I played 11 hours today on Hard and am done for the night, so here are my impressions:
Positive
- I'm not sure how many chapters are in the game, but if it's anything similar to previous games, this is going to be an 18-20 hour game, which is insane. To be fair, at least an hour of that time was spent trying to figure out puzzles, which are orders of magnitude harder than previous games. They are VERY challenging for me.
- By far the biggest surprise is the massive improvement in gameplay, specifically gun combat. I played both betas so I knew there were improvements, but I think they even improved on the betas because gunplay is best-in-class.
- Character movement and animations are sublime, also best-in-class
- Controlling vehicles is super easy and fun
- First few Chapters and last few I played today are awesome and stay true to the Uncharted mantra (over-the-top action, great pacing, great character interation/chatter)
Mixed
- While I appreciate a long game, it definitely has pacing issues in the first third of what I played. The first couple of chapters are perfectly paced and exciting, and then there's one locale that just slogs on and on and on over the course of a couple chapters. I spent three hours in that one locale and it was pretty brutal because it was the first locale with typical Uncharted enemies/gunplay, but without the typical expert pacing.
The best example of this is you'll have an objective to reach a tower, let's say. But instead of climbing two or three ledges and using a rope swing to get there, the game has you climb a ledge, walk around to a sliding section, slide down, jump over, climb up, have a gun fight, walk around, rope swing up, have a gun fight, slide down, jump across, have a gun fight, etc. Basically, something that could be accomplished in two or three sections (platforming/gun fight/platforming, for example) instead takes 6-8 sections to complete, for no apparent reason other than to let Naughty Dog show off the new gameplay mechanics in their first "open world" environment.
This maybe wouldn't be a problem except it slows down the game in the beginning of it, which isn't the best place to slow the game down considering how it started. But, more annoyingly, there is no payoff in the end. I won't spoil anything, but it's absolutely not worth the hours spent at the locale. I noticed this problem started happening in Uncharted 3 when they went to France and ended up with just a clue that led them to Syria. It basically spent a ton of time for not much payoff. The same problem occurs here, and for people like me who prefer the Drake's Fortune style of a more singular, focused adventure, it's frustrating.
Negative
- Sound. This is, without a doubt, the worst soundtrack I've ever heard from a Naughty Dog game (I've only played the Uncharted series and TLoU). My favorite soundtrack is Uncharted 2, and my favorite song aside from Nate's Theme is the song that plays during the Ice Caves level when Nate and Tenzin make their final discovery. There is not a single song so far that has been even decent, let alone memorable. I'm honestly stunned by how nonexistent the music is.
This is by far the most egregious casualty of Neil Druckmann's desire to change the tone of the game. What I'm trying to say is that even though the tone of the story and cutscenes is more somber than in previous games, and has been shown to the public as such, there is still a ton of lighthearted dialogue and banter, so it really feels like previous Uncharted games in that regard. However, the music is an atrocity. At this point I can only hope for a miracle in the last half/third/however much I have left to play.
- Some characters have enragingly low amounts of screen time. I can't say any more, but I am praying that things change. This is a decision Neil made that I wish he wouldn't have. I am okay with taking a risk and changing the tone of the series. There have been a couple of moments where I got misty-eyed, and that's to Neil's credit. I was skeptical that the tone would hurt the game, but it hasn't in terms of story (but absolutely has hurt the sound). But if you are able to successfully introduce a brand new character and your game is going to be the longest you've made so far, you should be able to fit other characters into the story.
Misc
- Do not play on Hard on your first playthrough or you will not be able to use the rope moves because you'll get destroyed before you land
