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[rtcn63]

I prefer the recent Resident Evil games (4-6) when it comes to third-person shooting. You trade mobility for visceral impact, and I really adore the RPG mechanics (manageable inventory, weapon variety and upgrades, etc.). It always bothered me that Uncharted and its clones limit the types and number of weapons you can carry at once.

Still, I can see myself replaying Uncharted 2 now and again.

 

[Dangansona]

Can't say I agree with you op. Mostly because what your describing is standard TPS stuff.
No spin or twist on it besides the occasional set piece or some vertical levels.

OP is trying to suggest that the heart of Uncharted in all aspects of the game is movement, and that's really true thematically as well as in gameplay. So the fact that you can climb and run around a open level space that creates movie like moments is something fairly unique to Uncharted. It's another way it's inspired by Indiana Jones type movies.

And I think you can't say it's standard TPS stuff, because standard at this point is heavy cover shooters like Gears. Games like Uncharted and Vanquish are exceptions.

 

[hwy_61]

Its a good TPS, but stuff like Gears and Max Payne 3 are just straight up better in the gameplay department.

Oh my god if uncharted had gow shooting gameplay.

It would be the goat.

THE GOAT I TELL YOU.

 

[The Baron Count]

He edited that in after I replied.



*shrugs*

Seems like an aiming issue then. I always go for the headshot.

There is no issue. I have no problem getting them, though it's actually a bit more challenging to pull them off than in most games and I like that. You have to earn them.

But you have to take the time to aim and when they are throwing waves of enemies at you, you have no time to stay out of cover long enough to do it a lot of the time. This means you have to resort to body shots and it takes a damn long time to take them down that way.

Also I find heavy enemies irritating in every single game I can think of that uses them except something like Destiny I guess.

that actually has nothing at all to do about combat.

Combat is the actual act of fighting

And the game is filled with bog standard weapons that control exactly like every other TPS that has weapons of this sort. There is nothing special there.

 

[Acrylic7]

nah, just a well polished game.
Uncharted series is over-hype imo.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

that actually has nothing at all to do about combat.

Combat is the actual act of fighting

Who you fight is just as important as how you fight.

 

[The Baron Count]

I agree it's the best TPS I've ever played. Nothing else comes close . Naughty Dog threads usually bring out a ton of hate, but oh well it's their opinions.

Jesus, enough with this stuff. The "haters" argument just means you don't have one. It's the most unimaginative thing in the universe.

I love this series. That doesn't mean I can't criticize it. I swear, people just don't understand degrees anymore.

 

[Loxley]

Uncharted is more about the polish of the whole package (at least UC2 is). If you were to compare it's actual shooting mechanics to its contemporaries like Max Payne 3 or Gears 3, it comes up way short. Particularly when it comes to hit-feedback. It's something that I hope ND refine for UC4.

 

[Shin-chan]

Agree with regard to Uncharted 2, which I thought still held up very well due to encounter design and overall mechanics. The shooting is fairly weak but the rest of the game comes together really well and is part of the games great pacing that everyone talks about. 3 has its moments, like the video in the OP, and the shooting actually feels good in that game. Unfortunately it's let down in a lot of other areas, hit detection and enemy spawns being my biggest annoyances, and doesn't come close to 2 as a result. The frustrating encounters also add to the games issues with pacing.

 

[Servbot24]

It's not amazing gameplay, but it's still fun. It's better gameplay than a decent number of other TPS games, and has way better production, so overall I'm quite happy with the Uncharted games.

 

[wmlk]

Honestly, the final boss in each and every one of these games are flat out terrible. Just the worst I've ever played. That has to change for the games' gameplay to be remembered fondly.

 

[BennyBlanco]

OP you're entitled to your opinion but I couldn't disagree more.

 

[IAmRandom31]

Who you fight is just as important as how you fight.

i disagree

if the mechanics are solid then you could be fighting a housefly and could still make it enjoyable

there were some pretty bland enemies in DMC but the combat is so fun anything you fight is enjoyable

 

[The Baron Count]

Uncharted is more about the polish of the whole package (at least UC2 is). If you were to compare it's actual shooting mechanics to its contemporaries like Max Payne 3 or Gears 3, it comes up way short. Particularly when it comes to hit-feedback. It's something that I hope ND refine for UC4.

