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[Toni]

It has by far, the best gameplay of the series. Although I will agree with the majority that, the game takes a bit long to start off and the set pieces aren't a big thing here like UC2 and UC3... But the game is still 98.9% better than that's out there right now and the best single player campaign released this year so far.

People forget that there's still Single Player DLC coming out soon for the game. And Naughty Dog's DLCs have always been so good.

I'm personally holding out for that to come to a verdict on what Uncharted 4 ultimately was at the end. But so far, I hella enjoyed it.

 

[Brutalitops]

I absolutely loved it when I played it.

But now I barely think about, the game wasn't memorable at all. When I think back, I think Sam was a disappointing character and the plot and set pieces were quite a let down.

Looked pretty tho

 

[Domaje]

Game is terribly paced

Was my first Uncharted and i hated it.

I thought it was pretty boring

there is no way i'm replaying Uncharted 4

I was bored through most of the game. Horribly paced.

the game is mediocre.

Game bored me to death. The pacing was absolutey atrocious.

 

[Chronospherics]

Loved it personally, and there were plenty of sequences that will stay with me as long as UC2s. I think I found the games sequences to be more impactful because they were a little more grounded.

 

[The Last One]

It's the best Uncharted IMO. TLoU is still ND's best game though.

 

[Bishop89]

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

...and I feel a bit sad about it. Since I only played Uncharted 1 back in 2007, last month I decided to play the whole saga now that Uncharted 4 is already out.

I had a blast with the first three titles, and more specifically with Uncharted 2 and 3. I liked the platform and climbing stages, I liked the action, TPS and combat mechanics, I liked the story and characters, but what made me feel completely amazed and loved the saga instantly were those Hollywood-style, jaw-drooping moments such as the helicopter fight and train wreck from U2, or the cargo plane and sinking ship chapters in U3.

When I started Uncharted 4, I was really excited about finding and being able to live new unforgetable scenes like those present in the previous games. All the elements were there: amazing graphics, improved TPS and CQC mechanics and a really interesting plot from the very beginning. However, here I am, right after finishing the game, and I cannot help but feel dissapointed about it. Dont take me wrong: I think this fourth installment of the series is an amazing title, both in technical and playable terms, and one of the games of this generation so far, but I have the feeling that in the future, once I try to remember epic moments from this saga, only U2 and U3 will come into my mind.

There are some exciting moments, such as that car chase in Madagascar, but nothing to the level of those epic moments of U2 or U3 in my opinion. I also missed some of the action and non-stop, freneting shooting sections that were so well-executed in U2 and U3, and there were way too much focus in developing rhe story and characters, as well as in climbing and exploration.

I know that some people prefer this "slower" and story-focused approach to the game, but does anyone share my thoughts?

There weren't as many standout set pieces in 4 compared to 2 and 3, however the madagascar chase is better than the best of 2 & 3 combined.


Also the end chapters when you first get to the pirate ship graveyard was memorable as hell for me. Even though not a set piece per se', it felt like a hollywood action scene.

There was also the truck chase near the end too

 

[DerZuhälter]

My personal biggest disappointment so far this gen.
The change of tone was completely unnecessary. Yeah maturing is great and all, but dumb fun is nice to have, too.

The climbing sections were also just too much. It feels like a roadblock to let the characters breathe a little, but it feels frustrating as a player, because those section offer no challange at all and are just no fun at all. Pushing carts left and right, navigating the enviroment, I honestly preferred the more linear but more bombastic approach of U2:AT. While it slowed down the pace also at certain sections, I felt it had no problem throwing masses of enemies at you. I feel Uncharted 4 is scared of doing exactly that, maybe because of the big ol' ludonarrative dissonance / Drake is a mass murderer claims.

Also: The stealth elements were honestly quite crude, compared to a MGS V.

I felt like Uncharted 4 felt like a muddled experience and being tugged thematically and storywise in one direction, but having it's roots and core pulling in a different direction.

 

[Chronospherics]

The gap between the critics' scores and reader scores says a lot.

Same gap between its user and critics scores as games like Halo 3, and Gears of War 3.

