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[Jangowuzhere]

If you want combat and not story then this isn't the series for you.

Easily one of the most absurd first posts I've seen on GAF.

Uncharted 1-3 were all about shooting things. It had moments of downtime to give the player a briefer, but the core of those games were focused on combat.

I agree, there is a huge pacing problem.
Needed more combat and less "walking around" sequences.I almost dropped the game on the whole kids on the house stuff. So long and boring.

Actually the reason I have the game is because a friend of mine Gave up on it because of all the boring sequênces where you barely play.

The game didn't need more combat, it needed to make the "walking around" sequences more interesting.

 

[ScaryShark]

The most wrong statement I've read in a while. All 3 games are littered with combat. The first game was even criticised for having too much.

...and the amount of combat in 4 is getting severely mischaracterized so people can prove their point. It isn't murder boxes, but there's a lot of it, especially the last 1/3 of the game. It's just delivered differently.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

lol, I'm glad that 25 hours in to the Uncharted series, it was the dehydration that people started drawing the line for realism.

It isn't about the realism. It's about setting the rules within a universe, and then breaking them.

Drake is a superhuman, no doubt about it. The crazy climbing and acrobatics. But then the game goes into a crap sequence showing you he can actually be vulernable, dying, and dehydrating. Then it told the sequence off with Ha!, just kidding, he's fine.. that was to deliberately waste your time.

 

[Bucca]

People putting 1 and Golden Abyss over 4, c'mon now y'all.

 

[black070]

It isn't about the realism. It's about setting the rules within a universe, and then breaking them.

Drake is a superhuman, no doubt about it. The crazy climbing and acrobatics. But then the game goes into a crap sequence showing you he can actually be vulernable, dying, and dehydrating. Then it told the sequence off with Ha!, just kidding, he's fine.. that was to deliberately waste your time.

I really liked that sequence, it was a nice way to break up the action and take advantage of the desert setting.

 

[Melchiah]

I agree, there is a huge pacing problem.
Needed more combat and less "walking around" sequences.I almost dropped the game on the whole kids on the house stuff. So long and boring.

Actually the reason I have the game is because a friend of mine Gave up on it because of all the boring sequênces where you barely play.

Let me guess, exploration-based games aren't real games? Exploration is just as much gameplay as shooting.

 

[ScaryShark]

It isn't about the realism. It's about setting the rules within a universe, and then breaking them.

Drake is a superhuman, no doubt about it. The crazy climbing and acrobatics. But then the game goes into a crap sequence showing you he can actually be vulernable, dying, and dehydrating. Then it told the sequence off with Ha!, just kidding, he's fine.. that was to deliberately waste your time.

Man, I don't know what to tell you since you clearly aren't going to be convinced of anything. You think 10 minutes (literally) is an interminable amount of time and are now saying a huge cinematic sequence only existed as a 'fuck you' to the player for some reason by the people who made the game.

It's not played off like 'Ha!', Nolan North's performance through that entire sequence is of desperation and it ends with him literally being saved by a third party (which is a fun twist on the Indy convention of white guy 'saving' brown people). It's not dismissed but it's a leap of logic you have to make for a video game. Which you have had to do every step of the way. Humans don't regenerate health. Mystical creatures don't actually exist. No one has that good of upper body strength.

 

[RespectThySole]

The pacing was awful. 2 was a far better game. I saw a poster say earlier that "they couldn't pay him to replay this game" and that's exactly how I feel about Uncharted 4.

 

[Jangowuzhere]

Let me guess, exploration-based games aren't real games? Exploration is just as much gameplay as shooting.

When your exploration is basic and overly simple, then yes.

Holding up on the stick and pressing a button occasionally is not interesting interaction for the player.

 

[Roufianos]

It must be the most boring game I've ever finished. I forced myself through it expecting the pace to pick up, expecting the mother of all set pieces.

God how I hated the more grounded tone, it doesn't suit the Uncharted universe at all. I wish they'd just made TLOU 2 instead.

