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[krae_man]

Uncharted 3 was rushed and unfinished. Story made no sense and the game is buggy as hell.

They should have just paid off the Elana storyline and saved Sully origin story for the Vita game or the PS4 game instead of shoehorning the payoff into this game with no setup.

It feels like an entire chunk of the end of the game was scrapped for time and the ending is just garbage.

Uncharted has a very simple formula:

Spoiler

-Nate finds out about treasure
-bad guys find out about treasure
-They race to find it
-Nate is willing to kill to get there first, so are bad guys
-Along the way, Nate discovers the treasure has a magic power that the bad guys want to use to take over the world
-Nate decides nobody should have the power and spend the end part of the game stopping the bad guys and preventing anyone from ever getting their hands on the evil power again. This is how he redeems himself for the thousands of people he killed early on in the game out of pure greed.

Does this happen in Uncharted 3? No, the bad guys beat him to the treasure and he decides "If I can't have it nobody can" and shoots a rope in a cutscene and that rope was apparently holding the entire city up as it starts to fall into a giant sinkhole and you have to run away from the earth crumbling around you for the 85th time, game over.

such bullshit

 

[AKyemeni]

Uncharted 3 was the best in the series, easily. The gameplay and story were miles above Uncharted 2.

The multiplayer was much better as well.

 

[the_batman]

Uncharted 3 was the best in the series, easily. The gameplay and story were miles above Uncharted 2.

The multiplayer was much better as well.

there are times when people disagree and that's ok, but that is just wrong. lol.

 

[krae_man]

there are times when people disagree and that's ok, but that is just wrong. lol.

I loved constantly getting shot while in the middle of unavoidable long QTE sequences. Either by the dudes with the dragon snipers or the guys who just walk up to you with a shotgun and just shoot the hell of you and the guy you are fist fighting with is somehow immune to it. Bad guys remembered to turn friendly fire off:lol

 

[RyanardoDaVinci]

Uncharted 3 was the best in the series, easily. The gameplay and story were miles above Uncharted 2.

The multiplayer was much better as well.

A shooter with t-shirt wearing enemies that don't even flinch when blasted with a shotgun cannot qualify as the best in anything. Except, maybe, bullshit.

 

[Zen]

People misinterpret the term 'two teams' into thinking it basically means two separate studios. It's the same people, working two projects at once. Majority of the staff working on Uncharted 3 while the 'second team' worked on TLoU. Then the majority of the staff shifted to TLoU, while the second team became those working on UC4, etc. Writers, concept artists, etc get to shift between work, as I understand a lot of studios tend to have to hire/fire people in those roles inbetween jobs due to downtime, a two team shift avoids that.

When people talk about teams they are mostly referring to the mid to high tier people on the project, the majority that switch over are people modeling chairs etc.

 

[ZeroX03]

When people talk about teams they are mostly referring to the mid to high tier people on the project, the majority that switch over are people modeling chairs etc.

I haven't seen that, and have not got that vibe from this thread.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Uncharted 3 was a huge disappointment after UC2.

I'm not even sure I really liked it at all as a standalone game.

 

[VanCityGamer]

UC3 is a bad game

I was waiting for the first stupid post, and there it is. No explanation for your thoughts whatsoever; just a ridiculous (and incorrect) statement.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

This thread is weird. Who else would have made it? ND was always basically a one project at a time studio until recently. ND said that they had people who worked on both games with some that were just on one (the directors for example). It's not surprising that U3 felt rushed when it was made in the same amount of time as U2 but with significantly less resources.

 

[TheOctodad]

I only played UC3 so far. I really enjoyed it, but I want to go back to UC2 with all the things I've heard from people.

I also really enjoyed Tomb Raider. But I have to agree, the combat wasn't anything to write home about - except the bow. The bow was awesome. Overall though I feel like TLOU had a better mix of melee and shooting.

UC3 was fine, but I struggled with the aiming sometimes. I'm pretty good with FPS and ok with TPS, but sometimes I felt like I was back to learning console shooters.

