Yesterday I gave my review of Too Human, but today let’s look at the game’s achievements.

Too Human is a fairly short game, but that doesn’t mean that all of the achievements are earned quickly.  Some of them are structured to require multiple playthroughs.  I earned 590 Gamerscore from my first playthrough.  You can earn more, and I picked up a few easy ones soon after.  But to get all of the achievements, there are at least 2 full playthroughs required and you’ll need to spend extra time leveling up and collecting items.  If you’re one to go for the 1000/1000 on Xbox 360 achievements, prepare for a time investment.

Here’s a guide to each achievement:

In the NORN’s Favor, 10 Gamerscore
Find and activate all available Cyberspace wells.  This one is fairly easy.  I got it on my first run.  Just be thorough when you play through the campaign and dilligently check each corner.  A few of them are hiding out of view but most are easy to spot.

Blooded of the Aesir, 10 Gamerscore
Achieve Novice Status (Level 5).  You’ll earn this one in the first level.

Chosen of the Aesir, 20 Gamerscore
Achieve Adept status (Level 10).  Easy enough to obtain this one.  You’ll probably get it in the Hall of Heroes (the first level), either shortly before or when you defeat the boss.

Elite Warrior of the Aesir, 25 Gamerscore
Achieve Skilled status (Level 20).  This one will be earned sometime during your second playthrough, probably early in the third level.

Hero of the Aesir, 30 Gamerscore
Achieve Hero status (Level 30).  You might get this in your first playthrough, but I did not.  I actually got this after beating Grendel the second time, completing Hall of Heroes in a new campaign.

Legend of the Aesir, 30 Gamerscore
Achieve Legend status (Level 40).

True Son of Odin, 40 Gamerscore
Achieve God status (Level 50).  This is the highest level in the game.

Jack of All Trades, 10 Gamerscore
Achieve Adept status or greater for all classes.  Essentially this involves creating a new character of each class and playing through the first map to reach Level 10.

A note on gaining experience:  Although you don’t have much choice on how many enemies you face (unless you try to avoid hidden areas), you can gain experience faster by keeping your combo meter high.  This assigns a multiplier to your experience.  There are also Runes (and therefore equipment) that increase the experience you gain.

First Step Toward Destiny, 5 Gamerscore
Assign your first skill point.  You’ll get this the first time you level up and assign a point to your skill tree.  An on-screen indicator will inform you when you have unused skill points.

Path of Ruin, 25 Gamerscore
Defeat 100 total enemies using ruiners.  A ruiner is unleashed by pressing the “RB” button.  Fairly easy to get this one as you play through the game, as long as you don’t forget ruiners.  Ruiners are most effective in large groups of enemies.  Their range can be widened through the skill tree.

Unrelenting Rage, 10 Gamerscore
Hit 100 enemies without losing your combo.  To get this one, just keep the combo meter going in large groups of enemies.  There are a few places to get this one so just keep at it and you should get it in your first playthrough.

Show No Mercy, 10 Gamerscore
Defeat 25 enemies with a single battle cry.  Battle cries are the abilities mapped to your blue ‘X’ button.  You’ll unlock them through the skill tree, so you don’t have them at first.  Once you get them, activate a battle cry and start hacking & slashing.  If you do this in a group of enemies you should be able to get this one fairly easily.

Rune Lore, 10 Gamerscore
Collect 1000 Runes.  This is a simple achievement, albeit a long one.  Simply pick up 1000 runes over the course of your Too Human career.  This can be done with multiple characters.  Remember to activate spires throughout the campaign and explore the life tree, where many runes will drop.

Relics of a Forgotten Past, 5 Gamerscore
Complete a 7-piece Elite armour suit.  Elite equipment is marked in red, as being the rarest.  Get your six armour pieces and one weapon to obtain this one.  It may take a while.

I’m Rich…, 10 Gamerscore
Collect 1,000,000 in bounty.  This can be earned over multiple characters.  Opening many containers and salvaging items will get you there faster, as will salvage-improving runes/equipment.

