Steam achievements are getting a huge overhaul, with separate sets for DLC and season passes, and an easy way to compare with friends

3 hours ago 10

A detail from the Steam achievements page, and a Steam achievement icon

Valve has pushed a new update to its Steam client beta introducing big changes to how achievements work and how they're displayed. Developers can now create sets of achievements customized to their game, like mastering a specific character class or finishing a singleplayer campaign. Sets also distinguish base game achievements from separate DLC and seasonal sets.

Previously if you unlocked all achievements for a game you'd see a nice 'n' tidy 100% in your achievements list. But if that game got DLC with new achievements, that 100% would drop accordingly. I can understand why achievement heads would be annoyed by this: what if you have no intention of playing the DLC, but want to retain 100% completion bragging rights? This update fixes that, assuming devs use it.

It's a similar situation for seasonal achievements, which I can see working well with battle passes. The example Valve uses is a set called "Halloween Event Achievements" which are valid for a certain period and don't affect the achievement count of the base game. In other words: if you have the completionist itch but skip a season, it won't affect your base game stats.

All these changes have prompted a refresh of the achievements page. Most achievements info is now displayed on a single page: your progress towards overall completion, and your progress towards unlocking individual achievements.

A screenshot of Steam's UI showing the new achievements system

I especially like that you can now directly compare achievements with up to three friends at once, which is what's being displayed at the bottom of the above image. This has been a feature on PlayStation consoles for a while, and so has separate sets for DLC achievements. It's nice that Valve has caught up.

Naturally, not every game on Steam will have implemented this new system yet, but the following games have:

Against the Storm
Age of Wonders 4
American Truck Simulator
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
Crusader Kings III
DREDGE
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Forza Horizon 5
Flock Around
He is Coming
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
PowerWash Simulator
PowerWash Simulator 2
Team Fortress 2
Victoria 3

This system is still in beta, but you can sign up for the Client Beta or just wait: as we saw with Steam's new screensaver feature, betas normally only last around a month.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

Read Entire Article