 

[TheOctodad]

UC3 is a bad game

A 93 metacritic game that sold 6.4 million copies is probably not a "bad" game.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

A 93 metacritic game that sold 6.4 million copies is probably not a "bad" game.

Not even close. UC3 was a great game. Uncharted 2 was better, but not by a lot.

 

[Dragonborn]

A 93 metacritic game that sold 6.4 million copies is probably not a "bad" game.

I assume when people say bad, it just means bad in the context of Uncharted 2....because if they literally do mean "bad" then I just have no words.

 

[zkorejo]

UC3 SP was also a good game, it just wasnt as good/fresh as everyone expected it to be.

Its sad that when people talk about UC3 they only talk about the bad parts and label it as a bad game and totally forget about the things like the setting of Rub' al Khali desert, the desert village and the moments in the game that were as memorable as Uc2's like the Airplane crashing, burning chateau, the "Big Wave Big Wave" moment and ofcourse the sinking ship. The problem was the lack of fresh storyline, something different than UC1 and 2.

I really liked the Marlow's character too. It was very well done and was something very different than what we normally have in games.

I love the UC3 multiplayer. It is very fun. I still go back to playing the MP every now and then.. thats how much I enjoyed it.

 

[theusedversion]

UC3 is a bad game

You consider UC3 a bad game? What do you consider an ok game and a good game? I would love to see some examples out of curiosity.

 

[Duxxy3]

A solid game. I practically bought a PS Vita, just so I could say I beat every Uncharted game.

 

[Mysterious]

Uncharted 3 was rushed and unfinished. Story made no sense and the game is buggy as hell.

They should have just paid off the Elana storyline and saved Sully origin story for the Vita game or the PS4 game instead of shoehorning the payoff into this game with no setup.

It feels like an entire chunk of the end of the game was scrapped for time and the ending is just garbage.

Uncharted has a very simple formula:

Spoiler

-Nate finds out about treasure
-bad guys find out about treasure
-They race to find it
-Nate is willing to kill to get there first, so are bad guys
-Along the way, Nate discovers the treasure has a magic power that the bad guys want to use to take over the world
-Nate decides nobody should have the power and spend the end part of the game stopping the bad guys and preventing anyone from ever getting their hands on the evil power again. This is how he redeems himself for the thousands of people he killed early on in the game out of pure greed.

Does this happen in Uncharted 3? No, the bad guys beat him to the treasure and he decides "If I can't have it nobody can" and shoots a rope in a cutscene and that rope was apparently holding the entire city up as it starts to fall into a giant sinkhole and you have to run away from the earth crumbling around you for the 85th time, game over.

such bullshit

Spoiler

He was beat to it in Uncharted and Uncharted 2 (that Soviet guy drank the water) as well.

 

[krae_man]

Spoiler

He was beat to it in Uncharted and Uncharted 2 (that Soviet guy drank the water) as well.

Spoiler

That's kind of the point. We saw what the evil power was. In Uncharted 3 it's still just a treasure chest that hasn't been opened yet. Nate didn't save the world from anything.

 

[alice_kiss_lara]

Uncharted 3 has the best gameplay but worst story in the series IMO

it was clearly two individual stories, and the 1st part did not have a proper ending

Uncharted 2 for me was the best game from Naughty Dog, I like it even more than TLOU

 

[zkorejo]

Spoiler

That's kind of the point. We saw what the evil power was. In Uncharted 3 it's still just a treasure chest that hasn't been opened yet. Nate didn't save the world from anything.

Spoiler

We knew what was in the water. It was some sort of a chemical that messes with your head. We even experience it as Nate who drinks from the fountain and starts to hallucinate those Djinn type enemies and Sully's death etc.

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

Haven't played that one, but I guess I stand corrected.

Nah direct to VHS is correct... never finished, somehow doesn't work at all on the Vita, bored me to death.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

UC3 was fun and had its moments.

