Achievements or Trophies, Either Way The Pressure is [Not] On

I do not own a single game in which I have snagged all achievements or trophies. There are games I have come close with, but as a friend of mine likes to say "Almost only works in horseshoes and hand grenades".



Normally the lack of completion does not bother me too much, while I would like to get 100% on a game, by the time I beat the game I usually don't care enough to go back and get every single item or meet every ridiculous requirement in order to get a trophy that, honestly, has no bearing on my life. Granted there would be a huge sense of accomplishment, but that feeling accompanies anything I finish, including video games so the extra excitement is something I can do without.

Usually. There are some games I enjoy so much that going back to get every achievement or trophy does not bother me, instead giving me an excuse to continue playing a game that I really love. One recent example of that is Enslaved, a game that is very near and dear to my heart (and if you have not played it, you should. It is incredibly well done), which I beat shortly after the game's release last year. I had not gotten every mask or orb, had not beat the game on hard and had not upgraded all my weapons, among other things, so I decided that I had to remedy that oversight.



Rather than looking in my trophies to see what I needed to get, I decided to consult an online trophy guide, since I wanted to do this right. With the guide near-to-hand I got to about half way through the game before I decided to check my trophies. I had already gotten a few more and was eager to see the percentage of completion.

To my horror and confusion I did not even have 50%.

So I opened up the trophies for Enslaved and started looking. I had most of the trophies, how could it be less than 50%! Then I saw it, the additions at the bottom of the list. Even though I did not own the DLC, Sony had been "kind" enough to add the DLC trophies to the original ones. Which meant that if I wanted to get a platinum trophy in this game, I would have to buy the DLC (which I had not even considered until this point) and play that as well.

Enslaved is not the first game this has happened with, Dragon Age: Origins did this to me as well, and it was just as frustrating with Enslaved as it had been with Dragon Age. While I enjoy the original games, I am usually hesitant to buy additional content, unless it somehow enhances the story and even then I sigh at the idea of throwing down even more money on something that already cost me 65 dollars (I am rounding up, tax usually puts the game at 63 to 64 dollars).



The added content becomes even more frustrating to me because I so rarely have the time or desire to sink even more energy into a game that I have already completed, and without buying the DLC, even if I want to get the platinum trophy on a game, it is impossible. Are the extra trophies added as a way to entice me to buy the DLC, a preview of what I could be playing? Or is this a sneaky ploy to force completionists to spend even more money by keeping them from getting 100% on a game? Either way, my reaction tends to be a defeated sigh and an "Oh well" as I drop the controller and move on to something else.

I will finish my second playthrough of Enslaved, but with my primary reason for a second run of the game snatched away from me, I will not be trying to get every single trophy. I no longer see a point.