Achievement Unlocked 04.11.08: Sneak a Peek

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 04.11.2008

With the Achievement list available the instant you pop the game into the disc drive (or fire up the XBLA game for the first time) do you check it out before playing, or are you able to resist the temptation?



You get yourself a brand new game for your Xbox 360 and take it home. Eager to play, you pop it in and start burning through the levels, laps, or enemies. After a while, for some games a very short while and for some a very, very long while, there's that *ding* of an Achievement unlocking and the congratulatory pop-up hits the screen.

What do you do?

Do you ignore it, maybe checking it later - but maybe not?

Do you hit the Guide button immediately, popping you straight into the Achievement menu so you can see what Achievement you picked up, what you did to unlock it, and how many points it was worth?

Or do you already know what it was, why you got it, how many points it was worth, and when the next Achievement unlocks - because you check it out on an Achievements website before ever buying the game?


Personally, I'm a 'once through, then view' kind of guy. Unless I need to talk about the Achievements for a column, I play through the game (or, in the case of games you can't really 'beat' like sports titles, give it a good number of hours) before ever checking the Achievement list.

It's not that I'm not interested in knowing the Achievements, quite the contrary in fact. I generally have a burning desire to know what developers have decided is important enough to assign an Achievement, but I also have a strong desire to play through the game without having the story spoiled for me. Though developers have generally gotten a lot better about this, with storyline-spoiling Achievements filed as Secret until unlocked, I'd rather not chance it.

The other reason I avoid the list until after playing through the game is to avoid a spoiler of another form - changing the way I play. If there's an Achievement for using only a sword, for example, I'd rather not know ahead of time and have it affect the way I approach the level. On a second play through, sure - I'll see if I can do it. At that point, it adds new challenge to a familiar experience.

I asked on the forums, to see what others had to say. The apparently excitable dAVE!!! weighed in first, saying that he checks the list "because the more I get first time around, the less I have to replay." I can definitely see the value in that, especially if you're a gamer who rents more than they buy.

Both J-Bone and Drue Phoenix joined in, with both admitting they check out lists ahead of time. J-Bone proved primarily a viewer though, checking out the list but not concerned about unlocking Achievements, while Drue said he checks the list "so I know what to do that I wouldn't normally do if I was playing in a non-Achievements world."

The first Achievement whore hit the thread next, with Ogre - writer of Working Title - admitting he's not afraid to play a game in ways he normally wouldn't, though he won't rent Avatar just for the cheap 1,000 points. Later in the thread, he brought up his least favourite style of Achievement - the "hey, you played the game" ones, where you merely have to progress through the game to unlock them.

Nemesis chimed in to mention, before the thread devolved into talk of how great Dead Rising's Achievements were and how much Blatherbeard sucks at gaming, that he's patient - but only to a point. If he doesn't see an Achievement pop up for a while, that's when he consults the list.

If you've got something to contribute, feel free to hit the thread and share your thoughts.

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Speaking of weighing in, another developer supplied Achievement-related answers this week, with apologies all around for missing last week's column. Here's the comments provided by Dave Kudirka, who worked on Dark Sector (read Ty Huston's review of that title here) as the Assistant Producer:

411mania.com: What kind of thought process goes into the Achievements list - naming the Achievements, picking the tasks associated, and creation of the artwork?

Dave Kudirka: Crafting achievements is fun -- its our chance to take a step back and really focus on the elements that make Dark Sector enjoyable.

For the most part we left this to our QA department since they really knew the game inside and out. Naturally we had the core achievements in place (game progression and item collection, etc)--but with all the crazy ways we have for disabling your foes in Dark Sector, it was only fitting that we added achievements for lighting 15 enemies on fire with the glaive, or getting 10 number of kills using aftertouch, and so on.

The brainstorming session was very entertaining and coming up with names was pretty simple. The art team had some challenges in creating icons that had a clear visual connection to the rewards being completed, but in the end I think they nailed it.

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411mania.com: What Achievements are the development team's favourites?

Dave Kudirka: I think I can safely say that the Dev team's favourite achievement is also the one with the best name: the Double Decap Latte.

Its name refers to the ultra-satisfying act of chopping off two or more heads with a single glaive throw. So poetic.

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411mania.com: Assuming the popularity of Achievements continues to grow, will you give the list and associated aspects more thought in future titles? What would you do differently, if that's the case?

Dave Kudirka: Achievements are a great way to recognize individual accomplishments, and we plan to continue providing meaningful awards in our future game titles. For Dark Sector in particular, I think a weapon as dynamic and versatile as the glaive simply demands the inclusion of rewards for creative kills and skill shots.

The challenge for us is to try and anticipate the unique and spectacular events that players create themselves and assign achievements accordingly.

The 411: Once again we see a team that had some fun with creating their Achievement list, and one that also looked at how they could reward gamers who pushed the boundaries of the gameplay mechanics. I found his last words very telling - the bit about trying to "anticipate the unique and spectacular events that players create themselves" in particular.

More and more of late, developers are realizing that Achievements can (or perhaps that ought to read "should") be used as positive reinforcement for having fun with the game - pushing the boundaries of what you're expected to do. Let's just hope that's a trend that continues.

What do you know, another dead week and I'm still churning through older games that I've been meaning to get back to. I got back into Chromehounds again, a slow-paced mech game that not a lot of people gave much of a chance to - but then again, it's not exactly a niche that many gamers fall into.

Though it's slow of pace and has a completely uninteresting single-player mode that appears intended solely to ease the learning curve associated with going into the persistent war that is the multiplayer mode, Chromehounds is great fun when played with a good Squad of friends. After playing a few games this week, including a number of three-on-three and four-on-four team battles, I picked up the Silver Wing Achievement for killing 100 Hounds and had a blast doing it.

Still though...Grand Theft Auto IV can't get here quickly enough. The release of information on multiplayer modes this week took my interest in the game to an entirely new level. Though the game was, for myself at least, a definite purchase even before all the news on multiplayer mayhem, finding out the game had such deep multiplayer modes sent me back to the store for another pre-order.

That's right, I'll be picking up two copies on Day One - but they're not both for me, of course. Since getting married, I've had a live-in partner for multiplayer games. Though she's not a 'real' gamer, my wife gets a kick out of playing games across the LAN - Saints Row's multiplayer modes have been a staple for us since it released, and she's become pretty excited about what she's seen from Grand Theft Auto. We've played the 'pass the controller' mode of multiplayer in past Grand Theft Auto games, and this release looks to top that handily.

The one thing that hasn't really rocked my boat about Grand Theft Auto has been the Achievement list - or at least what's purported to be the Achievement list. Though I didn't give it more than a cursory once-over, the list seemed fairly...uninspired?...for a top-flight game, and one that's so highly anticipated. Given Rockstar's reputation for humor and attitude, I was hoping for a list that was challenging, funny, and would add another element to the game.

From what I saw, if that truly was to be the list, it may be the only disappointing thing about the game.