But there were parts in that game that made me scratch my head.

 

[krae_man]

Spoiler

We knew what was in the water. It was some sort of a chemical that messes with your head. We even experience it as Nate who drinks from the fountain and starts to hallucinate those Djinn type enemies and Sully's death etc.

Spoiler

That was just tainted water. The treasure chest thing was supposed to have the flame head dudes in it for real. But deadline came looming and they got relegated to Nate tripping balls and we're left with Nate not saving the world from anything.

 

[Rikkun]

Can't wait for the remasters to hit. I honestly thought we could get it in November..
I played UC and did not really like it, then two years later played 2 and 3 back to back. Enjoyed UC3 more because of the

Spoiler

supernatural enemies not being real

, but I can't really chose a favourite between UC2 and UC3.

 

[Sheroking]

"Rushed" is a good explanation for Uncharted 3. The first half, I thought was great.

The pacing just goes to shit, though and it winds up being non-stop shooting. The desert sequence only minorly breaks that up. The flashback set-up was great, but the payoff was non-existent. There was no development and no real conclusion. It just kind of "was". That game needed another year.

Anybody saying it was bad is way out to the lunch, though. The set-pieces alone were and are unrivaled.

 

[Mononoke]

UC3 is a bad game

Have to say I sort of agree (well, I'm not sure I would say it was bad. But it definitely wasn't great). A game that is linear narrative driven like UC3 needs to have a really good story. I just thought the screenplay was a mess (especially the second half and specifically the last act). While the set pieces were epic, I didn't really care for the missions driving the levels, so it all felt kind of shallow.

 

[zkorejo]

Spoiler

That was just tainted water. The treasure chest thing was supposed to have the flame head dudes in it for real. But deadline came looming and they got relegated to Nate tripping balls and we're left with Nate not saving the world from anything.

Spoiler

I know.. King Solomon locked the spirits of Djinns in it but Marlow and her secret society were not interested in the spirits of Djinn, they were just interested in the vessel so they could use the hallucination effect against their enemies. That is what they wanted... to control the world through fear and messing with their heads. And they showed that to us when Drake drank the water. They never really wanted to free the Djinn from the container.

Drake even says that to Sully when he comes back to his senses and meet Sully inside the city of brass.

So yea, Drake actually does save the world from being manipulated by the Secret society.

Oh and btw it wasnt just tainted water, there were evil effects in the water due to the vessel which contained "spirits of Djinn".

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I liked the idea of big, dramatic moments that were focused on movement rather than shooting, but I don't think the Crash-style chase sequences ended up working. They felt out of place. Trial and error in a game that is never about that at any other time (see auto-platforming, which for better or for worst, established a status-quo).

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I liked the idea of big, dramatic moments that were focused on movement rather than shooting, but I don't think the Crash-style chase sequences ended up working. They felt out of place. Trial and error in a game that is never about that at any other time (see auto-platforming, which for better or for worst, established a status-quo).

The chase scene wasn't out of place or bad. It just went on far too long and too frequently.

The desert part was more ridiculous.

Spoiler

Only Nathan Drake can survive in one of the hottest deserts in the world without water for days and still have enough strength to climb walls and fight off enemies!

 

[Papercuts]

A 93 metacritic game that sold 6.4 million copies is probably not a "bad" game.

There is not a single reviewer that mentioned the aiming being off and it got noticed immediatly by a ton of people the day the game came out. Kinda hard for me to take a lot of critics seriously, not to mention this is the game that brought the infamously embarassing 8/10 review backlash.

