Platinum #109 - Assassin's Creed Unity

Platinum Difficulty Rating - 4/10

If there is any series of game that feels like it has a template for trophy list reviews, it is almost certainly Assassin's Creed. I see you FIFA, but this is my 7th Assassin's Creed Platinum trophy, and the only thing that ever really seems to change is the era of time the game is set in.

Speaking of which, Assassin's Creed Unity sees you assume control of Arno Dorian, a member of the French Brotherhood of Assassin's, and is set during the height of the French Revolution.

Arno meets Elise De La Serre, whose father takes in Arno after his own father is murdered. After failing to deliver an important message that pre-empts the death of the Templar Grand Master De La Serre, Arno is not only accidentally complicit to his murder as a consequence of not delivering the letter, but also mistaken for being the killer at the scene of the death, which is witnessed by some powerful and influential Templars.

This will take the player through a story of revenge and redemption as Arno is inducted into the Brotherhood in an attempt to clear his own name and take revenge on the group of Templars responsible for killing De La Serre.

The trophy list is large in size, containing 51 trophies in total including the Platinum, and follows a formula very typical of Assassin's Creed trophy lists.

The "Curtain Call" trophy, awarded for Completing Memory Sequence 12, is the final trophy upon conclusion of the main story. As is always the case with Assassin's Creed Platinums, there isn't a pre-set difficulty level, which naturally means there's also no pressure from anywhere else on the trophy list relating to difficulty based challenges.

The combat still moves in the traditional Assassin's Creed way. They have slightly tweaked it here, because you can no longer take advantage of certain mechanics that made the combat overly-simplistic in previous titles, such as chaining combos and human shields. You still fight with a stance, and instead, react to your opponents actions, with parrying playing a huge role in killing enemies. You can be more aggressive and fight on the front foot with the "attack" action, but you'll find it easier to parry or dodge enemy attacks and fight when you've broken their guard. I have personally always found this one of the easiest combat mechanics in any game, and this is no different this time round. It makes the experience very casual, on the whole, and completing the story was a breeze. You'll also unlock alot of progression-based trophies, for completing each sequence leading up to, and including Sequence 12.

The "I Want It All" trophy, awarded for Completing all Single Player mission challenges in Paris, is directly linked to the main story sequences, most of which include specified challenges within the memory the player must complete in order to obtain this trophy.

Again, this has been replicated numerous times across the Assassin's Creed franchise, and it's best to fulfil as many of these challenges as possible as you go through each memory, in order to minimise the need to replay memories again once you've completed the game. Most of these challenges are fairly easy, and if by any chance you miss them, you can always reload the last checkpoint within a memory to reset your progress and make sure you finish them before you complete that particular memory.

Understanding this from previous Assassin's Creed games allowed me to consciously go through these challenges in conjunction with playing through the game normally, which increased efficiency when handling this list, and I only needed to go back and replay 4 memories across all 12 sequences in order to fulfil this task at the end of the game. The fact I had managed to clear the vast majority of them first time round is a strong testament to how easy they generally are to complete though, and this shouldn't really require much rework.

The "I Got Skills" trophy, awarded for Unlocking all Skills, incorporates the big new feature to Assassin's Creed Unity - Co-op mode.

Co-op mode is effectively a series of missions separate to the main story which, despite containing guidance on a recommended maximum number of allies up to the total of 4, can be completed on a solo basis. In order to unlock all skills, which grant you new manoeuvres, weapons and equipment, you'll need to earn all Sync points to unlock every single skill available, leaving no margin for error.

The vast majority of these Sync points come from completing Co-op missions, as well as finding them within the Co-op levels, which is where the association comes. Whilst the Co-op missions are designed for 2-4 players, you still have the option to run them solo, but this will become overwhelming in certain scenarios, especially for the missions that recommend high numbers, so it is best advised to use the matchmaking tool or grab a partner.

