Far Reach should be seamless, but you spend most of your time trying to line up your landing position to ensure you reach where you intend to and it ends up being way too finnicky.

These are small gripes though, and not to be held against the game too harshly. I think it's an improvement on the original and the improvements are big enough to help the game excel above it's predecessor. 

Regarding trophies, this is a large list of 51 trophies, including the Platinum trophy, and is very reminiscent of the original game's list, with alot of overlap and recurring feats included. You'll also need to plan carefully, as some trophies are either specific to each character and their powers or specific to how you choose to play the game.

If you're tactful and plan well, you can get through this game in just a couple of playthroughs, though I did fumble on one trophy which meant I had to go through the majority of the game a final time, which is slightly frustrating given the fact it was just one trophy and I had to progress very close to the end in order to fulfil the requirements for achievement.

The "Clean Hands" trophy, awarded for Completing the game without killing anyone, returns from Dishonored, and underpins your low chaos playthrough of the game.

Due to the fact I earmarked this trophy as the hardest from Dishonored, I felt this was the place to begin, and carrying over previous experience would stand me in good stead for a playthrough where I also just focused on enjoying the game and collecting whatever I could in terms of trophies along the way.

The things you need to be aware of are exactly the same things you needed to be aware of in Dishonored. You'll need to make sure that you neutralise every assassination target you encounter throughout the story, rather than killing them, and you'll also need to make sure you don't kill any enemy soldiers, howlers, thugs or witches along the way. Non-human enemies, such as Clockwork soldiers and Hounds are dispensable, and you're allowed to eliminate these particular foes. They count as non-human enemies and therefore do not detriment the achievement of this trophy.

If you're neutralising normal enemies, you'll also need to make sure they're not left near any potential hazards that cause them to die when you're not looking. Things like dumping an unconscious body close to water is a risk, as is leaving bodies next to things like whale oil tanks and within sight of rat plagues that could digest the body. All of these things could cause unexpected accumulation of death counters that you may not be aware of at the time. I would always avoid conflict wherever possible and in the event of having to render a foe unconscious, ensure their body was placed carefully away from any potential hazards. Behind doors and secluded in rooms was always a safe bet.

The game will report back to you on stats after each level, and one of these stats is the number of deaths within the level. I always made sure this counter read 0 after every level, and ensured that I'd made a hard save to checkpoint my progress, just incase I got stung by an unnoticed death at some point later down the line. In worst case scenario, you can always reload the save and begin the level again, so it's a fairly foolproof method, and this statistics report is huge in terms of being able to track your progress towards this trophy.

Along the way, the game rewards you with a decent amount of progression-based trophies. Some of these are unmissable and pertain to certain plot points and some are based on story decisions that you'll be awarded an alternate trophy for later on as long as you ensure you make the opposite decision. The latter is important to make note of in order to prevent any additional unnecessary playthroughs of the game.

Pursuing this trophy also unlocked trophies for the following feats; Finishing the game with either Emily or Corvo (another trophy to be aware of making an opposite choice for later on). Finishing the game without supernatural powers, which is another decision you make early on and requires you to consciously choose to not obtain powers throughout the game. Completing the game without being spotted and completing the game in low chaos.

One thing I took away from Dishonored was that I'd mismanaged the trophy list, and my learning from that was that I was going to be much more efficient in Dishonored 2, and looking how to best maximise earning as many story completion trophies at once, and minimising replay necessity. All of the above trophies are best done in tandem and compliment each other perfectly.

If you're focusing on not killing any enemies, then refusing to take supernatural powers makes the most sense, as many of these are used to bolster your arsenal. Similarly, if you don't kill anyone, you'll naturally finish the game in low chaos and therefore, it's the perfect fit for these trophies to compliment one another. Engaging in combat means you'll be spotted, so again, if your primary aim is to get through the game without killing anyone, it also makes sense that you strive for the trophy that rewards you for not being spotted. Tactfulness pays off in Dishonored 2, especially when it comes to tackling the trophy list.

By the time I'd completed this initial playthrough of the game, I'd unlocked 25 trophies - Exactly half. Much of this was the aforementioned non-missable, progression-related elements of the list but I did manage to accidentally stumble upon a few secrets that I wasn't necessarily looking for, but happened to award trophies in the process.

Even though I still had half the list to earn, there was only one primary focus remaining. Beat the game again, but on high chaos, which is where the the majority of the remaining trophies lie.

What was remaining at this point were alot of trophies focused around earning kills, which are simply incompatible with a playthrough that requires you to beat the game without killing anyone, so this grouping of trophies had to be reserved for the high chaos playthrough. There is also a trophy awarded for beating the game selecting Corvo, but that was the only other thing to take into account, and the challenges on a second run lay with other parts of the list instead.

