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Uncharted 2 or 3? What's Your Preference?

Uncharted 2, much better pacing story and characters. The "villains"in 3 were terrible.

Best thing about 3 was the ability to throw back grenades.

I even prefer Uncharted 1 over Uncharted 3.
 
Dangansona said:
There's a difference from not liking the story (I disagree of course) and calling it a bad/shit game.
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And there's a difference between reading a post and reading a post and actually comprehending what was written. I didn't call it a bad game. I called it a bad UC game. Because I think it's a bad UC game.
 
I've preferred 2 over 3 for a number of years, but I'll be playing through them again in the remastered form in the coming weeks. I wonder if I'll change my stance.
 
Rajang said:
Uncharted 2, much better pacing story and characters. The "villains"in 3 were terrible.

Best thing about 3 was the ability to throw back grenades.

I even prefer Uncharted 1 over Uncharted 3.
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I can see the argument for liking UC1 over UC3. It feels more cohesive and more fully realized compared to UC3. You can feel the spots where UC3 just doesn't gel together and feels rushed compared to UC1.
 
Im playing Uncharted 1 right now and I absolutely hate it. The bad story and characters, horrible and frustrating combat, Those mind numbingly terrible vehicle sections, Easy and uninspired puzzles. That game is trash.

2 and 3 is MUCH better, not even close.
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
I disagree because it's balanced by the improved encounter design and increased mobility options. Otherwise you have easy targets jittering at every shot and difficulty coming in the form of increased enemy health and accuracy, not to mention more enemies firing at you at once (like the previous entries).
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I'm going to preface this by mentioning that I was a massive UC3 apologist on launch and also one of the people that ND used to fix the deadzone issues with the aiming. I loved that game on release and didn't understand the backlash. However, on going back to it, the issues are apparent.

Increased mobility options - I love the ship graveyard because of this. The vertical combat was dope. You know what wasn't dope? The new melee system which, while better in melee only encounters, was unusable in gunfights. Since 'O' was now used to grapple, you would die instantly on harder difficulties since you can't roll away from enemies and they'd lock you into a fist fight.

Improve encounter design - Armoured enemies.You can't shoot off an armoured dude's helmet and one-hit melee him to death like you could in UC2. Melee was now a liability and not a tactical choice.

Also, the lack of hit reactions for every shot is a massive issue. Snipers? Hope you get a headshot first time because you can't make them flinch and screw up their aim.

The above two were enemies who added challenges through an element of prioritisation in UC2. However, they had counters. In UC3, those counters just didn't work anymore yet the enemies remained the same, if not more powerful. The balance was totally off.
 
MoonsaultSlayer said:
I often wonder why Uncharted 3's shipyard and cruise ship sections are labeled as "unnecessary" and pace-killing. Is it not part of the theme of the game? It's all a deception and it plays on Drake's emotions and attachment to Sully.

They could have easily designed it as the duo needing to hitch a ride on the boat, Sully getting ganked on the way to it and Nate planning a rescue, then shipwreck, then lifeboat and "we were almost in that" to their destination.

But instead, it's all just to fuck with Nate's head, perfectly in line with the themes. I'll never understand the thinking that these were unnecessary, throw away sections.

And yes, I understand the setpieces came first. But a more clichéd approach to keep it within the straight and narrow plot could have easily been applied if they wanted to go that route.
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My personal problem with the cruise ship is that after it's all over, Drake miraculously washes up on shore where elena is. This doesn't even go into how he's clinging onto a piece of dry wood all night in the middle of the ocean. It just completely handwaves away an practical reason that would explain A) how he would have surivived the entire night and B) that he would have washed up at the exact place where Elena was at.

This is the same problem with the chase with Talbot. Talbot has absolutely NO reason to be running away from drake. Only for drake to be knocked out and captured again. He was already captured before the chase happened. Considering Talbot had no reason to run in the first place and drake ends up being captured by the same people that he was originally captured by, narratively speaking, what was the purpose of the chase? It made no sense what so ever other than the fact that ND just knew they wanted it and that it'd be a cool thing to have.
 
I'd vote for 2 as the best in the series, but I don't think 3 is anywhere near as bad as the first one. That said, I think all of them are overrated in gameplay terms. My issue with them is that the set piece is king and everything else feels built around them. I'm glad UC4 seems to have much more fluid and fun gameplay from what I've seen of it.
 