 

[Arion]

I was baffled by how much climbing there was in the game. They must know how dull it is, why did they put so much of it in the game?

 

[Melchiah]

When your exploration is basic and overly simple, then yes.

Holding up on the stick and pressing a button occasionally is not interesting interaction for the player.

So, games like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aren't real games?

What's interesting for the player is entirely subjective. Personally, I found the exploring parts in Uncharted 4 more interesting than the shooting parts.

 

[c0de]

Let me guess, exploration-based games aren't real games? Exploration is just as much gameplay as shooting.

There is a difference between exploring or just walking around, waiting for hints from the game which item can be looked at and being lucky to find the right one so that the game moves on.

 

[Neith]

euh yes, the pacing is better, the gameplay is top and the visuals for a portable game are huge, the story is simple and fun, Nate is funny and the general humour is as good as it was in the trilogy, those things were lacking in UC4, humour and fun, that's why I put it over 4.

The gameplay is not top, and the visuals are terrible.

Humor and fun I guess was not what I was looking for when I booted 4 up. Everything ND hinted at was that this game was going to go for a realistic tone but still with humor and fun. I thought they did a cracking job on it. I laughed more than once in 4. GA is hogwash compared to 4 lol.

The villains up to this point were all overblown in one way or another, and the relationships while good were always too slight or unfocused.

 

[Melchiah]

There is a difference between exploring or just walking around, waiting for hints from the game which item can be looked at and being lucky to find the right one so that the game moves on.

That sounds just like what people, who call a certain type of games "walking simulators" would say.

http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/...dith-finch-could-be-something-special-w477847

A canned history of the Walking Simulator: The name was was originally pejorative, a tag given to narrative-driven experiences judged not to be "real games" by the people who judge these things and then make tags about them. Brave gamers unafraid of exploring Hebridean islands without the ability to wall-run have since reclaimed the name to an extent, and a new genre of exploratory, meditative games from Dear Esther to Firewatch has gathered under its banner.

As such walking simulators (the best ones anyway) are brilliant catalogs of loss, involving the investigation of absence, of missing things and missing people – as often signalled in the titles themselves: Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. They represent storytelling through exploration and reconstruction

In that sense, Uncharted 4 has something in common with them, as it makes the characters feel alive during the exploration, through the dialogue and chemistry between them, much like The Last of Us did.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

Man, I don't know what to tell you since you clearly aren't going to be convinced of anything. You think 10 minutes (literally) is an interminable amount of time and are now saying a huge cinematic sequence only existed as a 'fuck you' to the player for some reason by the people who made the game.

It's not played off like 'Ha!', Nolan North's performance through that entire sequence is of desperation and it ends with him literally being saved by a third party (which is a fun twist on the Indy convention of white guy 'saving' brown people). It's not dismissed but it's a leap of logic you have to make for a video game. Which you have had to do every step of the way. Humans don't regenerate health. Mystical creatures don't actually exist. No one has that good of upper body strength.

He regains perfect strength in a gun sequence before he was saved. The intention wasn't to waste everyone's time, but it did. It wasn't a good sequence and could be done a lot better, even with minor adjustments.

 

[Scanna]

I still loved the game (story, presentation, gameplay), but I have to agree on the pacing. Some sections really felt like unnecessary padding, too long and dragged out for their own good.

 

[ScaryShark]

I was baffled by how much climbing there was in the game. They must know how dull it is, why did they put so much of it in the game?

Did you play the other games? They had tons of climbing.

The way people characterize the non-combat in this game you'd think you were silently meandering through a jungle with literally nothing else happening. Outside of, if memory serves, I think 2 sections (one of which I think is easily the worst part of the game), the climbing is almost entirely used as a delivery device for dialogue and character interaction. You're constantly being talked to or listening to a conversation.

If you don't like the characters or care about the story it was probably a bad purchase for you, but that's why those sections exist the way that they do (and because they look incredible and believe it or not plenty of people enjoy those parts). There are two pretty distinct relationships (and a third in a different way) being explored and all the 'down' times are in service of those. They are really important to the intent of this game and all the ground Druckmann and Straley are covering to wrap up a huge franchise and character. It's a strength of the game to deliver that stuff out of cinematics and throughout the game.

