Collectibles in Video Games

Collectibles have an interesting evolution throughout gaming, an evolution I'm pulling straight out of my ass and assuming. Easter eggs began in games as early as Adventure on the Atari 1600, and from then, people always wanted shit for people to find. Now, power-ups are also something that started at some point and probably also had some affect on the state of collectibles today, but I can't be buggered to do any research about them because this is a silly blog post I'm writing at work to kill time. And I just got all the collectibles in Saints Row IV yesterday night (great game read the review here).

BUT anyways, I imagine at some point an easter-egg guy and a power-up guy got compressed together into one gaming concept: the collectible. When did this happen? Well, uhm, sometime, uhh, around the, uhh, sega... playstation... nintendo... microsoft... colecovision era. You know. Sometimes they're there for fun, sometimes they're there for stat boosts, and sometimes they're then main focus of the game. But there are ways to do collectibles right, and there are ways to do them wrong. So lemme tell you what is right and wrong.

Case 1: Banjo Kazooie/Spyro the Dragon (EARLY PS1 era Spyro, none of this wishy washy Skylanders bullshit, whatever it is)

Make a hub-based adventure game where you go around and collect a bunch of small things in a level and collect less larger things in the same level where the larger things are more important and ultimately the goal of the game. Now, I've only played like 20 minutes of Banjo Kazooie in like 2010, so whether any of this is accurate to the game I'm just assuming because fuck you, I was a Sony kid. But I loved Spyro. I loved getting everything I could in each level, as I am a perfectionist. It was excellent. The collectibles were very liberally spread out, some of the larger, more plot relevant ones were quite rewarding, like the skateboarding one, or were more bullshit, like boxing. This type of collectible in a  game, when well executed, can result in a masterpiece, like PS1 Spyro games. When executed poorly, it can result in, well, Enter the Dragonfly.

Case 2: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare/World at War
You get collectibles (intel/death cards) in the campaign, and they alter gameplay when you replay the campaign. Well, if you're playing World at War, it affects the co op campaign. But only if it's online. Splitscreen death  cards is asking a bit too much. BUT, regardless, I think this works pretty well. I played through the campaign of CoD4 many a time, and many times I fiddled around with the cheats. Ragtime Warfare, or infinite grenade launchers was always a blast, and the very few times I've played co op with paintball mode, or with rocks has been a fun time. Collectibles affecting gameplay of linear games, thumbs up from me.

Case 3: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Modern Warfare 3
This encompasses the three Call of Duty games, the last three I fully played, MW2, Black Ops, and MW3. This has intel scattered out throughout the campaign. ... And that's it. Really, that's it. You find the intel for the sole reason of... Perfectionism? Because you want the achievements tied to it? That's the only reason I got intel in those games, it was my only incentive! It was really just kind of an after thought, or an addition because, well, the previous games had them in it! And we just wanted a shred of replayability. Now, some people may enjoy finding intel, but no, this kind is not for me. It's just kind of a waste.

Did you want a reason to replay any given level? Now you do!

Case 4: Bully: Scholarship Edition
There are 75 collectibles, in the forms of rubber bands, scattered throughout the open world map of Bullworth. Upon collecting all 75, you're granted with an achievement as well as the rubber band ball weapon, a ball that you throw and bounces around for a while until settling. This is a pretty fun item, and to my recollection, pretty powerful. It's a solid reward for your exploration. Although the exploration is kind of undermined, as the rubber bands are all just indicated on the map. I actually kinda like this, they knew that people would just look up a map online anyways, so why not just give it to them? If it was possible to temporarily remove them from the map, that would be nice, but I really dig the execution.

Case 5: Crackdown

This is actually a lot similar to the Spyro/Banjo Kazooie type of having a bunch scattered around to pick up. The only difference is that now it's an open world city and you're a SUPER SOLDIER. And I'm only gonna talk about Crackdown 1, as Crackdown 2 is Crackdown 1 where everything is stupid and also your dog's dead. Crackdown, to my knowledge, has 500 agility orbs, 250 or 300 secret hidden orbs, and 50 or so stunt jumps. Almost all the jumps are in awkward positions making the attempt to get them all the more fun. The secret orbs are pretty spread out, but I don't think I ever found more than 100. The agility orbs, on the other hand, are plentiful and beautiful. From atop a building, one could see dozens of agility orbs ready to be collected. They're fun to get, AND they serve to improve your agility level, allowing you to run faster, jump higher. This MAKES the game. Crackdown is a game made entirely by its prevalence of collectibles, and it may very well be good enough to make my next top-games list.

Case 6: Saints Row IV/Assassins Creed something
Now, I've only ever heard of the manner of Assassin's Creed collectibles for one of the games, maybe Brotherhood, maybe Revelations, but I remember hearing that you collect a certain amount of feathers or something, maybe 50% or 75%, and the rest will just appear on the map. Similarly, after completing a side mission in Saints Row IV, you unlock a collectible finder to display any pick-ups on the map. I like the idea that progression shows any collectibles, or that by finding a certain amount exposes the rest. Also, Saints Row has them integral to gameplay and even story, as contrived as it is. But I'll let it slide for how camp the game itself is.

Yes, I got all of these because this game is awesome. And hell, this guy already got 300 of em.

Case 7: Grand Theft Auto IV
200 pigeons scattered around the city to shoot which may also give you a wanted level. Fuck you.

I hope you've all learned a great deal from this and about my interests in games. Having collectibles be very prevalent and drive gameplay? Excellent, awesome, do it. Having them be displayed in the game, if it's a sandbox game and there are a bunch to collect? I like it. They know I'm gonna either look it up anyways or just not bother. Having a few to unlock secrets or unlockables, essentially easter eggs? I can enjoy those as well. Having a few because your game feels obliged to have them? A waste of my time that the developers know and use only to artificially increase replayability. Collectibles should be fun and rewarding, not a chore.