The list technically has 27 trophies which are deemed to be missable, and this is alot to juggle if you're intending to beat this game in just a couple of playthroughs like I did. Some of these trophies are missable because they're married to another trophy that are both awarded for making opposing choices at certain spots in the game. Some are missable because they're tied to collectibles that you won't be able to go back to collect once you reach a certain point in a level (this would sting me later). Some are missable because you have to perform specific actions within certain levels and whilst the game does include a mission select feature, this will overwrite your progress automatically, so it's better to just make sure you grab these trophies during a normal playthrough.

The game is especially heavy on collectible trophies and this is what ultimately caused my undoing with this list. Acquiring all collectible paintings, collecting all the decorative objects for the Dreadful Wale, Finding 60% of the available loot throughout the course of the game. Even the more cryptic trophies such as Finding 2 musical duos across Karnaca, and listening to their songs, Killing Paolo three times and Robbing Galvani multiple times are technically collectible because you need to trigger a certain instance multiple times, and should you miss one, you'd have to dedicate a fresh playthrough of the game to obtain the relevant trophies for each of these tasks.

Dishonored was exactly the same, and it elevates the trophy list into an intricate level of planning and research. It's also one of the main reasons I led with the non-lethal playthrough. It would be overstimulating to have to deal with not being spotted and/or killing anyone whilst attempting to balance all of these collectibles, and high chaos just simply requires less focus and allows you to shift your attention to ensuring you're fully focused on not missing any collectibles. And even then, I still did.

It's not exactly notable in it's own right, because in reality, any of the above mentioned trophies could have slipped through the net - It just so happened to be the "Royal Spymaster " trophy, awarded for Perusing all journals and audiographs by Meagan Foster and Anton Sokolov aboard the Dreadful Wale. Between each chapter, the Dreadful Wale acts as a hub where you can see mementos you've collected, gathering intel and collect more lore. New lore becomes available between each mission, and I'm not quite sure what happened, but I suppose I missed something that meant the trophy didn't trigger when it was meant to.

This meant I had to spend an additional 5 hours playing through the game once more. I managed to rush through for the most part, and the final group of collectibles comes just before chapter 10, which is near the end of the game. It's nothing more than a slight inconvenience really, but it's frustrating having to juggle so much and see just one small thing slip through a gap. It was probably just missed amongst the tracking of all these collectibles, but frustrating nonetheless. I would have had this Platinum trophy much sooner had I not fell foul here.

Overall, I'd probably put this roughly on par with Dishonored in terms of difficulty. Both trophy lists are very similar and there are many parallels to draw upon across both lists. 

The experience I carried over from Dishonored certainly helped with the forward planning for this game, ensuring I could earn the Platinum in a much more logically thought out manner and within less playthroughs too, despite having to put in a bit of extra time due to a slight oversight with the collectibles.

The game itself does not require you to play on a specific difficulty setting for any of it's trophies, meaning you can tackle these challenges freely to your own preferences. I chose hard difficulty for both main playthroughs and still didn't notice many difficult parts of the game. When you're striving to not be seen or kill anyone, avoiding combat will naturally dampen the difficulty anyway, and you're less likely to notice any spikes in challenge regardless.

I've put it just a notch below Dishonored, just for the simple reason of being able to come into this with enough experience to plan more appropriately and tackle the list with a better equipped knowledge of what to expect from a game that carries much of it's ideas over from the original. It's a shame that I had to speedrun a third playthrough, but this didn't put me out too much, and probably wasn't enough to bring the overall score up.

Notable Trophies -

Clean Hands - Complete the game without killing anyone.

Hardest Trophy -

Clean Hands

Complete the game without killing anyone

DLC #226 - Hitman 3 - Hitman 2 Expansion

If you argued the point that the way to make Hitman 2 better was to just add more of it, I personally wouldn't object - and that's exactly what they did.

This expansion adds 2 new Sniper Assassin missions - The Pen and the Sword and Crime and Punishment. It also adds another 2 regular Assassin missions - Golden Handshake and The Last Resort.

The locations are nicely varied, as always, with the Sniper Assassin missions taking you to Siberia and Singapore, and the regular Assassin missions taking you to New York City and The Maldives, all with a plethora of new targets to go after.

Due to the fact that this is an expansion of the previously reviewed Hitman 2 DLC content, there isn't much to really expand on here in terms of gameplay features. These levels encompass more of the same unchanged fundamentals, and there isn't any further development to the level design or gameplay features worth noting, if any at all. It is a classic case of more of the same.

The variety comes from the different locations and the variation of mechanics to eliminate your targets depending on the environment around you, which has always been Hitman's ace card.

In terms of trophies, this packages adds a further 10 trophies to the list, and covers off the 4 new missions outlined above.

Simply beating this selection of missions in any capacity, regardless of score and rating, will earn you 4 of these trophies, but as before, there are requirements covered elsewhere that mean you're going to need to perfect your methods of mission completion if you want every trophy on offer.

The level mastery trophies continue and 2 of these are awarded for mastering New York and Haven Island to level 20. The requirements for this are unchanged, and simply involve replaying the level and ticking off the various feats/challenges until you've fulfilled enough to reach level 20. This will involve completing the vast majority of them, and these requirements are still designed to get maximum replayability out of these missions. No real surprises.

