The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18: Uncharted Edition

User avatar
Phaseknox
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:20 pm

The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18: Uncharted Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

Played: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Finished: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Playing: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

I finished Uncharted 3 last night, and it was a similar situation to Uncharted where I wasn't really having fun playing it and just pushed through it for the story. While I have some nitpicks with Uncharted 2, it's still one of my favorite games. It's a cohesive and fun action adventure thrill ride from start to finish with an entertaining story and cast of characters along with great gunplay, platforming, scripted events and set pieces. The same can't be said for Uncharted 3, it's a disjointed mess that becomes infuriating after the halfway point.

The first half of the game is good, it's a nice mix of adventuring, brawling, shooting, platforming and puzzle solving. I liked that it wasn't essentially just one shootout after another like in the two previous games (especially Uncharted). But then it basically turns into that when you reach the shipyard/boat level with pirates. The entire level feels out of place and shoehorned into the game, and outdoes the first Uncharted when it comes to pinning you down and surrounding you by wave after wave of of enemies with grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and gatling guns while you have a pistol and a machine gun. You have to run around frantically just trying to survive while every enemy has pinpoint accuracy on you. The saying "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind, you're the fish in the barrel being shot at. To add insult to injury, the gunplay is worse than in Uncharted 2 where it was solid and tight. In this game it's looser making pinpoint aiming a lot harder since you're constantly correcting your aim, and the enemies are more bullet sponges not even flinching when you shoot them so even though you're plugging away at them they just stand there and shoot you back. I don't know how many times that I died because after empting clips of ammo into an enemy and thinking that they were dead they ended up killing me off screen because they weren't dead.

A lot of the scripted events/set pieces throughout were totally absurd, and over the top to the point of ridiculousness. They were meant to be exciting, but instead were completely bonkers and not in a good way. I don't think that there's one thing in the game that Nate can grab that doesn't break. Things continue to go downhill with a long drawn out walking through a desert section immediately followed by another infuriating lengthy shootout level against onslaughts of armed to the teeth enemies throwing everything and the kitchen sink out at you. Thankfully things calm down a little during the last level of the game, there's still tons of enemies to shoot but not as bad as the levels before and the final boss is basically a QTE which is good because after the frustration that I had getting to him I wasn't in the mood for more frustration.

The bottom line is that Uncharted 3 lacks the charm, cohesiveness, fun and humor that Uncharted 2 offered throughout. It takes itself a lot more seriously most of the time, and ultimately feels like a hodgepodge of levels instead of one well thought out adventure.

I'm going to start Uncharted 4: A Thief's End now.
Last edited by Phaseknox on Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Phaseknox
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:20 pm

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by Phaseknox »

Uncharted 4 is... WOW!!!! I'm really impressed so far, they didn't reinvent the wheel they just took everything that worked from the past games and gave it all a modern update. The graphics are probably the best that I've seen in a game, the attention to detail is fantastic. It has the same play mechanics just smoother and more solid overall. I'm really enjoying the story and characters, and I like that it's a blend of different game elements instead of just being one shootout after another. It kind of reminds me of the first half of Uncharted 3 before it went south. I look forward to playing it more.
User avatar
jfissel
Posts: 719
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2018 3:18 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by jfissel »

Finished: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed: Syndicate

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 29 games

Decided to jump into Ass Creed: Syndicate since I'm falling behind on those games.

And wow, Phase is just plowing right through the entire Uncharted franchise in record time.
Image
User avatar
Phaseknox
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:20 pm

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by Phaseknox »

jfissel wrote: Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:33 pmDecided to jump into Ass Creed: Syndicate since I'm falling behind on those games.
You and me both. I still need to play Rogue, Unity, Syndicate, Origins and Chronicles.
jfissel wrote: Sun Jul 29, 2018 4:33 pmwow, Phase is just plowing right through the entire Uncharted franchise in record time.
It's been nice to play linear games that keep you moving forward without any real downtime, or constant inventory management for a change. I'm a believer that less is more in video games, but more and more modern games overwhelm you with endless amounts of useless inventory crap and unnecessarily complicated play mechanics that bog the experiences down and make me less inclined to want to play them. The Uncharted games give you the basics, and are more about pure gameplay and spectacle than everything else which make for experiences that are never boring. While I was a little hard on Uncharted and Uncharted 3 mainly due to some infuriating shootouts where you're pinned down and outnumbered by wave after wave of enemies with sniper rifles, rocket launchers, gatling guns, grenades, etc. they still both offered a lot of awesome moments and were never dull. And Uncharted 2 was a blast from start to finish.