 

[Prithee Be Careful]

I'd say the pacing is perfectly fine for a single playthrough, but going back and redoing all the early story chapters where narrative is main hook... yeah - that's a bit of a drag.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

So, games like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aren't real games?

What's interesting for the player is entirely subjective. Personally, I found the exploring parts in Uncharted 4 more interesting than the shooting parts.

Lmao, how did you jump from "The forced walking in UC4 is boring" to "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter isn't a real game"?

There is a huge gulf between shootbang and what amounts to in-game cutscenes. Uncharted 4 has some of the most simplistic, unfulfilling '''''exploration''''' of any game I've played.

 

[alr1ght]

It is truly is paced terribly. They've been chasing Uncharted 2 since its release, as that game is paced perfectly. An amazing first playthrough and still fun to replay. I have zero desire to go back to UC4.

 

[J 0 E]

I disagree

the game has the perfect pacing for a series finale with emphasis on character building more than spectacle, when the spectacles come it's the best in the series by far.

U4's best moments are the quite ones IMO.

4 > 2 > 3 > 1

 

[Grudy]

The pacing in the latter half of the game completely ruined it for me. I remember I felt its effects particularly around the extended climbing sections of Scotland and when Drake (spoilers)

Spoiler

wakes up after he crashed his ship on the island

. The pacing of the story might have been fine (I didn't enjoy it) but the fact that gameplay during climbing is so boring and tedious without any interesting platforming or mechanics or even set pieces just made the experience stale and dull.

Oh Drake is gonna jump on this rock/bridge/floor/ceiling/roof/platform/whatever? I wonder what's gonna happen.

 

[PuppetSlave]

Disagree, thought the pacing was great, didn't get bored with constants battles that earlier titles imo suffered from. Was an joy playing through the game.

 

[Ravelle]

Uncharted is a masterpiece in a lot of areas but the climbing and shooting was indeed the worst part.

I just wanted to progress the story because I was so involved, getting stuck in a rough shoot out or climbing sections were tiresome just go progress.

The shooting part also didn't really fit the rest of the narrative, especially the ending in which your daughter finds one of your shot guns and a photo of you posing with a bunch of guns. You've killed thousands of people and they brush it off like it's nothing while every villain pales in comparison to what you did.

I wouldn't mind it if Uncharted 4 was just a puzzle adventure game with a good melee system to fight off bad guys instead of being forced to become a mass murderer without consequence.

 

[c0de]

That sounds just like what people, who call a certain type of games "walking simulators" would say.

http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/...dith-finch-could-be-something-special-w477847


In that sense, Uncharted 4 has something in common with them, as it makes the characters feel alive during the exploration, through the dialogue and chemistry between them, much like The Last of Us did.

If this was the intention, then it failed for me many times. It wasn't fun, it wasn't informative to read generic descriptions on generic items and Nate's reactions to the items were also unnecessary.
This doesn't mean it was bad completely but it was way too pronounced throughout the game. But it seems many people actually enjoy this.

 

[xviper]

Uncharted 4 is a missed opportunity, the gameplay was one of the best in TPS games, but they decided to make 80% of the game climbing

the previous games were action adventure games, Uncharted 4 was a climbing simulator with a bonus action

i guess this is why the game looks jaw dropping and the best looking game ever, because all you do is just climb with very little action

i love TLOU (most overrated game ever) but they shouldn't have mixed TLOU and Uncharted with UC4

 

[Neith]

IDK Scotland was just jaw dropping. More or less I was always interested in the tech and finding treasures in this game, so the pacing was never a problem. It seems some people just want to playthrough the game straight no breaks.

I don't know not many people do that these days. So if there were pacing problems it was hard to notice as I was breaking up the game into 6 or more sessions.

