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Unpopular opinion. Am not a fan of Naughty Dog gameplay loop

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Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
This is why when it comes to the naughty dog games of recent, I just watch let's plays of them. The gameplay just doesn't seem fun enough for me to warrant wanting to buy and play them myself, but I'll watch someone else play them.

To claify, I do find the shooting and climbing in Uncharted fun. TLOU I liked most of the gameplay as the combat was satisfyingly brutal and it had actual incentive to explore as you need resources--unlike Uncharted where there's nothing to find but pointless collectibles.

I can never do Let's Plays though. Games are way too long and the stories no where near good enough to sit and watch all that. I'd rather spend that time on movies/tv shows--or playing a game.

All I was saying is that I don't need gameplay to be great or groundbreaking or anything new. It just needs to be mostly fun. And Naughty Dog games are fun for me--but I also really like cover-based shooters. Very simple, low skill gameplay so I get why many don't like the. But it works for me as someone who likes mindlessly murdering the fuck out of a bunch of people while consuming some ok story.
 

tkscz

Member
To claify, I do find the shooting and climbing in Uncharted fun. TLOU I liked most of the gameplay as the combat was satisfyingly brutal and it had actual incentive to explore as you need resources--unlike Uncharted where there's nothing to find but pointless collectibles.

I can never do Let's Plays though. Games are way too long and the stories no where near good enough to sit and watch all that. I'd rather spend that time on movies/tv shows--or playing a game.

All I was saying is that I don't need gameplay to be great or groundbreaking or anything new. It just needs to be mostly fun. And Naughty Dog games are fun for me--but I also really like cover-based shooters. Very simple, low skill gameplay so I get why many don't like the. But it works for me as someone who likes mindlessly murdering the fuck out of a bunch of people while consuming some ok story.

I knew what you, that's just the route I go with it rather than playing through myself knowing I won't be satisfied enough by it for a $60 purchase. For me specifically, story tends not to be enough for me to want to play, but an interesting enough story will make me want to experience it one way or another.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I enjoyed the three Uncharted games on the PS3 as well as Golden Abyss on Vita but I couldn't get into Uncharted 4. Spent a few hours with it and told myself that it was time to move on.
 
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Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
I knew what you, that's just the route I go with it rather than playing through myself knowing I won't be satisfied enough by it for a $60 purchase. For me specifically, story tends not to be enough for me to want to play, but an interesting enough story will make me want to experience it one way or another.

That's definitely fair. A lot of shorter games I just Redbox and beat in a weekend. I also don't keep my games, but rather sell everything on Amazon marketplace when I'm done. So even if I buy at launch I'm usually only out $15-20 rather than $60.
 

Raptomex

Member
I like their games but haven't played any of their stuff religiously since Crash Warped. I do like the Uncharted series, although I think 4 is more of a movie than a game.
 

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
I'm of the same 'unpopular' opinion as the OP, although it seems it's not really all that unpopular. I thought the first 3 UCs were OKish, kinda fun; pretty little interactive movies, but they were about as long as a movie and nothing much to them besides cover-shooting and pointless collectibles.

Uncharted 4 while MUCH longer (seemed like years) was super boring and brought nothing new except walking sim & grappling woohoo! TLoU was somewhat better but not something I'd ever pick up and play again.

As someone else said the Tomb Raider reboot is vastly superior IMHO.
 

KRAai

Member
how is it unpopular opinion if 90% of people here think their games are shit? :messenger_dizzy:
and even people who enjoy them express it like it's something to be ashame of
what is this place? is it somehow cool now to shit on nd ? is it becasue "popular" opinion is that they make great games ?
or is there some other reason for that ?

to be clear i don't have anything against people not enjoying their games
but some arguments are just ridiculous other are just weird nitpicks
like what's the point of this thread even?
 
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I’ll buy a turd on a Blu Ray if it’s put out by them at this point. Clearly I’m not setting a good example as a consumer. But I have a Naughty Dog addiction.
 