I'm really enjoying Uncharted 4, after a lot of butt sliding and rope swinging I made it to an open area where I'm driving a jeep around collecting trinkets. While I'm enjoying driving the jeep, Naughty Dog could have come up with a better incentive to explore the open area other than collecting trinkets. It just feels like padding to lengthen the game, I've decided to stop driving around and just go where I need to progress the story.
User avatar
isthatallyougot
Posts: 1304
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:52 am

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:43 pm I finished Uncharted 3 last night, and it was a similar situation to Uncharted where I wasn't really having fun playing it
for shame! :P

I still think it's the highlight of the series. (Haven't played TLL yet)
Image

Dragon kick your a$$ into the Milky Way!
User avatar
argyle
Posts: 827
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:28 pm

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by argyle »

isthatallyougot wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 4:50 pm
Phaseknox wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:43 pm I finished Uncharted 3 last night, and it was a similar situation to Uncharted where I wasn't really having fun playing it
for shame! :P

I still think it's the highlight of the series. (Haven't played TLL yet)
There are two types of people: those who think that Uncharted 2 is better than Uncharted 3, and those who are wrong. ;) :P
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed
if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I
became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the
desire to be very grown up.” ― C.S. Lewis

Image
User avatar
isthatallyougot
Posts: 1304
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:52 am

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by isthatallyougot »

argyle wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:23 pm
isthatallyougot wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 4:50 pm
Phaseknox wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:43 pm I finished Uncharted 3 last night, and it was a similar situation to Uncharted where I wasn't really having fun playing it
for shame! :P

I still think it's the highlight of the series. (Haven't played TLL yet)
There are two types of people: those who think that Uncharted 2 is better than Uncharted 3, and those who are wrong. ;) :P

If lovin Uncharted 3 is wrong, I don't wanna be right! ;)
Image

Dragon kick your a$$ into the Milky Way!
User avatar
Phaseknox
Posts: 1760
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 7:20 pm

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by Phaseknox »

I just finished Uncharted 4, and it's easily one of the best games that I've played. It's the best Uncharted game IMO, it's the best game that I've played this gen and it's my current GOTY beating out God of War. Everything about it clicked with me... story, characters, graphics, audio, environments, level designs, gameplay, ending, etc. It was a near perfect game for me. It was the natural evolution of the Uncharted series, and it surpassed my expectations. I couldn't really imagine it being better than it was, it was everything that I wanted in the series from the beginning and more.

I expected another 10 hour extremely linear cover shooter with platforming and over the top scripted events and set pieces just with current gen graphics, but what I got was an 18 hour semi linear action adventure platform puzzle game with the focus more on adventure and platforming and less on shootouts like in the previous games and the best graphics that I've seen. There was a good helping of over the top scripted events and set pieces as well, easily some of the best in the series. I also really liked the jeep driving, it added another gameplay element that elevated the game for me. And it had one of the most satisfying endings to a game ever.

My only real complaint is that Elena was almost unrecognizable compared to how she looked in the previous games, and her personality seemed slightly different too. I liked her in the game, but her looking different and acting slightly different seemed a little off. Other than that, I don't really have any complaints with the game. Bravo Naughty Dog.
isthatallyougot wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 4:50 pmfor shame! :P

I still think it's the highlight of the series. (Haven't played TLL yet)
I might have been a little harder on Uncharted 3 than I should have been since it did have some really cool moments throughout, and I really liked the first half. But it also had some of the most infuriating combat situations that I've experienced in a game which is what made it a lot less fun for me. Why is it the highlight of the series for you, I'm just curious.
argyle wrote: Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:23 pmThere are two types of people: those who think that Uncharted 2 is better than Uncharted 3, and those who are wrong. ;) :P
Exactly. :lol:
User avatar
isthatallyougot
Posts: 1304
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:52 am

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:37 am
I might have been a little harder on Uncharted 3 than I should have been since it did have some really cool moments throughout, and I really liked the first half. But it also had some of the most infuriating combat situations that I've experienced in a game which is what made it a lot less fun for me. Why is it the highlight of the series for you, I'm just curious.
I play Uncharted for the sense of adventure, and I felt like it was more in harmony with that spirit for me. There were just so many fantastic moments. I know there are narrative issues / awkwardness, but it didn't diminish the fun factor for me.

Fwiw, I really enjoyed all 4 of the main entries, but UC3 is a cut above for me with 4 & 2 about even and the first, while still very good on its own, a bit further back.
Image

Dragon kick your a$$ into the Milky Way!
User avatar
canedaddy
Posts: 1005
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 1:36 pm

Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 30: 7/28/18

Post by canedaddy »

Played the last two weeks: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 34 (13 PS4, 10 Vita, 6 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)

I'm back from vacation on the East Coast. It was a great trip... one of the best I've ever had. Very sorry to see it end.

I didn't do a whole lot of gaming, but I got in a decent amount of Layton on the flight out. I probably would have finished it on the way back if my stupid charger hadn't died the day before. :x

Phaseknox wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:37 am I just finished Uncharted 4, and it's easily one of the best games that I've played. It's the best Uncharted game IMO ...
Agreed! I'm stunned that you're getting just now getting to it. Great game, and perfect end to the Nathan Drake saga.

isthatallyougot wrote: Tue Jul 31, 2018 9:34 am If lovin Uncharted 3 is wrong, I don't wanna be right! ;)
Image
Image
Post Reply