Tends to happen with platform exclusives, some salty sausages get mad that the game didn't launch on their platform, and give a game they haven't played a 1/10.

It also tends to happen with sequels, as people always have a great deal that they expect to be there, but many changes don't deliver on those expectations. Not because the game is better or worse, but different, usually.

Either way I think your clutching at straws suggesting the disparity between its user reception and critical reception is in some way meaningful here. At least not more so than it is on other major titles (like the examples I provided).

This thread, seems to have drawn out a lot of people that dislike UC4. I can understand why, it's a very different game, both from its predecessors and from what the previous series entries offered, but I don't think the frequency opinions expressed here are consistent with the majority that have played the game.

 

[CrayToes]

It's a very good game but it really doesn't touch UC2 & TLOU for me. I don't mind the tone shift but it's just not executed very well.

The game doesn't justify being so heavily story-driven outside of a few great character moments. Every second of TLOU was utterly fascinating, even when it had slowed to a crawl.

The game's real sin for me, though, is the lack of truly memorable combat encounters. The simplistic stealth and boring arenas left it feeling quite by the numbers.

 

[Raylan]

Best Uncharted game imho. And a worthy ending to the series/franchise.

Sorry that you feel dissapointed. Can't please everybody, as it seems.

The gap between the critics' scores and reader scores says a lot.

lol.... reader scores mean absolutely nothing. It's just fanboy nonsense most of the time.

 

[Toni]

Tell us how you really feel.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

whatthefuckamireading.gif

no cut scene or repeitive in game cut scenes in the way nearly as much. uc2 is a train wreck on replays

 

[Teknoman]

The only thing I miss is the supernatural twist. Even U3 had one...unfortunately it was a hallucinogen, but still.

 

[martino]

Following the tlou route (already a pain in the ass to play for me) they put it at a state where i can't force me to get to the next cutscene (maybe the story is also less motivative than with tlou). I wonder if i will finish the last chapters someday.

 

[Chronospherics]

I can understand why people didn't like it, but I find it harder to understand how people can claim it as a bad game. I get it if you don't find it appealing, and while I'm not saying you're wrong, I just finding it hard to comprehend as to how what this game tried to achieve can be evaluated as 'bad' overall.

You don't like climbing segments because they aren't challenging? That's fine, but they also severe exploratory, traversal and narrative purposes. If anything they pace the narrative in a way that isn't underpinned by a gunfight every five minutes. How is that possibly worse than something like Uncharted 2, where bad guys crawl out of the environment after every sequence.

It seems most of what people dislike is based upon their preconceptions. People don't like the slower pacing because they want to be engaged in more action sequences, shooting more people, etc. but what replaced those sequences isn't 'bad', it has its own merits, even if they don't align with everyone's preferences.

I think, the users expectation is that you should be engaged by some sort of action sequence or gunfight every five minutes is exactly what makes it so difficult to tell a good narrative with this type of game, and Naughty Dog's uncompromising focus on telling it's story, above placing focus on its action orientated gameplay, is what allowed the game to feature one of the most well conveyed narratives ever integrated into a video game.

For that, I feel that the game achieved what it set out to do, maybe its intentions didn't align with what you wanted, I get that, but I don't think the game mistepped in accomplishing its goal. If anything, it's just a shame that this uncompromising narrative driven cinematic gameplay didn't feature in a game with a more interesting narrative. Nathan is a great character, and Uncharted has always been a series I've enjoyed, but it's quite similar to Indiana Jones or Star Wars in the way that while entertaining, and brilliantly conveyed, the narrative isn't exactly moving or revolutionary when isolated as a component part.

 

[TEH-CJ]

Completely mediocre game. So many bone head game design decisions in this game it boggles my mind. Needs to be a directors cut version for this game to be even remotely enjoyable.

The graphics are overrated too. Outside from the cutscenes and certain levels, the game had overblown lighting, muddy textures, poor gamma levels and some of the dialogue animations are something out of a horror movie.

 

[Bishop89]

Completely mediocre game. So many bone head game design decisions in this game it boggles my mind. Needs to be a directors cut version for this game to be even remotely enjoyable.

