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A Perfectionist's Pursuit of Completion <long read warning>


CraigyXO

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I don’t want to sound like an ass but those wall of texts, it’s killing me. Can you add some paragraphs for future thoughts/reviews? I want to read your progress.

 

 

edit: I’m on an iPad so it probably looks worse for myself than everyone else on a regular monitor.

Edited by Kcrack_Km
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6 hours ago, Kcrack_Km said:

I don’t want to sound like an ass but those wall of texts, it’s killing me. Can you add some paragraphs for future thoughts/reviews? I want to read your progress.


Very fair point. I’ll go through and break it up a bit. I didn’t realise how much of an eyesore it was until I scrolled through the page on my mobile device. 
 

Also for anyone interested in this thread you can find my first published PSNProfiles guide here:

 

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/9527-this-is-the-police-2-trophy-guide

Edited by CraigyXO
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  • 2 weeks later...

:platinum: Platinum 52

 

 

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Not for the first time I booted up a game on my alternative account and was utterly uninspired. Metro 2033 forced This is the Police 2 into being my first platinum of 2020 because despite getting a great price on the Metro Redux collection I could just not get into the game. Maybe it was the foreshadowing that I'd be sitting playing with a guide at hand, something I don't particularly like doing, as not to mess obtaining the numerous moral points required to avoid a third playthrough. Regardless of my initial thoughts and preconceptions I decided to return to Metro 2033 after finishing This is the Police 2 and I'm so glad I did.

 

I jumped back on my alternative account and having played 3 or 4 hours previous I decided to reevaluate and play the game with a fresh perspective, I was on the prowl for platinum 52 and I needed to see whether I could rule out the Metro series completely. I typically don't finish a game on my alternative account, the idea is to test a game to see if I like it but in this case I ended up playing the game blind with no guide. To my surprise I started to enjoy the game and my immersion (something I'd heard this game was highly regarded for) grew. Within a few hours of playtime I knew I wanted to go for the platinum but at this point I opted to just complete the story. Upon completion I'd begrudgingly start a guide playthrough on my other account as not to miss any moral points but with the added benefit of not getting any spoilers as I had already finished the game (the things trophies make us do aye?)

 

I expected a sort of monotony having already completed the game once but I still enjoyed my second run (first on my XO account) despite the constant referencing of a moral points guide. It can break the immersion somewhat to continuously consult your phone but the alternative of yet more playthroughs did not entice me one bit. I executed my plan to get the platinum in two playthroughs. My first run was used to collect enough moral points for Enlightened whilst playing on the Survivor mode and I cranked the difficulty up to hardcore for a slightly tougher experience due to already finishing the game once. On this initial run I surprised myself with how well I did with the diary pages, only needing a guide for one or two and I also knocked out a lot of the miscellaneous trophies. My second run I decided to stay on the hardcore difficulty (I mulled over Ranger Hardcore but no HUD just wasn't my cup of tea) and played through on the Spartan mode getting the canon ending.

 

And so Metro 2033 became platinum 52 and my second of the year. I had never played a Metro game so the Redux was a great opportunity for me to try a great new series. Like Red Dead Redemption 2 and many games before it I started off by initially disliking the game, especially when shooters are concerned I just don't seem to adapt well to change, but also just like Red Dead, it became a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Metro caught my attention with with it's resource managing and little details such as wiping blood off your gas mask felt incredibly immersive. By my third run of the game things still felt incredibly fresh and some of the trophies meant I played levels in completely different ways, finding alternative routes and differing my approach. To conclude, I am excited to explore the rest of the Metro series, I will very likely go for the Last Light platinum next (not looking forward to more moral points) and I hope to check out Metro Exodus in the near future too. If there is one thing I'd really like to build on this little portfolio of platinums, it's a strong selection of games within a series and Metro definitely fits into those plans.

 

 

Edited by CraigyXO
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  • 2 weeks later...

:platinum: Platinum 53

 

 

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As I previously wrote in my last entry, Metro is a new series to me and was initially one I didn't warm to as quickly as I expected to. I knew I would be consulting a moral choices guide at some point, metaphorically speaking, the straw sucking every last bit of immersion out of this great game. Initially I was going to wait for my second playthrough to focus on this so I could just take my time and enjoy the game but ultimately moral points factor in to how I want to play the game. I wanted to be stealthy and avoid contact where possible and I wanted to be the glorified good guy and saviour of the Metro.