I think it's interesting that while the things mentioned in the OP really aren't particularly true of this series in my opinion, UC4 seems to very much be going in that direction.

The actual combat stuff in that game looks awesome.

 

[Chindogg]

The problem with Uncharted is not just that the combat is rather mediocre to terrible, it's the fact that the series constantly pushes you into it's terrible combat system. The joke about how Drake is a genocidal maniac plays into the fact that when you're into the story and enjoying yourself you're then pushed into a terrible slog of mediocre combat for very little logical reason.

Uncharted's a great story-driven narrative, but the combat just drags it down.

 

[Nibel]

As a TPS it fulfills the basics and that's all there is to it. Uncharted to me is more about the spectacle than being a mechanics-driven game.

Hope the gameplay enhancements in Uncharted 4 will shake things up though.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

I'll never understand the bullet sponge complaints. Enemies drop fast, especially with head shots, just a little bit longer than most games (though why must every game with guns comply to the same TTK?)

 

[IAmRandom31]

The problem with Uncharted is not just that the combat is rather mediocre to terrible, it's the fact that the series constantly pushes you into it's terrible combat system. The joke about how Drake is a genocidal maniac plays into the fact that when you're into the story and enjoying yourself you're then pushed into a terrible slog of mediocre combat for very little logical reason.

Uncharted's a great story-driven narrative, but the combat just drags it down.

wait, how is UC's combat " terrible "

you point and shoot at stuff. I'm confused.

 

[watdaeff4]

Great OP

Have replayed UC1 in the collection and I think it held up well. wI'll start #2 as soon as I'm done with AC Syndicate.

This is a great series. Can't wait for what I assume is the swan song in March.

 

[Primethius]

There is no issue. I have no problem getting them, though it's actually a bit more challenging to pull them off than in most games and I like that. You have to earn them.

But you have to take the time to aim and when they are throwing waves of enemies at you, you have no time to stay out of cover long enough to do it a lot of the time. This means you have to resort to body shots and it takes a damn long time to take them down that way.

Also I find heavy enemies irritating in every single game I can think of that uses them except something like Destiny I guess.

I dunno. That all seems pretty much like an aiming issue to me. Aiming for a headshot has never taken particularly long for me and the enemy encounter design in UC2 isn't setup in the vast majority of encounters that it's throwing waves of enemies at you while you are already engaged.

 

[Chindogg]

wait, how is UC's combat " terrible "

you point and shoot at stuff. I'm confused.

Terrible aiming mechanics, poor cover system, idiotic AI. When you compare it to the majority of it's competitors, it's just bad all around.

 

[JumpCancel]

There's always been one thing about Uncharted that stopped me from enjoying it, besides having to suspense my disbelief to a point where Drake avoids any and all deaths that would kill anyone else is:

The floaty controls.

There is no weight to drake. He feels like he's moving in 0.5G. I've never heard anyone else bring this up but it was the first thing I noticed and I hate it. His jumps are too floaty, movement is sluggish and he just feels "off" to me. Not sure how else to articulate it.

That and the bullet sponge enemies and shooting gallery filler. Set pieces are great for trailers and adverts, but I've never been drawn to Uncharted the way other people have. That's just my opinion, mark you.

Should be called Unweighted

 

[benny_a]

There seem to be two camps when it comes to this and the Uncharted 3 shipwreck level is the great divider of opinion.

Those that think the combat is dynamic and based around movement and readjusting attack position love that level due to the freedom it has.

 

[Kurt Angle]

uncharted 2 is one of my fav games of all time


but uncharted combat is garbage, bullet sponges are not fun to fight

 

[EvilKatarn]

I only played the HD Collection demo (a scene from Uncharted 2) but it did not feel great at all.

There's no mechanic that would make it stand out like Vanquish, Max Payne or Gears of War. And even without any sort of unique mechanic Binary Domain manages to be a more polished third person shooter. It's not a competition but when we're talking just about the gameplay mechanics then Uncharted 2 did absolutely nothing to impress me and I would rather play the games I mentioned before.

The draw and focus of the series is obviously in the setpieces and visuals.

 

[Chuck Norris]

There seem to be two camps when it comes to this and the Uncharted 3 shipwreck level is the great divider of opinion.