There is a wealth of issues the game has just looking it at in a bubble before even comparing to how much the quality dropped from 2. Encounter design is the biggest problem, as the game constantly throws everything and the kitchen sink at you. Slow lumbering shotgunners, snipers in the back, some guy shooting the hammer which can easily stunlock you to get killed instantly by someone else. The normal gunner AI got far more aggressive, but in a really videogamey way where they just stupidly blitz at you, as if they knew they were AI that could shrug off bullets to the chest. If it wasn't that, it was a plethora of grenades being tossed at your feet since you could now toss them back. So a good defense would be to melee them, except the melee combat system in this game takes soooo much longer compared to UC2 and leaves you completely exposed, AND has a vacuum suction hitbox that can pull you into a fight you're trying to run away from, which can also easily lead to a death. Oh, and those wonderful big brute enemies that are the exact same fight every single time you see them. Did anyone actually look forward to that fight upon seeing their 5th clone? Like, what on earth.

If that isn't enough, it's the other aspects of encounter/environmental design. UC2 had a lot of cool moments just as the small encounter where you're ambushed while hanging off a sign and have to shimmy around to use it as cover. Or the train which mixed in combat/traversal and impacted aiming based on the train turning. The monastery as a whole had a lot of this mixed in as well. UC3 has stuff like the player walks into a sandstorm, then immediately gets sniper dots on him because the AI has perfect clarity, and has to get around machine gun turrets while suicidal charge grunts run at you, even though you can't see. That isn't very fun or interesting. Or a segment like the airport stealth sequence, which is actually not even possible to complete without being 'caught' in the end even if you kill the last two AI guards at the same time, which then spawns truckloads of enemies BEHIND you. That is poor, lazy encounter design. UC3 was at its best during the Chateau, and that unsurprisingly had most of the uncharted essence to me. Drake and Sully wisecracking eachother, a gorgeous locale, puzzles mixed with combat mixed with traversal...the puzzle aspect is another major issue, pacing.

Pacing is a crucial aspect that can elevate a game into the stratosphere, and UC3's is a total mess. Given the movies and themes these games pull from, it's clear to see how UC2 goes. It ramps up and has cooldown moments, uses the trifecta of gameplay to mix things up and builds up to bigger moments like the helicopter chase, the train, the tank in the village, the jeeps, etc. but inbetween things like the ice cave were a lot more calm. It's a rollercoaster, like the movies its themed around. 3 has a slow start(not always a bad thing), but the biggest misstep is when you spend a giant chunk of the game doing something totally plot irrelevant, that was very clearly them making setpeices first and not proplerly piecing it together. The game also totally runs out of puzzles by the 12th or 13 chapter when there's 22 or so, which makes the brunt of the endgame nonstop combat or traversal, aside from one hold forward for 15 minute segment which isn't done nearly as well as the tibetian village was. The entire game was building up to the train, the derailment and the snowy fight which leads into that. UC3 has a poor stealth section that goes into a bombastic but incredibly short airplane sequence that gets dragged into that. And that, coupled with the massive issues I had with the actual encounters, made the game infuriating to play.

There's still far, far more I could talk about. Chloe barely seeming like the same character(and totally vanishing from the story), how samey the ending sequence is to UC2, blah blah blah. I love UC2, but 3 is really nothing like it. I mean, it's really pretty and all, but the mechanical lining is a mess.

 

[TheOctodad]

There is not a single reviewer that mentioned the aiming being off and it got noticed immediatly by a ton of people the day the game came out. Kinda hard for me to take a lot of critics seriously, not to mention this is the game that brought the infamously embarassing 8/10 review backlash.

There is a wealth of issues the game has just looking it at in a bubble before even comparing to how much the quality dropped from 2. Encounter design is the biggest problem, as the game constantly throws everything and the kitchen sink at you. Slow lumbering shotgunners, snipers in the back, some guy shooting the hammer which can easily stunlock you to get killed instantly by someone else. The normal gunner AI got far more aggressive, but in a really videogamey way where they just stupidly blitz at you, as if they knew they were AI that could shrug off bullets to the chest. If it wasn't that, it was a plethora of grenades being tossed at your feet since you could now toss them back. So a good defense would be to melee them, except the melee combat system in this game takes soooo much longer compared to UC2 and leaves you completely exposed, AND has a vacuum suction hitbox that can pull you into a fight you're trying to run away from, which can also easily lead to a death. Oh, and those wonderful big brute enemies that are the exact same fight every single time you see them. Did anyone actually look forward to that fight upon seeing their 5th clone? Like, what on earth.

