Achievement Unlocked 10.11.08: World War Wrestling

Posted by Rod Oracheski on 10.11.2008

This week, 411mania's Rod Oracheski takes a look at the Achievement lists for Call of Duty: World at War and Smackdown vs Raw 2009, plus the Trophy list for Resistance 2.



Call of Duty: World at War and Smackdown vs Raw 2009 - on the surface, they have little in common. One is a World War II shooter, while the other is a WWE-branded wrestling game. Where's the connection?

It's simple - consumer uneasiness. Both titles have gamers wondering what we're going to get, suspecting it's going to be another heaping of recycled gameplay, and not sure we're going to like it.

Now how's that for an obscure connection?

Call of Duty: World at War

Cabela's Human Hunter 1944

This title gets a 46-Achievement list that's a little heavy on 'complete [x] mission' style Achievements, but at least they have some creative names to salvage them from being utterly boring.

There are also some creative tasks - like 'The Professional' for shooting all of Amsel's henchmen, including the attack dog, without reloading. Sounds difficult, but how could you be Leon without being able to handle a little challenge? 'Rough Economy' is another good one, unlocked by killing three enemies with a single bullet.

It looks like it would be possible to get almost all the Achievements on a single run through in Veteran difficulty but, if past Call of Duty games are any indication, that's probably not going to be an option for every gamer. The game has a couple co-op only Achievements, though they kept the number down so it shouldn't be a huge downer for offline gamers. It's a little disappointing that so many are labeled 'solo only' though - if you have co-op, why not make those unlockable in solo and co-op?

As I said, the list features some pretty creative naming - and it's not just one or two, almost every Achievement has a better-than-average name. Even some of the associated tasks are creative - killing soldiers lying in wait, killing an enemy with a pistol shot, saving a friend from dying, etc...

All in all, a much more solid list than I was expecting. After seeing some gameplay footage recently, I'm not sure that the game itself won't surprise people as well. It might be Call of Duty 4 ripped from modern day and transplanted into World War II, but if it plays as well and uses new weapons and maps...I'd be down for that.

Smackdown vs Raw 2009

They choked on this list

In contrast to Call of Duty: World at War's surprisingly good list is Smackdown vs Raw 2009's surprisingly bad list. Oh wait...their Achievement lists have always sucked, so I guess it's not really surprising.

They shell out too many points to too few Achievements, with the best of the bunch being 'Smokin'' for defeating Kane in an Inferno match. There are two 100 point Achievements, one 150 point one, and one secret one worth 200. With the GM mode, source of the big-point Achievement in past games, apparently taken out of the game this year they had a chance to distribute those points to a dozen new Achievements.

Obviously, they didn't.

Terrible list. Just lazy as hell, and it's a game that EASILY lends itself to making a good list. Bring up feuds from the last year, make ones based on historical matches, something - anything - other than doing this crap yet again. Here's a couple that would work:

Broke the Glass Ceiling - Defeat HHH in single competition, in any mode.
Welcome to the Club - Lose to HHH in single competition, in any mode.
Mile High Club - Use 5 aerial attacks in a single match.
Simply Perfect - Complete a season without losing a match.
The Best There Is... - Win 5 matches via submission, in any mode.
HE'S BEEN BROKEN IN HALF - Put someone through a table using a top rope move.
It's Still Real To Me - Win every (eligible) singles title as a CAW.
Old School Wrestling - Win a match with a drop kick or clothesline as your finisher.

Add in another dozen for doing [x] move, [x] number of times, and suddenly you have an Achievement list that actually looks like it was given some thought. You could even give those ones some wrestling ties. Do 10 headlocks in a match and get 'Another Headlock, Randy?' perhaps?

If the game itself is as recycled and half-baked as this list, just rent it to get the relatively easy 1,000.



The Resistance 2 Trophy list was revealed this week, and it's pretty decent overall. The 39-Trophy list is a little heavy on 'get [x] kills with [x] weapon' style tasks, but they have good names that relate - at least in most cases - to the associated task.

The best of the bunch is probably 'The Bigger They Are' - unlocked by beating the Leviathan, though 'OMGWTFBBQ' is pretty good as well - just for that name. No idea how difficult either will be, though the Leviathan definitely looked like one hell of a fight in the trailers they've shown.

The list could have used a few of the 'failing' type unlocks as well - getting run over five times, or being killed a certain way. Giving a reward for those tasks gives players a bit of a lift when things are (obviously) not going all that well. It's something that most lists, Trophy or Achievement, could do better.

It looks like it would take at least two plays to get all the Trophies, though that depends heavily on how good you are with the weapons. If you suck at sniping, the headshot ones might take some dedicated sniping runs to get.



It never fails, just when I change my system over to be able to record more video and get more done...wipido.com (where I was hosting videos) has a bit of a freakout. It didn't crash or anything, but uploading videos always results in a 'failed to convert' message now - even if I upload the exact same video I uploaded a week ago that converted just fine.

It's aggravating when something goes wrong, but it's doubly aggravating when you know it's nothing you did.

Oh well, with the hockey season starting up this week (yesterday in fact) I won't be playing as many games as I have been recently. At least until the rush of the new season wears off and the Oilers drop out of the playoff picture.

Should be somewhere around the start of November then...

Still playing Warhammer Online in my free time, and while waiting for videos to finish encoding. The PVP is just a blast, and you can contribute right from first level. It's a little frustrating getting ganked by players 10+ levels higher, but that's easily avoided by staying out of the RvR areas until you're competitive. Definitely worth checking out, MMO fans.

Stuff blows up real nice...

I'm also a little into Saints Row 2, thanks to friends at THQ for that hook-up, and it's pretty good. You get a ludicrously deep character customization to start, then are released into a much better looking version of Stillwater. In some respects, this is the game I expected from GTA IV. In many ways it's much more in the vein of earlier GTA titles than the 'takes itself seriously' GTA IV wound up being.

There are tons of missions to do - just a huge variety of side missions. FUZZ (you 'prevent' crime while dressed as a cop, so a TV crew can get damning footage) is a personal favourite, though Insurance Fraud makes a glorious return. The Crowd Control missions make good use of the new 'throwing people' gameplay addition, though the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly.

If you were disappointed by GTA's lack of things to do outside of the main story, Saints Row 2 might be just the ticket.

Until next week, I'm out.