Just to get the disclaimer out of the way, this lastest feat also signals the end of FIFA for me. It began in 2009, with a patched version of FIFA 09 introducing trophies to the FIFA series for the first time ever.
Within the last 9/10 years, FIFA has produced some strong lists, with some mighty accomplishments to achieve. FIFA 09 and FIFA 11 both scored a difficulty rating of 9/10 and FIFA 10 boasted the full 10/10, and still ranks as one of my toughest Platinum trophies to date. Infact, according to PSN profiles, my top 4 rarest trophies in my entire collection are the FIFA 10, 09, 11 and 13 Platinum trophies, which speaks for itself.
However, there was also the decline. From FIFA 13 onwards, there wasn't a single FIFA game which scored higher than a 6/10 (which, incidentally, includes FIFA 18), and even scored as low as 3/10 in some years in between. The lists got boring, dull and most importantly, stripped of any sort of challenge that made the earlier FIFA titles well worth the purchase.
There were other things too. The game took the wrong direction with monetising Ultimate Team, and all the focus of bringing new modes to the Single Player portion of the game didn't suit me, as someone who is predominantly a Multiplayer gamer. All of which has led to an early retirement. I didn't buy FIFA 19, and will also bypass FIFA 20. I have too many other games to focus on, rather than just plow through the yearly FIFA list which is mostly copy and pasted year on year, and only ever seems to be a token gesture to my overall collection, rather than any sort of genuine challenge.
Now that's out of the way, the FIFA 18 trophy list is pretty much "see as above". Mostly copy and pasted from prior FIFA titles, this list is a mixed spread across a multitude of game modes, including the returning Journey (back for a second installment), Pro Clubs, Ultimate Team and Career Mode. There are also a large portion of trophies within this list dedicated to accomplishing feats within matches which you can easily unlock through natural gameplay.
The "What a comeback" trophy, awarded for Finishing the Journey, is exactly how you remember it from FIFA 17. The Journey is effectively a "part 2" of Alex Hunter's professional career, where progression is simply achieved through making it through each Chapter, of which there are 6 in total. This is the key difference this time round, the fact the Journey is divided into clear chapters which define the beginning, middle and end, rather than just slogging through an undefined story like previously in FIFA 17.
It's not exactly difficult, just a but laborious. I never have been, and never will be, a fan of anything on FIFA that is played through Single Player channels, and the Journey isn't exactly short. It will still take anywhere between 15-20 hours to complete, and whilst the story has at least, to it's credit, been given alot of care and attention to detail, there are still way too many "filler" segments, where you're simply just playing games in order to pad out the mode for the sake of longevity.
It is also important to point out that, the other 3 trophies tied into the Journey mode are all missable, so you want to make sure you achieve these at the relevant stages within the game mode to ensure you're not playing through it in it's entirety again. Out of these 3 other trophies, 2 of them come in Chapters 5 and 6, so you'll be playing through the lot if you miss them first time round, which will add hours onto your completion time. There isn't much point into going into the individual requirements of each one, just know that you're replaying this game mode again if you miss any of them first time around.
The "Pristine victory" trophy, awarded for winning all 4 matches in an FUT Draft session in FIFA Ultimate Team, seems to be a staple experience within any FIFA list of the last handful of years, requiring you to win the draft within FIFA Ultimate Team.
It still requires 15,000 coins per attempt, which can cause some difficulties if you don't knock this trophy off early, because you'll end up accumulating some hefty expenses entering draft mode the longer you play without success.
However, the big difference here this time around, is the fact that, unlike FIFA 16 and 17, you can unlock this trophy within the Single Player Draft, which provides a great "get out" clause to those who don't want to go through the Online Draft for this trophy. I went through the Online alternative, in order to make this list more challenging on the whole, and managed to unlock it on my third attempt, so even though this may not seem like much, this would have still cost me 45,000 coins, which takes time to accumulate, despite the fact it's easier than ever to earn coins on Ultimate Team.
There is also the option to take the shortcut and buy into the Draft at 300 coins per attempt, but the other trophies within Ultimate Team will allow you to accumulate enough points for at least a few attempts at the draft before you consider using real currency, and it is also important to note that progression through the Draft will throw up rewards after winning each game up to the final, so even if you don't win it, you can claw back some of that draft fee through some of the subsequent packs and prizes you'll earn through draft progression, which will help massively, especially if you struggle to win coins in other parts of Ultimate Team.