Uncharted 4 is a missed opportunity, the gameplay was one of the best in TPS games, but they decided to make 80% of the game climbing

the previous games were action adventure games, Uncharted 4 was a climbing simulator with a bonus action

i guess this is why the game looks jaw dropping and the best looking game ever, because all you do is just climb with very little action

i love TLOU (most overrated game ever) but they shouldn't have mixed TLOU and Uncharted with UC4

There is nothing overrated about TLOU. It's an industry standard for storytelling in a modern setting. Also, there are plenty of fights in U4. You all need to play Crushing without auto aim so you aren't just cruising through fights in 1m. I think that is the problem we have here.

Bunch of people playing on easy and wondering where the challenge is.

 

[ScaryShark]

Uncharted 4 is a missed opportunity, the gameplay was one of the best in TPS games, but they decided to make 80% of the game climbing

the previous games were action adventure games, Uncharted 4 was a climbing simulator with a bonus action

i guess this is why the game looks jaw dropping and the best looking game ever, because all you do is just climb with very little action

i love TLOU (most overrated game ever) but they shouldn't have mixed TLOU and Uncharted with UC4

There are 35 sequences of action and/or combat in the game. Please stop mischaracterizing something to such a degree to make your point.

 

[black070]

Uncharted 4 is a missed opportunity, the gameplay was one of the best in TPS games, but they decided to make 80% of the game climbing

the previous games were action adventure games, Uncharted 4 was a climbing simulator with a bonus action

i guess this is why the game looks jaw dropping and the best looking game ever, because all you do is just climb with very little action

i love TLOU (most overrated game ever) but they shouldn't have mixed TLOU and Uncharted with UC4

Definitely wasn't 80% climbing, now we're entering hyperbole territory.

 

[Shadowhelper]

The climbing and walking parts are only interesting if you are doing it to soak up the amazing graphics.

You're not exploring a Metroid Prime world, it certainly isn't that fun to walk around in. But, with the PS4 Pro, in 4k with HDR, it definitely does look very amazing. And I don't think I could've played as much of the game as I did, if it wasn't in 4k HDR.

Because alot of it is really boring, but the story and voice acting is legit good. I didn't finish it though. Got to that driving bit and found it too boring.

Walking and climbing for hours, around pretty uninspiring settings, is a little boring. It does tend to look great, though.

 

[Neith]

Definitely wasn't 80% climbing, now we're entering hyperbole territory.

Yeah it's getting completely ridiculous, and this is why you don't trust random Gaf'ers with their hyperbole about well-liked games.

Honestly, these statements are what make me think these people are playing on Easy like a chump and then complaining there is no challenge.

PLAY Crushing no auto aim. And then get back to me about how you feel there are not worthy battles in the game. Any kid can haul ass through the game and think it's mostly walking when all they do is cheese the battles.

It's like a guy who levels to 50 in Bloodborne before venturing out and then says this game is all walking the battles are too easy over in a second. Sometimes the actual content is meant to challenge you, and when you cheese the actual action sections they will seem smaller and less apparent.

 

[Acheteedo]

The pacing is maybe my favourite aspect of Uncharted 4. It felt unpredictable and different parts of the game had a feeling of personality. I hate games that hit on predictable beats and just recycle throughout. Yawn. Action should be rare in games like Uncharted, let the game build to set pieces, don't numb me by making everything ball-to-the-wall action with a few small respites to break it up.

 

[Gurish]

I also think I would of preferred Amy's vision of Uncharted 4 over Neil's

I respect Neil as a writer, but I feel like Amy's would of been more interesting and would of had a more "Uncharted" feel

Amy wanted to make the levels even bigger, so I'm not sure you would like it.
---

I'm one of the few who didn't find much trouble with the pacing of the game, maybe I enjoyed the visuals and the atmosphere too much to care? maybe it's because some of the action sequences in the previous games were dreadful with waves after waves of enemies? don't know I'm probably weird and in the minority (though MC and GOTYs awards tell me otherwise?) but I really enjoyed UC4, it was the second best game after UC2. UC1 and 3 are FAR behind in quality.