If that isn't enough, it's the other aspects of encounter/environmental design. UC2 had a lot of cool moments just as the small encounter where you're ambushed while hanging off a sign and have to shimmy around to use it as cover. Or the train which mixed in combat/traversal and impacted aiming based on the train turning. The monastery as a whole had a lot of this mixed in as well. UC3 has stuff like the player walks into a sandstorm, then immediately gets sniper dots on him because the AI has perfect clarity, and has to get around machine gun turrets while suicidal charge grunts run at you, even though you can't see. That isn't very fun or interesting. Or a segment like the airport stealth sequence, which is actually not even possible to complete without being 'caught' in the end even if you kill the last two AI guards at the same time, which then spawns truckloads of enemies BEHIND you. That is poor, lazy encounter design. UC3 was at its best during the Chateau, and that unsurprisingly had most of the uncharted essence to me. Drake and Sully wisecracking eachother, a gorgeous locale, puzzles mixed with combat mixed with traversal...the puzzle aspect is another major issue, pacing.

Pacing is a crucial aspect that can elevate a game into the stratosphere, and UC3's is a total mess. Given the movies and themes these games pull from, it's clear to see how UC2 goes. It ramps up and has cooldown moments, uses the trifecta of gameplay to mix things up and builds up to bigger moments like the helicopter chase, the train, the tank in the village, the jeeps, etc. but inbetween things like the ice cave were a lot more calm. It's a rollercoaster, like the movies its themed around. 3 has a slow start(not always a bad thing), but the biggest misstep is when you spend a giant chunk of the game doing something totally plot irrelevant, that was very clearly them making setpeices first and not proplerly piecing it together. The game also totally runs out of puzzles by the 12th or 13 chapter when there's 22 or so, which makes the brunt of the endgame nonstop combat or traversal, aside from one hold forward for 15 minute segment which isn't done nearly as well as the tibetian village was. The entire game was building up to the train, the derailment and the snowy fight which leads into that. UC3 has a poor stealth section that goes into a bombastic but incredibly short airplane sequence that gets dragged into that. And that, coupled with the massive issues I had with the actual encounters, made the game infuriating to play.

There's still far, far more I could talk about. Chloe barely seeming like the same character(and totally vanishing from the story), how samey the ending sequence is to UC2, blah blah blah. I love UC2, but 3 is really nothing like it. I mean, it's really pretty and all, but the mechanical lining is a mess.

Obviously you have strong opinions of this. But an 8/10 and the overall reception of UC3 was not "BAD." Is it as good as UC2? No. Doesn't mean it's bad. That's a word for games like Brink.

 

[Muscle Wizard]

I went back and played Uncharted 3 recently and despite some annoyances it's still a really great game. I played Uncharted 2 and it back to back and I couldn't believe the jump in visuals as well as the more advance combat (melee, getting the drop on enemies, not the release-version shooting though).

 

[Papercuts]

Brink was literally broken, lol. If that is the critera for a game being bad then it takes actual effort to achieve that.

 

[krae_man]

Spoiler

I know.. King Solomon locked the spirits of Djinns in it but Marlow and her secret society were not interested in the spirits of Djinn, they were just interested in the vessel so they could use the hallucination effect against their enemies. That is what they wanted... to control the world through fear and messing with their heads. And they showed that to us when Drake drank the water. They never really wanted to free the Djinn from the container.

Drake even says that to Sully when he comes back to his senses and meet Sully inside the city of brass.

So yea, Drake actually does save the world from being manipulated by the Secret society.

Oh and btw it wasnt just tainted water, there were evil effects in the water due to the vessel which contained "spirits of Djinn".

Spoiler

If all they wanted was doped up water to make people easy to manipulate, they could put LSD in water at home.