The Sniper Assassin missions are where the remaining trophies are focused, and whilst the previous DLC pack only briefly sampled this mode, this DLC expands on them through these final assortment of trophies.

For each of the 2 new Sniper Assassin missions, you'll need to accumulate a score of 1,000,000 points for each, as well as beat all challenges and feats too. The challenges and feats follow the same concept as level mastery, though a level mastery score doesn't exist in Sniper Assassin missions in the same way it does for regular ones. However, these trophies leave no margin for vacancy, and will require you to beat all of them to unlock the trophy. Some of the challenges are either redacted or have cryptic requirements, and set up scenarios that can only occur once you fulfil specific actions beforehand, meaning they do actually have a much deeper logical methodology than you may think at face value.

I didn't touch much on the Sniper Assassin missions in the last DLC pack, because they didn't require much exploration beyond just beating them, but the trophies demand you delve deeper this time round. When you consider the fact you'll sit still in one place for the entire mission, and have 15 minutes to complete the contract, it actually contains alot of depth, full of objectives that demand critical thinking. The gameplay mechanics also integrate creative ways to make use of the sniper too. Shoot locks off doors to expose a crucial object or open something. Shoot objects to reveal something behind them. Shoot a button to trigger something to start up or move. Shoot something to create an execution hazard. I thought the creativity was the most obvious standout thing about this mode, but that's hardly surprising is it?

Admittedly, I did have to look a small handful of these challenges up, mainly the ones with redacted requirements. I gave it an honest go, but I knew they'd be so cryptic, I'd waste too much time trying to figure them out myself. 

Achieving the trophies for scoring 1,000,000 points for the level were much more satisfying for me, and this will require you to clear all objectives quickly and without causing any alerts. There are optimal ways to do this, and it was good fun figuring these out in steps and then linking it all together - making judgement calls on movement patterns, points of interest on the map where you could hide bodies and finally putting it all together to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible to earn 1,000,000 points - Which is the threshold for a Silent Assassin rating.

The trophies are very thorough and require you to master each level, and you'll need to play them through multiple times to earn all the trophies in this set. This won't be an issue through practice and patience - 2 classic ingredients of Hitman success - but you'll need to prove your competency if you want to unlock everything on offer.

Platinum #151 - Balatro

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 8/10

If you look back to the 2024 Game of the Year nominees, you'll notice Balatro with a place at this table. A solo-developed game which spent just under 3 years in production and completely took a grip of the gaming world through it's intriguing twist on Poker.

How could a Poker Roguelike possibly be intriguing enough to be considered for Game of the Year contention? Pretty easily, as it goes.

Balatro is a deckbuilding game where you play common poker hands using various methods of scoring in order to beat a target score per round. The base game offers 8 antes, each consisting of a small blind, big blind and boss blind - with the boss blind of ante 8 concluding the run. You can play into endless mode should you wish to continue and see how far your deck can stretch into end game.

Each round will increase the target score and thus, your ability to keep up with the blinds and successfully surpass them is necessary, otherwise, it's game over.

You can achieve scoring in multiple ways. Cards can be enhanced with bonuses earned from opening packs in the shop and poker hands can be levelled up by acquiring planet cards in similar fashion. However, the jewel in the crown are the range of Jokers you'll have at your disposal - All giving different perks and benefits that can be combined together to create interesting synergy's and combinations to send your score through the roof.

This is the allure of Balatro. Even right up to the point of achieving the Platinum trophy, I was still discovering interesting combinations of Jokers that ensured the game remained fresh throughout the entire time I spent with it. Sure, you naturally lean towards favourites, and there are certain combinations that you'll actively strive for (Everyone is looking at you "Photochad"...) but the beauty of this game is that is also encapsulates another crucial factor. Luck.

To a lesser or greater extent, your runs will be made or broken by luck. Whether it's praying to see that final discard provide the card you need to keep a run alive, or simply what you find in the shop between rounds to help improve your run, luck stays true to the marriage that comes with casino-based card games and how the hands are dealt will always be a factor on making or breaking your progress. Every agonising miss and long shot that hits is a "one more game" rush that seldom exists in many games, and it had me completely hooked.

The pixel art graphics with every playing card and Joker carefully hand-drawn to give it's unique look. The swirling metallic coloured theme of the game interface. The catchy but equally soothing tones in the background. The replayability, variations in how your game can play out, the subtle adjustments to difficulty as you rise through the stakes. I genuinely can't pick any flaws with it and it is worthy of every breath drawn in a Game of the Year conversation. It's one of my favourite games of all time.

I wouldn't even go as far to suggest you need to be an avid Poker player to master Balatro. The game's allure is the Roguelike element, and the easy pick up and play nature is the real star of the show here. If you want the scope to be seriously good, then that exists too, and as long as you have a knack for logic, you will almost certainly enjoy what's on offer.

In terms of trophies, this is a medium sized list, consisting of 32 trophies, including the Platinum trophy. Strap in, because you're in this one for the long haul.