Artisan to the Aesir, 10 Gamerscore
Collect and build 100 Blueprints. This can be done with multiple characters.  Expensive and time-consuming but achievable.

Aesir Ascendant, 10 Gamerscore
Complete a tier-three charm.  This one will take a while as well.  To complete a tier-one charm, you must complete its quest and insert the indicated runes into it (while it is equipped).  To complete a tier-two charm, you must also complete its quest and then insert specific completed tier-one runes into it.  Then, for tier-three you must complete its quest and insert completed tier-two runes.  I’m on my second playthrough now, and although I’ve completed some tier two runes I haven’t seen a tier three yet.

Fenrir’s Bite, 10 Gamerscore
Assign a skill point to a sentient ability.  This is earned through unlocking the ability at the bottom of your main skill tree.  It’s also one of the most useful abilities in the game, so it’s worth going after it quickly.

Display of Power, 5 Gamerscore
Execute either a 2 in 1 Juggle, Ruiner, Finisher, Slide, or Gunfire move.  I got this one pretty quickly in the first level without knowing what these moves were.  You’ll probably earn it quickly as well, but essentially you can just use a finisher after a slide, or juggle an enemy and shoot it down, or any other combination of those moves.

The Final Strike, 10 Gamerscore
Kill 100 enemies with finishers.  Finishers are done by moving both sticks towards an enemy when you’re right next to them.  Your character will make an obviously different move.  (If a projectile is launched, you’re not close enough to/aiming at the enemy, as this is a ranged fierce attack.)  Just keep using finishers until you get it.

Death from Above, 10 Gamerscore
Kill 100 enemies with air combat.  Jump often while you fight — it should come easily.

A Valorous Deed, 5 Gamerscore
Defeat a polarity enemy.  This one will be earned in the Hall of Heroes.  Polarity enemies are glowing, and when you hit them close-range, they’ll explode, freeze you, or slow you down.

Without Equal, 10 Gamerscore
Defeat 1000 polarity enemies.  Just kill 1000 of them over your Too Human career.  The stats screen will show how close you are to this achievement.

Relics of Ascendence, 10 Gamerscore
Complete 20 charm quests. Simple enough — equip charms into the active slots and complete the indicated quests, whether it’s killing enemies, activating wells, collecting blueprints, etc.

Archivist to the Aesir, 10 Gamerscore
Acquire 7,500 item drops. Collect items, plain and simple.  The world tree is a good place to collect items.  This achievement can be done over multiple characters.

One God Enters, One God Leaves…, 20 Gamerscore
Complete three secret arena battles.  These are the areas that have the white fog in the door.  You can earn this one in the first level.

Serve Em Up, 10 Gamerscore
Juggle an enemy to be killed in air combat by a teammate.  An easy one – just juggle an enemy and one of the NPCs (or a co-op friend) will kill it.

Teamwork Takedown, 10 Gamerscore
One player must destroy the troll’s chest armor and the other must mount kill.  This is the only achievement that can only be done in co-op mode.

Hate for the Machine, 15 Gamerscore
Kill 20,000 enemies.  This can be done over multiple characters.  To see your stats for your gamertag across all characters, check the Xbox Live leaderboards.

Secret Achievements

Through the Halls, 80 Gamerscore
Hall of Heroes has been completed (all tokens collected) in Single Player or Online Coop Play.  Earned after completing the first level.

Frozen Vengeance, 80 Gamerscore
Ice Forest has been completed (all tokens collected) in Single Player or Online Coop Play.  Earned after completing the second level.

The One That Got Away…, 80 Gamerscore
World Serpent has been completed (all tokens collected) in Single Player or Online Coop Play.  Earned after completing the third level.

To Hel and Back, 80 Gamerscore
Helheim has been completed (all tokens collected) in Single Player or Online Coop Play. Earned after completing campaign mode.

Unstoppable: Hall of Heroes, 10 Gamerscore
Hall of Heroes has been completed without dying.  To earn this you need to complete the first level without dying, all in one run (no quitting).