 

[Amir0x]

No, but there's many differences. It's a much shorter game, the set pieces were less novel and impacted gameplay less often (one of the reasons U2 was so effective at times was because the set pieces were not always just for show: on the train, for example, you have to adjust your aim for the physics of the ever changing train direction), and they basically seemed to be out of good new ideas, so a lot of it felt rehashy.

I enjoy the games enough due to their insane visuals and the third person combat is generally decent-to-good, but I do hope they use Uncharted 4 as an excuse to redesign whole segments of their game.

If you're going to have puzzles and a well designed guidebook in your hand to provide clues, at least make the puzzles even remotely compelling. It's OK to stump your players and force them to think outside the box. It's OK to train gamers to be better players and not to give up. It's OK to design platforming segments that don't have a ridiculous window for error and where it's essentially impossible to die without you intentionally letting go. it's OK not to have yet another ledge break conveniently the second you leap off of it. It's OK to allow exploration outside of a straight line. All of this is OK, Arne and Naughty Dog. Dying is good and it is fun. It adds dramatically to the tension, and since your game constantly tries (and fails) to make everything seem tense, it only makes sense to legitimately add that tension by providing well balanced challenges which test your accumulated skill set. It gives agency to the player's actions, and makes the reward felt for overcoming an obstacle instantly more enjoyable.

 

[zkorejo]

Spoiler

If all they wanted was doped up water to make people easy to manipulate, they could put LSD in water at home.

Yea, I guess this didnt come to their minds.

 

[Muscle Wizard]

Yea, I guess this didnt come to their minds.

History has proven that that doesn't work (MKULTRA). They didn't want the water, they wanted the brass jar, which had djinn in it.

 

[xValentine]

They fucked up the aiming on multiplayer/coop in U3.

I got like 70% headshot per coop game in U2 and when i went to U3 it's like a whole different aim.

 

[drotahorror]

1 and 2 were made by the same team? 1 felt like a video game, while 2 felt like Triple-A Cinematic Experience Simulator 2009.

I played 2 and 3 before 1. 1 sucked compared to it's sequels. And I love the series.

 

[tanooki27]

U2 trampled U3 in terms of character interaction. every exchange in U3 felt more rote.

 

[zkorejo]

History has proven that that doesn't work (MKULTRA). They didn't want the water, they wanted the brass jar, which had djinn in it.

Spoiler

Ofcourse they didnt want the water, thats what I said. They wanted the Vessel (brass jar) which contained the Djinn.

 

[LiquidSolid]

Essentially, the Lead Designer/Co-Writer (Druckmann) and Game Director (Straley) of UC2 went on to TLoU. The Creative Director of 2 was still the CD of UC3.

That's kinda misleading.

First, I'm pretty sure he wasn't a co-writer in the traditional sense. He contributed to the script but it was still Hennig's story, just like others contributed to TLOU's script, even though it was Druckmann's story.

Second, UC2 had two lead designers: Druckmann and Richard Lemarchand (lead designer of Soul Reaver 1, 2 and Uncharted 1). Lemarchard and Jacob Minkoff were then the two lead designers on Uncharted 3.

Anyway, as has already been said numerous times, Uncharted 3 was really rushed. It's a pity Sony couldn't have just delayed it, regardless of their previously announced release date, as I'd love to play a properly finished Uncharted 3.

1 and 2 were made by the same team? 1 felt like a video game, while 2 felt like Triple-A Cinematic Experience Simulator 2009.

1 was their first PS3 game in a genre completely new to them, it's pretty understandable that it took a while to adjust. They did make some changes between the two games though, with the game director role split into two (one director in charge of gameplay, one in charge of story).

 

[MavFan619]

It wasn't a terrible game by any stretch, but UC2 was just that good. Tough act to follow, if you ask me.

That's how I feel I think UC3 gets shit from some because UC2 set a standard it justttt missed. Still very solid game. I'll take UC3 over a good portion of games from last gen, Nathan Drake is the homie.