The trophy list does a good job of luring you in a bit here, giving you a solid amount of trophies for little effort initially. It also rewards maximum exploration of the game, with trophies also awarded for discovering every Joker, which requires you to find or purchase it for the first time in the shop between rounds. These trophies also apply to Planet cards, Tarot cards, Spectral cards and Vouchers, all of which award their own trophy for discovering each type of shop bonus. These will all certainly come naturally as you focus on 2 primary tasks this list demands of you.

The "Completionist+" trophy, awarded for Winning with every deck on Gold stake difficulty, is the first major task of this trophy list.

Before you start a run, you'll be asked to choose a deck. Each deck comes with it's own gameplay variation that shakes up the challenge a little bit and you'll eventually unlock access to 15 decks in total for which you need to reach Gold stake difficulty for this trophy. In a similar fashion, you'll also need to progress on lower coloured stake difficulties in order to climb up and access Gold stake, which is the highest tier. There are 8 coloured difficulty stakes which twist the game with certain rules, and having to win on Gold stake for all decks requires you to win a minimum of 120 runs in total.

Most of the decks are fairly basic and easy to understand, and some will force you to change the way you play and make you more tactful about the Jokers you select, but the true curveball here comes from the stake difficulty.

Each of the 8 stake difficulties will add an extra complexity that stacks, so by the time you reach Gold stake, there are a number of different modifiers combining that you need to account for when attempting to win a run. Green and Purple stake increase the score requirements to pass an ante, Blue stake permanently removes a discard, Black stake adds Eternal Jokers - which cannot be sold once active - and Orange stake adds Perishable Jokers, which are permanently disabled after 5 rounds only.

By the time you come to tackling each of the 15 decks on Gold stake, you're really up against it, and you'll need to draw on every tactic you've learned to succeed in runs. I would say this trophy starts to get difficult at the introduction of Eternal Jokers at Black stake, which is still 4 difficulty colours off Gold. Eternal and Perishable Jokers will unsettle your familiarity with certain Jokers you can generally rely on, and sometimes you'll be forced into decisions you don't necessarily want to make which you only find out later on with hindsight weren't correct.

Gold stake difficulty also reminds you of how brutal some of the boss blinds are. The Needle - which reduces your hands playable to just 1. The Flint - which halves your base scoring. The Wall - which doubles the normal target score. Just a small selection of bosses you don't want to see at later antes in runs on Gold stake difficulty. If I ever lost a high stake run, it would be because of seeing a certain boss blind I didn't want to see.

On good days, I could win up to 5 or 6 runs. On bad days, I could play a good 10 hours without getting anywhere close. It has brutally fine margins of success and that spectrum of variance was often a good reminder of this and how big of a role luck can play in your levels of prosperity. Sometimes, the cards just don't fall your way.

The game doesn't really offer much extensive stat tracking. Each successful run will generally take around 30-40 minutes, and to win 120 runs, this trophy requires a minimum of 80 hours of playtime. When you take into account all the failures in between, I would say this trophy eclipsed 300-400 hours easily - Possibly more. That sounds inconceivable until you see how much time I plugged into this game when all was said and done, and I finally unlocked this trophy just after a year of playing Balatro religiously at least twice a week. To think too, this was only half the battle.

Before moving onto the second major task in this trophy list, I broke away to tackle the Challenge mode. This lines up 20 unique challenges with set parameters you need to progress through to complete a full run, and awards a Gold trophy for beating all 20.

There are a couple of tricky challenges, but they're all defaulted to White stake difficulty, which pales in comparison after tackling every single deck on Gold stake, so this was more a nice little palette cleanser than anything else. The final challenge requires you to win a run without being able to use a single Joker, which took me a handful of attempts, but this was a stroll in the park comparatively, and before I knew it, the second big task lay ahead.

The "Completionist++" trophy, awarded for Earning a Gold Sticker on every Joker, is the second main part to this trophy list, and is arguably even more challenging than part 1.

Each time you complete a run to ante 8, the Jokers you're holding in hand at the end of the run will earn a sticker according to the colour of stake you've just beaten, and you'll need to beat a Gold stake run with every single Joker in the game, of which there are 150.

If you've completed the previous trophy, you'll already have a small handful of these Jokers with a Gold sticker attached to them, so there is a headstart in place, but there are a number of complications to consider with this trophy.

Firstly, in terms of strategy, I initially opted to complete this task using the Anaglyph deck. This deck gives you a free Double Tag for each Boss blind you defeat, with the idea behind the strategy being to continue to stack these double tags until you find a Negative tag at some point during your run. Taking the negative tag late on will trigger all the double tags and give you a bunch of negative Jokers to hold, maximising your chances of ticking off as many Jokers at the end of the run, should you win.

I ultimately didn't find this a viable approach, for two main reasons. Firstly, the negative skip tag isn't guaranteed to come, so the strategy is ultimately a bit too luck dependant to work frequently enough to be effective. Secondly, you don't have any control of the Jokers you choose. It'll just be as they come out of the shop and you have to select what you're given, which is also way too rigid for this strategy to be effective. So I did quickly pivot out of this tactic.

