Ahaa, there it is. You're talking about being "emotionally involved," but if I'm 100% honest, it's incredibly rare for a game to get me to get me to that point, much less during gameplay. The part of TLOU you're talking about was definitely a rush, but only the first time. After that, I can appreciate the moment for its execution, but the attachment I felt the first time is gone. On the contrary, the lasting dramatic moments in that game, for me, all occur during traditional cutscenes. The only other game that ever really pulled me in on some other level in gameplay was Journey, and that's cheating because it was 4AM and I'm a sucker for synchronized music that gives power to the visuals.......and I lost my co-op traveler who was with me all the way until the end :'(
My point is that if I'm replaying a game, it's because I want to play around with the systems. I've never gotten "that feeling" again from subsequent playthroughs of a game. From that perspective, slow "cinematic" scripted moments pretty much waste my time after I've seen them once (some waste my time during the initial playthrough), and I'm left with the mechanics to give me the rush I want. That's why they're important to me despite Uncharted, as a series, being more than just one portion of its gameplay loop. That's why I mentally check out when a game abuses "Hold up to _______" moments. Games haven't matured enough for the drama in-gameplay to easily grab me yet. The titles that have, I can count on one hand.
Another part of it is I just enjoy the mechanical aspects of games a lot, and those shine in free form gameplay. There's only one way for you to walk through the desert with Drake, but I can restart shootout checkpoints and try all sorts of shenanigans.
For me it really is a question of emotional attachment, something the medium has gotten certainly better at in the last few years, ND in particular. Cutscenes don't really do it for me anymore, sure the whole
"Your not my daughter" moment.
punched a little but there were gameplay segments that hit me pretty hard, both in TLoU and UC3. Mechanically, yes, it is as simple as walking forward but every time I see that panning shot in Chapter 18 I am taken a back by the scale and the isolation. There are no specific mechanics that invoke emotion persay, just the context itself and the fact that I was involved. Same thing with the part where Drake falls down and has to be pushed back on to his feet, I wasn't reaching levels of "Greg Miller-esque heartbreaking" but I still felt emotionally invested, I wanted him to keep going.
TLoU also invoked a lot of emotion in gameplay from me.
Those damn giraffes...
I think the TLoU used those moments very rarely and very well. Had the ending been the only
"carry and run"
segment I think the overall experience would have lost that emotional punch. Having Joel essentially carry
two daughters in TLoU
bookends and strengthens my emotional pull towards the scene, not to mention how great the scene in question is,
especially the way the music swells over the over noise, etc.
I still want to see it go further but I am pretty happy with how the medium has evolved and matured in regards to actually bringing the emotion into the interactive portions(gameplay). We are different in regards to "those moments," when I put in Uncharted 3 I play Chapters 17-20. When I play TLoU, I play Fall and Spring
(and I kill every single one of those fucking doctors too, every time.)
No matter how many times I go through those moments I still find them impactful, then again, I also always get a little watery eyed when I see the brachiosaurus scene in Jurassic Park too, now matter the number viewed.
Most recently it was Brothers. Sure, from a story perspective there were moments that were supposed to be sad but I didn't really get emotional until you had to
swim as the younger brother using the older brothers interact button.
There were some watery eyes at that moment.
Oh, and Net, I feel you when it comes to Journey. Bring it in, bro.
My co-op buddy came back for me at the end. I lost it at that point.
My Wishlist for U4 is:
+More open environments
+More Puzzles
+Less and Smarter enemies
+A decent final boss battle (i like how U2 did it and U3 and i think it would be cool if they could mix both combat, shooting and maybe QTE during a final fight)
+More mature themes...
+but keep characters as they are.
Honestly U4 could be an exact copy of U3 with a new story and characters and better graphics and i would still buy it day 1.
The next time they add supernatural enemies, I want them to be much more fun to play against. I feel like the games are superior gaming experiences right up until they introduce the new enemies they have been building up to. Then it just nosedives.