 

[lucius]

I don't like the game as much as 2, I think 3 and Golden Abyss are better also. If I had to rank Naughty Dog games I would put the 3 Crash games ahead of it also. Something about the camera and motion blur feels off, I tried to change things in the options still feels off compared to 2 to me.

 

[ItalianJoe83]

100% Indiana Jones rip off, I prefer the original movie.

 

[MontyBrown]

4 was the first game I didn't feel combat fatigue.

2 is still the best game, but it did have too much combat.

4's pacing was fine.

 

[pixellated_man]

Finished for the second time recently and I have to disagree with OP. The game is paced well and my second play through confirmed this. The 'downtime' between action scenes is exaggerated in my opinion. My personal favourite Uncharted.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Also, there are plenty of fights in U4. You all need to play Crushing without auto aim so you aren't just cruising through fights in 1m. I think that is the problem we have here.

Bunch of people playing on easy and wondering where the challenge is.

That's just artificially lengthening the game. I didn't need to put UC2 on Crushing to trick myself into being satisfied with the combat. UC4 handles pacing and escalation in a fundamentally different way. Instead of introducing encounter gimmicks and working all the way through them on a smooth linear incline, you are given these small spikes of action- at least 3 quarters of the encounters based on the same kind of cluttered cat and mouse arena- and then everything is turned back down for 15 minutes until the next encounter. There's only 1 really inventive small scale action gimmick in the game (the elevator with Elena) and even that is cut short before it can get to any kind of interesting conclusion.

Like, if you were satisfied, that's ok, but let's not act as if there wasn't a deliberate decision to dial the experience back from where it was previously. The whole game is fits and starts in order to better match the theme, and where the narrative sits at that moment. It's not a mistake that the biggest set-piece in the game comes before Elena catches Drake in his lies, with the chapters following being the most slow moving, contemplative ones in the game. That's all well and good, but where some people see a step forward for Videogames As A Medium™, I'm sitting there wondering at what point the game is going to kick into 6th gear and actually stay there for a while. Different strokes.

 

[wild wild rice]

For the most part, It's an incredibly poorly designed game outside of the action sections. So dull, devoid of interesting mechanics, forced and poorly written story, atrocious pacing, etc. it's frustrating and insulting.

A few well written moments here and there between Nate and Elena and the 20% percent of the game that has decent gameplay is definitely not enough to save the game from being the boring disappointment that it is.

Totally rattled my faith in Naughty Dog.

 

[Fenderman89]

I'm totally with you OP.

 

[Neith]

That's just artificially lengthening the game. I didn't need to put UC2 on Crushing to trick myself into being satisfied with the combat. UC4 handles pacing and escalation in a fundamentally different way. Instead of introducing encounter gimmicks and working all the way through them on a smooth linear incline, you are given these small spikes of combat- at least 3 quarters of the encounters based on the same kind of cluttered cat and mouse arena- and then everything is turned back down for 15 minutes until the next encounter. There's only 1 really inventive small scale action gimmick in the game (the elevator with Elena) and even that is cut short before it can get to any kind of satisfying conclusion.

Like, if you were satisfied, that's ok, but let's not act as if there wasn't a deliberate decision to dial the experience back from where it was previously. The whole game is fits and starts in order to better match the theme of where the narrative sits at that moment. It's not a mistake that the biggest set-piece in the game comes before Elena catches Drake in his lies, with the chapters following being the most slow moving, contemplative ones in the game. That's all well and good, and where some people see a step forward for Videogames As A Medium™, I'm sitting there wondering at what point the game is going to kick into 6th gear and actually stay there for a while. Different strokes.

IDK I played 3 remaster right before this, which in many ways is the opposite for certain periods.

I can appreciate them both for sure. No other game had as rousing a spectacle as the whole water to plane to desert et cetera as 3. It was crazy how that game just went balls to the walls.

But the story was terrible. And I am very glad that Drake's sendoff actually had a really good story. I will take that as my last Drake game. It was a bit long but in the end a perfect sendoff for one of my favorite characters. Even emotional. The first time in the Uncharted series I was actually emotional with its characters. Well there may have been fleeting moments in the others, but nothing like 4.

