The Platinum Card
https://basementmtl.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-platinum-card.html
I consider myself to be a bit of an on again/off again
trophy hunter, a comment which I'll shed some light on before continuing. You
see, when the PS3 and 360 came out, everyone was going nuts for achievement
points. When Sony finally released trophies (which took nearly 2 years after
launching the PS3) I was all over
that shit. Of course after a year or 2 it became more of a hassle then an
enjoyment and I started playing games to just play them again instead of trying
to pad my stats.
Cue the Ps4 release and I find myself elusively hunting for
those trophies again. My rationale though, is that I'm streaming nearly
everything I play now and with the speed at which I complete a game’s story,
trophy hunting is the next best thing to extend that game’s lifespan.
Now that you're safely out of my head, let’s get back on
track. Recently I got the platinum trophy (100% completion) in inFamous: Second Son. Moreover, I wanted
to look at this accomplishment from a trophy hunter’s prospective.
First things first though, this game was amazing! I loved it.
The powers were cool, the story tug at the heart strings when it needed to, the
pacing was great, and I found the entire experience to be quite a deal more
focused than other open-world action titles. I did however feel that the older
games in the series did have more content in the world than Second Son. The side
missions felt more like side distractions: usually side “missions” have a sort
of overarching narrative while these did not. Every mission you did as Delsin (the
main protagonist) was story-relevant and progress the plot forward meaningfully.
This isn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination; like I said, the game
was focused, which I feel too many AAA games now a day's are jam packed with
filler.
Trophy wise, the game was a joke. I almost feel bad getting
the Platinum because it was so very easy, to the point where I almost feel
dirty for getting it. I guess I'm kind of weird or stupid; or better yet, maybe
I’m just difficult. I feel that it's challenging for developers to come up with
achievements/trophies which effectively extend the lifespan of a video game.
Developers either mail it in and make them un-challenging or they make them so
impossibly hard and/or time consuming that you must spend like 100+ hours on a
10 hour game just to get them. Some games have the perfect balance. For
instance I feel Resogun (ps4 downloadable game) has this, although I have yet
to platinum it yet.
Second Son, sitting in the former camp, was very straight
forward. The player pretty much has to beat the game twice, once playing as a Hero
and in the next play through, you behave all villainous-like (with one session
being played on normal ideally, and the second on hard mode). There were a few
trophies thrown in there after the fact that required some extra gusto, such as
killing one enemy with 3 different powers or staying afloat in the air for more
than 45 seconds (which I thought would be harder than it actually was).
Moral dilemma... Those graphics though! |
Now, yes it was easy, however the developers did one thing...one thing…that annoyed me to no end. They made it so you couldn't skip the cutscenes! In this day and age, who can't skip cutscenes? On the first play through it didn't matter, but when I have to play the game a second time, it would at least be beneficial to skip over previously watched cutscenes.
We shall see how long I can keep this going. So far on my
Ps4 I have platinumed (in chronological order): Knack, Lego Marvel, Strider,
Thief and now Second Son. Additionally, I'm on my way towards Dead Nation and
Resogun. Looking back at my list, the last PS3 game I Plat'ed was Just Cause 2,
which was in 2010...That very well might be the reason I stopped in the first
place. My advice to you: never attempt to get all the achievements/trophies in
a sand box game, it's not worth it.
Completely unrelated, I'm going to leave you with this: I
started playing Mercenary Kings, which is free in April if you have Ps+, right
after finishing Second Son. The only reason I bring it up is because the music
is awesome and I desperately wished to share it with you!
So awesome... foreshadowing anyone?