One thing that is frustrating about some achievements, though, is that their descriptions are a bit vague and can lead to the “It’s impossible!” feeling.
Example:
“Pacifict” – “Contain the Citadel core without killing any stalkers.”
My understanding was that I cannot kill any stalkers until the citadel core is contained. And wondered, how am I going to get past the first stalker (the one where Alyx explains how to use roller-mines), or the second stalker (the one who destroys the energy orbs while I’m on the elevator going down) without killing them. As it turns out, I only have to avoid killing the two stalkers INSIDE the core chamber. Quite a difference, right?
The achievements I don’t like are the ones that are required to play the game anyway. Like “Get the Crowbar” and “Get the Gravity Gun”. Shouldn’t achievements be EXTRA accomplishments outside of the basic gameplay?
Yeah at first I thought the achievements were cool but I realised they don’t make anything fun anyway. Especially not the ones that are inevitable. The Mac version is also full of bugs, and for example when I go to a Lambda area with ammo and power-ups, it should notify me that I have unlocked yet another “Lambda Locator” achievement, and it doesn’t. Also I see no point in playing to get achievements, it completely deviates from the realism of the gameplay. What if your ammo, health and suit are all on 100%, then you don’t want to go looking for Lambda Logos. And what if you don’t want to kill all barnacles with explosives but you enjoy shooting them one by one because you’re such a sadistic bastard… Achievements just force you to forget the realism of the game sometimes…
[COLOR=‘Magenta’]I have to agree. Achievements that are just “game play” anyway aren’t much fun. I’m going through the whole game again to get the 45 Lambda symbols. As many times that I’ve played that game, I thought I knew all of them…….WRONG. Along the way I’m picking up some of the others. Went through Ravenholm using the gravity gun only. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, it just took me longer and you’re screwed when a fast zombie comes at you with nothing around to throw at him. I just ran most of the time. Well, I guess it give us something to do while waiting for Ep. 3
That’s why it’s usually better to play through at least once without worrying about achievements, then if you want to play through again for achievements you already know the story so it’s not that big a deal.
As for the achievements everyone gets, I guess it’s probably to make people who don’t want to do all the crazy challenges feel like they’ve accomplished something too, although I think beating the game is enough accomplishment in itself.
Since this thread seems to be becoming an achievement thread anyway, let me ask this of you:
Do you like the Steam achievement system how it is, or is there some changes you’d like to see?
For example, the Xbox achievements go towards an aggregate score. That makes the “unavoidable” achievements more worth something, and it also makes the challenging achievements more rewarding to get. I’d personally like to have an achievement scoring system…although I can foresee a whole lot of e-peen measuring going on afterwards :fffuuu:
For those of you wondering about the Stalkers in the citadel one, all you need to do is to activate the bridges in that diamonds room, and then rush across the bridge before the stalkers turn it off. Repeat and continue normally (without killing those Stalkers) untill you’re at the elevators, where you can kill them normally. You can still kill the ones before. It’s just that one room.
For those of you confused about what room you’re supposed to not kill them in, it’s the one at 05:34.
Even the “inevitable achievements” have some use. You can use them to see how far did other players get. For instance, a person that has HL2 but not “Crowbar” achievement, has probably dumped the game before meeting Alyx. If they don’t have “Warden Freeman”, they never passed beyond Nova Prospekt. Etc.
When I was going for some of the HL2 achievements, I skipped around in the chapters a LOT. I guess I should have just started from the beginning and gone through normally.
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Well, I guess it give us something to do while waiting for Ep. 3