Unstoppable: Ice Forest, 15 Gamerscore
Hall of Heroes has been completed without dying.  To earn this you need to complete the second level without dying, all in one run (no quitting).

Unstoppable: World Serpent, 15 Gamerscore
Hall of Heroes has been completed without dying.  To earn this you need to complete the third level without dying, all in one run (no quitting).

Unstoppable: Helheim, 20 Gamerscore
Hall of Heroes has been completed without dying.  To earn this you need to complete the last level without dying, all in one run (no quitting).

Exultation of Steel, 30 Gamerscore.
Hel has been defeated by the Cybernetic Baldur.  One of the two alignment achivements, earned when you complete the game with a cybernetically aligned character.

Triumph of Humanity, 30 Gamerscore
Hel has been defeated by the Human Baldur.  One of the two alignment achivements, earned when you complete the game with a cybernetically aligned character.

NORN Novice, 5 Gamerscore
First Cyberspace Well has been activated.  Since the first well is mandatory, you’ll get this early in the Hall of Heroes level.

Trial of Ascendance, 5 Gamerscore
Complete a level 1 charm.  To complete the charm, do what the quest asks (killing enemies, collecting items, etc.) and insert the runes indicated on the charm.  You can only complete quests and insert runes for charms in the two active slots.

The Call of Battle, 5 Gamerscore
First Battle Cry unlocked.  Assign a skill point to a battle cry — the blue abilities on the skill tree, mapped to the X button.

Bane to Goblins, 30 Gamerscore
2,500 Goblins defeated.  Goblins are common and most prominent in the first level.  You can check your stats to see how many you have killed.

Hunter of Elfkin, 30 Gamerscore
500 Dark Elves defeated.  Dark Elves are green enemies and are found in the second and third levels.  Check your stats to see how many you’ve killed.

Avenger of the Slain, 30 Gamerscore
1,000 Undead slain. The Undead are the enemies in Helheim, the last level. You can earn this in one playthrough.

Slayer of Trollkind, 30 Gamerscore
50 Trolls destroyed by mounting.  This can be done over multiple characters, but must be done by performing mount kills.

Force to be Reckoned with, 5 Gamerscore
100 Elite enemies annihilated.  Elite enemies are named as such.  You can earn this one in a single playthrough.

The Blood of Heralds, 10 Gamerscore
100 enemy leaders conquered.

Feeder of Ravens, 10 Gamerscore
Kill 10,000 enemies.  The Hate for the Machine achievement is earned after 20,000, but this secret achievement shows that you’re half way.  Can be done over multiple characters.  As with the 20k one, you can check the leaderboards to see your total progress.

Valkyrie’s Folly, 5 Gamerscore
Die 100 Times.  Pretty simple.  I got this on my first playthrough, which is a bit disheartening.

Best of luck!

I just finished up Assassin’s Creed this weekend. It’s a pretty fun game, although tedious at times. But one thing that always gets me shamefully excited when I wrap up a game is the rush of Gamerscore that usually comes with that last Achievement or two.

I’m not one to spend hours trying to get a single Achievement unless the gameplay required is lots of fun. I’ll never boost an achievement and I don’t care if most games on my record have less than 1000G earned. But I do have fun picking them up, and sometimes I will go out of my way to get them. They’re a great part of the Xbox 360 experience.

So I was a bit disappointed when I realized I’d missed one of the achievements you can earn by completing the game. The ‘Conversationalist’ achievement is earned by entering into a dialogue with the Lucy character at every opportunity. I missed one near the beginning of the game. Oh well.

