Highlights
- Speedrunning games requires mastery of the game mechanics and efficient route planning to beat the clock and achieve in-game rewards.
- Games like Stray , Max Payne , Crash Bandicoot 4 , Ico , Hollow Knight , Shovel Knight , Uncharted , and Resident Evil offer challenging speedrun achievements.
- Completing speedrun challenges requires players to familiarize themselves with the game layout, use various strategies, and demonstrate exceptional skill and precision.
Speedrunning games is another way to challenge gamers if they fully understand and have mastered the ins and outs of whatever titles they are playing. Adding a timer raises the stakes since players who are gunning for the achievement have to assess the most time-efficient route to get to the end credits before the final buzzer.
Some titles that have such daunting achievements reward players who accomplish such a feat with in-game perks, while other games know that for trophy hunters, getting that achievement under their profiles is the reward. But which games with speedrun achievements are worth taking on?
8 Stray
For a game about a cat living in a city inhabited by automatons, people might dismiss Stray as a relatively chill title. This is true in some respects since the game wants players to take their time to immerse themselves in the environment as they progress through the story.
Stray is not a long game to finish, and its speedrun trophy, “I Am Speed,” is indicative of that: players are challenged to finish the game in under two hours. Ideally, it is better for players to aim for this achievement after they have finished one playthrough. This way, players have familiarized the layout of the game and can focus on the main story parts.
7 Max Payne Series
Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne games give players the ability to become the titular grizzled former New York detective and undercover cop as he seeks vengeance against those who murdered his wife and infant daughter. One of the modes in the games that players need to complete to get the games’ speedrun achievements is the dreaded New York Minute mode.
New York Minute tasks players to complete levels as quickly as possible. Players start with one minute in each level, and they can prolong this timer with every enemy they take out: one-shotting enemies or taking them out in close-quarters combat often adds more seconds to the timer. In Max Payne 3, completing New York Minute mode unlocks New York Minute Hardcore. This mode will kick the players back to the start of the game if they die at any point during levels. Suffice it to say, those who want to feel the pressure of completing each level as quickly as possible should give the New York Minute modes a try.
6 Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is the latest game about the manic marsupial and his escapades against all manner of timeline-related threats and bad guys. While Crash Bandicoot 4 is widely praised as an excellent platformer, its achievements are notorious for being hard to obtain.
As with previous Crash Bandicoot games, Time Relic challenges are back, and given that most levels are hard to complete regularly in Crash Bandicoot 4, the difficulty of completing these timed challenges can be brutal. Players have to beat the clock of each level to get the Faster Than Sound achievement: this entails multiple replays of levels until players are comfortable enough to try the Relic Run.
As with getting all the gems and the other difficult achievements, players who hunkered down and managed to complete this highly difficult trophy deserve recognition.
5 Ico
Ico is an action RPG that centers around the titular Ico, who is tasked to escort Yorda out of the castle. This is not an easy feat since each area within the castle walls is littered with multitudes of enemies and obstacles that are out to capture Yorda: players have to take note of which places are safe to leave Yorda so that Ico can deal with such dangers.
Now, imagine juggling all those things on top of ensuring that the game gets finished in under two hours. This requires players to have memorized the layout of the castle and the times when Yorda can be left alone so that the enemies can be dispatched and skip the cutscenes since these would add to the playtime. To say that speedrunning Ico is a challenge is putting it mildly. But while it might seem impossible, it can and has been done by only the most devoted players.
4 Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is considered to be one of the best modern Metroidvania titles in the last few years, thanks in large part to its amazing visual hand-drawn style and animations, precise controls, amazing combat and customization, immersive lore, and the surprisingly expansive world players can explore.
As players complete their first playthrough of Hollow Knight, they might notice the speedrun trophy on the achievement list. Players who are up to take the challenge will need to be at their A-Game if they want to stand a chance at finishing Hollow Knight in under five hours. This is an extremely difficult challenge since the game expects players to have mapped out where they will go and take out key main story bosses flawlessly without taking unnecessary detours.
3 Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight is a fun 2D action platformer that puts players in the shoes of the eponymous Shovel Knight in his adventures across gorgeous 8-bit landscapes. That said, each stage in Shovel Knight demands its players to be precise with their jumps and timing to complete said levels, but that is no easy feat since hazards are plentiful in the form of enemies, pitfalls, projectiles, and tough-as-nails bosses.
This is why the game’s speedrun achievement, Hurry Up!, is for players who have beaten the game and have mastered all the tricks the game can throw at them. Players have to start a new game and will need to complete it in under one hour and thirty minutes. Practicing each level is crucial to ensure players know which route is the fastest one to take: knowing where health pick-ups are also important since some areas need players to take a hit in order to progress that much faster and shave off precious seconds.
2 Uncharted Series
The Uncharted games are notorious for their speedrun achievements. Given that each title is chock-full of enemies that ramp up in difficulty the further players progress on top of complex puzzles, adding a time limit to complete each game is a tall task that only the hardiest of players and trophy hunters can take head-on.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception’s speedrun achievements also coincide with the Doughnut Drake achievement, where players have to complete the game using the Doughnut Drake skin. This adds some levity since watching a hefty Nathan Drake duke, dodge, and spelunk his way toward the end credits makes the speedrun challenges a bit more hilarious and bearable to take on.
1 Resident Evil 2, 3, 4, 7, 8
The recent Resident Evil games have breathed new life into the survival horror genre they popularized and have seemingly progressed for the better as far as gameplay is concerned. Blending survival horror with action gameplay made the experience more exciting and dynamic compared to its previous iterations.
Many Resident Evil games have a speedrun achievement that rewards players with Challenge Points that they can use to purchase and upgrade their existing weapons and equipment. While the timer still ramps up the difficulty of completing runs, giving players rewards apart from the achievement is a great incentive for players: they become more creative when it comes to clearing the game, often using in-game exploits or just plainly relying on their skills and knowledge of the levels and bosses to breeze through them and attain such amazing clear times.