Trials HD Achievements Will Make You Cry
First of all, a big thanks to Matt Brett for hooking me up with Trials HD. One of the things Matt pointed out about Trials was how frustrating the Achievements were. Seeing as I love the challenge certain Achievements bring, I didn’t expect Trials HD to be that taxing. I was wrong. But it’s not necessarily in a bad way, though you may disagree.
With every game comes a treacle of easy Achievements; ones worth little that are unlocked by completing the simplest of tasks. In Skate you hop aboard your deck, move a few meters, and you’ve unlocked your first Achievement. In Brothers of Arms, you insert the disc into your tray on the 17th of September, and you unlock an Achievement. You haven’t had to work for these - they’re just spoon fed G’s. Trials doesn’t have many of those, and in fact most of the Achievements require a lot of blood, some sweat, but most of all, copious amounts of tears.
It’s one of those games where, much like Guitar Hero, you approach it for the first time and, upon diving into the harder difficulties, believe it to be impossible. Which isn’t great if you’re intending on unlocking all of the Achievements, as you’re awarded for completing every track on Hard and Extreme. Trials HD definitely requires skill to unlock certain Achievements, but it’s the kind of skill that’s developed over a period of time simply from playing and familiarising yourself with the tracks. Again, similar to Guitar Hero. Having said that, I’ve obviously not being playing enough considering I still have two to unlock. Either that or I suck.
The jump from Medium to Hard is intense. And the jump from Hard to Extreme is insane. It’s worth noting, however, that you do grasp a feel for all tracks with each progressive playthrough. Take the final track in the Extreme category, Inferno II. Upon my first attempt I was stuck on the second obstacle for the entire 30 minutes (or 500 faults). My second attempt saw me get about half way before getting stuck for the remainder of time. Now I get to the very last obstacle where I can actually see the finish line, but I’ve yet to make it. Also, it bums me out that those who have done it make it look so easy!
To break it down, 3 people on my Friends List out of the many who have played Trials HD have actually completed the final track. And considering that isn’t even the toughest Achievement… Well, you can imagine how many of my friends actually have the 100% completion percentage. One of them.
I typically blast a few hours into Arcade games here and there, which is why you don’t often see me playing Xbox Live Arcade, but because the difficulty of unlocking Achievements in Trials is so unforgiving, I’ve put more time into it than I usually would. It keeps you coming back, and personally I’d like to see more games in line with the challenge Trials presents. No, I don’t think you’ll see me fully completing the game any time soon, but I’m going to have a lot of fun trying.
What’s your take on the Trials HD Achievements? Are you one of the lucky few who has earned every Achievement? Are they too hard, or is the difficulty just right?
After playing Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware’s latest Role Playing Game, for just under a month, I’m only 30% odd complete. There’s sex, there’s violence, there’s a question of morals, there’s a meaty story. With real-time gory combat and big swords, it’s what every action RPG fan wants, right?
Alexander Radsby