3 of the Most Bizarre Achievements in Gaming
In-game achievements have become increasingly popular over the past few years. These days, it’s almost impossible to find a PlayStation or Xbox game that doesn’t feature a few dozen, at least. However, that doesn’t mean that gamers are limited to these; in fact, many gamers have gone above and beyond to invent, and perfect, a variety of different creative achievements. Many of these might have been things that the original developers never intended, while others are just plain ridiculous. Here are three of the strangest.
Beating Dark Souls With A Rock Band Guitar
Completing any of the Dark Souls games is notoriously difficult, and can often be seen as an accomplishment in and of itself. Dark Souls, in particular, is infamous for causing many of us to break our controller. That may be why Benjamin “Bearzly” Gwin decided to use a Rock Band controller instead. Dubbed the Guitar Souls run, Gwin fought his way through the entire game by custom-mapping his controller input to his Xbox 360.
The playthrough took 11 hours, and there were some incredibly difficult sections to navigate through; many Dark Souls players wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Gwin took quite some time getting through Sen’s Fortress and bosses Ornstein and Smoug. However, many players might be surprised to learn that final boss Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, was surprisingly easy to beat, needing only three attempts. Many of us wouldn’t be able to do that with a regular controller.
Bearzly did have a strategy going in; by fighting almost completely naked, he was able to increase his speed while using a halberd to maximise his reach. This isn’t the first time that the name Benjamin “Bearzly” Gwin has popped up alongside Dark Souls; he was previously known for beating the game one-handed. He’s also announced that he plans on beating Dark Souls 2 with a Rock Band controller next.
Speed-Running Diablo 2 Without Ever Attacking
The Diablo franchise isn’t exactly known for its pacifism. With demons and other hell-spawn being unleashed onto the world, alongside the literal Devil, it’s not something anybody would believe that you could finish without ever attacking anything. This is something that DrCliche managed to do, while also doing so as a Speed-run. There was one slight caveat to DrCliche’s playthrough, however; he’d equipped his character with thorn-covered armor, so that any time an enemy hit him, the armor would strike back.
With the rules that he put in place, though, as long as he didn’t intentionally attack any NPCs or enemies, he’d be in the clear. This approach worked for the majority of the 7 hour, 41 minute playthrough. One hiccup came about in the game in the form of Diablo 2’s fourth act boss Lord De Seis; De Seis is both unskippable and uses only long-range attacks. Speaking to Polygon, DrCliche explained how he was able to get around this, saying:
“But De Seis’s elemental attacks do proc Chilling Armor, and at level 30, with Cold Mastery, 6 points in Chilling Armor, and a +2 staff, you do damage quickly and consistently.”
Creating A RollerCoaster Tycoon Maze That Takes Centuries To Escape
The vast majority of us love a construction and management simulator. Spending a considerable amount of time building the park of our dreams is something that’s oddly addictive. However, there are some of us that have more of a dystopian outlook. How else would you explain the dozens of different ways that players have figured out to torture their unwitting customers? Out of these, there’s one effort that stands out in particular.
RogueLeader23 decided to build the longest possible hedge maze in RollerCoaster Tycoon to see how long it would take visitors to find their way out. Titled Just a Walk in the Park, the experiment followed guest Beverly P. as she wound her way through a number of checkpoints to find the exit. Guests in the game are technically immortal, with RogueLeader23 following poor old Beverly’s progress across several decades. During this time, a few other guests were admitted to the RollerCoaster Tycoon hell-maze, with Beverly P. never finding the exit. The first guest to do so, one Regina F. finally found the exit after a whopping 263 years. Poor Beverley is still looking through the maze for the next Checkpoint.
