Keihart
Member
This kind of makes my head hurt. People aren't "jealous" or trying to "downplay significance" when they point out where Uncharted 4 is poorly paced or mechanically lacking. They're pointing it out because they know the game can be better, and they want ND to continue pushing themselves to make better games. Creators benefit from well-meaning constructive criticism.
To be clear: UC4 is an extremely polished game; it's incredibly gorgeous (the best-looking game I've ever seen); and the storytelling and characterization is top-notch (some plot holes and weak motivations aside). But when it comes to the actual gameplay, it's pretty easy to spot the seams the demarcation between meaningful player involvement (i.e. controlling the tempo of battle, swinging around the map, ambushing enemies, etc), and the ho-hum tedium of everything else: interacting with highlighted items, moving crates, or executing fairly automated jumping/climbing in super-linear environments.
I appreciate the move away from the over-abundance of combat, but as others have noted, ND still hasn't found an engaging way to spend downtime in these games. Replaying some of these levels will be a bit of a slog once the story is known and the intrigue/sense of discovery is no longer driving us onward. Scotland already felt long in the tooth, and that was the first time through when the witty banter, plot twists, and breathtaking vistas were all new. Imagine how that'll hold up when those superficial qualities are old hat and you're just left with gameplay that half of the time is barely there.
For my tastes, from an actual gameplay standpoint, ND doesn't come close to touching developers like From Software, Platinum or Nintendo three devs who, at their very best, have a much more rigorous focus on engaging mechanics. There's definitely room for ND to grow in that respect. ND is untouchable when it comes to making cinematic experiences that rival Hollywood productions, but there's still so much more they can do in terms of rich and nuanced gameplay.
All that being said, I'm confident they'll get there. They're incredibly talented folks, and I admire their vision and heart. I just want to see them get better and better.
If you take all the encounters of U4 and take out the time between them i would put it up there with Vanquish as the best TPS and just as replayable, but it would have a lot less apeal to other people.
If anything , the weak parts of the game are not the heavy gameplay ones but the ones that try to make the narrative interactive. They are in a really hard place right now, is kinda like they are triying to mix Life is Strange with Vanquish or something, wich is awesome but pretty hard to blend in a seamless way i think.