To save you the trouble if you haven’t been through the game yet, here are a few quick achievement tips to keep in mind when playing Assassin’s Creed:

• Talk to Lucy repeatedly: Lucy is the technician who operates the Animus. Between each memory segment you can talk to her by approaching and pressing a button when prompted. This usually happens immediately after each memory is completed, and before you go to your bedroom. Talk to her repeatedly to get all of the dialogue, until she starts repeating things like “can’t talk” and “aren’t you tired?” If you get them all, you get the 20G Conversationalist achievement.
• Activate all Memory Glitches: Memory glitches can be accessed whenever you see the screen flicker white and the DNA codes appear over top of the screen. They happen in many of the cutscenes throughout the game. You activate them by pressing any button on the controller — you can tell they’ve activated because the perspective will change and you can see a closer view of the scene. They usually occur during the scenes immediately before fighting a target (when they’re giving a speech, for example) and during the scene immediately after each assassination (occurring each time the target speaks to you). There are multiple glitches in each scene.You need to access 85% of all the glitches in the game to earn the 20G Hungerer of Knowledge achievement.
• Flag locations are available online: Normally I’m not a huge fan of using guides, but the flags can drive you crazy if you’re missing one or two. I’m not sure if I’m going to go back and complete them all, but if you choose to, the best maps are available at AssassinsCreed-Maps.com. This site has nice, big, easy-to-read maps that show all hidden flag and Templar locations. Try and get them all on your own, but before you pull your hair out, swing over here to track down the last few. The Flag and Templar achievements can be earned after you beat the game.The eight “Keeper of” acheivements are earned by collecting flags, and are worth 105 Gamerscore in total. The Personal Vendetta (kill every Templar) achievement is worth 40G.
• Save Every Citizen: There are a number of citizens calling for aid in each district of each city. Save them all and get the three “Defender of the People” achievements, worth 20G each. The description of these achievements says you need to complete every “free mission” in the city — this only refers to saving citizens. You only need to complete 3/6 investigations per district to advance to the assassination point, and you won’t miss this or any other achievement by not completing them all.

Most of the other achievements are self-explanatory, and the secret ones all come to you during the normal course of the missions. Hopefully these tips will keep you from missing anything!

[Updated for 2008] Ah, Gamerscore. The whole concept of Achievements is marketing gold, really. It’s enough to get anyone with some free time or obsessive-compulsive tendencies renting games or playing longer to earn achievements.

Yes, it’s just a number. No, it won’t do much for you. But let’s face it, it’s fun.

There are basically two ways to get achievements. Option #1 is to play games and earn them. Option #2 is boosting.

Boosting is basically conspiring with friends, using a second controller or doing anything else that allows you to get Achievements without legitimately completing their requirements (at least, their intended requirements). I’ve expressed before that I’m not a fan of boosting, and I’m not going to help you do it. Boosting makes your Gamerscore meaningless and makes you a lying hypocrite if you ever brag about it. Anyone can stand around in Halo 3 blowing up their friends, or beat their unused second controller at a sports game. It takes effort, practice and/or skill to earn achievements legitimately.

But of course, some achievements are easier than others. And that’s the purpose of this post — how to earn some quick Gamerscore without resorting to cheating or boosting. The following list presents some of the games that yield the most Gamerscore for the time you put in:

• Amped 3: This game gives you nearly 500 Gamerscore just for playing through the main game, which doesn’t take long at all.
• TMNT: This game is easy, and gives you the full 1000 Gamerscore just for playing through.
• Prey: Over 600 Gamerscore are yours for finishing the single-player game. Very early into this game, you gain immortality, so it’s quite easy. It may take 5-7 hours to complete, though. The game is OK, so play until you get bored. You’re not likely to get the online achievements anymore.
• King Kong: Notorious for being an easy-Gamerscore title. King Kong gives you the full 1000 Gamerscore just for playing. It’s a crappy game, though. Your call.
• Fight Night: Round 3: Get all 1000 points for punching through the single-player fights. Doesn’t take too long but you might need to practice a bit to win.
• Lego Star Wars II: This game is quite easy, although earning the entire 1000 will take some time as you’ll need to replay some levels.  Lego Star Wars: The Complete saga is a little harder to earn gamerscore with, since it’s about twice as long.
• X-men 3: A pretty easy game that will get you access to the full 1000 if you complete it and collect items on your way through. Some levels may require a few tries on the hardest mode, which is required to unlock everything. You won’t get many achievements in the beginning, though — nearly all of the Gamerscore is unlocked towards the end.
• NBA 2K6: Very easy — the achievements will pile up as you play just a few short games.
• NHL 2k6, 2K7: 2K6 only has five achievements, which won’t take long to get through. 2K7 is easy enough if you adjust the difficulty in your favor. Dynasty mode achievements can take more time, unless you sim your way through.
• NHL 07: Most of the achievements are pretty easy, if you give yourself enough time and practice to pull them off. If you make some good trades you can sim your way through most of the dynasty achievements without playing many games. I find actually playing more fun, though. If you want the 10-year achievement, you’ll do lots of simulations.
• CSI: Hard Evidence: Depending on how quickly you play through this game, it could take 6-10 hours, maybe less.  It’s a fun game, and a nice change of pace.  1000 Gamerscore is awarded just for getting through it.

