Public Service Announcement: Collectibles are the devil
I believe we live in a world where it’s acceptable just finish a game and not 100% it. Phew: I’m glad that’s out there.
I don’t quite understand why certain developers feel the need to bloat their games with collectibles. Collectibles, as far as I’m concerned, can get in the f*cking sea. They put an unnecessary level of burden on the player and are quite literally the antithesis of fun.
Even the near-perfection of Uncharted is guilty of this: collecting treasures means that you either A. had to use a guide and have your head buried in YouTube videos rather than enjoying the game, or B. Wander aimlessly into otherwise pointless nooks and crannies instead of focussing on beautiful vistas or level design. Neither of which the developer would’ve desired.
As a grown-up gamer with a full-time job, my gaming time is precious and has to be channelled effectively. I still have games that were bought for me from Christmas 2015 that are sat in the cellophane wrap — sorry Batman: Arkham Knight and Borderlands: Handsome Collection (I will play you eventually…promise).
I begrudge any developer that thinks we gamers love hunting down nonsensical floating feathers (hiya, Assassin’s Creed 2) in order to get a more powerful weapon, which let’s be honest, at that point in the game, I’m unlikely to need.
Making games last longer-er
Collectibles are normally shoe-horned into a game to extend the longevity of titles. I, for one, couldn’t care less about extending the life of a game. By the time I see the credits rolling, I’m at a point where I feel that I’ve got everything I need from the game and I generally don’t want to hang about hoovering up the various nuggets for the sake of adding 1% to a completion total — Banjo Kazooie is the WORST example of this.
If the game is particularly good, I’ll spend a bit more time exploring the post-game content, but for narrative-driven experiences, I’m quite happy to wave a great game goodbye and move onto the next one.
The Zelda series for example, offers a plethora of side quests and a chunky main plot, but they all work in the same direction — pushing that story forward or giving me useful items that help with the overall quest. Yes, there are some ludicrously pointless collectibles in the late game, like the Skulltula Tokens rewarding you 200 rupees for each visit in OOT, but the first 50 tokens actually net you game-important rewards.
I managed to complete Pokemon X in a little over 30 hours. I say complete — I beat the Elite Four and Pokemon Champion, and explored some of the post-game content, but to be honest I only caught around 30 Pokemon and by no means fulfilled the game’s tagline to “catch ’em all”, but it turns out a level 82 Blastoise is enough to carry you through the final battles. That game took me nearly 3 years to complete.
Part of my flaw is that I pump way too much time into FIFA and PES. If I spent half the time I did on that game on others, I’d probably plough through way more games per year, but I just bloody love football games, and after all, the point of playing games is to have fun, right?
Out with the old (way)
Once upon a time (when I had waaaay more free time) I was a bit of a trophy whore. I have Platinum trophies on Assassin’s Creed 2, Fallout 3, and The Walking Dead. The latter was definitely the easiest as you basically had to just complete the game, but the former took their tool. Scouring the wastelands of Fallout 3 looking for bobbleheads, and levelling up to 20 with a character having both good and bad karma (thank-you save files) were time-consuming and ultimately pointless. I now have a picture of a shiny trophy with the number 3 next to it on my avatar and that’s that. It doesn’t mean anything really and it took me well over 100 hours to achieve.
Never again. I’m done with collecting stuff for stuff’s sake. From now on, I will plough through a game, enjoy the story along the way, and then moving on to the next one. I urge you to do the same. Games are cheap and plentiful these days, so 100%ing a game is near redundant.
Get out there and play more games and stop picking up intel documents because you’re told to. They add nothing. Let go of the 100% OCD in you. It’s liberating.
A quick side note on the ending of No Man’s Sky….*SPOILERS ahead*. Given that I’m never going to complete this game, I thought I’d see how it ended. As a quick caveat to this, I’d like to point out that I categorically NEVER spoil things for myself. I forbid my colleagues from talking about Making A Murderer whilst I was watching, I refuse to talk about The Walking Dead until I’m up to date and, most of all, I hate having game endings spoiled for me….but with No Man’s Sky, I didn’t give a single sh*t.
And boy am I glad I didn’t see it through. At the end of the game and after collecting 10 Atlas Stones and heading towards the centre of the galaxy, the camera pans out and sends you off to another galaxy — to start the experience all over again. You’ve crash-landed on a hostile planet, all of your equipment is broken (again) and you’ve got to get into the atmosphere. It’s one of the biggest “F*ck-yous” I have EVER witnessed in a game and I was visibly angry watching it. You too, can watch it here (if you dare).