The graphics are overrated too. Outside from the cutscenes and certain levels, the game had overblown lighting, muddy textures, poor gamma levels and some of the dialogue animations are something out of a horror movie.

 

[MrRudiMentary]

It's my favourite Uncharted game in that it's the only one where the few set pieces weren't the only exciting parts of the game. The gameplay in this game was far more exciting because of the rope and the hit and run stealth, and it had far more restraint than the other games when it came to combat sections. It's obvious that Drake killed half as many people in this game than he did in the others.

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

Is uncharted a walking simulation?

 

[The perfect Dark]

Worst Uncharted game with terrible pacing and a boring story.

 

[-Amon-]

A beautiful game, production values and attention to detail are it's major strenghts.

If you see it like a "standalone game" ( considering itself for what it is, not expecting it to be like it's predecessors ) i can't really find any major flaws in it.

If you must judge it like part of the uncharted IP, then some problems could arise.

There is less action, more walking and narrative ( cutscenes and active, and for active i mean conversation while outside of combat )

For some reasons i feel there are less memorable moments in UC4, gameplay wise.

I missed a lot the melee system of the past Uncharteds, 3 in particular was perfect and i missed it a lot in my playtroughs.

So, in the end. if we see UC4 as an uncharted game, probably UC2 is a better uncharted game than 4. ( But it does not mean that UC4 is a bad game, it means only that the best game of the last generation, in my opinion at last, is better. )

 

[TVexperto]

You're not the only. The only memorable thing for me where the fight scenes with Nadine, those were beautifully crafted.

those were amazing - first time I felt like i was playing a next generation game

 

[-Amon-]

Is uncharted a walking simulation?

Well, we could think of UC4 as a trekking simulator, for some parts of it, at least.

 

[leng jai]

It's kinda crazy how they spent so much effort in improving the shooting mechanics when they game has significantly less combat than the others. If only UC2 had these controls...

 

[YankeeDonB]

those were amazing - first time I felt like i was playing a next generation game

Maybe it's not fair to critique melee controls in a TPS, but for me those fights just highlighted how shallow the hand-to-hand was. Those scenes genuinely felt more like cutscenes to me than action gameplay.

One melee button, no interesting timing element, animation is selected by the game for you, really only one way for the fights to go.

 

[Skulldead]

My only problem was how much the exploration was fun... the artifact hunting was a little boring... and not that rewarding.

Other then that the pacing was nice and refreshing. I love the fact that each of the gun encounter feel unique.

 

[Theslammer]

UC4 had the best combat. A lot of those open spaces with places to grapple had some really incredible combat moments.

I think some people underestimate many of the set pieces in this game because they're more spread out in a longer game. The Ch. 11 set piece, for example, is one of the best in the series. The collapsing building in around 14 or 15 is pretty fantastic, as well as the "Crash Bandicoot" one near the end of the game. They're impeccably crafted.

 

[Mech.E. Risarovi]

I can understand why you fans maybe are a bit dissapointed. I play the first three games for the first time with de Nathan Drake Collection, after playing TLoU also in PS4.

I have always wanted to play Uncharted games; I did not have a PS3, and it was tough not to have the chance to play them.

I liked them, but they were not as perfect as I have imagined. Although I loved them anyway, TLoU is a really superior game.


Uncharted 4 is more TLoU than Uncharted, and that's why I love it. The pace seems really great for me.

It's true, there are no action scenes as memorable as were in the other games, but only the Prologue and the Epilogue cover that lack.

Besides, the Jeep chase... it is pretty memorable.

 

[KageMaru]

While I loved Uncharted 4, I get where you're coming from OP. My only major complaints are some pacing issues and the horrible final boss fight. I'm firmly convinced that Naughty Dogs can't make a good final boss fight if their lives depended on it. It was trash in every Uncharted game where the spectacle matters more than the mechanics.

 

[OfTheOverflow]

I'm still deciding what I think of it overall, but ti think it's a great game all up. Pacing is great imo but it's slow for the first hour or so. Scotland is also a bit of a drag.

 

[Oni Jazar]

I enjoyed the game but I am upset that the best set piece was shown at E3 last year.

 

[KageMaru]

So people should determine how they feel about a game based on review scores?

