Highlights
- Achievements should push players to experiment and explore different playstyles, not just grind for arbitrary goals.
- Baldur’s Gate 3’s achievements incentivize different endings and story arcs, promoting replayability and varied gameplay.
- Thoughtful and purposeful achievements are more beneficial than ones that are tedious or meaningless, leading to a more fulfilling gaming experience.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of Achievements lately, ever since I saw a tweet where someone said they didn’t want to play the first Fallout game because it doesn’t have Achievements on Steam. They elaborated that they “like seeing number go up” and knowing that they have 100 percent completion on a game is what lets them know they’ve done everything, otherwise they’d “miss a bunch of stuff”.
I’m not going to link the tweet to dunk on them, but it made me think about how much I disagree with this view of modern video games. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I actively dislike seeing Achievements pop up in most cases, and they usually don’t add to the experience. It worries me that there are people out there who are turning to Achievements for dopamine hits and viewing games as only interesting to them if it gives them a pat on the back as a reward for hitting an arbitrary goal.
Achievements can be interesting if they push you to experiment more with the way you play. For example, a lot of the achievements in Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth are tied to chapter completion, substory completion, levelling up, and collectibles, which I find pretty inane. But you can also get achievements for completing Alo-Happy Tours, which give you different jobs to change up gameplay, and rewards for completing the content in the many games-within-a-game that make Infinite Wealth so special. In this case, Achievements can serve a purpose.
Happy 15th Birthday To Every Achievement Hunter’s Favourite Game
Back when Achievements were the most important thing in gaming, one game ruled them all
I much prefer the way achievements are used in Baldur’s Gate 3. Most of the achievements are tied to getting different endings, exploring different game mechanics, and completing story arcs that can be missed if you don’t pay attention. These achievements incentivise experimentation and different playstyles, but you can’t get them all in one playthrough – that’s the point. Baldur’s Gate 3 tells you different stories depending on how you make your choices, and by simply playing in different ways in each playthrough, you’ll invariably unlock achievements you didn’t know existed. None of these achievements are tedious or pointless.
Ultimately, Achievements are usually more like Infinite Wealth’s than Baldur’s Gate 3’s. They’re more about grinding than they are pushing the player to explore different ways to play, and considering how difficult they are to implement and test on the development side, I’m inclined to say that they’re just not worth all the fuss unless they’re thoughtful and purposeful. I don’t need an achievement to tell me I’ve finished a chapter when I already know that, and I think the game industry would benefit from moving towards normalising not having Achievements at all if they aren’t necessary. I have no interest in a game telling me when I’ve killed 1,000 NPCs or giving me a gentle kiss on the forehead when I reach level 80 after no-lifing something for weeks. Congratulating me for destroying the world when I could have saved it, though? That’s the good stuff.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