Those that think the combat is dynamic and based around movement and readjusting attack position love that level due to the freedom it has.

Yup. God-tier level for mine

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I'll never understand the bullet sponge complaints. Enemies drop fast, especially with head shots, just a little bit longer than most games (though why must every game with guns comply to the same TTK?)

There are bullet sponges in 3, but 2 was fine. I hear that term used on the entirety of the series, so it's not merely people playing just 3 and saying that. Call of Duty crowd?

 

[jackdoe]

Vanquish is a far better shooter at encouraging movement, primarily due to the fact that you can still move freely on higher difficulties. With Uncharted, your ability to move freely is crippled on higher difficulties, like Crushing. You die very, very quickly the second you pop your head out of cover. However, on easier difficulties, you lose motivation to move from cover to cover as there is no longer any real reason to move. Enemy damage becomes a joke and you lose all urgency. With Vanquish, boost allows you to move quickly around the arena and avoid damage.

I imagine that the sprint function in Uncharted 3 was introduced as a way to move quickly from cover to cover on harder difficulties. However, they gave enemies the sprint function as well and had really screwed up enemy placement which negated all of that.

With Uncharted 4, ND has introduced the different alert states for enemy encounters, like The Last of Us, which will definitely encourage mobility. You can move freely around the arena as soon as the enemy loses track of you. This is something that would still apply on harder difficulties, which should allow you to be very mobile, even when enemies can two or three shot you.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I don't think I agree at all. By the end of those games they just hurl an endless amount of annoying bullet sponge enemies at you slapped down in random locations. It feels like a goddamn mess. All the supernatural enemies are terrible.

 

[Sheroking]

Honestly, the final boss in each and every one of these games are flat out terrible. Just the worst I've ever played. That has to change for the games' gameplay to be remembered fondly.

Well that's just silly.

"The final boss" accounts for a fraction of the percent of the game. There are dozens of great games with poor boss fights (even great games with no boss fight).

 

[Kralamoonard]

With Uncharted, it's a non-stop run and gun spectacle setpiece adventure type shooter, and that is exactly why I like it. AI is constantly challenging, particularly on higher difficulties, enemies drop when I want them to (and of course requires more bullets on higher difficulties).

Oh yeah, and I played all these games for the first time last year, so it's quite recent compared to many more modern TPS games. One thing I would say is that the shooting doesn't feel satisfying enough; as in when you're shooting, it doesn't feel tight compared to a game like Vanquish or Tomb Raider reboot. There needs to be more "pop", and less floatiness around the hitboxes/recoil etc.

And Uncharted 4 looks to improve on that (e.g. with the circle reticle, like TLoU) and many other gameplay aspects.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Thank you OP for that highly in depth take on Uncharted's combat, and I agree. Too bad a lot of responses just go back to the bullet sponges that are only in, like 1/10 encounters?

 

[pillowtalk]

I'm not a big fan of the combat either. Feels very tedious dealing with the enemies. Everything else about the games are amazing though. I wish theater/cinema mode in the collection just allow me to watch all the cutscenes without having to do any gameplay from the start.

 

[Sheroking]

I don't think I agree at all. By the end of those games they just hurl an endless amount of annoying bullet sponge enemies at you slapped down in random locations. It feels like a goddamn mess. All the supernatural enemies are terrible.

I mean, you're objectively wrong though.

Pretty much every encounter is built to have several ways to play it. Enemies come at you from multiple directions aand levels, and cover is designed to keep you moving, instead of funneling you forward in hallways like Mass Effect 2 or even a lot of each Gears of War campaign. I'm not sure there is a better SP TPS for varying the design, even if there are too many encounters with huge numbers of enemies.

You virtually always have the option to stealth the entire board specifically because they aren't randomly placed.

 

[IAmRandom31]

Terrible aiming mechanics, poor cover system, idiotic AI. When you compare it to the majority of it's competitors, it's just bad all around.

" terrible aiming mechanics "

how so?

you point and shoot

I'm just trying to understand since I've never had any issues with any UC games shooting. Seems pretty standard. Point ... shoot ... reload ...

And again the cover system. What do you mean? You cover when you can. Can shoot without aiming, pop up and shoot, toss grenades around corners or over cover, etc.

