Handicap Achievements

Achievements given for completing some goal while under some type of optional handicap.

Players who have mastered a specific game, or are so familiar with a game genre that they wish to have an increased challenge from the start of a game, typically need higher levels of difficulty in the gameplay to be able to enjoy the game. For these players to feel that the extra skills and efforts they put into such gameplay are

Examples

Games with achievement systems and different difficulty settings typically provide different achievements for each of these settings. Fallout:New Vegas of the Fallout series provides the Hardcore achievement for completing the entire game in the mode with the same name where players need to replenish food, water, and sleep regularly.

In a similar vein, Left 4 Dead 2 provides the Still Something to Prove for completing all campaigns on expert difficulty, and The Real Deal for completing any campaign on expert with the added difficulty of the Realism mode (which makes it more difficulty to see where items and other players are).

The action RPG Torchlight provide Beast Slayer II and Beast Slayer III for those players that complete the game on hard or very hard levels instead of the easy or normal levels (which gives Beast Slayer I). Further, Torchlight has a hardcore mode that does not allow respawning (so one cannot die without ending the game) and gives the achievements Hardcore Victor, Hardcore Hero, Hardcore Champion, or Hardcore God depending on whether one played on easy, normal, hard, or very hard level (Perfect Victory is also given for any type of game instance completed without a death).

Putting time limits can also provide a means of creating Handicap Achievements. Torchlight does this through the two achievements Swift Execution and Speed King with requires that the main enemy, Ordrak, is defeated in less than 5 and 8 hours respectively. Working on a smaller time scale, Left 4 Dead 2 has the achievement Bridge over Trebled Slaughter for completing the finale of a specific campaign in less than 3 minutes.

Some games provide Handicap Achievements to players that complete levels, quests, or the entire game without using certain features of the game since these make the game easier. For example, the Akimbo Assassin achievement in Left 4 Dead of the Left 4 Dead Series is awarded for surviving a complete campaign using only pistols and Left 4 Dead 2 provides a similar achievement, Confederacy of Crunches for doing so using only melee weapons. Also in L4D2, the Guardin' Gnome achievement is a Handicap Achievements since it requires the players to carry Gnome Chompski for most of a campaign and thereby limits their combat efficiency.

Of the many achievements in World of Warcraft, a few are Testing Achievements. These include I Found One! for looting a brightly colored egg during the Noblegarden seasonal event, Represent for equipping any tabard, Shave and a Haircut for visiting a barber and getting cosmetic changes to one's avatar, and Dual Talent Specialization for testing the game's functionality of offering a different gaming experience with the same character.

Although having aspects of grinding, the achievement Head of the Class in Team Fortress 2 forces players to test all classes available in the game and thereby experience the different abilities available. Although constructing building can be difficult to to enemy interference, helping a team mate construct one to get the Land Grab achievement qualifies as a Testing Achievements as well since it is not to difficulty to succeed with in well-chosen locations.

Using the pattern

One of the easiest ways of providing Handicap Achievements in a game is to have Difficulty Settings and provide a separate Goal Achievement for each setting.

In general, Handicap Achievements can be created through considering Optional or Enforced Goals in a game and then adding some required limitation on how the player can behave. The Left 4 Dead Series does this in Akimbo Assassin and Confederacy of Crunches through restricting which weapons can be used in Combat, while Torchlight does it in Perfect Victory through requiring that the player's character never dies.

Achievements

Challenging Gameplay

Speed Runs

Consequences

As a type of Achievement, Handicap Achievements can form a kind of Reward and be used to create Meta Games. Given that Handicap Achievements are based on goals they are a type of Goal Achievements but they are arguable more of an Optional Goal than other types of Achievements since it is always possible to complete the underlying goal without requirements of the Handicap Achievements.

Although similar in names, Handicap Achievements are not directly related to Handicaps since the latter relates to providing Player Balance rather than providing additional challenges for individual players.

Value of Effort Game Mastery

History

New pattern created in this wiki.