 

A preliminary google search told me Last Light was considerably easier than 2033, so I ventured back into the Metro systems of post apocalyptic Russia in high spirits once more. Playing on hardcore for a bit of added challenge, I must admit I actually found the campaign of Last Light more difficult. With a lot of the challenge already removed by using a moral points guide I decided I would not consult any help for some of the stealthy sections of the game and some of these took me a good number of attempts to figure out without detection. As someone who loves sniping on video games, the introductions of weapons like the Valve were very welcome. I also set myself the challenge of finding all the diary pages without using a guide (you might be catching on to my distaste at relying so heavily on the aforementioned moral guide and counter measures I put in place to make myself feel better.) which I did manage to do bar one of two very well hidden ones.

 

Last Light, during the first playthrough, felt like a really long game (maybe it was the amount of retries on some of the more difficult stealth sections) but I managed to run through my second playthrough in just over a day. With the month closing, my target of two platinums a month just in reach (This is the Police 2 doesn't count as I intended to get this in December) with just the DLC portion of the game standing between me and 100%. 

 

Oh DLC, why? Not for the first time a game which didn't seem too difficult increasingly ramped up the difficult through it's DLC. I could probably count the amount of times I died during the main campaign (on effectively the hardest difficulty) on one hand but that number would skyrocket by the time I finished with these missions. Last Light primarily focuses around human enemies, The Reds to be precise, and the game strongly seems to lead towards stealth bar a few encounters. The DLC takes this mechanic and bins it... mostly. I must admit I did really enjoy the Sniper Team and Pavel missions, though the latter had a late section that was borderline impossible to do without being detected which for someone who loves full stealth runs was incredibly irritating. 

 

In truth, I didn't feel the DLC added a great deal. The Anna level was just a rehash of a mission you already completed and the Developer's level in which you needed to spend an hour was just a glorified museum with a few challenges reminiscent of some of those found in the base game of 2033 (shooting range). Ksatriya, though I despised it as first, proved to be quite memorable. Although once again it was just a rehash of the Library from the first game, it did really get the old endorphins flowing once you safely stumbled back to base with those last few items you need. However, all of these were just prerequisites leading up to the ultimate challenge of defeating the Tower and obtaining that platinum.

 

At the risk of sounding like an elitist, I did not intend to use any of the exploits that are available for the DLC. I was aware from prior research that the Tower could be incredibly tedious but I wanted a challenge. I struggled through those 5 challenges, often restarting to alter the difficulty and alternating between Spartan and Survival (I'd recommend Spartan). There is no easy way around this, if you play on the game's default difficulty of normal you can take a few more hits but you do more damage on the harder difficulties, therefore I concluded that 'Ranger' would be the best difficulty for me to tackle this task on.

 

Challenge room 2 set me back a LOT of hours and I haven't faced something of that intensity since Mile High Club on Call of Duty Remastered. The latter was considerably more difficult and took a lot more planning but the challenge provided here was nothing to turn your nose up at. In classic CraigyXO fashion (you'll get this reference if you've read my COD write up) upon completing this very difficult room, the game crashed for the first time (seriously my only crash was at the most difficult portion of the entire platinum playthrough) and failed to save. At this point, we are talking numerous hours of attempts) I utilised the glitch to skip this portion. Normally I'd feel a bit cheap about this but I had literally just completed it and it wasn't a smooth run either, at the end of the mission my screen was flashing bright red and I was out of med packs. I did not have the patience to do it again and why should I? I did my part which was completing this grim challenge. Sadly this would hinder my leaderboard score but there was no other ramifications (more on that later). Challenge 3 proved to be a breeze, and I completed it first time whereas Challenge 4 had me stuck for an hour or so before I started to utilise the support teams more (if you're going for challenge legit, the support team at the back of the map are fantastic.)

 

With four of the challenges down my platinum would pop on the fifth challenge, which research told me was the second hardest of the challenges (oh the joys.) I was breezing the first three rounds every single run but failing at the very last devastating flood wave, sometimes on the last couple of enemies (usually a librarian). After about half an hour I got my lucky run and the platinum popped. As I eluded to earlier I thought the direction with the DLC was slightly odd, Metro struck me as an immersive experience... it certainly isn't about the combat because that is far from where this game exceeds. This game is at its best when you're unscrewing a light bulb to kill the light in a tight corridor as you stealthily sneak past a patrolling soldier, quickly changing your gas mask filter at the last second because your air supply is suddenly becoming toxic. Metro is not intended to be a combat simulator and it doesn't really work in my opinion. It felt rewarding and I suppose it was mildly enjoyable but when I'm now ranked 104th in the world (considering I used the glitch on a challenge too) that says a lot about the steep difficulty of a DLC and explains why so many players would opt to glitch there way through instead.

 

Anyway, to end on a positive, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with this series and despite my minor complaints about the DLC this was a great addition to my ever-growing platinum collection.

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