Expect a challenge if you play through the Online Draft though. You will run into some very good players who will have some very strong squads at their disposal, and to win 4 games in a row within that sort of environment is a genuinely challenging feat to accomplish, and can make this trophy the toughest in the entire list, should you choose to earn it through this method.
"The big league" trophy, awarded for Winning promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons, is also a nice little challenge. There is flexibility here too, because Ultimate Team features both Online and Single Player seasons, both of which will trigger the achievement of the trophy upon completion.
Initially, I attempted this feat through the Online season, but found it to be way too challenging around the midway point, where overpowered teams were just steamrolling my bronze/silver graded hybrid, so I have to seek out the alternative option of going through the Single Player seasons in order to reach division 1 instead.
This did lessen the challenge, and the reason I chose to go through the Online seasons in the first place, was another personal attempt at trying to inflate the challenge of this trophy list, right up to the point where I discovered my squad needed to be stronger to compete at the upper echelons of Ultimate Team, and given the fact this entire game fast became all about how quickly, and efficiently, I could lock off this Platinum trophy, I just opted for the easier choice in the end, which was to just play the computer in Single Player seasons.
It still took 54 games for me to reach Division 1, and the higher leagues will require you to win 7 games just to earn promotion, so this becomes a slog by the time you reach the end, and Single Player FIFA, at least, in my opinion, is a painfully dull experience.
The "Handyman" trophy, awarded whilst In Pro Clubs, using in matches each of your 3 Play Styles, wouldn't normally be on most people's list for discussion of notable trophies, but cleaning up this list, and having this trophy left, ended up being an apt climax for a series which didn't really need to give me any more reasons to abandon it for good.
The trophy itself requires you to complete 3 Pro Clubs matches, whilst using 3 custom Play Styles, which you can create within the Be A Pro game mode. It doesn't seem like it would create any great difficulties on paper, but in this circumstance, it certainly did, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I had to find someone still willing to play Pro Clubs, which ended up being a scattergun exercise of firing off messages within the drop-in game mode to anybody hoping the odd person would join my club. Once a willing participant had been found, you had to search for a game and attempt to match with another club, which often bought back no results due to the age of the game. This would put most people off quickly, and I ended up back at step one more times than I care to remember, and if by the odd chance I managed to get beyond step 2, and found a match, the awfully unreliable servers would, most of the time, kick everyone out the lobby before a full game could be completed, which nullified the progress towards this trophy. Managing to complete just 3 matches took me 3 evenings of pure commitment.
In defence of FIFA 18, it's not all the fault of the game. I cannot be expected to still see an active online community for the third installment back in an annual series, so not being able to find willing partners/other teams to match with in a lobby is a standard expectation, but the server stability issues are the signs of a lack of development care, which deserves to be marked down. All of these issues combined made this trophy way more arduous than it should have been, and is a significant pain to be able to contribute to the final rating.
This all makes for much of the same, and the consistency of FIFA over the last 4/5 years has led to a series of Platinum trophies which are roughly on the same par with each other. Some have scored slightly differently to others, mostly due to the situations where new game modes have been introduced for the first time and have some different trophies attached to them, but the same challenges have, for the most part, been presented within FIFA trophy lists for years now. A quick glance at the FIFA 19 and 20 trophy lists backs this up, and provides further evidence that things haven't really changed. It makes it easy to grade the difficulty ratings of FIFA games when the benchmark has barely moved.
Some of the trophies have a sturdy challenge sitting behind them if you wish to seek them, but the backdoor alternatives by allowing the user to unlock them through a Single Player alternative quickly re-aligns this whole list into total mediocrity, so a 6/10 difficulty rating seems fitting. I took on the Ultimate Team Draft Online, which was a nice challenge within this list, but just simply couldn't be bothered to reach division 1 in Ultimate Team Online, so I took up the option of the easier Single Player route, even though it was still a painful slog.
Notable Trophies -
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| What a comeback - Finish The Journey Pristine Victory - Win all 4 matches in an FUT Draft session in FIFA Ultimate Team The big league - Win promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons Handyman - In Pro Clubs, use in matches each of your 3 Play Styles |
The big league
Win promotion to Division 1 of FIFA Ultimate Team Seasons
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