I settled on the Ghost deck instead, which starts you with a Hex Spectral card and adds the possibility of finding Spectral cards in the shop. I just wanted to lean on the power of Spectral cards to help me on Gold stake.

Since this is on Gold stake difficulty by default, you'll still run into the same issues of just being able to beat runs, as with the previous Completionist trophy, but for this particular task, you're trying to do this with forced Jokers that, in many instances, you wouldn't even rely on to win you a Gold stake run, which is a big problem.

For example, you need to be conscious of finding a way to "carry" certain Jokers;

• Seance. Gives you a Spectral card when you play a Straight Flush. 
• Matador. Gives you $8 each time the Boss blind ability is triggered. 
• 8 Ball. Gives a 1 in 4 chance of creating a Tarot card when an 8 is played.
• Diet Cola. Gives a free double tag when sold.
• Luchador. Disables the current boss blind when sold.
• Invisible Joker. Duplicates a random Joker in hand when sold.

These are just a small handful I would personally group into this category, but there are 2 different types of "carry" Joker. Seance, Matador and 8 Ball are just a few examples of Jokers whose benefits are just way too niche or ineffective, and will need a carry because they're just not good enough to positively impact a Gold stake run.

Diet Cola, Luchador and Invisible Joker are examples of Jokers whose benefits only kick in when they're sold, which is counter-productive towards the goals of this trophy, and effectively just makes them useless Jokers by default because they need to be held in hand right up until the end of the run. They're deadweight by nature.

I would usually focus on building a strong line-up of 4 Jokers and holding a free space to carry one of these through to the end. Holding out an extra Joker slot like this on Gold stake is killer, and it cost me numerous times, but it's the only way to Gold sticker the sort of Jokers like those mentioned above. Another benefit to the Ghost deck is seeing Ectoplasm Spectral cards, which make a Joker negative to the detriment of losing a hand. This can also be brutal, but slightly widens your scope for carrying Jokers.

Further to this, you also need to be aware of the food Jokers too. These are Jokers whose perk always leads to a perishable consequence, and are timed to expire within a certain amount of hands played. There are 7 that fit into this category, including Ice Cream, Popcorn, Ramen, Turtle Bean, Seltzer, Gros Michel and Cavendish.

Timing is really important with these Jokers. You need them to appear, mostly, towards the end of your run, and taking them too early means they simply won't get far enough for you to win holding them. Due to their expirable nature, they'll never have an Eternal sticker either, so you need loads of luck in seeing them late on into runs to grab them at the optimal time so they're still in play by the end. Also, apart from Cavendish and Ramen, all these Jokers offer fairly weak benefits late into a Gold stake run when the scoring requirements are high, so they also mainly fall into the carry category too.

I would also hold a spare slot for these Jokers, in the exact same approach I took for those I deemed to be carry Jokers too. They'll offer some scoring, but generally won't influence the outcome of a Gold stake run too much. It's also important to note that you won't see Cavendish unless you've seen a Gros Michel expire in your hands before, within the same run.

A final consideration, and something that rears it's head time and time again as a conspiring factor. Luck. You'll reach that point where you only need 10 Jokers so be prepared for runs where you won't even see the Jokers you need appear. I put together plenty of solid winning runs, only to draw a blank on finding the Jokers I needed just by simple virtue of the fact the pool was so shallow. 

The Overstock and Overstock Plus vouchers will help here. They add an extra slot to the shop shelf per round and every re-roll. Similarly, the Re-Roll Surplus and Re-Roll Glut vouchers will make shop re-rolls cheaper, giving you more opportunities to spin for the Jokers you need. However, luck will play it's part here too, and you need to hope you see these vouchers available for purchase. It's unlikely you'll encounter all 4 in the same run so make the most of them if you see them. Shout out to the final Joker I needed. The Stone Joker - Which evaded me for over a week of hard pushing for this final Joker and gave me my very first feeling of burnout with this game.

I thought winning 120 different runs for the first trophy was tough enough, and this trophy was even tougher. Having to steer away from preferred builds and favourite Jokers is a tough adjustment, and some Jokers are so weak, it puts you at an uncomfortable disadvantage. I found this trophy to be the tougher out of the two, and it also took me much longer to achieve. The failure rate was way higher and it also made me commit to some rash decisions too. I'd sometimes get greedy and see a Joker I needed a Gold sticker for late in a run and taking the gamble to sell a solid Joker and risk the carry was something that rarely paid off.

According to the dashboard on the Playstation interface, I put 857 hours into Balatro. That's almost 36 days of my entire life. That does blow my mind a little bit, but I'm not that surprised when I reflect on this properly. This game took days away from me at regular intervals, and it's rare for games to grip me to that extent.