Put in a decent run with those games and you can get around 7000 Gamerscore without too much effort.

Slower, but enjoyable

These games will give you a good shot of Gamerscore if you play them through. They’re not quick but they’re fun enough to keep you playing.

• Halo 3: Getting the full 1000 means playing through all the levels on Legendary difficulty, finding a hidden skull in each level and playing some co-op rounds. You’ll also need to spend some time earning rankings in multiplayer. Not quick, but very fun. The single-player campaign yields a decent number of points just for playing through on Normal, though. There’s a very good chance you own this game already.
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Oblivion earns you a full 1000 for completing the major quest-line as well as several side-quests. An additional 250 Gamerscore is yours if you purchase and complete the Shivering Isles expansion. You can adjust the difficulty to make the quests insanely easy if you want, but expect to spend dozens of hours just the same.
• Bioshock: Bioshock takes a while to complete, but most of the Gamerscore is earned as you go through. Collecting tape recorders as you go through the levels is important for one achievement — otherwise you’re stuck going back to look for them. This game is excellent, so you won’t mind putting in the time.
• Crackdown: It takes a while to get through everything, and many of the time-trial achievements are a challenge, but this is a very fun game.
• Viva Pinata: The achievements take a while to get, but they’re easy. If you like this game, though, you’ll be addicted anyways.
• Two Worlds: This game is a lot like Oblivion, although maybe not quite as good. The achievements are easier to get, and will take less time, though.
• Battlefield: Bad Company:  Out in June 2008, this game is lots of fun and the first bunch of Achievements are fairly easy to get.  If you’re one to spend hours on Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4, this is one game that won’t disappoint and will give you a decent amount of Gamerscore.

Bad for Gamerscore

Longer games, such as RPGs, will not give quick Gamerscore. Enchanted Arms is a good example — this game takes a long time to complete, although it does give the full 1000 Gamerscore for getting through. Unfortunately, it’s not a great game.

Some shooters can require lots of skill or online play to get much Gamerscore. F.E.A.R. and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat are examples of this. Call of Duty 2 put 800 of its points in its Veteran difficulty, which is quite difficult. Call of Duty 3 did a better job of providing more accessible Gamerscore, but completing Vetran difficulty and playing an insane number of online games is required to get the full 1000.

The absolute worst game for fast Gamerscore is most likely Final Fantasy XI. To earn all the Gamerscore, you need to level every job in the game up to 75. It can take a couple of months to a couple of years to get your first level 75 job, depending on how much you play. The remaining achievements come from doing long quest lines and difficult battles. I’ve been playing FFXI for about three years (although somewhat infrequently), and I’ve earned a total of 140 Gamerscore from it.

So there you have it — a few games you may have missed that will help you get your Gamerscore fix, all without resorting to boosting or glitching (which really destroys your Gamerscore completely). If you have any other Achievement/Gamerscore tips, let us know!

I’m playing Two Worlds right now. This game is fun, but quite glitchy.

For those of you playing it, save often. I’ve had this game freeze my Xbox 360 after an hour of unsaved play, and when you’re playing an RPG, that’s a pain.