If you complete them with at least one other player, you'll find this relatively straight-forward, and although the fact you can run them solo means this is still technically a Single Player Platinum, it is strongly advised you finish these missions with others in order to minimise any issues you may run into difficulty-wise trying to complete them alone. The list does also contain an additional 5 trophies specifically for Co-op mode, which you should earn as you go through unlocking the skill points, but the new mode is shown some reasonable support within the list.

Assassin's Creed titles are also well known for their tendency to include collectible trophies within their lists, and not only is Unity another fine example of that, it also turns this standard up a couple of notches along the way.

The "Curiosity" trophy, awarded for Opening every chest in Paris, requires you to locate all 294 chests scattered on the map. They're located both above and below ground, and will only appear visible on the map when you run past one. You can purchase a map within the in-game menus via the E-Store, which will reveal the locations of every chest instantly, which I would strongly recommend as a good counter to the sheer volume alone.

Even then, this is still a pretty monotonous exercise, and most of the red chests you'll spot across the map are guarded by soldiers that you'll either need to fight or bypass in order to get to the chest, which ultimately adds more time onto an already time-consuming task. 

There isn't much more to add than that, but a large portion of the overall completion time will go towards this trophy alone so it's certainly worth mentioning, and it is an extremely boring exercise, especially given the fact that there are no other real rewards attached to opening chests other than purely for the fact there is an associated trophy within the list.

It is also important to note that are also 128 Cockades to collect as part of another trophy on this list, and whilst this is less than half the amount of chests required, this does still combine to total 422 collectible items across the entire game. It's not a light activity at all.

As is usually the case, this is another Assassin's Creed game that sits towards the lower end of the difficulty spectrum. The combat, despite some subtle changes that were probably designed to make it slightly more challenging, is still relatively easy to adjust to, and the fact the game has a pre-set difficulty level that offers up a fairly casual challenge, is the main reason why Unity joins on at the lower end of the scale.

The collectibles are a pain though, and deserve an entire point on the rating completely by themselves. It isn't necessary to have so many collectibles when there are no other reasons to hunt them down other than the fact the trophy requirements dictate that you need to unlock them all. Money eventually becomes inconsequential because you earn so much of it, as you progress through the game, and the chests yield nothing else other than currency, so it does feel like a pointless exercise that is there to purely pad completion time.

The game does parlay you on the fact that you do not need to achieve full 100% synchronisation and therefore does neglect alot of the side content from the trophy list, though even with this accounted for, I would still say this is around a 40-50 hour experience.

The majority of the other trophies within the list shouldn't really require any specific focus, and as long as you complete both the main and Co-op story, you should have most of it done by the time you turn your attention to the collectibles, with any clean up necessary at the end of these. If you can stomach the inevitable tedium of all those collectibles, this shouldn't give you too many problems at all, and does still come in as one of the easiest Assassin's Creed Platinum trophies to date.

Notable Trophies -

Curtain Call - Complete Memory Sequence 12.
I Want It All - Complete all Single Player mission challenges in Paris.
I Got Skills - Unlock all Skills.
Curiosity - Open every chest in Paris.

Hardest Trophy -

Curiosity                                                                                                        Open every chest in Paris.

DLC #151 - Fallout 4 - Far Harbor

This whole trophy journey sort of sums up my own feelings towards Fallout quite well. These games are OK experiences on the whole, but ultimately a bit messy and lack stability. I started this DLC aiming for it be my second completion, and prior to the Platinum trophy, and since then I had completed every other DLC as well as earned the Platinum before ending the series with this.

The main reason Far Harbor was outstanding beyond the rest of the DLC and the Platinum trophy itself was because of a in-game character dialogue glitch that ultimately meant I had to restart the entire Far Harbor story and hope self-correction took natural cause (which it thankfully did). Again, it kind of sums up Fallout and it's notoriety for being held back by bugs and glitches.

Anyway, Far Harbor focuses on the case of a missing person, who is believed to have fled from her family towards a place called Far Harbor. The questline is triggered by listening to an audio tape from the family reaching out for support and you have the option to investigate the case.