 

[Sean]

Uncharted 3 was pretty damn bad, an enormous step down from UC2. I feel like it's one of the most overrated games out there.

Combat encounters were complete shit. The aiming was off (although I only played pre-patch). Enemies were bullet sponges that were overaggressive - they'd keep walking forward with no regard for their lives and they'd also constantly toss grenades and flank you from off-screen. It was a cover-based shooter game where you couldn't really use cover.

They removed a lot of the stealth stuff, the one section that presented itself as a stealth segment (the night chapter where you're trying to sneaking onto the cargo plane) seemed set up for you to fail and use guns anyway. Then there's crap encounters like that sandstorm level where you're getting sniped by dudes 100 feet away when you could barely see ten feet in front of you.

Storyline was awful. Talbot and Marlow were both lousy villains that were never fleshed out. Talbot was shot in the chest by Charlie and it's never explained how he was able to survive. And then near the end you finish Talbot off with a lame ass quick time event.

Barely any Elena at all, what did she do besides drive a van? Drake and Elena mention how they're separated and we never even knew they were married in the first place because such a significant development happened in-between games.

Barely any Chloe either after being such a prominent part of the second game. The new character Cutter is introduced and seems to be Drake's BFF but then whoops, he randomly breaks his leg and is written out along with Chloe. The side characters like Salim and Ramsey (evil pirate leader guy) also had no development at all and pop in and out when convenient. The best part of the game was the four or so chapters on the pirate ship which was pretty much completely irrelevant to the main plot.

Much of the game feels like a rehash, they do the Sully death fakeout thing again and the horseback sequence was basically a cut and paste of the convoy chapter from UC2. The climax of UC3 was pretty much the same climax of UC2 with the destroying a lost city crap.

Uncharted 3 was extremely disappointing. Absolutely loved UC2 and disliked the sequel.

 

[Gen X]

While I was playing #3 the first time (and only as it seems now) all I could think was "I wonder what the next big action set piece will be" and everything else just felt off, but at the time I couldn't put my finger on it (it was review code). When Nate went down with the ship and washes up on Chloes doorstep, the was where I rolled my eyes and seriously, I let out the biggest groan.From there on the game took a turn for the worst.That desert, the desert snipers, the tripping balls scene, it just all felt like it was thrown together at the last moment.

THe order I played the series in was 2, 1, 3 & GA but my personal preference is #2, 1/GA & 3. Had zero desire to play #3 a second time.

 

[Veelk]

There is not a single reviewer that mentioned the aiming being off and it got noticed immediatly by a ton of people the day the game came out. Kinda hard for me to take a lot of critics seriously, not to mention this is the game that brought the infamously embarassing 8/10 review backlash.

There is a wealth of issues the game has just looking it at in a bubble before even comparing to how much the quality dropped from 2. Encounter design is the biggest problem, as the game constantly throws everything and the kitchen sink at you. Slow lumbering shotgunners, snipers in the back, some guy shooting the hammer which can easily stunlock you to get killed instantly by someone else. The normal gunner AI got far more aggressive, but in a really videogamey way where they just stupidly blitz at you, as if they knew they were AI that could shrug off bullets to the chest. If it wasn't that, it was a plethora of grenades being tossed at your feet since you could now toss them back. So a good defense would be to melee them, except the melee combat system in this game takes soooo much longer compared to UC2 and leaves you completely exposed, AND has a vacuum suction hitbox that can pull you into a fight you're trying to run away from, which can also easily lead to a death. Oh, and those wonderful big brute enemies that are the exact same fight every single time you see them. Did anyone actually look forward to that fight upon seeing their 5th clone? Like, what on earth.