There weren't as many standout set pieces in 4 compared to 2 and 3, however the madagascar chase is better than the best of 2 & 3 combined.


Also the end chapters when you first get to the pirate ship graveyard was memorable as hell for me. Even though not a set piece per se', it felt like a hollywood action scene.

There was also the truck chase near the end too

Absolutely loved the ship graveyard level. Took so many screenshots at the end of the game.

 

[Alienous]

I was telling people in the early spoiler thread that it's gonna disappoint alot of people because of its strong influences from TLOU.

Druckmann is inferior to Hennig when it comes to making an Uncharted game. Too much TLOU Kool Aid.

I recall your opinion being one of the first dissenting ones regarding Uncharted 4. At the time I assumed it was because you were more focused on the multiplayer, but now, having played the game, I think a lot of a complaints agree.

 

[Aerogamer]

I thought it was the best of the series. The gameplay was vastly improved, and the technical aspects are second to none. I also thought the set pieces were great. The escape from Scotland, clock tower, car chase, and Libertalia tower were all memorable for me. I thought that the other games had way to much shooting, I did not feel as if I was on an adventure, just that it was a change of background and new targets to shoot. This game I felt as if I was actually on the adventure. I like the series, and for me 4 is GOTY as of now.

 

[Oneself]

People forget that there's still Single Player DLC coming out soon for the game. And Naughty Dog's DLCs have always been so good.

You mean, Left Behind was good. ND's single player DLC so far is Great out of 1.

 

[Alfredo_V]

U4 is an achievement in so many ways, great level design and extremely detailed. I enjoyed it but i must admit I was kinda bored with it. The climbing parts was not fun and you could do it blindfolded.

 

[UrbanRats]

Also the end chapters when you first get to the pirate ship graveyard was memorable as hell for me. Even though not a set piece per se', it felt like a hollywood action scene.

There was also the truck chase near the end too

The problem is, you posted one of like 3 impressive firefights in 15/18 hours of gameplay.

And i'm sorry, but the rest isn't compelling enough to carry the game, like it was in Last of Us.
Reason why so many of us were mostly bored with it.

 

[GrayFoxBH]

The game had more short set pieces. I missed the big ones like Madgascar jeep chase.

 

[UrbanRats]

I was telling people in the early spoiler thread that it's gonna disappoint alot of people because of its strong influences from TLOU.

Druckmann is inferior to Hennig when it comes to making an Uncharted game. Too much TLOU Kool Aid.

You definitely feel them trying to pull LoU influences, maybe subconsciously, maybe because that's what they interpret as "mature" (very debatable stance, but alas).
Point is, the characters and world of Uncharted can't sustain that tone and introspection, and you end up with a whole lot of shallow climbing and exploring pirate cities that are really not that compelling, story-wise, with characters that were born to be somewhat bidimensional, trying to carry more weight than they could .

 

[Dangansona]

There weren't as many standout set pieces in 4 compared to 2 and 3, however the madagascar chase is better than the best of 2 & 3 combined.


Also the end chapters when you first get to the pirate ship graveyard was memorable as hell for me. Even though not a set piece per se', it felt like a hollywood action scene.

There was also the truck chase near the end too

I can understand why people didn't like it, but I find it harder to understand how people can claim it as a bad game. I get it if you don't find it appealing, and while I'm not saying you're wrong, I just finding it hard to comprehend as to how what this game tried to achieve can be evaluated as 'bad' overall.

You don't like climbing segments because they aren't challenging? That's fine, but they also severe exploratory, traversal and narrative purposes. If anything they pace the narrative in a way that isn't underpinned by a gunfight every five minutes. How is that possibly worse than something like Uncharted 2, where bad guys crawl out of the environment after every sequence.

It seems most of what people dislike is based upon their preconceptions. People don't like the slower pacing because they want to be engaged in more action sequences, shooting more people, etc. but what replaced those sequences isn't 'bad', it has its own merits, even if they don't align with everyone's preferences.