It is a tough Platinum, and you'll need to commit to it fully. The game purposely builds the difficulty to a point where it'll reward those who have learned to master it most, whilst maintaining some cutthroat doses of luck that'll speedbump you, just to remind you that you won't have it your own way, no matter how good you become. I would strongly endorse this as a 9/10, but the sheer enjoyment I got from this game from start to finish shaves a mark off the final difficulty rating. Very clearly one of the most enjoyably long-winded games I've ever played. It balances this longevity with a Platinum that requires critical thinking, intuition and luck - and it was an absolute pleasure.

Notable Trophies - 

Completionist+ - Win with every deck on Gold Stake difficulty.
Completionist++ - Earn a Gold Sticker on every Joker.

Hardest Trophy -

Completionist++

Earn a Gold Sticker on every Joker

DLC #225 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey - The Fate of Atlantis : Episode 3

"Go do this. Bring me that. Kill him. I don't know if I can do this anymore." - Quips Alexios towards the end of this final piece of episodic DLC for Assassin's Creed Odyssey in an expression of burnout and tiredness.

I'm not sure to what extent this is tongue in cheek, but it's almost as if Assassin's Creed Odyssey knows exactly what it is by this point. I felt it was a perfect summarisation of how I'm feeling too.

The final foray into the Fate of Atlantis finally sees Alexios reach the promised land itself. Ruled by Poseidon, Atlantis is situated under the Aegean Sea, and acts as the final destination for the conclusion of this journey. It's another visually pleasing setting littered with grand palaces and surrounded by water. A stark contrast to the glum Underworld in Episode 2.

This is the right time to praise the effort that has gone into creating 3 different realms for each episode of the Fate of Atlantis. The cynics among us will argue that was the least they could do after making you retread the same regions of Greece you'd already seen for the entirety of the Legacy of the First Blade. The effort here is still admirable though, and Atlantis is probably my favourite of the 3 realms within this story.

There isn't much else different of note in terms of gameplay features though. Atlantis is framed as a hub for harbouring Isu knowledge, and you'll need to fill the knowledge bar in order to access certain areas of the map. This is split into 3 levels and follows the exact same concept as Tartaros Veils in Episode 2, which would only grant you access to certain areas once you'd obtained a full armour set. Discovering Isu caches, Keeper Insights and finding Codices are all methods to fill the knowledge bar through it's 3 full levels. It's new, but not really new.

Everything else is the same. Quest structure, abilities and a new batch of characters asking for the same old things. It's hardly reasonable to expect much drastic change this deep in, is it? And with the amount of post-game content Assassin's Creed Odyssey has introduced us to, there's only so many times you can repeat yourself. Reference the opening line of this post for a clinical summary.

This final pack of episodic DLC adds 5 trophies, with yet another emphasis on questline progression.

The hidden trophy in this set is awarded at the conclusion of the final part of the story, which contains 9 main quests. Some of the other trophies intertwine as you progress towards the end goal of beating this plotline once and for all.

Completely filling the Isu knowledge sequence is one of these trophies and you won't be able to reach certain missions until you've earned this trophy, as some quests only become available to start once you've maxed out the knowledge bar. These particular quests are accounted for in the 9 mentioned above, which effectively makes this progression-based too.

Collecting all Keeper's Insights, of which there are 3, will also award another trophy. These generate Isu knowledge, so directly link into progression for the above trophy too, so it makes sense to link them all together to improve trophy acquisition efficiency.

The other trophies are awarded for simple side activities, including forging 3 Legendary weapons, which just requires you to collect Adamant from chests in secured areas. The weapons look cool, but mean absolutely nothing at this stage of the game. My character has felt way too powerful for so long, new weaponry/armour is just something nice to look at by this point.

The last trophy is awarded for Killing 10 Isu Soldiers with the Blessing of Kronos enhancement - Another ability you just need to apply an ability point to in order to unlock it's final form, and kill 10 enemies whilst it's active.

Whilst none of these DLC packs for The Fate of Atlantis are truly difficult, this particular episode did feel like the easiest run of trophies out of all of them. A straight-forward questline, with trophies which complimented this through side activities, combined with low-bar requirements. No addition of those grindy Cultist/Mercenary branches that have existed in other forms of DLC to artificially lengthen the content on offer.

My final cumulative time on my save file sits at 145 hours and 22 minutes, meaning this package added another 7 hours onto the total - About the same length as Episode 2. It's a big level of time commitment for a game that never strayed too far from it's principle formula, and it has been a bit of a slog at times. This is what Assassin's Creed has become though with it's new direction of being a more akin to an RPG-style driven series, and the future holds more of where that came from.

Platinum #150 - Battlefield 5

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 3/10

I always referred to Warzone as the "Battlefield Killer".

Warzone was a complete game changer. Call of Duty and Battlefield fought on an even playing ground for me once upon a time, but the release of Warzone made me abandon Battlefield for a short while as a clear favourite emerged and stole most of my time.

It never truly displaced Battlefield, but I spent so much time playing Warzone that I just didn't have enough scope to be playing something within the same genre of game simultaneously, and it's important to specify that this is Warzone we're talking about - Not Call of Duty. I haven't been interested in the Call of Duty series for quite some time, but Warzone came with something different, refreshing and an experience that was also great to play with close mates.