KRAai

Member
I’ll buy a turd on a Blu Ray if it’s put out by them at this point. Clearly I’m not setting a good example as a consumer. But I have a Naughty Dog addiction.
lol yeah that's not necessarily healthy attitude
but at least i feel less crazy now :messenger_dizzy:
 

hecatomb

Banned
well as we all know ND is touted as one of the best developers out there, and have been for over a decade really because of their work on Uncharted and TLOU for the most part. other games too but those are the recent ones


I have actually tried playing Uncharted 1 and 2, and TLOU. and to be quite frank am not a fan of the gameplay in these games to the point where I didn't finish it, first off let me say am not a fan of the more realistic story telling of stories. I like my games to have a touch of fantasy or quirkiness. I don't like them to be very serious. but I'd play a game that has an awful story any day of the week if the gameplay is fun and the world looks interesting visually.


the entire loop of naughty dog games revolves around cover based shooting, your typical walk behind this rock stealth sections. and follow the waypoint to click-to-do sections and then exit-go there do that. there isn't really much else to it. and then there are the set pieces that are a combination of the above. there are some puzzles in Uncharted for example but they are just like the ones in Tomb Raider really

the gameplay is too grounded to realism, and so is the story, yes I guess zombies aren't real but thats besides the point thats the theme. thats one of the reasons I never enjoyed tomb raider either when I was young I never really played it despite being a very popular game. and even Resident evil for that matter, I barely played it, the gameplay is very grounded. but not as much as the other ones really in some of the RE games you have a bit of variety.

the uncharted series to me feels like its a human based platformer on earth with guns and without all of the cool visual elements actual platformers add. and TLOU is literally a Quantic dream game with gameplay. its like a long level of an uncharted game with the puzzles replaced with inventory management and collecting resources.


but the gameplay is just not varied really. the games are not fun to play for a person thats looking for a good challenge to my fingers but a great visual feedback on the screen that keeps me interested in the game as a game you know, not as a movie knock off.
seeing how you only post negative things about Sony, I'm not surprised, Thanks for making other console war thread though.
 

gioGAF

Member
I agree with the sentiment. While I generally enjoy the story, the gameplay is just not very good. I never replay the games after I finish them. And even the story elements have been deteriorating. I like UC1 and UC2, but UC3 didn't sit well with me so I just skipped UC4.
 
I can't stand the games either. The only Naughty Dog game I played to completion is Uncharted 4. I bailed on The Last of Us after about 5 hours. I tried Uncharted 1 for quite a while. I've had the Uncharted trilogy on my system for a year and can't bring myself to play it.

Uncharted 4 was easily their best game from what I can tell though. Too many slow paced moments, but at least the stealth had MGS V spotting and the platforming added a grappling hook.

I'm assuming TLoU2 will not add much in terms of gameplay because it's not "realistic." Ellie seems to have a dodge now, and that shocks me that they even bothered with that.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I agree with this opinion, Uncharted 4 is a beautiful but boring videogame, as a movie its ok, as atech demo its amazing
 

Horns

Member
It might bother me more if they pumped out games using this formula annually. Since so much time passes between their titles it doesn't me as much.
 
Eh the gameplay is fine. It's the general setting and tone that isn't for me. Then again neither is the new Tomb Raider to be fair. This quasi-real world modern day Indiana Jones inspired thing. I always wanted them to go full Pulp Action but they always reeled it back in.

But with that said, I understand why it's gets the praise. The polish on visuals and voice acting is top tier. Just isn't for me but, again, I get why they score the way they do and people love it.

And the high body count doesn't bother me. I find it funny that what was once a tongue in cheek joke about Drake being a mass murder became... a real compliant. Like as opposed to what other action games is this egregious?
 
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petran79

Banned
They need to come up with a new IP and gameplay formula or else they'll end up really like Quantic Dream
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Uncharted 4 "move another box" loop actually killed the experience for me

Uhm... and here I thought people remember Uncharted 4 for things like this:
468px-Swing.gif


🙄
 

Mochilador

Member
My problem with their games is that they are focusing too much in being a "movie".
Uncharted 2 is amazing, you are always doing something different, you are never stuck doing the same thing over and over.
After Uncharted 2 they started focusing too much in story telling and they lost me there.
 

badboyyy

Member
I cant understand that team of Xfanboys, just droping every day some shitty threads against Sony, and just searching any shit what MS says and posting in every OT “sony doomed, their games is similar and boring, boo boo and boo”..and they are trolling this forum, because these posts is from the same 4-5 people in every thread. Its boring, maybe you can write something interesting and new, because your opinion we read in other threads and its the same.
 

Cato

Banned
I liked TLOU. Maybe the gameplay loop itself is not great but the game as a whole I really enjoyed. In particular the character arcs.
Sure it is like an interactive movie but I really enjoyed it for what it was. I think it was the game of the generation for PS3.

I liked U1 and really liked U2. Maybe because they were so refined for their time.
U3 was a bit meh. It felt like just one gigantic set-piece after another and never hooked me.
U4, lets say Uncharted has finished its arc. Let it end here. We don't need a U5.
 

