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Eurogamer: Is Uncharted more 'walking simulator' than action game?

R

Raylan

Banned
Combat fatigues: How Uncharted is a walking simulator in action game's clothing.

On paper Naughty Dog's Uncharted series is as generic as it gets. It's about a good looking white, heterosexual man going on exciting globe-trotting adventures, killing bad guys and wooing a spunky blonde reporter. On this level, it's functional at best and banal at worst. But dig deeper and it becomes clear that Naughty Dog's bombastic blockbuster series quietly had a profound effect on the medium's development over the past several years.

The first Uncharted wasn't particularly revolutionary, though it did feature some snappy dialogue and stunning visuals for its day. It was really 2009's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves where Naughty Dog really went off the rails (literally in the case of its seminal train sequence) and managed to subtly provide a proof of concept for a type of video game that was still in its embryonic stage. The genre has since come to be labelled somewhat derisively as "walking simulators" - a video game with precious little interactivity and no game-over state.

Of course The Uncharted games do have a failure state and you spend most of their running time engaged in third-person combat. On that level, they're still fairly traditional action games. But Uncharted 2 and its successors only dedicate a little over half of their running time to such mechanics. So what do you do the rest of the time?

Not a lot, interactively. Sometimes you simply watch cutscenes and have zero input whatsoever. The rest of the time you're being funnelled through intentionally frictionless scripted puzzles or button-tapping your way through automated platforming sequences. Technically you're still "playing" the game, but your agency is left out of your hands.
.......
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More here

1u7vLlC.png
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Gaming journalism on a roll, lately.
 
A

Auctopus

Member
Wow, this is rivalling Gamespot's "Is free DLC hurting Rainbow Six: Siege?" for worst piece of journalism of the week.
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Another example of how Eurogamer has gone down the drain since Bramwell left.

This is Polygon-level trash.
 
Acquiescence

Acquiescence

Member
What Uncharted can learn from Dear Esther.

It's a walking simulator for sure. If you ignore the climbing, the shooting, the stealth and the puzzle solving then it's unequivocally a walking simulator.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
What?

Some of the best parts are just chilling and exploring. Kind of knew it was coming after the main TLoU minds are behind it all.

It all makes sense within the narrative. We aren't playing Drake popping down to the supermarket to buy his shopping. Try harder EG.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
I don't disagree. I occasionally try pushing the other way in UC4, and the limitations are very apparent. But I also don't have anything against walking simulators, so I'm fine with it. I guess some more story interaction would be nice though.
 
M

M.D

Member
Ums2JnW.jpg


This is exactly how I imagine someone writing an article about Uncharted being a walking simulator would look like ;p
 
L

Loudninja

Member
I am so confused about this article.
Sometimes you simply watch cutscenes and have zero input whatsoever. The rest of the time you're being funnelled through intentionally frictionless scripted puzzles or button-tapping your way through automated platforming sequences. Technically you're still "playing" the game, but your agency is left out of your hands.
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My head hurts.
 
T

Twix

Member
Another example where websites take advantage of the easily provoked Uncharted/ND fans for more clicks.
 
Surface of Me

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Auctopus said:
Wow, this is rivalling Gamespot's "Is free DLC hurting Rainbow Six: Siege?" for worst piece of journalism of the week.
Click to expand...

Was this a real thing? Holy shit. While I do think previous Uncharted games(havent had time with 4) priority in animation over ganeplay is a detriment, they are far from "walking simulators".
 
S

Sheroking

Member
It's a walking simulator if you think "walking simulator" means linear action game.

Resident Evil 4 is a walking simulator by the same metric.

a Master Ninja said:
To be fair, player agency isn't that high in Uncharted.
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Neither is it non-existent.

Uncharted 4 in particular gives you multiple segments of the game where you can progress forward in mulitple directions, explore a wider-than-usual environment or approach enemies either by stealthing past them, stealth killing them or engaging in a gun-fight.
 
B

biglittleps

Member
This is really stupid click bait article (look at the title which is the most everyone reads, it would have been fine if they removed uncharted name and made generic comparison on all big games) made to take advantage of Uncharted 4 success and eurogamer should be really ashamed of this.
 
B

braves01

Banned
Walking simulator is probably a pretty accurate description of the climbing sections. It's brain dead traversal with no skill required. I wouldn't it's say it's mostly those though.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
Having now actually read the article, OP seems to misrepresent what it's about. It highlights the importance of down time in a story game. This is very topical for me as I just finished an experiment and wrote a paper about exactly this.

ctw0e said:
Did anyone actually read the article?
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Apparently not.
 
K

Kysuke

Member
Acquiescence said:
What Uncharted can learn from Dear Esther.

It's a walking simulator for sure. If you ignore the climbing, the shooting, the stealth and the puzzle solving then it's unequivocally a walking simulator.
Click to expand...

What about the driving, swiming and Web slinging?
 
F

foxbeldin

Member
Not willing to give Eurogamer a click for this until someone tells me if the content is as stupid as the title makes it sound.

So guys... is it worth a click?
 
H

hodgy100

Member
Are you early posters even reading the article. or just reacting off of what is bolded in the OP.

The premise of uncharted is generic as fuck. What sets uncharted out from other games is the insane level of polish and craftsmanship. that doesn't mean it isnt generic.

A bit more on topic with the article though. I kinda agree. uncharted 4's slower segments are really awesome and it helps with the pacing. I kinda like just mulling around exploring and discovering things so I'm ok with them having less action game-play.

It lets you take in the games world and environments better and allows you to get truly immersed.

foxbeldin said:
Not willing to give Eurogamer a click for this until someone tells me if the content is as stupid as the title makes it sound.

So guys... is it worth a click?
Click to expand...

Id say its worth it. its an analysis pice on uncharted gameplay in comparison to previous iterations, how it still has higher highs but lower lows (in regards to pacing)
 
O

OléGunner

Member
Terrible click bait article and I'm halfway through UC4.

You always need your hands on the controller even duringaction cut scenes as it seamlessly transitions to gameplay a lot of the time.

Really expect better from a publication such as Eurogamer.
 
M

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Rembrandt said:
nope or else they wouldn't be so offended for no reason.
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Even if the content of the article was full of praise, it wouldn't make a difference. This is an undeniable clickbait title and Eurogamer used to be better than that.
 
S

sploatee

formerly Oynox Slider
Don't understand why everyone is so angry. It's quite an interesting article about pacing in action games.
 
C

Carcetti

Member
I was going to go into the store to get something to drink but I think I'll be able to live off the tears of the next 30 pages here.
 
Necro900

Necro900

Member
The genre has since come to be labelled somewhat derisively as "walking simulators" - a video game with precious little interactivity and no game-over state.
Click to expand...

Errr... what? who exactly is labelling Action/adventure games, even derisively, walking simulators? Can't think of anybody except the writer, who also presents this statement as "fact", while it looks like it's just his opinion.

I thought those were EIGTTR, The vanishing of Ethan Carter, Gone home and such. And those are just narrative-driven games, even there the definition is kind of bullshit.

So yea.. not gonna click, sorry Eurogamer.
 
R

Rembrandt

Banned
foxbeldin said:
Not willing to give Eurogamer a click for this until someone tells me if the content is as stupid as the title makes it sound.

So guys... is it worth a click?
Click to expand...

yeah, it's a good article. OP made a title up. it's talking about the lack of agency in certain scenes but how it works for ND and praises them for continuing it.
 
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