For the most part, It's an incredibly poorly designed game outside of the action sections. So dull, devoid of interesting mechanics, forced and poorly written story, atrocious pacing, etc. it's frustrating and insulting.

A few well written moments here and there between Nate and Elena and the 20% percent of the game that has decent gameplay is definitely not enough to save the game from being the boring disappointment that it is.

I'm sick of hearing this bullshit about writing. YOU go write a game story bud and get back to me when your shining level of genius rouses the masses to approval.

The writing was objectively NOT poor. You don't know what poor is, and you have terrible taste as well if you think this game, out of all games, is poorly written LOL.

Honestly, this kind of hyperbole is insulting to game designers and artists as a whole. You have no clue at all and just come off as some knee jerk random critic without any constructive meaning behind your lewd and brash comments. There is nothing worse than a gamer's black and white opinion on something. I absolutely detest this puerile crap.

 

[Englebert3rd]

I wasn't a great fan of the pacing and I've only finished it once. I'm a big fan of the first 3 Uncharted and even finished them more than once.
It was too grounded, the voice acting was too serious and I felt that it was lacking in the wit/banter department.
I was missing the excitement of UC2 when I was playing it.
Also, make the online simple like UC2. It was great!

 

[enzo_gt]

I enjoyed the game but yeah, at about like 2/3 of the way through I wanted it to be over already.

The more I play video games as I grow older the more I realize that the 8 hour campaign people look at as a bare minimum for FPS/TPS is more like my maximum before something starts to suffer.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

I'm sick of hearing this bullshit about writing. YOU go write a game story bud and get back to me when your shining level of genius rouses the masses to approval.

The writing was objectively NOT poor. You don't know what poor is, and you have terrible taste as well if you think this game, out of all games, is poorly written LOL.

Honestly, this kind of hyperbole is insulting to game designers and artists as a whole. You have no clue at all and just come off as some knee jerk random critic without any constructive meaning behind your lewd and brash comments. There is nothing worse than a gamer's black and white opinion on something. I absolutely detest this puerile crap.

. . .

But the story [in Uncharted 3] was terrible.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

IDK I played 3 remaster right before this, which in many ways is the opposite for certain periods.

I can appreciate them both for sure. No other game had as rousing a spectacle as the whole water to plane to desert et cetera as 3. It was crazy how that game just went balls to the walls.

But the story was terrible. And I am very glad that Drake's sendoff actually had a really good story. I will take that as my last Drake game. It was a bit long but in the end a perfect sendoff for one of my favorite characters. Even emotional. The first time in the Uncharted series I was actually emotional with its characters. Well there may have been fleeting moments in the others, but nothing like 4.

Oh don't get it twisted, I am NOT arguing that UC4 should've been constant balls to the wall huge spectacle, "throw everything at the player all the time even though combat is terrible" like a lot of UC3's 2nd half. Maybe we've never crossed paths, but Hi, my name is Net_Wrecker, and I have absolutely nothing good to say about UC3. I'm specifically using UC2 in all of my comparisons because I think it's the best in the series by far.

And with that said, I'll fall back until we all meet again on the battlefield for The Lost Legacy.

 

[Marty-esque]

I never understood this criticism. I thought the pacing was great.

 

[jipewithin]

I think the pacing was just fine. Just when got bored to shooting there was something else and when climbing got boring there was some shooting.

 

[SpideySenses]

Uncharted 1-3 felt paced like a extra long blockbuster movie.

Uncharted 4 felt paced like a Netflix series.

Overall I prefer the former but I still appreciate what Naughty Dog were going for with the latter, I played Uncharted 4 without rushing over the course of a week and still ended up loving it.

 

[Snoopycat]

I recently downloaded this to play again but after about an hour or so I just couldn't go on. I thought maybe re-playing it would change my original impression but no, overall I found the game to be fairly mediocre. The one part I really enjoyed was when Nate was being dragged behind the truck. That was great. It was a pity they didn't have more of that.