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So I just finished Uncharted 2......thats it?
- Thread starter MYE
- Start date
I am reminded of a quote by Kang the Mad in Jade Empire, where he mentions that he never makes more than one of an exceptional item because it would diminish its quality. His reasoning is that a single exceptional item is inherently exceptional, but if you make 100 exceptional items they are all average compared to each other. Clearly we have had a great many shooters if Uncharted 2 is considered average.
I'll also add that, if the experience surrounding the gameplay is memorable, average may just be enough. I heard the same complaint bandied about for Enslaved, a game which was in many ways amazing, even if platforming and combat might easily be dismissed as average.
semiconscious
Member
really wish posters making threads like this one would give some examples of games they consider to be better done. having mentioned which elements he feels the game gets wrong, it'd give the rest of us a clue as to which games he feels got them right...
Randolph Freelander
Member
To each their own. I just completed the game on Saturday and loved every minute of it.
Glorified G
Member
I just found most of your criticisms exactly correlate to SS, which I've seen you've praise about before. Finding those 5 pieces to get into the Earth Temple was one of the most mind numbingly dull experiences I had playing a game this gen. Linear and boring is what I would describe it. And polish is the last thing I would call SS. Awful pacing, frustrating controls.
It's all subjective. Which is why I said "To each there own".
BIONIC-ARRRMMM!!
Member
People who like Uncharted for the gameplay either don't get what the word "game", or "play" actually mean in this context. They don't have much of either, and what's there is average at best.
This.
I find it weird when people make a big deal about expectations other people set for them. I recognize a message board thread is not a big deal, but it should be pretty easy to realize that setting anything up with high expectations makes it really difficult to impress.
I can understand the complaints but I've never agreed that Uncharted is mediocre at best when it comes to gameplay. I loved the original game start to finish, and it lacked most of the setpiece showmanship of the sequels.
For me the shooting is up there with the best. Some enemies are designed as bullet sponges but for the most part one headshot and they're down, and I never felt I had to wrestle with controls to pull one off. In fact I'm not sure I can think of a third person shooter that handily outperforms Uncharted 2 in pure gameplay. The vast majority don't have the variety and verticality with which Naughty Dog imbues its encounters.
The puzzles aren't difficult but I think the design of them is generally brilliant, making the entire environment part of the puzzle and requiring shooting and platforming to progress.
The production values may be sky high but that only complements the gameplay in my opinion. They aren't completely divorced from the gameplay either. Many of them, such as the train section, completely change up the formula and make you quickly adapt to survive. That section is a great example of Uncharted at its best. Yes it's gorgeous and impressive, but the combat on the train can be approached from many different angles and can turn into an intense cat and mouse chase.
The gameplay isn't innovative, but it's exceptionally well implemented. The game is beloved because all aspects of the game design combine and form a greater whole. As a pure action spectacular it's still unmatched in gameplay, pacing and writing for me.
It's a shame you didn't love it like a lot of us do, but glad you could at least appreciate some of it!
For me the shooting is up there with the best. Some enemies are designed as bullet sponges but for the most part one headshot and they're down, and I never felt I had to wrestle with controls to pull one off. In fact I'm not sure I can think of a third person shooter that handily outperforms Uncharted 2 in pure gameplay. The vast majority don't have the variety and verticality with which Naughty Dog imbues its encounters.
The puzzles aren't difficult but I think the design of them is generally brilliant, making the entire environment part of the puzzle and requiring shooting and platforming to progress.
The production values may be sky high but that only complements the gameplay in my opinion. They aren't completely divorced from the gameplay either. Many of them, such as the train section, completely change up the formula and make you quickly adapt to survive. That section is a great example of Uncharted at its best. Yes it's gorgeous and impressive, but the combat on the train can be approached from many different angles and can turn into an intense cat and mouse chase.
The gameplay isn't innovative, but it's exceptionally well implemented. The game is beloved because all aspects of the game design combine and form a greater whole. As a pure action spectacular it's still unmatched in gameplay, pacing and writing for me.
It's a shame you didn't love it like a lot of us do, but glad you could at least appreciate some of it!
I wasnt a huge fan of it either. My friend kept praising it as the best game ever. Decided to buy it and even though it is a good game i never understood why it got so many awards.
The Last of us on the other hand so far has been a better game than any entry on the uncharted franchise
The Last of us on the other hand so far has been a better game than any entry on the uncharted franchise
ThanksVision
Member
Has there ever been a game that was praised at release and not hated by GAF a few years later?
BibiMaghoo
Member
It is literally the most polished game I have ever seen.