Even when I watch gameplay of people playing they never seem to have any issues shooting.

 

[Fancy Clown]

A lot of the design in Uncharted 3 runs counter to that. You get locked in an unnecessarily long melee brawl that forces you into place, for example. And enemies often spawn directly behind you, locking you into some corner of the map. I can agree insofar that Uncharted 1 and 2 do this, with 2 being far more refined at it, but 3 is very counter productive in a lot of what it does.

You are locked into place for melee in 1 and 2 as well, except 3 gives you a throw so you can toss and enemy away and then finish them off with a shot. Melee is a tactical trade off in all of them, you don't want to engage in a fist fight with an enemy at full health when you've got other enemies bearing down on you, but it has its advantages when you find a spot to pull it off (wastes no ammo, and you can kill a guy without risking damage from close up).

Vanquish is a far better shooter at encouraging movement, primarily due to the fact that you can still move freely on higher difficulties. With Uncharted, your ability to move freely is crippled on higher difficulties, like Crushing. You die very, very quickly the second you pop your head out of cover. However, on easier difficulties, you lose motivation to move from cover to cover as there is no longer any real reason to move. Enemy damage becomes a joke and you lose all urgency. With Vanquish, boost allows you to move quickly around the arena and avoid damage.

I agree difficulty could be handled way better than "you take a lot more damage" since it runs counter to the gameplay philosophy. Hard is a good sweet spot though where it's still beneficial to move around but it doesn't trivialize encounters.

 

[Sheroking]

" terrible aiming mechanics "

how so?

you point and shoot

I'm just trying to understand since I've never had any issues with any UC games shooting. Seems pretty standard. Point ... shoot ... reload ...

And again the cover system. What do you mean? You cover when you can. Can shoot without aiming, pop up and shoot, toss grenades around corners or over cover, etc.

I would say the controls are a little less tight than some other games, but the design carries it.

 

[jayu26]

There seem to be two camps when it comes to this and the Uncharted 3 shipwreck level is the great divider of opinion.

Those that think the combat is dynamic and based around movement and readjusting attack position love that level due to the freedom it has.

I have had a love hate relationship with that level since I played it.

 

[OrlanisWorks]

I've played through all Uncharted trilogy and The Last of Us. I feel Naughty Dog completely lacks in the gunplay and combat department. I've never experienced controls so frustrating and the enemies reactions to being shot are shit.

Completely unenjoyable for me. That's my experience. I'll still play Uncharted 4 to see whether they improved or not, because I really respect Naughty Dog and think they have tremendous talent, but whomever actualy designs combat should be fired.

 

[DBreakfast]

OP is 100% correct, but I'm not surprised so many people think the combat is poor. My first time playing through these games, I enjoyed the setpieces, but my approach to combat was to always hide behind cover and aim for headshots, which made encounters pretty dull. It was only later, after watching a Let's Play of the game, that I realized how incredibly powerful hip-fire is (and learned about the steel fist attacks). Going back through the series again in the collection with that knowledge is like an entirely different experience. Enemies are suddenly not bullet-spongey at all. They often go down to my wild hip-fire before I even get a chance to land a steel fist! I really think the games just did a poor job of communicating the mechanics to the player (while outright omitting any explanation of the steel fist). It reminds me of how Bayonetta didn't bother to explain dodge offset to the player. Knowing how to dodge offset in Bayo is as transformative to the gameplay as knowing to use hipfire and steel fists is in Uncharted.

 

[JJD]

Uncharted is my favorite 3rd person shooter, but I wouldn't say it has the best shooting mechanics. It's not bad or horrible like some people say but games like Gears have better "gunplay". Uncharted is better in everything else though and in the end it rises above other series when it all comes together (graphics, gameplay and story).

 

[IAmRandom31]

I would say the controls are a little less tight than some other games, but the design carries it.

Ok, yeah. I could go in that direction.

I'm not a fan of shooters really. So I didn't get into UC because of the shooting or anything like that. It was the spectacle that sucked me in and kept me playing throughout. The adventure through the well rendered cities around the world. The mystery of the story and the objectives and the characters. The shooting was always just a distraction to me. Though I liked how the game threw a lot of different scenarios at you. Like having to fight against Helicopters or non-humans or fighting while on moving trains or shooting while ziplining between buildings or shooting while a building is collapsing or while hanging from a line or while hanging onto billboards in city streets or whatever else.

