Multiplayer Achievements on Xbox 360 Suck

I feverishly love getting achievements on my Xbox 360. They give the player goals to reach for in games that otherwise have no clear cut goals. They also give people a reason to replay games and get more out of them then they would have the first play through. I'd like to make one clear distinction though. I love single player achievements. Multiplayer achievements can go to hell.



The picture at the top of this post is an achievement from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on XBLA. More specifically, it's the only achievement in the game that requires multiplayer over Xbox Live and that I have yet to get. Why don't I have it? Because there's never anyone online playing the god damn multiplayer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2!

The multiplayer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was horribly boring for the Genesis and is just as boring on Xbox Live. If you want to join a multiplayer game you have to either try to join one, or make your own and then sit there watching a screen with your gamer tag on it and an empty spot for another player who will never come. There are just no people at all playing this game on multiplayer making this achievement ridiculously hard to get. However, let's say that you do manage to find someone else and you play a game or two, they'll most likely leave after playing a few rounds once they've met their own quota, because you know that the only reason anyone is playing the multiplayer is to get that achievement.

This is what angers me the most about these online achievements. It gives each player their own personal agenda. Say you're playing a game such as Streets of Rage 2 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade which require teamwork and halfway through the game one of your teammates just leaves because there was an achievement they needed at a certain part of the game. Well what if you're playing because you need an achievement that requires completion of the game online? Or what if you're playing because you just like the freaking game? Now you're totally screwed because you can't continue on without that person! People online were already Machiavellian enough before achievements came into the picture.

There shouldn't be any achievements that require multiplayer over Xbox Live to get unless of course it's a game that is multiplayer only. I have to applaud Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for having 100% of its achievements being single player. This way the only people playing online are those who enjoy the game and there aren't any people there just to farm achievements with no regard for the other people playing. It is also very frustrating to be playing online and no matter how much you focus on what you're doing, the achievements are still in the back of your mind, which is how I found Team Fortress 2 to be. That sucked, because I loved Team Fortress Classic with a passion and I wanted to love Team Fortress 2 but the achievements kept distracting me until I got fed up with playing (that and I just didn't like 2 as much as 1).