Welcome to Trophy of the Week, the PSU column which celebrates PS3 and Vita trophies in all their forms: be they hard, secret, clever, quirky or just plain tricky to achieve. Each week we’ll take a look at a trophy, show you how to achieve it and examine what may have influenced its design; please be aware that this will include spoilers so stop reading now if you don’t want to know any more about the trophy and the game under discussion.
This week I am going to look at the Saints Row IV trophy entitled, " You chose.. poorly." This trophy caught my eye when I achieved it simply because it’s funny, and has quite a few " pop culture," links. Here’s how it works.
Game – Saints Row IV
Trophy – "You chose.. poorly."
During the mission entitled Zero Cool you will find yourself facing a choice of going through a red or blue door. Going through the blue door, you are told, means you will live, but will cause the extinction of the human race; however if you chose to go through the red door you learn that it means you will die, but in doing so save the human race. Now to unlock the trophy and achievement you want to choose to go through the red door because when you do so and die the trophy is unlocked, (plus you get the chance to go back and choose the blue door.)
Of course movie fans are going to recognise this trophy as paying homage to the scene in The Matrix where Neo is offered the choice of a blue or red pill, but that’s no surprise as Saints Row IV is like The Matrix on some serious drugs. What you may not know is that the choice that influences the trophy also appears in Total Recall, it happens in the scene where Arnie is offered a return to reality by taking a red pill. And that’s not the only film that has influenced this trophy; at the end of the third Indiana Jones film when the Nazi chooses the wrong cup the Grail Knight quips " he chose…poorly."
I also like to think the choice of doors in the Saints Row IV mission pays tribute to the end of Mass Effect 3 where it feels like you have a similar choice of exits, and that your choice equates to being damned if you do or damned if you don’t.
So there you go, choosing poorly in Saints Row IV can get you a trophy, if only more games were so generous than perhaps my trophy cabinet might be a lot fuller; anyway I hope you enjoyed trophy of the week don’t forget to check out our review of Saints Row 4 here and the full trophy list for the game here.
If you have any suggestions for further trophies to discuss why not drop me an email at [email protected] and if they’re quirky and fun then I’ll write them up and credit you as well.