But no, it doesn't do anything special, just does what it does well all round. I have never felt the shooting in any of the games was wrong or broken. Though I understand I'm pretty much alone in this.
But no, it doesn't do anything special, just does what it does well all round. I have never felt the shooting in any of the games was wrong or broken. Though I understand I'm pretty much alone in this.
VGChampion
Member
I think I would have enjoyed 3 as much as 2 but the
hallucinations
ScottSullivan
Member
While the actual mechanics of shooting the gun are pretty standard, and so are the enemy types, the movement to and from cover, and the optional verticality and stealth you can use to take down enemies makes the action feel fresh each encounter.
Red Blaster
Member
didn't you make a thread like a week ago where you said you loved ace combat assault horizon
Aw come on!
If just for the incredible locations and the Heart of Ice chapter, the village scene
and the
U2 is a great game that deserves to be played at least once by every gamer this gen, with production values up the wazoo.
But still, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
If just for the incredible locations and the Heart of Ice chapter, the village scene
with the tank
helicopter fight on the rooftops
But still, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
I see what you are saying, but I think it depends on when you played it, same situation with Metal Gear Solid 4, which is another 'GAF masterpiece'. They are unparalleled 'experiences' of its time, jaw was on the floor and bricks where shat when I played both of those games at release, few other games have done the same for me.
You wouldn't say the gameplay is average if you had played the multiplayer. The maneuverability of Drake and vertical level design just opens up so many gameplay opportunities. So many opportunities to bait enemies, stealth kill them, play hide and seek. It's really entertaining.
At least you were right about one thing, that final boss is turrible
I disagree, the only fun to be had in Uncharted series is the single player. Naughty Gods can't make multiplayer games for shit.
I disagree, the only fun to be had in Uncharted series is the single player. Naughty Gods can't make multiplayer games for shit.
Monumental
Banned
The game was a mix of Gears of War and Call of Duty in terms of gameplay sensibilities, with a Hollywood Rom-Com presentation layer on top.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's immensely fun for what it is. But it's like someone saying The Avengers is the pinnacle of Cinema just because it was the most fun Summer Blockbuster titles released last year.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's immensely fun for what it is. But it's like someone saying The Avengers is the pinnacle of Cinema just because it was the most fun Summer Blockbuster titles released last year.
What game did you play? Its one of the worst shooting games this gen...shooting parts are the weakest of the game.
This. I'm only 50% done with TLoU but as a game, it doesn't bring anything new to the table or changes the genre. Great, intense experience, beautiful world, good characters, but just a solid TPS. Felt the same with BioShock Infinite tbh, great world and characters but man, what an average shooter gameplay.
Context is everything. If you had played this game right when it came out you would've understood.
Are you serious with this shit?
Skyward Sword and Uncharted are both excellent games.
bender
What time is it?
The change of pass enemies and boss battles throughout the series are terrible. U3 seemed to do away with most of it but tried to turn all the set pieces to 11, it was really exhausting to play.
Mechanically it's a little more diverse with the crafting and stealth options but it feels as formulaic as the uncharted games. Cutscenses flow into interactive dialog sections that flow into exploration/traversal sections that flow into combat arenas. Nothing ever surprises you.
Mechanically it's a little more diverse with the crafting and stealth options but it feels as formulaic as the uncharted games. Cutscenses flow into interactive dialog sections that flow into exploration/traversal sections that flow into combat arenas. Nothing ever surprises you.
Rickenslacker
Banned
I did, but I still felt exactly like MYE does now. The game aspects haven't depreciated, they haven't aged, there's nothing out there since then to invalidate what Uncharted 2 does, but I just don't think it was ever a special game in particular.
victreeb3l
Member
i played uncharted for the story. the actual gameplay of jumping around and the shooting (oh god fuck the shooting) is mediocre to bad.
which is why i fucking hated UC3
which is why i fucking hated UC3
Yeah, I felt similarly. The production values were amazing and the gameplay was solid enough to go "yes this is worth checking out", but best of the year? In a year with Demon's Souls? No motherfucking way. Hell, I'd probably put DA:O over it and I haven't even beat that, though I guess that just shows where my genre leanings are.
Still, I think given what we're seeing now Demon's Souls really was most justly "game of the year", the impact of it and Dark Souls is spreading slowly but surely, whereas Uncharted 2... well, it had influence surely, but not to the same level in the long run, and in the short term it kind of seems a dead end for gaming on a whole: highly cinematic games that by all rights have their place, but aren't particularly INTERESTING design-wise.