RealityCheque said:
Drinking beer in the morning is a bad habit. It makes you say silly things.
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One is easily the best

Doesnt have all the cut scenes or moments that takes me out of gameplay. Also has a cohesive area that lets me continue and enjoy the game.

Why do I want to climb up a train to have 20 near death experiences. That isn't even fun and it just feels silly. Not to mention taking me out of gameplay every second to cut to a cut scene of opening things, even had me put things like man hole covers over my head in a cut scene when I am entering and climbing down. What is the point of all that. Move, cut scene, move and cut scene. Can you imagine if the new batman game did that, it's better when physics come into play and you do have more control even if the objective has a strict set involved. I do not need to have something happen just cause it can be scripted. Man, UC2 rreally feels bad at times, even the building jump feels straight out of ps2 era. Give me control, give me timing and physics. Enough with this cheap feeling stuff ND. The whole reason I havent even played Last of Us yes, I'm simply afraid to feel its bad.


not only is one a better game, 2 isnt even that great with all the non sense it has.

2 is the fast and furious, 1 is the star wars 7 not the best but good enough for sure.

1 > 3 > 2 cut scene 2 slow
 
Another vote for Uncharted 2 and a big part of this is due some warm nostalgia in my heart.

When I got my Playstation 2 Slim (not the latest version, but the first slim model) I only had money to buy one game so Uncharted 2 was the best choice. It was the first game that I played on my PS3 and I remember like it was today. I cleaned my small place and put the PS3 on the right of my TV. As soon as I started the game I loved the soundtrack, the intro theme is still, to this day one of my favorite themes.

I played the game for a couple of chapters and then I decided to try the multiplayer portion which felt amazing. That is until a patch came out who made things different and I felt disconnected to the online portion after that. Still, it was such an amazing experience. The locations from Uncharted 2 are colorful and filled with many cultural places I would like to visit one day and the multiplayer was really fun. Just by typing this I'm remembering all those moments and it was such a great time that I can only hope I can live a similar moment in a future game release.
 
I prefer 2. It's been so long since I've played either that I can't really go into specifics, but I liked having the conflict between the main characters in 2. That wasn't in 3, and I thought the new character (Cutter?) just seemed thrown in there. Still loved 3, just didn't like it as much.
 
Uncharted 2 is most-definitely the better game in my eyes. Uncharted 3 was pretty good, but it felt lacking and didn't live up to my expectations after the first two.

Uncharted 2 is an amazing game. It's beautiful, visceral, immersive and polished. The story is engaging, the gameplay is a lot of fun and it strikes all the right chords.

For some reason, I'm almost more partial to the first, because of how much it blew me away when I first played it, but Uncharted 2 is probably the best of the three. Uncharted 3 definitely is not.
 
I guess UC2 is considered the better game (I bet Greg & Colin would disagree) but I played the remastered collection (platinumed all 3 and no did not do brutal).

Played UC1 and realized how not fun it was and I remember thinking "I loved this back in 2007"

Played UC2 & UC3 back to back and I liked the latter more. Also was weirded out at how easy Crushing was on all 3 remastered games, I remember 3 in particular giving me fits on PS3.

UC2 train set peice can't be beat, but UC3 narrative was better imo. I enjoyed it more, and after seeing Nate and Sully globetrotting alongside each other in UC1 & UC2, the final game felt like a culmination of prior titles.
Sully "dying" was gut wrenching
and who could forget this?

qYyd45l.jpg
 
tomb raider

sorry :p
Both with slight edge to Uncharted 3 - I'm a sucker for desert locales.


antitrop said:
I stopped watching Dark Knight Rises halfway through it because it was so bad and I haven't played Uncharted 3, yet, so that doesn't exactly bode well for me.
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Uncharted 3 is great. So..it does not follow anything Nolan/Dark Knight related.
 
has to be 2 for me because when I loaded up 3 I found I had no desire to play it. 2 was so mind blowing at the time and I put 3 down real early if I remember right. I was done with Uncharted I think after 2. For no real reason - just sometimes you are done (this happened to me with Gears of War 2 also I recall lol). Hey I bought it full price day one - I can not play it if I don't want to okay! :D
 
I love Colin & Greg's argument that if ND has released 3 first and called it Uncharted 2 folks would have dumped on 2 now called Uncharted 3

Do you folks agree with that?
 
Goose_Se7en said:
I love Colin & Greg's argument that if ND has released 3 first and called it Uncharted 2 folks would have dumped on 2 now called Uncharted 3

Do you folks agree with that?
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No because UC2 is a more cohesive game. So if UC2 came after UC3 I'd think you'd have a very fitting trilogy that ends on a pretty good note.

