Following up on a solid offering from Dead Space, this list ups the difficulty and provides an even steeper challenge than before.
Despite the overall difficulty, the list does actually provide a large array of relatively easy trophies, including 15 progression based trophies awarded for hitting various key points throughout the story. There are also a mixture of cumulative kill-based trophies, weapon-specific trophies and other trophies awarded for performing very specific actions, most of which you can just unlock naturally as you play through the story mode.
The real toughness of the list shines through in a just a small selection of the whole lists trophies, but despite this, they prove to be a solid test of skill and patience.
The "Mission Impossible" trophy, awarded for completing the game on Zealot setting, requires you to beat the game on it's hardest true difficulty level, and as far as hard modes go, this is one of the tougher ones out there. Although you don't actually need to unlock Zealot difficulty setting, and can effectively jump straight into it, it's best advised to beat the game once on a lower difficulty in order to unlock New Game +, which will make Zealot difficulty alot easier to tackle.
New Game + allows you to carry forward all of your weapons, upgrades and items into a second playthrough, which is extremely useful for battling the game on it's toughest setting, and despite the fact the game will still present a steady challenge, it is much easier to manage when you have the benefit of upgraded weapons and armour from a previous playthrough. I'd almost go as far to say it is essential you beat the game once and unlock New Game + because the game would simply be too difficulty to beat under other circumstances.
Even with the benefit of being able to carry over weapons and upgrades, you can still expect a solid challenge. Enemies are alot tougher to take down and generally do more damage with attacks, which is only really problematic during ambushes or big set pieces, but the limited amount of health throughout the game still means you'll need to be aware, since it doesn't take much for any enemy to kill you and set you back.
The "Hard to the Core" trophy, awarded for completing the game on Hardcore setting, requires you to beat the game with just 3 saves at your disposal, and death at any point results to being pushed back to your last available save point.
This is without doubt the stand out trophy in this entire list, and Hardcore mode not only limits your ammunition and health, but seriously tests your nerves and persistence. The key to beating the game on Hardcore mode essentially lies within great preparation and planning, and mistakes can be seriously punished at any moment.
I still maintain that the biggest problem with Hardcore mode is psychologically knowing that you really can't afford to die, in fear of losing hours of progress, or having repeat large portions of the game all over again. It can lead to silly mistakes that cause unnecessary deaths, or panicking at vital moments that can also cause similar demise. However, it is still true that Hardcore mode does bump up the toughness of enemies, and that ammunition and health is much scarcer. You also do not get the benefit of being able to play in New Game +, meaning you're forced to start the game from scratch without any weapons or upgrades.
I died on numerous occasions on Hardcore mode, and the amount of time lost made it tougher each time. It's difficult to understate the importance of forward planning too, which is the key to succeeding in Hardcore mode. Knowing where to spend your credits and what weapons/upgrades to spend them on makes pivotal areas of the games easier to manage, and increases your chances of getting past them without dying. It's also essential to plot your save points carefully too, as saving too early could leave you with more work to do later on, just in the same way trying to save too late could cause an untimely death and undo hours of hard work instantly.
It is also important to note that, due to the fact you're permitted just 3 saves, you'll need to find the time to commit yourself to 3 individual sessions of play, playing in blocks of anywhere up to 5 hours, depending on planned save points, so the endurance factor is also a key component to Hardcore mode.
In reality, there are numerous ways to approach the mode, and it's a certainty that there are many tactics that will help people to succeed in various ways, but the demands and sheer magnitude of the challenge never changes, and it remains one of the toughest Gold trophies available in any game to date.
Aside from those trophies, the game doesn't really present much else in the way of a direct challenge, though the "Librarian" trophy, awarded for collecting 100 audio logs fulfils the collectibles criteria nicely. As with the original game, you have some nice leeway on the amount of audio logs that are actually available throughout the game, and due to it's very linear nature, you should naturally run into most of them without having to go out of your way too much.
The "Fully Loaded" trophy, awarded for simultaneously having four fully upgraded weapons, takes a ton of power nodes to achieve, and can actually only be achieved across 2 playthroughs through New Game+, since you won't be able to gather enough power nodes across a solitary playthrough in order to fully max out 4 weapons. Yet another good reason why it's advisable to take a relaxed playthrough of the game before tackling the Zealot difficulty setting.
In total, you're looking at a recommended 3 playthroughs of the game to unlock everything, but given how massively variant the times for beating Hardcore mode could be, it's difficult to nail a solid time estimation on the Platinum trophy. The story itself takes around 10-12 hours to get through, but the amount of hours you could very easily lose on Hardcore mode is harder to judge.
There's no denying the true challenge of this list lies in beating the game on it's 2 toughest modes. Zealot difficulty presents a solid offering, but pales in comparison to Hardcore mode, which definitely lives up to it's billing, and provides one of the sternest tests available in any game.
The ease amongst the list is just to lure you into what turns out to be a pretty prestigious Platinum trophy for any collection.
Notable Trophies -
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| Mission Impossible - Complete the game on Zealot setting Hard to the Core - Complete the game on Hard Core setting Fully Loaded - Simultaneously have four completely upgraded weapons |
Hard to the Core
Complete the game on Hardcore setting
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