While I'm enjoying my time with the game, what has been bothering me about the whole thing is the way in which cutscenes happen VERY often. When there's a small section of traversal, or a shooting sequence, there is then an immediate cutscene.
I agree. Chase doesn't have half the charm Chloe and Elena do have. And I agree Guerro wasn't a memorable baddie, but I've never find any of the main bad guys in Uncharted mainline memorable.
Still, you have to keep in mind that the game was quite restricted being a prequel. I was really surprised after finishing the game that
there wasn't a supernatural plot twist
. But, what can they do? I'm sure they were really limited when developing the game.
I'd have liked (as everybody) that Amy Henning had been more involved with the game script, so they could have talked about some interesting stuff. The game could have talked about some interesting point, like what happened between Chloe and Drake when they were young.
Gameplay:
It's been said before, but I'll say it again. The gimmicky touchscreen stuff in this game is awful. It just pads the game out. I don't even feel motivated to grab the treasures in this game because positioning a camera just right, or doing my 100000th charcoal rubbing is so tedious, and destroys the pacing of the game.
I like that part. It's better doing 50 charcoals and finding 30 relics than finding 100 golden statues under a random tree in the middle of a fucking jungle. But that's my opinion.
The combat in this game is a lot of fun though; it's classic uncharted action. The problem is, until the last 3rd of the game you will mostly be doing the 'exploring' and 'puzzle solving' mode of Uncharted. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if Naughty Dog had made it (3 doesn't have a lot of combat in the beginning either, but makes up for it with amazing story telling moments like the young Drake section). Even the platforming feels worse for some reason, with way too many boring 'press x a million more times than you should have to to climb up this segmented ledge' and not enough 'wholly shit the bridge is collapsing gotta climb up'.
The combat is really fun and gyro aiming is totally awesome in this game. So many head shots there. When I went back to Uncharted 2 I was subconsciously trying to do the same with my DS3.
In general, there's not enough 'holy shit' moments that Uncharted is known for.There's not really a single set-piece beyond a tame 'run away from explosion' and 'dodge turret fire', or any moment that stands out at all. It really just sort of blends together. Even people that don't like Uncharted 3 have to admit it's far more memorable than this game, where you get to: play as young Drake, escape a sinking cruise ship, fly out of an airplane, desert walk, do a caravan chase, etc.
I kind of agree until I saw this. Fuck the ship and the people that thought it was fun. I wasn't able to enjoy the latest chapters of U3 because that piece of shit.
Again, I think they were kind of limited. I loved the part when you running away of the ruins and you're climbing through some ropes and killing some dudes that shoot you from above. And the last part (cave) had some cool fights. I'd agree set pieces are inferior in U:GA than in U2 and U3. I don't know what to say about U1... they were good, but not THAT good. Drake's Fortune is a little clunky by today standards
Also, I would be remiss to mention that this game contains the worst final boss of almost any game I've ever played. 2, back to back, really really lengthy QTE bosses that you have to start all over if you lose. It's like Drake's Fortune's boss only 10x worse.
I thought they weren't that bad until I played those 2 fights on crushing. My god they were awful.
TL;DR:
- I think gunplay is really good and I'd rank it above both Uncharted 1 and 3.
- Setpieces weren't that good in U:GA. Both Uncharted 2 and 3 are better.
- The game is quite similar as the original Uncharted in terms of places to visit.
- Chase is worse than Elena and Chloe. Bad guy wasn't memorable, but I don't find any Uncharted bad guy memorable either.
- I thought they were limited story wise. I'd have wanted to see Amy Hemming more involved with the story.
- It had some cool areas, and there wasn't anything as awful as the ship in U3.
- Fuck boss battles in crushing xD
I really appreciated the relative de-emphasis on killing giant mobs compared to the others, especially Uncharted 3. And the shooting/exploration parts were just much better paced. I do like Uncharted 1 and 2 more, but I like Golden Abyss way more than Uncharted 3.
I loved the gyro controls for precise aiming but didn't much care for everything else. Story was bland, the touchscreen stuff was mostly terrible, too many quicktime events, too linear, no real interesting setpieces that Uncharted is known for, and the game was insanely ugly due to being non-native resolution.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the gyro aiming once I got the hang of it (at first I thought it was only for snipers so I was wondering why I couldn't hit anything at first). It made the shootouts quite fun.