It’s also important to save before you get achievements. This is especially true with the elements. Before you pick up each element for your relic item (this becomes clear in the storyline), be sure to save your game in front of it. Various people have reported not getting achievements when they collect an element item.

I picked up the Air Element (by the Drak’ar Desert and Dead Forest) and didn’t get the achievement for doing so. Unfortunately I hadn’t saved for some time, so I couldn’t just reload the game and try again. Instead, I had to start a new game and make a run for it. Two Worlds is friendly on easy mode, though, since you can easily outrun any enemies you aggro along the way.

This kind of thing makes me pretty nervous about that “Visited All Areas” achievement. There’s a huge time investment in exploring everything, even if you are having fun doing it. With only three people with the full 1000 Gamerscore for Two Worlds on MyGamerTag, I’m concerned it might be glitchy as well.

Oh well, I’ve managed to get all of the achievements I’ve earned so far, and I’m now saving compulsively, so I should be OK.

Now, I know the Achievements system on the Xbox 360 has its flaws — some games can be cheated, and some gamers are obsessed with boosting their Gamerscore with these achievements. This obsession with Achievements is why they’re such a great idea for Microsoft, though, since they’ll get anyone with a touch of obsessive-compulsive behaviours grabbing up extra games just to raise their scores. (I don’t believe in boosting, but I have been known to keep playing a game just to snatch some extra gamerscore when I may have put it down otherwise.)

Anyways, Bioshock was released yesterday, and I picked up my copy. As I mentioned in my recent Bioshock preview, this game is fun, and just… awesome. It’s among the top Xbox 360 games this year, along with Crackdown, presumably Mass Effect, and certainly Halo 3.

But one of the things this game got right is the Achievements. Bioshock has 50 achievements, and many of them are small. I liked this a lot about Crackdown, as well. Both games have tons of little tricks to get, items to collect, or character upgrades to acquire that make getting your Achievements that much more fun.

By contrast, some other games only include Achievements that are part of the normal gameplay (You beat the first level! Here’s 100 gamerscore!) or rewards for keeping their online gaming going (Congrats, you’ve played 10,000 online matches!) . Sure, it’s nice to be rewarded for progressing in the game — but these achievements aren’t nearly as fun to get.

Now, many of the Bioshock Achievements will be yours just by playing through, but there are enough extras to give you some extra playtime chasing the last bits of Gamerscore. Other developers should learn from 2K on this one – Bioshock got achievements right.

I’m all for going for achievements. I think they’re fun, and a nice addition to the Xbox Live community. I also have no problem with a little “trickery” and creativeness when trying to get these achievements. Perhaps there’s one that’s pretty hard to get, but there’s also a nice way around it. Rewards for cleverness are fine by me.

What I have a problem with is straight-up achievement boosting. Let’s say I’m playing Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, and I want the 10 kills with a sniper rifle achievement. Now, I can do this two ways:

1. I can be sneaky, and smart. I can navigate my way around the map carefully and take out enemies one by one with a sniper rifle. I can understand that this isn’t easy, that I’ll probably need to try a few times and that I may break a controller or two in frustration after someone shoots me in the back 9 kills in.
2. OR I can get a buddy or two to play with me. I can have them stand in front of me and I can shoot them without even looking through my scope. I’m done in no time.

Option 2 is certainly much easier, much less hassle and will get me my Expert Sniper: Online achievement and the 25 gamerscore just as Option 1 will.

However, with option 2, I have not achieved anything. I have no achievement. Sure, I have something called an “Achievement”, but it wasn’t earned legitimately. I’ve forefeit all bragging rights — in fact, if I brag about my Gamerscore after using Option 2, I’m a liar, and a loser.
My gamerscore reflects this sentiment. It’s not high, and I’m not good at getting Battlefield 2 achievements. Oh well. If you have a legitimately higher gamerscore, congrats. I applaud your skill. If you have more achievements than me because you cheated, I don’t really care. Your vanity and possible cowardice do not impress me.

It’s hard to trust anyone’s gamerscore, unless it’s really low. That’s a shame.