Fbh

Member
I like it. I would hate for every game to be like that but I enjoy playing a "cinematic" game every now and then and ND are still the best at it IMO. TLOU in particular had great gameplay, encounters felt tense and it got the "survival" element just right for me with resources being rare enough that scavenging felt worth it and every weapon felt relevant but without going too far in that direction with 20 different kinds of shit to collect and annoying "hunger" and stamina bars and stuff like that.

I think they took it a bit too far with Uncharted 4 though. I still really liked the game but It's one I'm not too eager to replay, I think they had too much walking and talking and too many story sequences where there isn't a whole lot to do. The pacing works well in the first playthrough IMO, specially in the context of the final entry in Drakes story, but once you have seen the story the idea of going through those slow parts again in replays isn't too exciting. I recently played through the Nathan Drake Collection and I found the previous games to have a better balance between combat, platforming, puzzle solving and story segments.
 
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As somebody who's finished uncharted 2, 3 and 4, I wholeheartedly agree with OP. You have to tolerate a huge amount of clunky cover based combat and stealth. If you don't, you will burn out. Almost didn't make it through uncharted 3. 4 was an improvement in the controls department so that made it less frustrating to slog through. In uncharted series the best gameplay element is the world you need to traverse, and some of the platforming/climbing is fun. The combat...not so much.

For this very reason I quit playing TLOU ~4 hours in. The fucky environments, enemies based around stealth spam and laggy combat system were too much for me. I just watched a let's play on YouTube to get the story.

I think naughty dog games in the gameplay department are a CHORE to play. I don't derive much enjoyment from that aspect, just the world building and story.
 
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Uncharted 1 was worth a playthrough
Uncharted 2 more so
Uncharted 3 was more Uncharted 2
Uncharted 4 was a constant drag, and needed more gameplay that wasn't walking or climbing

TLOU did enough different that I played through it at least 3 times. Fucking up an encounter and scrambling for bricks to smash clickers with was great everytime.
 

SoulUnison

Banned
I enjoyed the first three. Last one shits on Drake legacy for being a white colonizer.

I don't remember this even slightly being a plot thread in Uncharted 4 and I suspect that dropping a line like this in such a drive-by style post is just meant to be inflammatory.
 

KRAai

Member
I cant understand that team of Xfanboys, just droping every day some shitty threads against Sony, and just searching any shit what MS says and posting in every OT “sony doomed, their games is similar and boring, boo boo and boo”..and they are trolling this forum, because these posts is from the same 4-5 people in every thread. Its boring, maybe you can write something interesting and new, because your opinion we read in other threads and its the same.
exactly.
it's like i would make a thread about forza while i don't care for driving games at all
and write some bs that it has weak story and then a bunch of my clones would come
and wrote that they liked 1st one but after 2nd one they got tired of the whole driving thing
and for that reason they refuse to buy another game from them unless they do a new ip with new gameplay loop :messenger_dizzy:
if u don't like story driven games it's fine it really is
i guess u guys really like to beat a dead horse
but for god sake when i read that nd is turning into quantic dreams my brain just melts
unless that's the point :messenger_face_screaming:
 

Paracelsus

Member
I liked Uncharted 1, I very much liked Uncharted 2, I didn't buy nor care for Uncharted 3 and 4.
This is because I realized as I was beating Uncharted 2 I would've liked it more if it was a movie instead of a game. Maybe that was their point all along, but.
 
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hecatomb

Banned
they have more gameplay then most games, if you complain about cinematic gameplay, then you really never played any games made by Quantic Dreams.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
well as we all know ND is touted as one of the best developers out there, and have been for over a decade really because of their work on Uncharted and TLOU for the most part. other games too but those are the recent ones


I have actually tried playing Uncharted 1 and 2, and TLOU. and to be quite frank am not a fan of the gameplay in these games to the point where I didn't finish it, first off let me say am not a fan of the more realistic story telling of stories. I like my games to have a touch of fantasy or quirkiness. I don't like them to be very serious. but I'd play a game that has an awful story any day of the week if the gameplay is fun and the world looks interesting visually.


the entire loop of naughty dog games revolves around cover based shooting, your typical walk behind this rock stealth sections. and follow the waypoint to click-to-do sections and then exit-go there do that. there isn't really much else to it. and then there are the set pieces that are a combination of the above. there are some puzzles in Uncharted for example but they are just like the ones in Tomb Raider really

the gameplay is too grounded to realism, and so is the story, yes I guess zombies aren't real but thats besides the point thats the theme. thats one of the reasons I never enjoyed tomb raider either when I was young I never really played it despite being a very popular game. and even Resident evil for that matter, I barely played it, the gameplay is very grounded. but not as much as the other ones really in some of the RE games you have a bit of variety.

the uncharted series to me feels like its a human based platformer on earth with guns and without all of the cool visual elements actual platformers add. and TLOU is literally a Quantic dream game with gameplay. its like a long level of an uncharted game with the puzzles replaced with inventory management and collecting resources.


but the gameplay is just not varied really. the games are not fun to play for a person thats looking for a good challenge to my fingers but a great visual feedback on the screen that keeps me interested in the game as a game you know, not as a movie knock off.