But by awesome boat ride do you mean the one where you occasionally swipe the screen to paddle and do nothing else? Because that part was pretty bad...
Yeah I was really surprised by the length. I think it might be the second longest after 2. I thought the last couple hours were by far the best (up until the boss), an I think they could have cut out a lot of the early tedium.
"The problem is, until the last 3rd of the game you will mostly be doing the 'exploring' and 'puzzle solving' mode of Uncharted"
That's exactly what i liked of it and honestly i would have liked more of the exploring/collecting/puzzling, i only played Uncharted 1&2 demos and to me they are boring tps with good graphics and exotic environments, i have some Uncharted(3 i think) thanks to Ps+ but i will never download it.
For what i played Golden Abyss is the only Uncharted i liked.
I really liked how the collectibles / side objectives were more like the Syphon Filter games and added story to the various areas and people in the game, rather than just being random treasures. I think it would be great if the console Uncharted games were more like that to really get more exploration in the games.
Just finished it the other day and really enjoyed it, haven't played an uncharted in awhile and thought it was good fun, I even liked the rubbings, I must be a bad person.
I thought it was a fine Uncharted game. I maybe even like it more than Uncharted 3 (though I have particularly bad memories of the lil' Drake chase scene). Its biggest flaws are in the forced motion/touch gimmicks, but then one of those gimmicks is now my favourite console shooting feature (gyro to fine-tune aim) so even then I don't hate all of them. Characterization and plot are clearly a step below (I go back and forth on Chase as an acceptable Elena substitute/sidekick but she's clearly a substitute) but as a side story that likely couldn't mess with the franchise very much, I think it did a good enough job.
Demos bored me to death, i was so bored that i didn't even finish them(and i can count on the fingers of one hand the demos i didn't finish), i found their pew pew more boring than other tps.
It took a long long time to get going, but when it did it was solid enough.
The characters and script were awful.
The graphics were really impressive.
I thought it was fun enough, I ended up getting the platinum. But I've never played any other Uncharted games. If they are just like this, I don't get the fuss at all.
Demos bored me to death, i was so bored that i didn't even finish them(and i can count on the fingers of one hand the demos i didn't finish), i found their pew pew more boring than other tps.
Imo this would really only qualify you to say that the series isn't for you. There's a lot more to Uncharted than just being an TPS that you would never know if you only played part of the demo's.
It took a long long time to get going, but when it did it was solid enough.
The characters and script were awful.
The graphics were really impressive.
I thought it was fun enough, I ended up getting the platinum. But I've never played any other Uncharted games. If they are just like this, I don't get the fuss at all.
I really liked the gyro aiming too. A question for others who have played the game: do you think the gyro aiming would translate well to consoles? I loved it on the vita, but I feel that part of the reason it worked so well is that you were looking directly at the thing you were rotating, whereas this would obviously not be the case for something like a ps4 game.
I really liked the gyro aiming too. A question for others who have played the game: do you think the gyro aiming would translate well to consoles? I loved it on the vita, but I feel that part of the reason it worked so well is that you were looking directly at the thing you were rotating, whereas this would obviously not be the case for something like a ps4 game.
I don't think it would work well on the ps4. The gyro was good on vita because aiming with just the sticks was terrible. I never had any trouble aiming in 1-3, and I think adding gyro to it would actually make it harder because I'd have to make sure my controller was still as I played.
I really liked the gyro aiming too. A question for others who have played the game: do you think the gyro aiming would translate well to consoles? I loved it on the vita, but I feel that part of the reason it worked so well is that you were looking directly at the thing you were rotating, whereas this would obviously not be the case for something like a ps4 game.
I don't think it would work well on the ps4. The gyro was good on vita because aiming with just the sticks was terrible. I never had any trouble aiming in 1-3, and I think adding gyro to it would actually make it harder because I'd have to make sure my controller was still as I played.
It certainly couldn't hurt to include it as an option, it was excellent in Killzone. After playing Golden Abyss I would habitually try to aim with the gyro on a Dualshock 3
Imo this would really only qualify you to say that the series isn't for you. There's a lot more to Uncharted than just being an TPS that you would never know if you only played part of the demo's.
