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Uncharted 4 gameplay discussion - the saga of the box with wheels

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Animator

Member
Want to start a new thread for spoiler free gameplay discussion. I am curious what you guys think because I was extremely underwhelmed.

Visually the game is perfection. I have never played a better looking game and I would dare anyone to find anything bad to say about the visuals. ND really pushed the envelope in art design and environment design (graphically) in this game and they should win all the awards in those categories.

Now the gameplay..

I would have honestly stopped playing the game long before completion if it didn't look so good because the gameplay is an absolute chore and does absolutely nothing new.

The major offenders for me in order are:

-The goddamn box. I have lost the number of times Nate found a conveniently placed box with wheels on a ledge somewhere where %99 of the time you boost your partner up some ledge and they throw the box down for you. This is not a once or twice thing this is used at least once on every level to the point where you start to assume it has to be some sort of running joke with the dev team. It is really jarring and immersion breaking when your character keeps running into this perfectly intact container with wheels even in areas where they spent countless hours making sure everything else in the environment reflects being 200+ years old and broken/eroded with time.

-Incredible environments and nothing worth exploring in them: They built the best looking environments ever put in a game and there is nothing to do in them except find some randomly placed collectible treasures that give you points to unlock collectibles. It would have been amazing to have some side quest mysteries/tombs to find and solve like in Tomb Raider.

-Traversal gets boring: The new rope gimmick is underused and the few times you can use it is telegraphed from a mile away it was not fun to use it. I never had a "I wonder if I can get there!" moment in this game like in Tomb Raider where the new abilities and equipment you find open up whole new traversal abilities. The rope was literally almost like a QTE. The game is so insistent on wanting you to move along if you are somehow unable to see the extremely obvious route you have to take for a minute it keeps popping up hint and notifications or whatever character is with you starts going "Nate I think we need to go here!". Give me a fucking moment to explore and figure stuff out ND.

-Combat is boring: There is nothing new here combat wise. Every encounter except the car chase one from the beginning of the game to the end played the same. Kill X number of guys till it goes "this was it". You also keep encountering enemies ahead of you even though you are supposedly exploring this place for the first time which I hated.

Would be curious to see if you guys agree/disagree.
 
-Combat is boring: There is nothing new here combat wise. Every encounter except the car chase one from the beginning of the game to the end played the same. Kill X number of guys till it goes "this was it". You also keep encountering enemies ahead of you even though you are supposedly exploring this place for the first time which I hated.

The improved stealth mechanics alone make the combat significantly improved over previous games. U4 is the first game in the series where I actually wanted more combat.

I agree with some of your other points to an extent, but Uncharted 4 is still my favorite entry in the series. Only Uncharted 2 comes close for me.
 

doofy102

Member
I honestly didn't mind the box-on-wheels.

There was one great moment with it. I pushed it during a shoot-out so I could make myself some advantageous cover. This was during the first encounter in Scotland. I doubt many players ever felt the need to do that. But it worked really well, and felt satisfying.
 
I liked every bit from the Game except of that Soundtrack and that Box of yours..
I was always wondering if Pirates of that Time had a Box with that kind of wheels under it...

The Shoot outs are very stressful sometimes, because AI usually puts alot Pressure on you.. (i was playing medium Difficulty)

But still i liked the Battles alot. Thought that the Weapons felt powerfull and so are the Shoot outs
 

Timeaisis

Member
Re: the box. There's so many times in U4 where you are doing literally nothing: no story beats, no exploration, no combat. Just moving a box or solving the most simple puzzle every conceived. It's crazy. I can give it a pass when the downtime are story beats, but so often it's just crazy filler. It's awful.

If it were a movie I would've turned it off. Which is weird, because that's what these games stive to be, on an entertainment level. Luckily for ND, I wanted to see what happens because I'm invested in the series.
 