UC3 isn't shit tier. It's not a terrible game. It's just not good enough to come after UC2 or to be the bookend for a trilogy.
 
2 played so much better.

3 screwed with the gun play by making enemies tend to not react to getting shot at all, they would only flinch at taking a shot only after several rounds or certain weapons. In 2, your shouts actually counted against enemies, in 3, enemies they can run at you pump shots into them and they wouldn't even flinch. It was highly inconsistent in 3, and it felt like it was dont just so they could force players into using the close combat system.

That also brings up how annoying the close combat system was, as for the above mentioned reason, the AI not only would shrug off bullet hits, but they also often seemed super dumb as they charged across open floors/fields to try and melee you instead of taking cover or shooting back at you. The combat was meant to feel like cinematic melee fights, it looked cool, but it affected the immersion factor of the gun battles with how the AI acted. Also the melee system was intrusive when it kicked in suddenly during a gun battle and you had to force disengage while other baddies are just blasting away at you.

smokeandmirrors said:
what was up with the weird hit detection issue on enemies in 3? was that just an effect of the ps4 port or was that on the ps3 as well?
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In UC1 and 2, enemies reacted realistically to each shot and where it went. They even reacted to near misses in semi realistic fashion. In 3, enemies would get shot and besides a blood splatter, would not react. You sometimes had to shoot a bad guy with several rounds from a hand gun for them to even flinch. In the old games, you shoot someone in the leg as they run and they trip up, or in the arm, and they would spin around or flail back. This was removed mostly in 3
 
hbkdx12 said:
My personal problem with the cruise ship is that after it's all over, Drake miraculously washes up on shore where elena is. This doesn't even go into how he's clinging onto a piece of dry wood all night in the middle of the ocean. It just completely handwaves away an practical reason that would explain A) how he would have surivived the entire night and B) that he would have washed up at the exact place where Elena was at.

This is the same problem with the chase with Talbot. Talbot has absolutely NO reason to be running away from drake. Only for drake to be knocked out and captured again. He was already captured before the chase happened. Considering Talbot had no reason to run in the first place and drake ends up being captured by the same people that he was originally captured by, narratively speaking, what was the purpose of the chase? It made no sense what so ever other than the fact that ND just knew they wanted it and that it'd be a cool thing to have.
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The reason Talbot is running away from Drake is to keep Marlowe safe. If you look back when the chase sequence starts police are gathering at the scene. (and are also shooting at both of you during the chase.) So to protect Marlowe from getting in trouble with the police he runs away getting Drake to follow him, and then I guess runs in some sort of circle so that the pirate dude can meet up at another location.

On topic: I think I prefer 2 simply because it's better put together, but I have liked 3 since day 1. They both have their strengths and if you're willing to look for it in 3 you will find it.
 
I played U2 under unfortunate circumstances (YLOD). So it took me about 6 month to finish it.
I personally enjoyed U3 more. I just liked the setting that much more and I thought the setpieces and level design were superior to pretty much any other TPS out there.

I have no direct comparison of the mechanics and how each game felt in my head, so its a free pass on that one.
But both are great.

Also I dont really like Chloe.
 
I thought it was 2, until I replayed the games on hard. U2 has easily the worst combat of the series. It also probably the worst platforming of the series. It's so seriously buggy and underbaked that It really makes me appreciate Assassin's Creed, which shocked me quite frankly.

U1 I think has the best AI and "arena" set pieces. U3 probably has the best corridor set pieces. U2 has simply the best level set pieces. U2 also has the best finale. With U3 jumping the shark at the final encounter, which is just a quick scene. But the whole thing before that, was probably the best finale sequence of the series.

So between the 2 and 3. Maybe 3, though I still tend to like 1 the most when comparing them on hard.
 
hamchan said:
That doesn't make sense because even if the encounter design is better in UC3 (it isn't) that's no excuse for lackluster hit detection. That's just bad game design to make the shooting aspect of your game feel worse because of difficulty concerns. It felt terrible to just shoot a shotgun enemy charging at you in UC3 and have it look like it had no effect, like shooting a brick wall. Compare that to UC2 where it felt satisfying to see an enemy react to shots, being unable to move as he gets riddled by bullets. Thank god that's back in UC4.