You find out very quickly that the concerned party is a couple, and the girl in question is their daughter, who is under the belief that she is a synth, and has fled under the knowledge that Far Harbor is a refugee relief centre for synths - a place she believes will give her a greater sense of belonging. As you travel to Far Harbor to look into the case further, the story unravels and your real reasons for ending up at Far Harbor become more apparent.

Despite the issues I ran into regarding the trophies, this is the strongest DLC offering in Fallout 4. It contains the most content, the most expansive story and the best new environments/characters that make the game feel genuinely fresh, where most of the other DLC packs just felt very stagnant and uninspired. The Nuka-Cola expansion was good, but I felt Far Harbor was better.

The pack also adds 10 trophies, 5 of which are driven by the new questline, awarding you trophies as you progress through and uncover the secrets hidden deep within Far Harbor. It's a place inhabited by the townspeople you meet and will carry out these quests for, who are fighting greater battles against the Children of the Atom, refugee synths and dangerous creatures, whose natural habitat is the island itself. It all blends together well and adds to a strong story-driven experience. Carrying on playing through on the "Hard" difficulty still failed to present me with any true challenges, and being able to acquire some seriously tough arsenal, including the new Harpoon Gun, made this even easier.

A couple of these story-related trophies are missable, dependent on which decisions you make as you go through the questline, so it may be important to ensure you're making the correct selections in line with trophy accomplishment along the way. 

The remainder of the list comes from various miscellaneous tasks, some of which come in familiar guises, such as finding 20 different locations, killing 30 creatures native to Far Harbor and collecting all issues of "The Islanders Almanac" magazine - Some fairly standard requirements by this point.

This comes complete with a small shout-out to the "Push Back The Fog" trophy, awarded for Unlocking 3 Far Harbor Workshop Locations - After unlocking 2 of them, the next quest triggered an endless looping dialogue that I just couldn't seem to get out of. I reloaded old saves, completed other related quests in order to alter the quest path and, out of sheer desperation, physically attempted to beat a solution out of the Far Harbor residents. None of which worked.

So I parked it and came back to it on a brand new save once I'd completed every other DLC pack and also the main list for the Platinum trophy. In reality, this was around 10-12 hour experience, but this glitch would have extended this by another 3-4 hours. It was a very apt to way to wrap up another complete (and buggy) Fallout experience.

Platinum #108 - Fallout 4

 Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10

"War Never Changes" - And neither do Fallout trophy lists, it seems.

It's been a long time since a Fallout Platinum trophy featured here - The last one was Fallout : New Vegas at Platinum #42 almost 10 years back in July 2012.

That's a long time for things to change, but the Fallout formula has mostly stayed the same in practically every single aspect.

Fallout 4 takes place post-Fallout 3 to the tune of around 10 years, set in a place called the Commonwealth, a post-apocalyptic setting considered to be "retro-futuristic".

The game begins during a period of time just before the Commonwealth is reduced to a post-apocalyptic, danger-inhabited wasteland, where your character is living with their family in a completely harmonious setting. A knock at the door eventually sees you being led into Vault 111 amidst the warnings of an incoming Nuclear bomb, and whilst inside Vault 111, you and your family are sheltered within cryogenic pods.

Shortly after this occurs, your son is kidnapped by an unknown party from within the Vault, and your partner is killed in their attempts to prevent this, but confinement to the cryogenic pods make you helpless to prevent this situation and you suddenly awaken 60 years later after your body is preserved in ice.

Upon awakening from this, the end-goal is clear - To find your son and the reasons behind his kidnap. Naturally, I won't go beyond the basic plot, but you'll be unleashed into an open world full of perils, exploration, companions and differing factions you'll have to make critical decisions with or against - Just to emphasise the continuation of the similarities to previous Fallout games.

