Achievements in games.

Achievements in games have all ways been an interesting issue for me. So here is some thoughts on this subject.

If you are new to games or don't know Achievements in games are, then let me fill you in on what they are.  Achievements are points,rewards or both in games. These in turn get added to your profile that you are playing on. This shows how good you are compared to other people online.

On the whole I don't believe that achievements in games are well implemented. as most of the Achievements are for usual game-play activities.
So why do I think this, lets have a look at some games that I have played and explain what makes them stand out in regard to achievements.


Now lets look at Valve's The Orange Box achievements. This is a good example of how achievement's should be implemented.
An example of this is when the player has to kill an Non playable character using a toilet with the Gravity Gun (A weapon in the game). This Achievement stands out to me because of its humour value.
Another example of an achievement that gets you to try something different is when the player is told that by playing through a level using only the Gravity Gun. This game gets you to try different things within the game.


In Epic Game's Gears of War the achievement's in this game are the most standard that you can find in any game out there. In one achievement the game gets the player to comb through each of the levels and find a particular object (in this case cog tags) dotted around the game. By finding all or some of them you unlock an achievement or achievements in game. This is a big problem because if you took this achievement out of the game you would not miss much. Furthermore this achievement in the game feels contrived to merely tick off a feature the game has.

If you must have collectables as achievements look no further than Ubisoft's Assassins Creed 2. Before I get in to this I need to do some explanation on the story.
In the game quite early on the player has part of his family killed. Among them is your younger brother who is obsessed by the collection of feathers.
After this has happened the game encourages the player to collect feathers dotted around each different areas of the game.  This is so that the player brings your in game mother out of mourning. this unlocks a special piece of game apparel as well as an achievement.
A good thing to note here is that I had to explain the story in order to explain why I should get this achievement. This shows the thought that the game designer took on the game. In addition this achievement unlocked bonus content for the player.

Through this short article we have seen that a game achievement can enhance a game.
This can be done to show the the player a different way of interacting with the game. Or by using an achievement as a reward the player for completing an aspect of the story.

So what is your views on achievements?

Sources:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/934384-the-orange-box/cheats
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/928234-gears-of-war/cheats
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/956858-assassins-creed-ii/cheats
http://screwattack.com/blogs/PKKnight64s-Jamminly-Awesome-Blog-2/Top-Ten-Gravity-Gun-Ammo
http://www.maniacworld.com/Gears-of-War-Glitch.jpg
http://inchaos.net/father.jpg
http://www.gameranx.com/screenshots/1250341567-956856_20090525_screen005.jpg