If like me, you’re not satisfied by simply completing a game’s storyline or side-content, you’ll likely turn to its achievements to get extra mileage out of a given title. Achievements boost replayability, showcase unknown game features and even lead us to completely abandon all ethical and moral standards we may have held.

I’m mostly joking, however the pursuit of that all-important platinum Playstation trophy or Steam’s one-hundred-percent ribbon has led me to make decisions I wouldn’t normally, even including player-character relationship choices. Where those however depend on player preference, there are some achievements that seem like either the ‘bad choice’ or are perhaps the more chaotic option. Here are seven to show you what I mean:

You… Monster!

Slime Rancher

In games like GTA V, morbid curiosity often overpowers our human decency (or rather NPC decency). One of the first things you might do in a populated cityscape is run someone down, just to see what happens. Will the local law enforcement care? Will you care? Sometimes the answer is neither. Sometimes though, having the freedom to do whatever you want comes with the possibility of judgement from the game developers themselves.

You… Monster! is a simple, yet sad achievement; throw a chick into a fire. Those who didn’t actively search for the achievement might feel worse about themselves after reading the description: “Send an adorable chick to a fiery end, the same place you’re now destined to go.” I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the ‘cosy slime game’ condemning players to hell, but here we are. It’s a shame that those who just wanted hundred-percent completion also have to be forsaken, but that’s the life we’ve chosen to lead.

Joja Co. Member Of The Year

Stardew Valley

Unless you managed to look past what feels like Stardew Valley’s entire message, there’s a good chance you didn’t choose to play through the game as a corporate puppet, slowly converting an old community centre into a company warehouse. Sure, it’s a lot simpler to gain the rewards, replacing bundles of seasonally exclusive items with one-off payments, but it also disincentivises you to explore all the game has on offer. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that you’re stripping a local community of a historical landmark home to magical woodland spirits.

To gain every achievement requires not only the restoration of Pelican Town’s community centre, but a separate playthrough where, instead of mystical Junimos, you’ll be aided by a megacorporation’s local branch manager. In helping Morris achieve Joja Co.’s vision, you’re at least rewarded with a vending machine, which actually has more functionality than the trophy you’re otherwise given. Maybe being an avid consumer has its perks?!

Empty Gesture

Portal 2

Cooperative platformers like New Super Mario Bros Wii and Battleblock Theater made throwing friends to their doom feel like the whole reason video games were ever invented. The opportunity to mess with your co-op partner is fun enough for fun’s sake, but with the ever-chaotic and brilliant co-op mode from 2011’s Portal 2, you’re actively incentivised to do so.

Gestures allow for fun interactions between you and your co-op partner, you can wave, hug, or even play rock, paper, scissors, but of course, they’re also just a way to mess around or celebrate a puzzle solved. If the Atlas to your P-Body happens to be gesturing while on a light bridge, make sure to turn said bridge off and as they plummet to their death, you’ll be handsomely rewarded with the Empty Gesture achievement and the disdain of whoever you’re playing with.

Wait! Don’t Kill Me!

NieR:Automata

Similarly to Monomi Park’s judgment over the unnecessary killing of baby chickens in Slime Rancher, Nier Automata not only asks moral questions throughout its unravelling post-apocalyptic story but also provides many opportunities to judge the player based on their decisions. Throughout the whole game, you have opportunities to kill, spare and make choices that either promote pacifism or carnage.

At the beginning of the game, before a lot of crazy twists and turns, you may be inclined to believe that certain robots are valid objects in your path, especially in the amusement park section. This might lead you to kill a few robots that are actually peaceful if not a bit insane. You’d be forgiven if it was a mistake, but if you got this achievement for killing not one, but ten peaceful robots, you might need to calm down a bit. Initially being happy to not have done this unintentionally, I realised I’d have to turn to murder to satiate my achievement addiction. Maybe I do have a problem.

Sealed Lips

Spiritfarer

Multiple achievements tied to a player-made decision can be a detriment to achievement hunters. If the game warrants it, having an excuse to do a second playthrough is nice. I certainly didn’t mind The Talos Principle having multiple path achievements, and The Witcher 2 having an entirely separate mid-game sequence, with accompanying achievements, is pretty remarkable. It does however mean that if you’ve finished a game you’re not planning to replay, you’ll be left with some stragglers on the locked achievements page, which to achievement fiends might mean sleepless nights.

One of my favourite games of the past ten years, Spiritfarer, leaves you with one such decision-gated achievement. The problem here is that it involves a significant NPC relationship, and whether or not to spill the beans about one cheating on the other. While not quite as overtly brutal as, say, chick murder, it does mean that whatever decision you make the first time around, you’ll have to go against it to unlock the other achievement. It’s made worse by the fact that neither scenario feels entirely like the “good” choice, a morally grey experience that players of the aforementioned Witcher series know all too well.

Seagulls aren’t real

Payday 2

If Payday 2 was a more popular title during the release of its final heist, Crude Awakening, there’s a small but not impossible chance there’d be an overblown animal rights debate online, thanks to the hilariously named ‘Seagulls aren’t real’ achievement. Being one of over a thousand achievements the PC version ended up accumulating, it’s also unlikely that anyone other than die-hard achievement hunters would notice. 

It’s perhaps the easiest to justify on this list, as while it calls for the discovery and prompt ‘removal’ of all seagulls on the level’s oil rig, it doesn’t feel as if you’re doing more than clicking on a distant collection of coloured pixels. While that argument can be made for a lot of similar games, these animals feel more like cardboard cutouts, not moving an inch, and are similar to many other achievements in the game which call for targets to be found and shot. It’s also within a game that allows you to do a lot worse in the name of a big payout. Still, putting bullets into seabirds doesn’t scream morally sound.

Neglect

Hollow Knight

If you intentionally left Zote to die in this game, I will never forgive you. If however you somehow found and then forgot about one of Hollow Knights’ most beloved characters, I can maybe forgive you. If you simply wanted to one-hundred-percent complete the game, then I can sympathise.

When you first meet the self-titled “Zote the Mighty”, he’s fallen prey to the Vengefly King, an early-game boss found in the second area in the game. You can choose to help him and enjoy the hilarious chats (and dreams) that follow throughout the rest of your journey, or if you want an achievement, you can leave him to be eaten alive. Next time you come back to the scene of the crime you’ll find his helmet and an achievement. Brutal. Sadness aside, this is yet another reason to play through what is probably the greatest modern Metroidvania, so I guess it gets a pass.