The trophy list is large in size, clocking in at 51 trophies in total, including the Platinum trophy, and just like many of the elements within the game, doesn't stray too far from the standard when it comes to trophy requirements in comparison to the previous 2 Fallout games.

That's not to say there isn't anything different, and the things that are different are actually some of the things that end up being more relevant when discussing overall difficulty, but you can still expect to mostly see a very questline-driven, naturally progressive list focused around beating various quests for the different factions you'll encounter and fulfilling metric-based objectives around killing a certain amount of creatures, hacking a certain amount of terminals and picking a certain amount of locks, amongst other examples - but things you've seen accounted for before if you already have experience with Fallout titles.

The "Prepared for the Future" trophy, awarded for Deciding the Fate of the Commonwealth, concludes the story, which is generally a fairly casual experience. Unlike the "Hardcore" run in Fallout : New Vegas, there aren't any trophies dedicated to difficulty here, and despite choosing Hard, I never once felt like I couldn't beat any specific segment of the game. The first encounter with a Mirelurk Queen at the Castle was a little bit hairy, but aside from that, it was all mostly downhill.

No matter which path you choose to take as you go through the story, and which factions you decide to fight with and against, the conclusion will always present you with this trophy. However, there is a particular fork in the road where you'll have to make a save to return to later in order to ensure you take the alternative path to the end of the game. Save game trickery is not a new concept for Fallout games, and has existed in every single one, but it has previously been more complicated than it is here. On this occasion, all you need to do is reach a certain point near the end, make a save to go on and complete the game, unlocking this trophy, and then just reload and take the alternate path to finish up the other quests you were locked out of first time round.

Fallout : New Vegas had 4 separate endings, all of which required the player to go back to a certain point and make a different decision, so Fallout 4 is nowhere near as laborious, with the requirement of only having to go through one other path.

I count exactly 23 trophies which are either related to specific quests within the main storyline, or certain progression-related points where you side with a faction, which is almost half of the entire list, and when you also take into account you'll obtain much more of this list as you go through to pursue the end-game, you should have a largely complete list by the time you conclude the main story.

The rest of the list includes the previously aforementioned metric-based trophies, for hacking a certain number of terminals, picking a certain number of locks and killing a certain number of humans, creatures etc. - All of which should come naturally through the various environments you'll grace as part of the questline. Collectibles also make a return through Bobble-heads and magazines, which may require some recreational exploration, and all of the above are very familiar returning trophy requirements.

However, I did have to take advantage of the DLC in order to reach the required milestones for some of these trophies, as well as the "Legend Of The Wastes" trophy, awarded for reaching Level 50 - That's not to say the content isn't there to achieve it, but it made more sense from an efficiency point of view to use the DLC trophies in order to make progress towards level 50, rather than the side-content away from the trophy list that wouldn't earn me any progression towards trophies. This is the main reason the DLC lists have ended up coming through prior to the Platinum.

The "Benevolent Leader" trophy, awarded for Reaching Maximum Happiness in a Large Settlement, is where the game starts to become a little less straight-forward.

I did mention above that there are elements to this list that focus on some of the new features within Fallout 4, and that they end up being the more relevant aspects to this list when we discuss overall difficulty. This is especially true of the new settlements feature, which graces a Fallout game for the first (and hopefully last) time. 

Just briefly, for background purposes, settlement mode allows you to build thriving settlements, recruiting people to live within, work for and protect these communities as you watch them grow and prosper. Think The Sims. Just purely from a personal point of view, I think it's boring and pointless, but unfortunately, some effort is required to indulge in the mode for the sake of the Platinum trophy, so here we are.

The first important thing to note is that the trophy description is actually wrong - You don't need to fulfil this objective within a large settlement, the confusion to which ends up costing me a significant amount of time here. I chose Sanctuary Hills, which is the starting settlement, due to it's size, and the fact I already had it populated with 10 people at 83% happiness, so it seemed logical, at the end of the game, to choose this settlement to work on for this trophy.

