"What in god's name is this?!"
Welcome to my new blog series concerning achievements.
This thing, at least conceptually, has been on my mind for about a year now. One of the many reasons why GiantBomb is fantastic, aside from it's super-secret free hamburger dispenser for those who have been members since this site's launch, has been it's achievement tracking system.
I love achievements. I've stated many reasons for my interest in them for a long time now, but nothing really that substantially examines them. Before Microsoft thought it was cool to slap on some haphazard "100% retail complete list", there was this site, and the very simple and sufficient: S-Rank.
End of story, no other questions necessary. You read "S-Rank" and you know what such a feat entails. Before I knew it, I had accumulated quite a few. For me, the S-Rank quest-set were some of the first to magically unlock when the Quest system was rolled out here. Congrats to Giantbomb, for creating and contributing a new form of vernacular for the OCD portion of the gaming population.
Over the course of amassing now 40 recorded S-Ranks, (Not including my Platinum trophies) my opinions on what works...and what doesn't...has become more precise over the years. Suffice to say: There's a lot of crap to avoid, and there's a lot games that get it either half right, or have no concept of what achievements are.
I've had a lot of people ask me what game should qualify as a "good S-Rank". I don't think it's that simple. I think that the range of achievements and trophies for games, regarding what they are for that game differs so much for each game, it's hard to get a finite hold or a standard of what qualifies as a "good S-Rank".
That being said, there are those that confuse challenge for grinding. Games that have glitches and are technically incompetent for the achievements they have.
Consider this the catalyst of achievement judgment. The smoldering refuge of sanity, after the madness strikes.
Let's break a hole in the logic wall of the internet: Let's give achievements....TO ACHIEVEMENTS.
Oh, and they also made a movie.
The other, went on to receive tons of critical praise, and then get subsequently forgotten.
To be fair, if you take the concept of Beyond Good & Evil at face-value, it's a bit easy to see how it was forgotten.
Trying to advertise a Zelda inspired quasi-fantasy/sci-fi adventure game, where you play as a female photojournalist trying to start revolution against a evil space-fascist propaganda, is a bittricky to advertise. Beyond Good & Evil had virtually no advertising to speak of, and even with it's critical awards and praise was forgotten that holiday season by the likes of such stellar titles as Enter The Matrix.
With a sequel in limbo, this HD re-release is fantastic for a number of reasons.
- The original game in incompatible on the 360.
- It's a damn good game.
One can nit-pick around Beyond Good & Evil, but at the end of the day the most severe grievances against the game can be attributed as just that: Nit-picks, or justifiable issues concerning the fact the game is old.
That later "issue" has difficulty finding stable ground to stand on, because Beyond Good & Evil has aged phenomenally. Sure, there are out-of-place stealth sections, and it's short. At the same time, there are also a series of forward thinking design choices, and a game-world that is oozing with it's own identity at every turn.
If you're considering wanting to check out something new, do yourself a favor and download this old game.
S-Rank Synopsis
Achievements help Beyond Good & Evil, from an almost core-structural design perspective. One of Beyond Good & Evil's biggest complaints back then, and now was it's length. It's quite short, and those that want to go straight through without stopping and checking everything out will do so probably under ten hours. Achievements here focus on 100% completion, increasing the length of the game conceptually for several more hours. My final play-time with Beyond Good & Evil HD, dwarfed original playtime with Beyond Good & Evil.
Even better, Beyond Good & Evil's original design seems tailored made for achievements. Collectible items are easily trackable via an in-game menu, and before you, I'm 99% positive you cannot "miss" anything the achievements.
So let's break everything down.
Big Heart // Data Manager // Wildlife Photographer // MoneyBags
Four of Beyond Good & Evil HD's achievements is dedicated to collectibles. These achievements are quite easy, with the most challenging one involving taking pictures of all the wild-life in the game world (Wildlife Photographer). Certain bosses require you to take their pictures, but even their corpses after you have defeated them works regarding obtaining this goal. Everything can be tracked via the game's in-game menu's.
Use a guide, if you must for pearl collecting. (MoneyBags) For people who have played this game, you might remember that collecting 80 Pearls, is a bit of a lie. The game dispenses tons of pearls to you at certain points. For those thinking that the pearls are the equivalent of something more complicated, fear not. Most are obtained after missions, and some of the side-area's are so blatantly obvious it's difficult to miss. Same goes for collecting the many MDisks.
It should also be noted that at one point during the game you receive an item that virtually sticks the exact locations of animals and pearls on your map. Even without achievements, Beyond Good & Evil supports you attempting to hunt and find everything.
On a personal note: I love how the collectibles are handled in this game. There was so much time and effort put into the sheer amount of different fictional species of animals to take pictures of it's ridiculous. I never once stopped and noticed that something was a color-swap of something else. I would love to see more of that type of effort, regarding something that is essentially a collectible in future games.
Kicking *** // Gambler King 2
Beyond Good & Evil is not held back with obscure situational achievements. There are no repetitive tasks to do, everything is focused on overall game-completion, which is perfect for an old game like this. Initiating stealth-kills (Kicking ***) on certain soldiers is the most situational-aware concept that you are required to accomplish, but even this unlocks as you play the game naturally.
One achievement regarding beating another character at a mini-game (Gambler King 2) almost altered some of my final opinions. It's the closest thing you will see akin to unnecessary grinding, although there is an easy to access save right next to the game, and while the A.I. does seem to cheat, you should obtain the prize after a few turns. It's so minor though, that I couldn't bring myself to proclaiming that it's a fault.
One can argue that several achievements can be considered missable, the problem of accepting this claim is that there is a very large and pronounced moment of "No-Return" which is a subtle as a knife in it's presentation.
You will hit a point in which it's very obvious you are about to leave the game world...Literally.
At that point, I have full-faith that you guys have a functioning frontal-lobe capable of understanding that you are in the final chapter.
Those of us who have experienced glitched trophies and achievements, understand the annoyance and pain of fulfilling a requirement, and not getting anything out of it. My glitched achievement policy is harsh: Even if I don't experience it myself, if I hear that others have had less than stable experiences, I must complain.
Apparently the problem crops up if you discover a certain story specific element, before experiencing something else.
One of the reasons why I decided to do this game first, is that I get a lot of comments that follow this very lose train-of-thought:
"I like it when I unlock achievements while I'm playing and completing the game!"
Beyond Good & Evil exhibits this mentality. It's not that it's "easy", the achievement list is appropriate for the game. It's an S-Rank you can obtain, while playing through a fantastic game. Exploring every nook-and-cranny on Hillys is a joy.
- Grinding: None!
- Point value: Understandable
- DLC: None!
- Stacking: No difficulty achievements.
- New Game+: No New Game+ is offered.
- One Stupid Achievement: None!
Final Grade:
Beyond Good & Evil is a great S-Rank, for those who are scared of accomplishing S-Ranks.
It is a rare situation where I believe that an old game is actually made better, simply by giving a more lucrative incentive. There is only one point that one might consider the actions you are partaking as unnecessarily "grindy", but outside of that: You are awarded by playing the game.
Perhaps there could have been more interesting choices of user actions to accomplish, but I don't think it would have worked within the game's original design. You could say that it "play's it safe", but at the same time if the achievements were a bit more "adventurous", it could have been a complete disaster.
Be careful for the possibility of running into glitches, and use guides if needed.
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