It's true what they say though. All good things come to an end and my waning interest in Warzone made me revisit what I always thought was the superior offering out of the two series when pit against each other. I've always preferred the less arcade feel of Battlefield in comparison to Call of Duty, which started feeling a bit too gimmicky - with it's wingsuits, jetpacks and wall-jumping. Give me the best era for war games - World War 2 - A tank, old school weaponry and a few air bombers and let's call this argument a day.

Battlefield 5 is a Single Player and Multiplayer experience, set within the Second World War era, finely replicating everything from this time period. Authenticity is what Battlefield has always executed consistently well, where Call of Duty far too often strayed into the realms of abandoned realism.

I do just have to caveat this slightly. I spent much less time with this game compared to the previous titles in the series, which have contained trophy lists that have required prolonged amounts of time with the game. This was very much a fleeting visit by comparison, such were the low demands of the trophy list, so my views were based on a fairly brief experience.

This is still classic Battlefield though. War is captured eerily well. Graphically solid, from the vehicle models to the destructive environment that crumbles and folds around you from explosives and tank shells. Sounds of war are also portrayed excellently, from sniper fire pinging off in the distance to the ominous hum of an incoming bomber seconds away from dropping death from above. Authenticity has always been an ace card Battlefield has held over Call of Duty.

The most noticeable gameplay shift is in the movement and gunplay. It's not a difficult adaptation to make, but the fluid, fast-moving pace of Call of Duty sits on the very opposite end of the spectrum to the slower, slightly clunkier Battlefield. It's ultimately just another arcade to simulation differentiator, and will come down to personal preferences, but I've always felt Battlefield's style lends better to war shooters.

You can still choose from 4 different classes to play as, each with their own roles in battle. Engineer, Recon, Support and Medic all have vital parts to play in their own right, and give you a fundamental purpose to supporting your side in battle, promoting teamwork and synergy. Gaining experience points for tasks related to your role will give you better equipment for that class, so you can really hone in and focus on specific roles that interest you the most. On the other hand, the customisation options for weapon depth are a little bit lacking though.

Battlefield 5 generally isn't a game brimming with content either. The Single Player feels like an appetiser to the Multiplayer component, and the game wasn't supported with any post-game DLC of note. The Multiplayer element of the game has more depth, but people only seemingly play Conquest at this stage of the game's life cycle, whereas everything else is generally ignored. It's important to note that natural player preferences shouldn't be held against the game and it's options available. There are plenty of game modes contained within the overall package - I just barely got a chance to play many of them.

Interestingly enough, the newly added Firestorm game mode is Battlefield's answer to Warzone, however, because it isn't factored into the trophy list, I did not venture into this at any point.

Everything else was a nice way to ease back into Battlefield though. Punchy, albeit slower-paced, gameplay, but incredibly hectic fun when you have a full 64 player match as everyone contests capture zones in crowded areas and set-pieces on the map. 

In regards to trophies, this is a small-sized list, clocking in at a total of 22 trophies, including the Platinum, and it follows the theme of Battlefield trophy lists being relatively trouble-free.

Starting with the Single Player experience, which offers 3 different "War Stories" for you to complete. These were also present in Battlefield 1 - Individual tales told about specific characters representing different sides of the war, including a young Norwegian woman who attempts to save her hostage mother, a young British man who takes a plea deal by fighting on the frontlines to prevent a spell in prison and a young French-Senegalese soldier who takes command of a squad.

Going straight into these on Hardcore difficulty will earn you 6 trophies. You'll earn a trophy for completing each separate War Story, and then a further 3 Gold trophies for beating them all on Hardcore, which are stacked with Medium and Hard difficulties.

Hardcore difficulty has a couple of tough moments, but you can bypass many of the sections across all 3 campaigns with stealth and generally avoid conflict. The parts that force you into fighting prove to be a little bit of a sticking point at times, but you can still comfortably beat each story within 2-4 hours, and the labelling of "Hardcore" turns out to be a little bit disingenuous. It's definitely nowhere near the Veteran levels of Call of Duty titles from years gone by, which earned iconic status, and the checkpoint system is incredibly generous, rewarding you constantly for even the smallest amount of progress. Getting to every checkpoint in Call of Duty felt like a huge win in it's own right. Not so much here.

Completion of all 3 War Stories is all that's required to earn the Single Player trophies in the list. Previous Battlefield titles have extended their Single Player offerings to account for collectibles and specific in-level challenges/feats, but all of this has been dropped on this occasion, which is part of the reason for a significantly reduced trophy list in terms of quantity of trophies.

The Multiplayer element of the game doesn't exactly stretch the limits much further beyond the challenge presented by the Single Player segment of it either.

Just getting to grips with adapting to playing within a competitive environment saw a consistently steady flow of trophies awarded for incredibly easy tasks. In my first session alone experiencing the Multiplayer side of the game, I'd managed to unlock 9 trophies without any sort of specific focus - Almost half of the whole list - but it did also signify the beginning of the sole, real challenge of this game.