UC does a good job of breaking the monotony of " just shooting " by throwing you into a lot of different scenarios.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I mean, you're objectively wrong though.

Pretty much every encounter is built to have several ways to play it. Enemies come at you from multiple directions aand levels, and cover is designed to keep you moving, instead of funneling you forward in hallways like Mass Effect 2 or even a lot of each Gears of War campaign. I'm not sure there is a better SP TPS for varying the design, even if there are too many encounters with huge numbers of enemies.

You virtually always have the option to stealth the entire board specifically because they aren't randomly placed.

"objectively wrong" lol ok.

The stealth in the games feels terrible, like that Order 1886 stealth section except throughout the whole game. I never bothered with the stealth, it's a joke.

 

[Fancy Clown]

If I wasn't in the middle of pitching the EXACT OPPOSITE article to a major gaming website, I would post my reply here. As it stands, I feel I have to echo the first post: endless waves of bullet sponge enemies with poor weapon and enemy variation is not good game design.

It's one of the worst TPS series on the market.

I'd certainly like to read it when you're done. RE bullet sponges, only the armored enemies take a bunch of punishment (unless you're blasting at a guy across the map with an AK, which are significantly weaker at range than the pistol) and they have their place in the game design. They're not there simply to tank shots to annoy you. Standard goons go down in one headshot, or a couple of body shots.

1 is bad with waves, 2 is pretty good about it, and 3 is sort of a hybrid. I don't think waves on their own are a bad thing, as the arenas are designed to facilitate longer encounters and I like the way a fight escalates when they dont overdo it (cruise ship ballroom in 3 and most fights in Syria get this way wrong).

 

[Sheroking]

Ok, yeah. I could go in that direction.

I'm not a fan of shooters really. So I didn't get into UC because of the shooting or anything like that. It was the spectacle that sucked me in and kept me playing throughout. The adventure through the well rendered cities around the world. The mystery of the story and the objectives and the characters. The shooting was always just a distraction to me. Though I liked how the game threw a lot of different scenarios at you. Like having to fight against Helicopters or non-humans or fighting while on moving trains or shooting while ziplining between buildings or shooting while a building is collapsing or while hanging from a line or while hanging onto billboards in city streets or whatever else.

UC does a good job of breaking the monotony of " just shooting " by throwing you into a lot of different scenarios.

Well, certainly when it comes to action adventure games, Uncharted's set-pieces, characters, dialogue and storylines are best in class and are WAY better than the actual gameplay itself.

Just like The Last of Us, the detractors want to shit on these games by suggesting they're just "movies", but they are good games with good ideas and they can't honestly be dismissed like, say, The Order because they have a lot more going for them than The Order did.

 

[Primethius]

"objectively wrong" lol ok.

The stealth in the games feels terrible, like that Order 1886 stealth section except throughout the whole game. I never bothered with the stealth, it's a joke.

You are though. Enemies really can't be bullet-spongey if they die with one shot to the head.

Unless we're all using some weird definition of bullet-sponge.

 

[PnCIa]

To me the combat was always mediocre compared to Gears which just feels a lot better. Uncharted may have great encounter design (not sure, but whatever) *but* Gears is a lot more fun to play for me, that may be because the shooting itself is so good in comparision.

 

[Shin-chan]

There seem to be two camps when it comes to this and the Uncharted 3 shipwreck level is the great divider of opinion.

Those that think the combat is dynamic and based around movement and readjusting attack position love that level due to the freedom it has.

I love the design of Uncharted but actually really did not enjoy that encounter on my remaster playthrough. It would be fun without the turrets and rocket guys and snipers constantly spawning everywhere. On paper it's great but the execution is a bit poor I think.

 

[post-S]

Can you play this game on a laptop?(without mice)

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

You are though. Enemies really can't be bullet-spongey if they die with one shot to the head.

Unless we're all using some weird definition of bullet-sponge.

Its mostly the supernatural enemies, especially those orc mother fuckers in 2. They are terrible. The yetis as well, you run around in circles popping 200 shots at them. Thank god you dont have to fight that many.