Still, I think given what we're seeing now Demon's Souls really was most justly "game of the year", the impact of it and Dark Souls is spreading slowly but surely, whereas Uncharted 2... well, it had influence surely, but not to the same level in the long run, and in the short term it kind of seems a dead end for gaming on a whole: highly cinematic games that by all rights have their place, but aren't particularly INTERESTING design-wise.
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
Game is in my all time top 5. Only part I disliked was the boss battle at the end.
Duxxy3
Member
Shooting was far better in uncharted 2.
Oh shit the glitches. Dont get me started on those:
I got stuck in tree geometry. Had to restart
Got warped outside of the game map. Had to restart
Had enemies glitch out on me or running against walls.
Had the final boss dissapear from the boss arena for about 5 minutes? WTF?
This fucking backtrack-blocking rubble should have fallen with me on the OTHER side
Obviously had to restart
Chuck Norris
Banned
In 2009 there was really nothing like it, it was doing everything in its arsenal at the top level. In 2013, everything is like it.
Dynamite Ringo Matsuri
Member
Are you me OP?
I've felt this way about the game from the moment I hit Shambala and the game jumped the shark. And UC3 is far worse, so much pushing up on the stick interspersed amidst frustrating encounter designs. Ugh. I'll take a thousand TLOUs before another UC title. I hope ND works on improving their mechanics from here on out, cause it's only gonna look sillier and sillier to play mechanically empty games the more their production values escalate
BubblegumCrisis
Member
my only response......welcome to AAA gaming!
Dave Meltzer
Banned
Almost all the big games this generation aren't actually fun. It's a generation of style over substance.
Vyse The Legend
Member
Agreed, for everything the game does greatly it also has some problems, the shooting mechanics, for example, are nowhere near the best of the genre, they're pretty bad, and the game also suffers a lot for the "enemies after enemies after more enemies, here's a platforming part, now more enemies, and now a tank enemy and more regular enemies to screw you while you try to kill that one" approach that a ton of other games also take, specially in the last third of the game. The presentation, including the story makes up for it though. It's still a great game at the end of the day imo.
I'm with you on this friend. I had fun, but it's one of the most overrated games I've seen in years. The biggest problem is the all mass murder going around, you're constantly interrupted by gigantic and uninteresting shoot-outs riddled with bullet sponges and this immensely takes away from what the game does well: making you enjoy the characters and what's going on, even if on a superficial, popcorn flick kind of way.
But while the game tries to show us this likable bunch of rogues with a spirit of adventure, traveling around the world, jumping from roof to roof and climbing mountains, or in other words, tries to be Indiana Jones, it shoves all this killing fitting of Gears of War in front of us completely missing the point of what made the game interesting and it doesn't have the decency of having mechanics so good that it makes the unholy amounts of time we spend shooting rewarding.
I don't know if it's the studio trying to break up some hypothetical boredom from the lack of genocide because they're worried about the gamers who are oh so fond of shooting, but to me it put a massive damper on my enjoyment of the game.
Then there's the problem with the "push up to win platforming" and all unclimbable knee-high walls and preset paths where we can jump to and grab onto. Also hated the stealth mechanics and obviously the final boss.
It's a good game, gorgeous sceneries, fantastic set pieces, good voice actor and humor and it has a good Indiana Jones thing going for it, but it falls short of what it could be because it seems to try to appeal to the low common denominator at the same time.
The game hasn't come out long ago enough for this to even be remotely important. All it screams to me is that, as usual with most "AAA" games, people fall to the hype surrounding the release and overstate the quality of the game.
But while the game tries to show us this likable bunch of rogues with a spirit of adventure, traveling around the world, jumping from roof to roof and climbing mountains, or in other words, tries to be Indiana Jones, it shoves all this killing fitting of Gears of War in front of us completely missing the point of what made the game interesting and it doesn't have the decency of having mechanics so good that it makes the unholy amounts of time we spend shooting rewarding.
I don't know if it's the studio trying to break up some hypothetical boredom from the lack of genocide because they're worried about the gamers who are oh so fond of shooting, but to me it put a massive damper on my enjoyment of the game.
Then there's the problem with the "push up to win platforming" and all unclimbable knee-high walls and preset paths where we can jump to and grab onto. Also hated the stealth mechanics and obviously the final boss.
It's a good game, gorgeous sceneries, fantastic set pieces, good voice actor and humor and it has a good Indiana Jones thing going for it, but it falls short of what it could be because it seems to try to appeal to the low common denominator at the same time.
The game hasn't come out long ago enough for this to even be remotely important. All it screams to me is that, as usual with most "AAA" games, people fall to the hype surrounding the release and overstate the quality of the game.