If that isn't enough, it's the other aspects of encounter/environmental design. UC2 had a lot of cool moments just as the small encounter where you're ambushed while hanging off a sign and have to shimmy around to use it as cover. Or the train which mixed in combat/traversal and impacted aiming based on the train turning. The monastery as a whole had a lot of this mixed in as well. UC3 has stuff like the player walks into a sandstorm, then immediately gets sniper dots on him because the AI has perfect clarity, and has to get around machine gun turrets while suicidal charge grunts run at you, even though you can't see. That isn't very fun or interesting. Or a segment like the airport stealth sequence, which is actually not even possible to complete without being 'caught' in the end even if you kill the last two AI guards at the same time, which then spawns truckloads of enemies BEHIND you. That is poor, lazy encounter design. UC3 was at its best during the Chateau, and that unsurprisingly had most of the uncharted essence to me. Drake and Sully wisecracking eachother, a gorgeous locale, puzzles mixed with combat mixed with traversal...the puzzle aspect is another major issue, pacing.

Pacing is a crucial aspect that can elevate a game into the stratosphere, and UC3's is a total mess. Given the movies and themes these games pull from, it's clear to see how UC2 goes. It ramps up and has cooldown moments, uses the trifecta of gameplay to mix things up and builds up to bigger moments like the helicopter chase, the train, the tank in the village, the jeeps, etc. but inbetween things like the ice cave were a lot more calm. It's a rollercoaster, like the movies its themed around. 3 has a slow start(not always a bad thing), but the biggest misstep is when you spend a giant chunk of the game doing something totally plot irrelevant, that was very clearly them making setpeices first and not proplerly piecing it together. The game also totally runs out of puzzles by the 12th or 13 chapter when there's 22 or so, which makes the brunt of the endgame nonstop combat or traversal, aside from one hold forward for 15 minute segment which isn't done nearly as well as the tibetian village was. The entire game was building up to the train, the derailment and the snowy fight which leads into that. UC3 has a poor stealth section that goes into a bombastic but incredibly short airplane sequence that gets dragged into that. And that, coupled with the massive issues I had with the actual encounters, made the game infuriating to play.

There's still far, far more I could talk about. Chloe barely seeming like the same character(and totally vanishing from the story), how samey the ending sequence is to UC2, blah blah blah. I love UC2, but 3 is really nothing like it. I mean, it's really pretty and all, but the mechanical lining is a mess.

Yeah, this is a pretty good summary on how I feel on the subject. Uncharted 3 has little unique going for it, instead opting to do what UC2 did, but worse. The melee combat is especially bad to me, since now taking out an enemy takes forever. The most you can say is that it has some unique set pieces, like the floating docks, but....eh.

It's strange that ND would give the franchise to some B team, even if they were working on the passion project that is LoU. And let us not forget how utterly FUCKED the MP was at launch (even though they got a decent beta running, before they inexplicably changed a bunch of stuff for no reason). The UC franchise is kind of tainted for me now, so rather than approaching A Theif's End with hype, it's more caution than anything. It's quality depends on which part of ND is working on it, rather than jsut that ND is working on it.

 

[MavFan619]

I assume when people say bad, it just means bad in the context of Uncharted 2....because if they literally do mean "bad" then I just have no words.

I've seen his posts about certain ND games I think he means it. To each his own but yeah not even close to bad, I mean bad game and Superman 64 makes sense, in relation to UC3 it's not even close.

 

[GameAddict411]

ND split into two after uncharted 2, most of the ones that made U2 so god damn amazing were on team 1(TLOU). The rest are in team 2 which developed U3. I am one of those people who liked both games equally, I think that the people who are so critical of U3 didn't play U2 for a long time. Playing them back to back will reveal that both are equally as good.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

UC3 is a bad game

Seriously from reading some of NeoGAF's posts one would be forgiven to think Uncharted 3 is a mediocre at best game that deserves to be right next to the likes of Wii Shovelware.

Ok I get it, most of you think U2 was better than U3 but that doesn't mean it was a BAD game. Not even close. U3 is still a better game than the vast majority of the games in the market! Some of you I get the feeling just like to complain for the sake of it and totally define what a nitpicker is.