Realism and too much of it...I get. I felt this is what was wrong with Red Dead myself. I have't played uncharted since 2 but from what I remember there's a lot of traversal as well. Climbing, puzzles of some sort, then combat and over the top action sequences. TLOU I was not a fan of for the combat, but I kinda went in knowing this was all about the story and so I signed up for that. I will say, I didn't walk away from that game really caring a whole lot about anybody except Ellie. Not Joel any of his lady friends or those stupid Giraffes. Did nothing for me. Am I a cold heartless guy...maybe. Did I completely derail my own post? Absolutely.
 

hecatomb

Banned
its quite funny since I can't criticize anyone else since I only own Sony consoles. its hard to find time to play anything else or afford them
Doesn't change the fact you always complain about Sony, but still buy their products. Maybe you should trade all your stuff and get a xbox, then wonder why they have 0 exclusives, and you can just play all their games on PC.
 

dirthead

Banned
You shouldn't be. It's bad.

Honestly, Naughty Dog and Rockstar are joke developers to me. Neither one of them has ever made a game that actually has good gameplay. They have no Gunstar Heroes, no Street Fighter 2. I see zero evidence that they actually know how to make VIDEO GAMES that are fun to play.

The sad thing about Naughty Dog is that they haven't changed at all. They're still the developer that made Way of the Warrior for the 3DO. You know, the technically impressive but artistically bankrupt derivative game that was a joke compared to the true masterpieces of the genre? Yup. That's Naughty Dog. The death of true video games in the late 90s was a boon to companies like Naughty Dog on a scale that they can't possibly appreciate. "Oh, you mean games don't have to have real mechanics or fun gameplay anymore? They can just be a bunch of set pieces and 9 out of 10 media companies will give us GOTY awards?" *rolls up sleeves*

 
I'm glad you fell for my trap, good to know you are a xbox fanboy. Maybe being on my ignore list will help, since I won't have to listen to you bitch about Sony every time you post.

you're the biggest child I've seen on this forum so far. actually one of few because this place is pretty vacant now since the rest of the hivemind is in resetera now
 
N64 was better than PlayStation 1. Fact. PSX was for dudebros and casuals. Real gamers stuck with Sega and Nintendo. Fact.

Now...FIGHT!:messenger_grinning_sweat:

But seriously Naughty Dog are overrated. The most impressive elements of Uncharted 4 for example; the world design, technical effects and texture work/models/graphics where outsourced to a Chinese Studio.
 
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Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
But seriously Naughty Dog are overrated. The most impressive elements of Uncharted 4 for example; the world design, technical effects and texture work/models/graphics where outsourced to a Chinese Studio.
I did not know that.
 
I don't hate Naughty Dog's games, but they are the only games I play on easy. And if I didn't play them on easy, I doubt I would play them at all.
 

KRAai

Member
its quite funny since I can't criticize anyone else since I only own Sony consoles. its hard to find time to play anything else or afford them
actually it is not funny it is kind of sad
and for me it is just annoying and boring
like omg this place is so full of negativity honestly it would be ok without a little less "critique"
 

KRAai

Member
since when is critique a negative thing?.
i wrote "critique" as it's hard to call all this bs here a critique
what's the value or this critique if it is made by people who just don't like these type of games ?
for example
"their games have shit gameplay becasue i like fighting games"
like yeah duh if u like fighting games go play fighting games
your critique have no fucking value whatsoever
yeah i know it is not your critique but i just read that shit
and these thread is full of that
and i have to leave for work now so maybe you will manage to get my point form that :messenger_weary:
 
i wrote "critique" as it's hard to call all this bs here a critique
what's the value or this critique if it is made by people who just don't like these type of games ?
for example
"their games have shit gameplay becasue i like fighting games"
like yeah duh if u like fighting games go play fighting games
your critique have no fucking value whatsoever
yeah i know it is not your critique but i just read that shit
and these thread is full of that
and i have to leave for work now so maybe you will manage to get my point form that :messenger_weary:

oh. i will move on with my day then this isn't something worth answering. pointless rant.
 
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