November 9, 2007
The full list of achievement points for BioWare's epic RPG Mass Effect are finally in - but boy, is it a slavedriver! There's no way you can pick up all the achievement points on your first play-through. Yet spending another 80 hours or so on finishing it again on the same difficulty will only get you a measly 25 gamer points. Yup, Two-Five.
And then there's the difficulty challenges. Finish the game again on Hardcore and you get another 25. Finish it on Insanity difficulty and you get 50. Theoretically, of course, you could secure all four of these achievements by playing once on Hardcore and then once on Insanity, but that's still the equivalent of about 23 days of full-time employment.
And surely, surely the Ally achievements which require you to complete the 'majority of the game' with certain characters don't require separate play-throughs. Otherwise that's six adventures, each at around 80 hours... our heads hurt thinking about it. Maybe that's the 'Mass Effect' the title speaks of - anew brain condition brought on by the mathematical boggling ofall those hours lost in search of 25 measly gamer points. We hope not.
See below for the list in full, then get clearing your diary for the game's 23 November release in the UK -November 20 in the US.