Earning
achievements is hard work. Of course there is the occasional
achievement that is exceptionally easy, or that you happen to get by
mistake. For instance imagine my surprise to find after accidentally
falling off a particularly high cliff that I had somehow managed to
earn the “Going Down” achievement. For the most
part though, achievements take time, patience, and sometimes large
amounts of money. There are those players that, as with all things,
claim that achievements are a waste of time and they of course have the
right to hold that opinion, but for many others achievements make the
game more interesting and enjoyable despite the hardships sometimes
involved in obtaining them.
One of the things that I find most difficult in seeking out
achievements to complete is digging through Blizzard’s
Achievement frame. When using it I always think to myself how great it
would be to search through the achievements based on a specific word,
or to be able to see those achievements that are only available after
others are completed. Imagine my surprise last month while reviewing
the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/reviews/addons/Underachiever"
target="_blank">Underachiever
addon to stumble across another addon that promised to do everything I
had dreamed of and so much more.
Mod
Name: Overachiever
Category:
Achievements
Author:
Tuhljin
Version
Reviewed: v0.53
Homepage:
href="http://wow.curseforge.com/addons/overachiever/"
target="_blank">Curse Forge
As mentioned above I came across Overachiever quite by accident. While
looking at my writing schedule for the month I mistakenly downloaded
Overachiever instead of Underachiever. I spent literally hours trying
to figure out why the mod I had just downloaded would fake achievements
like it was suppose to. Finally just before my head imploded I realized
that I had downloaded the wrong mod. After I got over my annoyance with
myself and downloaded and reviewed the correct mod, I decided instead
of uninstalling Overachiever I would check it out. It should also be
said that Overachiever and Underachiever work great together. While I
don’t condone the use of Underachiever, Overachiever
certainly makes the faking of mods much easier since you can easily
search out any mod you want.
At this point I had of course figured
out the basics of the mod, and was pretty well versed in all of its
frames and the options menu. However,
when I first installed it I had a little trouble tracking the mod down.
This is because Overachiever blends almost flawlessly into the Blizzard
achievement frames. Instead of opening its own window Overachiever
instead adds extra tabs (that look exactly like the preexisting tabs)
to your current achievement menu that allow the player to use its
various functions. Overachiever fits in so well that I honestly thought
that these “new” tabs had always been there and I
had simply never noticed them.
Once installed Overachiever adds three new tabs to your standard
achievement menu titled; Search, Suggestions, and Watch. The mod in
general is very straight forward and easy to understand and as such the
new tabs do exactly what their names imply. The Search tab gives
players the ability to search for any achievement in the game, even if
it is one of those pesky achievements that only shows up after another
is completed. Users don’t even need to know the name of the
achievement, as they can search for achievements based on any of the
following criteria: Name, Description, Criteria, Rewards, or all of
these at once.
The Suggestions and Watch tabs are just as straightforward while at the
same time providing useful features that the Blizzard achievement frame
is lacking. The Suggestions tab suggests achievements based on the
player’s current zone that can be completed. You can also
choose to override your current zone and type in one of your choosing.
The final tab, labeled Watch, allows players to form a comprehensive
list of achievements that they wish to complete.
These three extra
tabs made my achievement finding woes almost obsolete
and I would have been satisfied with just the added tabs, but
Overachiever goes even further. To make achievement seeking even
easier, Overachiever also adds information from progress bars and
normally hidden progress information, allows players to compare their
progress using chat links, and provides extra tooltip reminders to help
players complete achievements such as “To All The Squirrels
I’ve Loved Before”, “It’s Happy
Hour Somewhere”, and “Well Read”. See the
complete list of mod features for yourself by downloading it from, or
visiting the mod’s homepage listed above.
The Overachiever menu (which can be opened by typing /oa) is probably
one of the simplest options menus I have ever seen. Sporting just two
menu tabs Overachiever once again proves to be a very uncomplicated
mod. I don’t see this as a bad thing though, overly
complicated options menus are no fun at all. Overachiever has just
enough options to let players customize the mod to their personal
needs, without going overboard.
This mod is indeed an achievement lover’s dream come true. It
adds everything the standard Blizzard achievement menu was missing, and
does so in a way that every player can make use of it without spending
hours trying to figure out how to work it. Would I recommend this mod
to a friend? Without a doubt.
In fact since the day I downloaded it I
have been using Overachiever
and plan to continue to do so into the future. My one and only wish to
improve the mod would be to add the option to have separate Watch menus
for each of my toons. Currently the mod saves the Watch menu for your
entire account, so if you use it for more than one character it can
become rather lengthy and difficult to navigate. Hopefully we will see
this feature added in future updates. Even without it, this mod is
worth downloading for those who want a little more from their
achievement menu, I can almost guarantee it will live up to and exceed
your standards. If you use, or have used Overachiever feel free to join
us on our forums and share your experiences.
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