The "Death From Above" trophy, awarded for Destroying 5 manned stationary weapons with a Airplane, is the only genuinely difficult trophy in this list, and I had to set aside an entire session in order to earn it.

Firstly, you need to earn the kill AND the notification for destroying the stationary weapon simultaneously. If you're playing anew like I was, you'll only have access to 50kg bombs from the outset, and you'll be able to access up to 200kg bombs the further you progress the levelling of the bomber. The first hurdle I faced was realising that 50kg bombs weren't strong enough to destroy a manned stationary weapon in one drop, which meant enemy players would always get out and either leave the area or repair the weapon back to it's maximum health by the time you'd managed to come back round for a pass, so I quickly found out this wasn't going to work.

So I had to spend some time levelling the bomber up by just flying around and obtaining kills on infantry soldiers. It didn't take too long, but a pre-requisite I hadn't accounted for. The main positive to this was that I at least got the hang of piloting the bomber. I personally don't think the learning curve for flying in Battlefield is anywhere near as bad as some people make it out to be - It's mainly all about getting used to inverted controls but also understanding that flying it in third person is much easier than the default setting of first person too.

Secondly, I do think stationary AA guns are a little bit too overpowered. I'd find it incredibly easy to get shot down to the point where I tried it myself and realised that the hitbox for targeting planes with AA guns is incredibly generous, and most bombers will go down quickly enough if you notice them coming at you early.

To remedy this - Fjell 652 - A close quarters map that's small enough to ensure that your enemies commandeering AA guns don't have enough time to scope and shoot you down. Even the process of dropping bombs is a fairly easy once you realise that a white circle will appear just below the plane when you're close enough to the ground to release a bomb. It's a hit every time as long as your timing is on point. It took me around 6-7 hours, mostly of research and tactical planning outlined above, but I'd managed to obtain 5 kills in a handful of games of Conquest specifically on Fjell 652. You'll need to be patient but it makes a massive difference upgrading your bombs to be strong enough to wipe out a stationary weapon, and subsequently whoever's inside it, in one pass.

Beyond this, the remainder of the list is all downhill. There is another trophy to just make small note of, which requires you to capture 10 flags in Frontlines. This game mode is very similar to Conquest, but instead of capture points spread across a map, both teams compete to capture a linear set of flags where you push back the opposition until you've captured the final flag furthest down the line. Frontlines isn't available in public matches any more, so you'll need to create your own lobby and wait for at least 3 other players to populate it - The minimum amount required to start a game. This was easy to do, but I did have to hang around for a short while for something to happen.

Finally, I moved onto the remaining Multiplayer trophies, which required a little more effort and time. You'll need to accumulate a total of 500,000 experience points whilst playing Multiplayer, with an equally proportionate amount of time to be split across each of the 4 different soldier classes with separate trophies requiring you to earn 100,000 experience points whilst playing as each class.

It's simply just a matter of playing the game, and I found I could accumulate anywhere between 8,000 - 10,000 experience points per match in what I would consider to be a good return on average. Flag captures yield up to 600 experience points per full capture cycle, making them a primary focus of attention. The game also tracks the amount of cumulative experience points you've earned per class too, which is always a useful bonus when it comes to such high accumulation trophies that would otherwise not be easy to track, especially when you consider that you'll still need an additional 100,000 exp once you've unlocked the 4 class-specific experience trophies. 

Overall times spent to reach 100,000 with each class included 6 and a half hours for Assault, just over 5 hours for Medic, just under 6 hours for Support and just over 5 hours for Recon. Achieving an additional 100,000 experience on top of this was another 5 hours and I most went back to the Recon class for this, as I very much enjoy sniping.

Battlefield has gradually continued to lower the bar for it's trophy lists, particularly in recent iterations. I almost wanted to give this a lower score than what I ended up landing on, for a breezy Single Player campaign, and some Multiplayer trophies that generally just reward you for playing the game.

Accumulating 500,000 experience points will take a reasonable amount of time though, and the "Death From Above" trophy was effectively the reason I didn't budge on my score in the end. Some people will lose patience with the Platinum over this trophy alone, and if you're not willing to stay patient with it, you're probably not even going to want to sink the extra 25-ish hours into reaching the 500,000 exp milestone anyway.

If you can overcome the "Death From Above" challenge, this can be a 30-35 hour total Platinum completion time. The Multiplayer grind for experience is high, but fairly relaxed, and the other trophies that sit around this don't put any additional pressures on that drive a competitive Multiplayer space. It would be considered an ideal trophy list for many people - Unless you hate flying planes or getting killed relentlessly by others who do enjoy flying them.

Notable Trophies -

Death From Above - In Multiplayer, destroy 5 manned stationary weapons with a Airplane.

Hardest Trophy -

Death From Above

In Multiplayer, destroy 5 manned stationary weapons with a Airplane.