Achieved by 0.3% of players There's a trend right now for games whose difficulty feels like a throwback to a bygone era of gaming; an era in which you were thrown into worlds with strange, inscrutable mechanics that forced you to play on pure digital survival instinct. One of the best examples of this is La Mulana, a puzzle-platformer that pays tribute to MSX games of the 80s. This game will force you to read things carefully, and compile actual pen n' paper notes to get through some of its puzzles. To become an "archaeological authority" in La Mulana, you have to discover all the artefacts hidden in 'suspicious spots' throughout the game. However, these spots aren't your conspicuous crack in the wall or statue head that acts as a lever to unlock a hidden door. A suspicious spot could be anything from a boulder, to a mural, to a spiked floor that looks like a deathtrap. To top it all off, you can trigger events in the game that effectively locks you out of investigating these suspicious spots, and you'll have to wait until your next playthrough before you can check them again. This is a gruelling achievement to get your hands on, particularly if you're unfamiliar with uncompromising mid-80s platformers.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
