The Open-World Games with the Most Memorable Collectibles

Collectibles used to be neat one-off items that either gave the player some much-needed points for a high score, or a handy power-up to stop enemies on the field. Now players need to collect multiple items just to earn enough XP to get one permanent upgrade, or they’re simple fluff pieces meant to expand the game’s lore a la the notorious audio logs.

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7 Games With Over One Thousand Collectibles

Finding every single collectible in these games may be a difficult task, but the bragging rights that come with it make every second worth it.

But developers have tried to spice them up in one way or another. Sometimes, they become key parts of an addictive minigame, offer unique easter eggs if every single item is picked up, or if they’re filler, they’re at least funny filler that, in one way or another, leaves an impression. For better or worse, these open-world games offered the most memorable collectibles.

8

Grand Theft Auto 4

Pigeons and Seagulls

It seems right to start with the most (in)famous open-world series, yet the GTA games aren’t so big on collectibles. That’s not to say they aren’t there; they just don’t stick out much. Special tokens, generic crates, red balloons, mechanical parts, etc. – the GTA Wiki counts stunt jumps and Kill Crazy/Rampage missions just to break the monotony.

But Grand Theft Auto 4 and its spin-offs The Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost and the Damned introduced cruelty to birds with its Flying Rats (i.e. pigeons) and Seagulls. To complete those games 100%, players must kill 200 pigeons (GTA 4) and 50 seagulls (for Gay Tony and LatD each) in any way possible. As grim as it sounds, it helped prove cruelty to animals was an awful waste of time by being a long and arduous task. Like in real life, it’s easier to just leave the birds alone.

7

Assassin’s Creed 2

Feathers

In contrast to GTA, nearly any and every Assassin’s Creed game could count on this list. Ubisoft’s premier open-world series is infamous for its collectibles, as its maps are littered with tons of different objects that must be collected for one purpose or another. It’s been testing ever since the first game, where Altaïr had to collect 420 flags, and now the likes of AC: Valhalla make that seem like child’s play.

But the first set of collectibles to twist the proverbial knife came in Assassin’s Creed 2. It was a vast improvement over the first game, so it became many players’ first taste of the series’ highs and lows. Having Ezio track down feathers to honor his younger brother’s memory is a sweet story high, but arguably a gameplay low. There are only 100 of them, but they’re tiny and can be tricky to spot across its giant maps.

6

Fallout 3

Bobbleheads

Shifting genres is always going to cause some fallout among the fans, which proved especially true for the Fallout games. After 2 RTS games and an aborted attempt at a 3rd, Fallout 3 became an open-world game under new developers and proved popular enough for its sequels to follow suit. For better (New Vegas) and for worse (Fallout 76 on launch).

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Still, roaming the wasteland in a first-person, open-world setting has its advantages. Players in FO3 and its sequels can track down cute bobbleheads based on Vault Boy. Aside from just looking neat, grabbing each one can provide little stat boosts. It’s not much, but they can be enough to tip the scales if the player needs more strength/intelligence/luck, etc.

5

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Backpacks

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September 7, 2018

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Spider-Man games have had a variety of different collectibles, whether it’s health/strength power-ups via Spider-tokens in the PS1 games or the wealth of skyscraper tokens, buoy tokens, and other kinds of tokens in the Spider-Man 2 movie game. Insomniac Games added to the fun in Marvel’s Spider-Man by introducing backpacks.

While swinging through Manhattan, Spidey can find his old backpacks webbed up in odd places. Each one contains a different item that gives the player some lore, from explaining how and why he had so many backpacks, to his past with Mary Jane, Aunt May, and more. They weren’t any different from other XP-granting collectibles, but they were a step up from being generic tokens.

4

Yakuza Kiwami

MesuKing Cards

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon games have a range of collectibles, though it’s hard to pinpoint which ones stand out over others. Weapons, armor, and equipable items don’t strictly count, no matter how charismatic the Charismatic Photo is. Likewise, the Revelations only counted as a collectible for Saejima in Yakuza 4, who made wood sculptures instead of blog posts.

They feel pedestrian next to the scantily clad bug women in Yakuza Kiwami. By scouring Kamurochō, players can find cards covered with these insect-based babes that’ll help them in YK1‘s MesuKing minigame. They could contain new moves to unleash on their opponents, or stronger bug girls to battle with. All would make the player wonder what they were doing with their lives.

3

Saints Row the Third

Blow-Up Dolls

Anyone put off by GTA 4’s dour tone and pigeon-killing got their kicks in Saints Row 2, which went in the other direction with its quirky characters and unadulterated mayhem. Alas, Saints Row the Third increased the crazy with quirky weapons and more but offered fewer reasons to cause chaos with fewer minigames, activities, and creative options.

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Grand Theft Auto has dominated the open-world space but there are quite a few things that Saints Row does better (& vice versa).

The collectibles were more standard too, as players just grabbed items lying out in the open instead of tagging buildings or getting music CDs. But they were at least interesting if that’s the right word to use. Pierce instructs the Boss to pick up blow-up dolls since they’re ‘collectibles’ for a ‘hobby’ of his. Grabbing one comes complete with sound effects too, which once heard can’t be unheard.

2

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Korok Seeds

Systems

Released

March 3, 2017

Developer(s)

Nintendo EPD

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

Technically, the Legend of Zelda games have been all about collecting items, albeit usually in the form of putting the Triforce back together. But each game has made people collect different items to either push the plot ahead (instruments in Link’s Awakening), add to gameplay (masks in Majora’s Mask), or to mock players, like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Its most notorious collectible items are the Korok Seeds. If players get enough of them, they can trade them with the happy shopkeep Hestu for more inventory space for weapons and the like. But what happens if players got all 900 seeds and gave them to the big Korok? Hestu would give them the warmest gift he could provide: a lump of dung that lets players watch him dance anytime. Great.

1

Batman: Arkham City

Riddler Trophies

• Developer: Rocksteady Studios.
• Platforms: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo Switch, OS X.
• Release: October 2011.

Collecting Riddler Trophies in the Batman: Arkham games has always been a test. They test the player’s memory, knowledge of the game, and patience. They debuted in the Metroidvania-like Batman: Arkham Asylum but took the cake in the murky open setting of Batman: Arkham City. There are 287 of them to track down (247 for Batman, 35 for Catwoman), either left out in the open or locked behind puzzles.

If players went trophy hunting right at the start of the game, they could earn enough XP from these neon-green question marks to get nearly every starting upgrade. As tiring as it is, it can help players unlock Critical Strikes and the Multi-Ground Takedown move way before they enter Joker’s Steel Mill. They’ll need to get all the trophies anyway to stop the Riddler, so they might as well make the most out of them.

More

5 Great Open-World Games That Have Too Many Collectibles

An over abundance of side content can sometimes make a game feel bloated, as evidenced by these fantastic open-world games with too many collectibles.