I think, the users expectation is that you should be engaged by some sort of action sequence or gunfight every five minutes is exactly what makes it so difficult to tell a good narrative with this type of game, and Naughty Dog's uncompromising focus on telling it's story, above placing focus on its action orientated gameplay, is what allowed the game to feature one of the most well conveyed narratives ever integrated into a video game.

For that, I feel that the game achieved what it set out to do, maybe its intentions didn't align with what you wanted, I get that, but I don't think the game mistepped in accomplishing its goal. If anything, it's just a shame that this uncompromising narrative driven cinematic gameplay didn't feature in a game with a more interesting narrative. Nathan is a great character, and Uncharted has always been a series I've enjoyed, but it's quite similar to Indiana Jones or Star Wars in the way that while entertaining, and brilliantly conveyed, the narrative isn't exactly moving or revolutionary when isolated as a component part.

Agreed with both of these posts. Everytime I read these threads I get the impression that people had some kind of set piece and gunfight quota that they were expecting the game to fill and when it didn't it became mediocre and dissapointing. I very much enjoyed the set pieces and the gun fights were the best of the series because they encouraged movement even more than the previous Uncharted games did.

Maybe if the game was shorter there would be less complaints? The longer game meant more exploration (which was a great choice and yall are crazy).

 

[Birgitte2004]

As someone who absolutely despises Uncharted 3 and thinks 2 is up there with the best games of all time, I put this one slightly behind 2, but definitely way above 1 and 3.

I didn't like Sam, but the places where it was Nate + Elena are probably my favorite scenes in the entire series, so it balanced out a lot.

FWIW people talking about how the set pieces aren't "memorable", I can't think of any set piece in the entire series outside of the train segment of Uncharted 2 anymore, so apparently I don't consider them memorable in other games, either.

 

[Domaje]

Tell us how you really feel.

So people should determine how they feel about a game based on review scores?

No, I just found funny the huge discrepancy between Uncharted 4 review scores and the gameplay impression of some players. Another proof that an high review score doesn't mean that much.

 

[semiconscious]

You mean, Left Behind was good. ND's single player DLC so far is Great out of 1.

yeah, saw that one, too. sometimes the naughty dog enthusiasm just kinda boils over the top ...

 

[KageMaru]

No, I just found funny the huge discrepancy between Uncharted 4 review scores and the gameplay impression of some players. Another proof that an high review score doesn't mean that much.

Oh OK, yeah in that sense I agree.

 

[Gbraga]

Very disappointed with it as well. The combat is possibly the best combat in any TPS, imo, but the game overall was just boring. It made me appreciate Uncharted 3 more, to be quite honest. At least it still feels like Uncharted.

The great parts of Uncharted 4 are the best in the series, but they constitute like 30~40% of the game. Terrible, terrible pacing. They sacrificed gameplay to focus on the story, but frankly, it wasn't that good of a story.

The "treasure story" was amazing, but the character-driven part was kind of terrible. Sam sucks, Nadine sucks, Rafe was fun though. The characters we do love and wanted to see more of in the final installment don't get nearly as much screentime as they should (and those are the most fun parts of the game, imo), instead they decide to go more in depth with characters that, frankly, just aren't deep at all, nor they should be. Uncharted is pulpy action, they just react to the shit that goes down in a fun way. When Nate seems so bored while all of the amazing shit is going on, it kinda rubs onto the player, and I got a bit bored as well.

The exploration was also quite terrible, to me. They give you huge empty spaces with nothing. The meaningless collectible treasure was always like this, sure, but it took way less time to explore the environments in the previous games. Now there are tons of huge boxes of nothing. Way too little relevant side-content. The "lore notes" are interesting, but take some time to get interesting, and start to get better after the huge open parts, so even that doesn't help as much in those open areas. The Last of Us did it a lot better, because not only you had amazing optional dialogue and notes to look forward to, but exploration also directly tied into the gameplay because you were looking for materials to craft shit for combat and more exploration (like shivs). Here you get Sam making dumb jokes about piles of rocks, woohooo.

Again, the good parts are so damn good that it's hard for me to say that I don't like this game, but at the same time that I say it's a great game, I kind of hate it, you know?

