I'm like six or seven hours in now. And I'm nowhere near halfway (judging by chapter count).
- the combat is utterly phenomenal. Shooting feels great, shots landing feels great, getting shot feels great, reloading feels great, thumping into cover feels great.
- the whole thing is super responsive. Like practically MGSV level. But I actually prefer it to MGSV because there's character and personality and quirk to every frame of animation - MGSV's movements felt a bit sterile (it's obviously a military-focused game, so probably that)
- and talking of animations... What the fuck. There are thousands upon thousands of animations added for any possible tiny instance - grabbing a ledge from a funny angle, trying to punch a guy who's behind a doorframe, getting grabbed from behind while you have someone up against a wall, etc etc
- graphically and in terms of animation it's not perfect, it's just brilliant, but that doesn't matter, because the
gameplay is so good it would be fine even with Uncharted 2/3 graphics
- levels are super long. And brilliant minute by minute. So well designed, the platforming feels fun and responsive, the climbing is near-perfect, hugely improved, the spaces are far larger and there are multiple routes built into even small arenas/areas
- but it's well-paced, even though it's seemingly the longest game yet. I haven't been bored once yet, and I'm 7 hours in. The story stuff is brilliantly handled and there are loads of great moments they haven't shown in any trailers
- remember those brawls in Uncharted 3 which were sort of OK but also kinda easy and flawed? They are fucking brilliant in Uncharted 4. Especially if you're someone who's into good animation and responsiveness
Can't wait to get back to it. Incredible stuff.
Also who the heck said this wasn't funny in comparison with UC2. This is just as funny. In a more witty, Frasier-esque way, but equally funny. I've had a bunch of good belly laughs already, and I'm on chapter 8 or 9.
Edit: oh and the writing seems excellent and on-point, as always. Can't really fault it yet
edit edit: if I had to think of a complaint so far it would be that the opening chapters probably will be a pain to get through on subsequent playthroughs. They're brilliant on first playthrough, but I can imagine returning to them will just be OK, or tiring if you're keen to progress. Much like the Istanbul Museum from UC2. Finding the treasures and exploring will be fun but sometimes you need a break from that.
Can you change the difficulty midgame?
I wanna start on a higher difficulty but I'm not sure if it will disturb my smooth sailing for the first playthrough.
Yes. I started on Hard, but was nearly dying in the very first gunfight, so I bumped it to Normal.
Disclaimer: I'm one of those people who believes Uncharted 2 doesn't get good until you play it on Crushing, and I recommend Hard at least for all the games –
but honestly I'd recomend Normal for this game. The game feels so smooth and seamless on Normal - it's really satisfying.
Plus Hard/Crushing have new enemy layouts/numbers, so you can save a freshened-up playthrough for once you've finished it once with the bog-standard layouts