The enemies firing at you at once part is untrue too. UC3 is more guilty of that because it recommits the sins of UC1 that were fixed in UC2, that is frustrating rooms that have enemies constantly spawning behind you, easily killing you on Crushing, resulting in trial and error situations as you memorize their spawns. It's a failure of encounter design in UC3.
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I'm not arguing against the usefulness and satisfaction of hit detection. I'm arguing against the idea that it makes UC3 "bad". Your comment about UC3 shotty guys can apply to UC2's as well. In trying to search for a video (without sound), yes, it is hard to grasp the lack of hit reactions. However it didn't seem to match my experience while playing so I'll have to load it up, play around and upload my own video when I get the chance.

About the encounter design and the "sins of UC1", UC1 was mired by a poorly optimized crushing difficulty. But in this series, the funnest arenas don't have a "behind" as you should always be mobile. Otherwise, you can just sit behind cover and pick everyone off.
 
It was always U2 for me. But after playing the collection it changed to U3 surprisingly. Especially with the aiming now being fixed. I thought that the set pieces and encounters were better. I see a lot of people praising the train sequence as one of the best moments in any Uncharted. After playing all 3 with the collection I think the entire ship yard/cruise ship level in U3 is better.

Both U2 and U3 suffer from annoying enemy types at the very end. Though I think the tribal enemies were worse than the trippy flaming enemies.
 
keltickennedy said:
It was always U2 for me. But after playing the collection it changed to U3 surprisingly. Especially with the aiming now being fixed. I thought that the set pieces and encounters were better. I see a lot of people praising the train sequence as one of the best moments in any Uncharted. After playing all 3 with the collection I think the entire ship yard/cruise ship level in U3 is better.

Both U2 and U3 suffer from annoying enemy types at the very end. Though I think the tribal enemies were worse than the trippy flaming enemies.
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Why I believe the train is superior to the cruise ship

zsynqx said:
All of the combat on the ship was wave based kill rooms while the train had you moving through the level. None of the gameplay on the ship was engaging while the train had you climbing in and out, jumping from carriage to carriage, dodging signal sign things, avoiding helicopter fire all while the environment around you transitions from jungle to tunnels to snowy clifftops. It managed to do this whilst pushing the story foward and linking back to the beginning of the game.
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Main problem with Cruise ship though is that it did nothing to push the story forward.
 
Everyone who says that 3 is a bad game is out of his mind. Especially the first half or so is fantastic and all environments are great and diverse and just awesome. The combat would profit from more open areas. Even some of the bigger combat arenas feel squeezed and don't give you many options in your approach.

That being said, yes, 2 is the best and probably still my favorite game of all time. The chemistry between the characters and the storytelling in a so action focused game is still unmatched in my opinion.

Great to see so much love for Uncharted 1 in this thread. It earns it, even if it misses the #2 spot - slightly. The controls feel tighter in the remastered version and overall it felt a lot easier than I remember it (On my first ever playthrough, before the trophies were patched in, it was HARD for me, I wasn't used to aiming with a stick and still played all shooters on PC at that time), it still suffered from just too many enemies and profited from the growing chemistry between characters. You aren't sure if Sully is a trustworthy character and same goes for Elena even but in the end you can feel the camaraderie between them.

I just played through Rise of the Tomb Raider and it succeeds in making set piece moments as awesome as Uncharted and cleverly mixes in a crafting and upgrading system similar to The Last of Us. I would still put it lower than UC2 and 3 on my list because the environments miss diversity, the characters have ZERO chemistry going and at times feel out of place, especially with the serious tone the new TR games are going for. I also feel like I haven't had enough combat... like there aren't enough enemies in one playthrough to pull off all the tricks at your disposal and get good at them. Also the combat misses the speed of UC and doesn't deliver good on the stealth side to stand a chance against TLoU.
 
Each one was a day one purchase on PS3 for me. I always preferred 2. But having played through the remastered trilogy and finishing 3 just last night I a actually think it is my new favorite. Replaying it I can't understand the hate it got back when it was released
 
zsynqx said:
Just wait for UC4.
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I'm gonna go through Uncharted 3 Remastered before 4 comes out, at least just so I can be caught up on the story.

When Elena was revealed in that Uncharted 4 trailer, I was like "I have no idea why this is supposed to be meaningful, or why Nate is so surprised to see her, because I have no idea what happened at the end of Uncharted 3". Like, I at least need to fill in the gaps.
 
I played the collection last month and 2 is the best for me. 3 just felt less satisfying and paced, even though it's better on every technical level and has some great moments, places, direction etc.
 
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