The Last of Us is still my favorite ND game by a mile, btw, before someone tries to put my disappointment as a lack of capacity to appreciate slower paced and story-driven games, it's not only my favorite ND game, it was my GOTY 2013 and definitely one of the best games I've ever played. And it had a lot more combat than Uncharted 4, when you compare the pacing.

I didn't want to rank the series with only one playthrough of 4, but since I'm not sure I'll ever be able to endure another (again, did several with The Last of Us and can't wait for the next, since it's always used as a shield to what I consider to be design flaws in Uncharted 4), I guess I rank them as 1 ≥ 2 > 3 > 4. Golden Abyss was a mistake, it's nothing but trash.

EDIT: Completely disagree about the setpieces, though, I thought they were AWESOME, and very well paced. I only missed more "mini-setpieces" during combat. You know, those more creative encounters that Uncharted 2 excels at? We have one of them in Scotland, in our way to meet Sully, we have the elevator one, those are the kind of encounters that really make Uncharted 2's encounter design so brilliant, and I wish there were more of them. But the usual spectacle setpiece I was very happy with. Uncharted 3 had way too many of them, I found them perfect here.

And the multiplayer seems fun as hell, but I'm not paying for Plus, so when this free month I'm using now is over, that's it for me, unfortunately. The combat in this game is brilliant, and the multiplayer uses it to its full potential.

Still think I prefer The Last of Us' multiplayer, though.

I was telling people in the early spoiler thread that it's gonna disappoint alot of people because of its strong influences from TLOU.

Druckmann is inferior to Hennig when it comes to making an Uncharted game. Too much TLOU Kool Aid.

I really hope you're right, because that would mean Druckamnn isn't a one hit wonder, and as long as he doesn't try to do anything like Uncharted again, we can expect more masterpieces.

 

[Hupsel]

Disappointed as well. The best part by far for me was the E3 chase scene. The climbing elements were terrible imo. Same for the combat.

 

[randomengine]

I was disappointed by Uncharted 4 as well.

Once you got the story out of the way, which was the defining element of the game, it was just the same gameplay elements over and over again with little variation. It felt like Bioshock Infinite in the sense that only added a few new elements to the game and felt 2/3rds finished.

There were very few memorable set pieces, unlike the previous games. If you just take the game on it's gameplay elements, it was pretty bland.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I can agree OP. Overall I enjoyed the game, but I have a hard time putting it up there with Uncharted 2. I think a lot of it comes down to what feels like padding. Just about every traversal section felt twice as long as it needed to be and I was getting bored. The Madagascar cliffs part when you first crash on the island bored me enough to put the game down for like 2 weeks. I was also getting extremely tired of the "Oh we found the thing, but it's just another clue to another clue of another clue.." structure even if I guess it's been that way in previous games as well.

There's lots to like about the game though. The characters are all great. The acting is all great. There were definitely a few standout pieces like the jeep/tank chase and the prison break. Plus of course the gorgeous graphics. I was pretty satisfied by the ending too. I just kind of wish the game had cut a lot of the fat and maybe added some extra spice (set pieces) here and there.

 

[Birgitte2004]

No, I just found funny the huge discrepancy between Uncharted 4 review scores and the gameplay impression of some players. Another proof that an high review score doesn't mean that much.

There will _never_ be a game where there isn't a huge discrepancy between review scores and the gameplay impression of some players.

As a result, that's totally irrelevant to whether or not review scores mean something.

I guarantee you you can't name a game which doesn't have some people out there going "WTF, most over(under)rated game of all time!"

 

[tiredheadcrab]

I felt like there was too much set up in the beginning. Playing as Drake when he is a kid was a bit boring. Too much climbing and I didnt feel the need to care. Then came the prison and that was again more setup for the Avery story. Finally we get to the present and its just what Drake is doing in his daily life and to be honest, I couldnt care. Sam felt a bit tacked onto the plot. I did enjoy the interactions and the combat was much better. I got tired of the climbing and it became predictable when a ledge or something was going to break or bend.

Overall the game ran on for a bit longer than I would have liked and I never felt like the stakes were very high. While TLOU is like in the top 10 of the best games ive ever played, I felt like they tried to take too much of that game and blend it with Uncharteds formula. It doesnt work that well.