Inspired by https://lemmy.world/post/45118004
What do you think is a good sweet spot for Achievements?
I think it’s nice to have a few easy one (even if it’s just to let the person know that the game HAS achievements), and some that just make progression sense (like, an achievement for completing a stage or a quest or a story etc.)
And I think it’s nice to have some challenging ones. Especially ones that create certain limits like “use on X weapon” or “only have X resource” etc. But I don’t love Achievements that are tied to purchases (like an Achievement for buying the game in Early Access or so). Also not a super fan of speed run achievements but to be fair, that’s purely because I just hate the whole speed running thing.
Also don’t like it when games that are very long have multiple ending-related achievements as they just smack of trying to artificially increase replayability. In similar vein, don’t like achievements that you can fail at the last second.
I suppose I like achievements that reward dedicated playing over raw skill (call me casual then).
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Honestly, I think you should use them for anti-piracy DRM. Steam’s DRM is easy to crack, and so when we were thinking about how to make our game unpiratable, we just decided to use the Steam Achievements system like a save file. The game just loads the game state based on what achievements the player unlocked. You know, I never talk about this, but I used to work for Blizzard. I was the first second-generation Blizzard employee. But like, I never talk about it, so having worked there really taught me to think outside the box. So yeah, use achievements as DRM. Makes your game unpiratable.
I like super obscure achievements that aren’t documented at all. Like, your weapon and armor just broke but you’re in an easy area so you just keep grinding, trying to find that rare loot (or whatever). Suddenly, you get an achievement, “Naked Brawler” 😁
You check the wiki and that one’s not in the list 👌
I remember getting an achievement for something like, “Last Light” in some game where I ran out of torches in an area where you take severe damage from darkness. I got the achievement when I lit that last torch, very close to the end of the area.
It wasn’t documented anywhere! I posted about it to the game forum (this was back when forums were the primary place to talk about such things) and no one had seen it before.
Like a year later, the community finally figured out the sequence of events necessary to get that achievement and it only gets awarded to characters who are too far in to make it out before the torch goes out and those that read a very specific, obscure book in a starter area.
“You read the book‽”
“I… Uh… Read all the books. Doesn’t everyone read all the books at least once?”
🤣
I really don’t have any problem with any of these types of achievements in general. Even the super basic ones that you get by starting a game are useful to determine what percentage of people who own the game have actually played it beyond the menu screen.
The best achievements are ones you get for being clever, skilled, or dedicated. Or when it’s an unhidden achievement for something you didn’t even know was possible. Like the BG3 achievement for saving the goblin Sazza - just seeing it was possible made my next play through more interesting.
I do appreciate long ending achievements, but only if they indicate a significantly different playthrough. Good ending vs. bad ending works when that’s the result of many decisions and not just an option you chose ten minutes from the end.
Major story point achievements + Easter egg achievements is my favorite, personally. If it involves replaying a level (vs. the whole game) in a certain way just for fun that’s also enjoyable.
Achievements that require DLC purchases (looking at you, Powerwash simulator) or ungodly difficult full-run-with-a-certain-streak types get on my nerves but fortunately achievements are purely optional 😄