There are key aspects of a settlement that need to be fulfilled in order to create happiness growth. Things such as ensuring that there is enough food being grown, the water supply is ample and defensive units are in great enough abundance to provide a safe environment, but the issue with this trophy is, there doesn't seem to be much consistency in what actually works, despite it being quite clear what you need to achieve 100% happiness.

I carried on recruiting new people within Sanctuary Hills, to the point where there were 31 people present, with enough food, water and defensive units to keep them appeased. I was also assigning every settler a job to work on (which is also defined in most guides to increase happiness effectively), and yet, this was fine up to the point where I reached around 94% happiness, and then suddenly started to regress, fluctuating between 89% and 94% without any real logical explanation as to why or how - I didn't change my methodology. Every new settler I recruited was given a job, usually at a clinic, and I also made sure there was enough food, water, beds and defence relative to the amount of settlers present. The fact my progress towards this trophy not only halted, but actually started regressing was something I just couldn't figure out.

I came to a stalemate on this method when I discovered that you can only recruit a maximum number of settlers based on your total Charisma +10, so 31 was my highest available, and I didn't know where to go from there other than to look at other options. By this point, I had spent around an additional 8-10 hours to effectively just go backwards.

It was at this point I discovered you didn't actually need to work on this trophy on a large settlement, much to my frustration at the time, because the trophy is very explicit in it's instruction that you need to fulfil this obligation using a large settlement, which was the reason I stuck with Sanctuary Hills to begin with.

I moved across to a smaller settlement, using a method where you can build dog cages, release the tamed animals into the settlement, build a robot and, apparently, you get 100% happiness instantly because a robot does not require food or water, so this is not factored into the happiness rating. 

Sort of, but not quite. I did get to 80% instantly, and this trended upwards at a solid rate of around 3-4% every couple of minutes. It looked like I was onto a winner and then it hit 95% happiness and halted. I had to improvise, and build a clinic to assign the robot to work on that with the understanding from my previous settlement that this could kick the happiness meter back into life, which it did. It took a while to move from 95% up to 100%, as it had stopped increasing by large increments by this point, and every percentage was being earned over a 20 minute period, so it still took a few hours, but it was a relief to finally get there and complete this list.

This seems like alot to mention for a list that practically boils down to 2 trophies, and this was actually a relatively simple adventure right up until the final hurdle. Naturally progressing through the main story questline will net you a large portion of this list, and you'll seldom have to stray from this path to unlock everything else that falls outside the questline. 

However, even though settlements aren't tough to understand on paper, the logic surrounding them throws you into a world of trial and error that ended up consuming my time and effort without any reasonable reward aside the final trophy required for Platinum.

Speaking of time, it's hard for me place an estimate on the Platinum trophy alone, mainly down to the fact that I used the DLC in order to pursue other trophies within the main list, including reaching level 50. My save file clocks it around around 120 hours, but with the consideration of all DLC included within this timeframe, it makes it hard to pinpoint a time range for Platinum completion alone. It's possibly somewhere within the 50-60 hour range, though it is also important to note I did often stray away to also complete side content unrelated to trophies along the way, and does also include replaying the final portion of the game for the potentially missable trophies.

Does it do enough to at least sit on par with the previous Fallout games? It's honestly hard to say. It's been so long since I played a Fallout title, I've actually forgotten, so this makes comparisons harder to draw conclusions from. It doesn't have a requirement to complete the game in any variation of "Hardcore" mode like New Vegas did, and overall, there isn't much here that's actually that challenging from a gameplay perspective, but it is lengthy and the trials and tribulations of the settlement feature was the cherry on top. Except the cherry was actually a raw onion, and not a cherry.

Notable Trophies -

Prepared for the Future - Decide the Fate of the Commonwealth
Benevolent Leader - Reach Maximum Happiness in a Large Settlement

Hardest Trophy -

Benevolent Leader                                                                                           Reach Maximum Happiness in a Large Settlement