I'm a real sucker for getting 100% in games, so any time there are collectibles, I want to make sure I get every last one. The trouble is, while most games give you a counter of how MANY you've collected, most don't tell you WHICH ones you've collected. So when you've got 99/100, that last bloody one could still be anywhere.
Even if you give in and decide to use a guide, unless you've been keeping track you don't know which of the 100 collectibles you're missing, so you have to check every one, with the added difficulty that you don't know if not finding it means that you've collected that one already or you're just looking in the wrong place.
That's why whenever I play a game with collectibles I plan on getting, I use a guide from the start, tick off each one as I go, so that I don't end up missing any, which I will be the first to concede is a lot less fun that discovering them myself, but is still more fun than getting stuck on 99/100 and knowing it could be absolutely anywhere.
I wish more games helped you out with this. Some games do and the following are very helpful:
1) A list of collectibles where each one is uniquely identified, like Figments in Psychonauts. So You know it's #37 that you're missing and if you decide to, you can use a guide to locate it.
2) Hints to where to look, like the heart containers in Zelda:TP. You at least have some idea where to look.
3) Counts for individual areas, like in the Jak & Daxter games. At least that way you have a more limited area to search, rather than the whole world.
4) In game help to make the last few easier, like in Ratchet and Clank, where late in the game you can buy a secrets map that will show you where to find the giant bolts. Or some kind of secret detecting radar that you can use to point yourself in the right direction.
In all of these cases I either didn't use a guide at all, or collected as many as I could find and then used a guide for the last few, which made the process a lot more fun.
Do you think more games should have collectibles that work like this?
Even if you give in and decide to use a guide, unless you've been keeping track you don't know which of the 100 collectibles you're missing, so you have to check every one, with the added difficulty that you don't know if not finding it means that you've collected that one already or you're just looking in the wrong place.
That's why whenever I play a game with collectibles I plan on getting, I use a guide from the start, tick off each one as I go, so that I don't end up missing any, which I will be the first to concede is a lot less fun that discovering them myself, but is still more fun than getting stuck on 99/100 and knowing it could be absolutely anywhere.
I wish more games helped you out with this. Some games do and the following are very helpful:
1) A list of collectibles where each one is uniquely identified, like Figments in Psychonauts. So You know it's #37 that you're missing and if you decide to, you can use a guide to locate it.
2) Hints to where to look, like the heart containers in Zelda:TP. You at least have some idea where to look.
3) Counts for individual areas, like in the Jak & Daxter games. At least that way you have a more limited area to search, rather than the whole world.
4) In game help to make the last few easier, like in Ratchet and Clank, where late in the game you can buy a secrets map that will show you where to find the giant bolts. Or some kind of secret detecting radar that you can use to point yourself in the right direction.
In all of these cases I either didn't use a guide at all, or collected as many as I could find and then used a guide for the last few, which made the process a lot more fun.
Do you think more games should have collectibles that work like this?