Fair enough but i don't buy a game if i didn't like its demo, even when demo is bad or not representative of a game i usually understand if a game has the potential to be a game i could like, that was not the Uncharted 1 & 2 demos case.
I buy games to "play" them, for me gameplay is the most important thing of a game, if i don't like that then it doesn't matter how good is the rest, i won't like the game, period.
Add that i have a big backlog so i really don't need to add games that i probably won't like.
Fair enough but i don't buy a game if i didn't like its demo, even when demo is bad or not representative of a game i usually understand if a game has the potential to be a game i could like, that was not the Uncharted 1 & 2 demos case.
I buy games to "play" them, for me gameplay is the most important thing of a game, if i don't like that then it doesn't matter how good is the rest, i won't like the game, period.
If you liked Golden Abyss at all, I would highly recommend the original trilogy. They are better in every way, including the exploring/puzzle solving sides. Uncharted 3 especially has the least amount of shooting and the best puzzles.
I can see how someone would dislike it 2 years after launch, if they've been playing the series gradually over the years. But as someone who powered through 1-3 over the course of 2 months and then played Golden Abyss, the 'puzzles' (Uncharted series has laughable puzzles but these were alright) and generally relaxed gameplay was a breath of fresh air. I got tired of the constant explosive blockbuster atmosphere, cut scenes followed by bullet sponges and 'set piece' moments.
Cutting all that back to a bare minimum felt great.
Yep, I gave up on the game after my second of these.
I'll eventually go back to it since the general consensus is that it's a good game, but what a fucking awful introduction to my Vita it was. Hell, Welcome Park did a better job.
If you liked Golden Abyss at all, I would highly recommend the original trilogy. They are better in every way, including the exploring/puzzle solving sides. Uncharted 3 especially has the least amount of shooting and the best puzzles.
At least this makes sense, think of all those games where you kill for hours armies of deadly big enemies and at the end you find your weak companion there waiting for you, how the hell did he/she arrive there without fighting and before me?!?!?!?! That annoys me a lot.
This is the ONLY uncharted game I have played as I have only just got a ps3.
With nothing to compare it to, I was really impressed by this game. I think it showcased what the vita can do really well in terms of graphics and having the controls to give a console experience in a handheld. I haven't ever for round to finishing it, but must be at least 4hours in.
If it is the worst in the series then I will hopefully mean I enjoy the main series even more when I get round to playing them on ps3.
The final QTE, rubbing, and light to camera killed the game for me.
Seriously, that shit suck. Also, can i turn off notif for the card game? that shit disturb me.
DEfinitely the weakest uncharted. It still an okay game though, except for that part i mentioned above
I didn't mind it. Definitely think 1-3 are better games. Seems I have the unpopular opinion on this part, but I didn't mind the charcoal rubbings. I hated slicing random branches and ropes or whatever but the charcoal rubbings didn't bother me. I thought it was fine. For me, the controls felt right for what I was doing on the screen and it seemed to tie into the story nicely (adding to Drake's journal). But the directional swipes during QTEs were abysmal--especially on crushing for the last boss. And slicing branches didn't seem natural at all--it was just an awkward motion; especially that zig-zag one. The writing wasn't great and neither were the characters. Overall though, I enjoyed playing it.
This is the ONLY uncharted game I have played as I have only just got a ps3.
With nothing to compare it to, I was really impressed by this game. I think it showcased what the vita can do really well in terms of graphics and having the controls to give a console experience in a handheld. I haven't ever for round to finishing it, but must be at least 4hours in.
If it is the worst in the series then I will hopefully mean I enjoy the main series even more when I get round to playing them on ps3.
Something that doesn't get brought up much is how utterly terrible the framerate is; it's PS2 Shadow of the Collosus/console Lords of Shadow level bad, and it completely fucks up the gyro aim gimmick (which is actually pretty cool in the parts where this is less of an issue) as the framerate being so bad makes fine-tuning far harder than it should be. And yeah those fucking boss QTE's and other silly gimmicks.
It's got some nice aspects (I like that part around the middle with the puzzle in the underground temple which is one of the few genuinely exploration-based parts of the series) but it's much more unrefined than the main-series games. I will say I'd probably rate it over Uncharted 1 if the framerate didn't drag the aiming down so much though (and UC1 is hardly great in that regard either).