Hasemo

(;・∀・)ハッ?
I agree with almost all your points. I enjoyed most of my time with the game, but the visuals, vistas etc. were by far the best things about the game. That said, I was tired of the Uncharted formula around 3/4 into UC2 when I first played it (never touched the first one), so I might just not be the target for these games.
The improved stealth mechanics alone make the combat significantly improved over previous games. U4 is the first game in the series where I actually wanted more combat.

I agree with some of your other points to an extent, but Uncharted 4 is still my favorite entry in the series. Only Uncharted 2 comes close for me.
I didn't enjoy combat in this one and I was really happy that there wasn't as much of it in here as in UC2/3.
I think having more systems related to stealth would actually make it enjoyable. Silenced pistols or at least bricks/bottles/rocks to lure enemies would go a long way. It felt kind of underdeveloped, especially after The Last of Us (and playing MGS5 last year).
 

ron_bato

Member
Want to start a new thread for spoiler free gameplay discussion. I am curious what you guys think because I was extremely underwhelmed.

Visually the game is perfection. I have never played a better looking game and I would dare anyone to find anything bad to say about the visuals. ND really pushed the envelope in art design and environment design (graphically) in this game and they should win all the awards in those categories.

Now the gameplay..

I would have honestly stopped playing the game long before completion if it didn't look so good because the gameplay is an absolute chore and does absolutely nothing new.

The major offenders for me in order are:

-The goddamn box. I have lost the number of times Nate found a conveniently placed box with wheels on a ledge somewhere where %99 of the time you boost your partner up some ledge and they throw the box down for you. This is not a once or twice thing this is used at least once on every level to the point where you start to assume it has to be some sort of running joke with the dev team. It is really jarring and immersion breaking when your character keeps running into this perfectly intact container with wheels even in areas where they spent countless hours making sure everything else in the environment reflects being 200+ years old and broken/eroded with time.

-Incredible environments and nothing worth exploring in them: They built the best looking environments ever put in a game and there is nothing to do in them except find some randomly placed collectible treasures that give you points to unlock collectibles. It would have been amazing to have some side quest mysteries/tombs to find and solve like in Tomb Raider.

-Traversal gets boring: The new rope gimmick is underused and the few times you can use it is telegraphed from a mile away it was not fun to use it. I never had a "I wonder if I can get there!" moment in this game like in Tomb Raider where the new abilities and equipment you find open up whole new traversal abilities. The rope was literally almost like a QTE. The game is so insistent on wanting you to move along if you are somehow unable to see the extremely obvious route you have to take for a minute it keeps popping up hint and notifications or whatever character is with you starts going "Nate I think we need to go here!". Give me a fucking moment to explore and figure stuff out ND.

-Combat is boring: There is nothing new here combat wise. Every encounter except the car chase one from the beginning of the game to the end played the same. Kill X number of guys till it goes "this was it". You also keep encountering enemies ahead of you even though you are supposedly exploring this place for the first time which I hated.

Would be curious to see if you guys agree/disagree.

Hi OP, I agree with your box comment, as to me, this felt really overused, and how often they went to it showed a lack of creativity from ND (one of the very rare instances where I can say this). It was everywhere in TLoU, and through my 13 chapters, I feel like I've already seen it enough. It makes sense in some levels, but in others, it feels way too much like "well that's a little bit too convenient to have this rolling box here again."

The platforming, I can also agree with to some extent, but the way it is used in combat is at least one thing that I can say the game has going for it.

Combat isn't boring for me though, but it can be when you play a certain way (ie sit behind cover and wait for the waves of enemies to come at you). I felt that combat scenarios in this game played out much more varied compared to other uncharteds.

It gave you the option to use stealth, it also encourages a lot of vertical movement, and clever use of the levels that ND crafted really well. I feel like there are multiple ways to tackle most of the encounters, and the 'flow' of the combat shines when ND gives you a level packed with different options to handle combat.
 

ModBot

Not a mod, just a bot.
Come on, there's no reason why this can't go in one of the 800 other Uncharted 4 threads, including the OT.
 
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