reptilescorpio said:
It has been along time since I played MGS3 so I'm not sure if I remember it correctly, to be honest controls have always been my pet peeve of the MGS series. The motion capture definitely introduces the disconnect between you pressing a button and the person on the screen moving since your action is simple while the motion capture was dynamic.
I guess one thing is that in MGS3, every encounter was freeform enough to let me escape or do what I want. I think thats a side effect of the animated character movement (as opposed to motion captured).
Maybe Mario Galaxy is a salient example too. Some of the levels (that snowy mountain one, for example) encourage leaps of faith via long jumps to platforms just in sight and well below your current platform. Shadow of the Colossus does too - leaping from the arm to back of some of the 3rd colossus is one example that stands out.
Even though both games let you fail, you also are encouraged to succeed by essentially saying "fuck it" and jumping anyway. Conversely, in uc3, I'd often find myself at the end of a rope or ledge and stop, trying to figure out where they
demanded me to go. Similarly, there was no encouragement to experiment with the platforming. No alternative approach.
And before I forget, the other thing that bothered me was the blind transitions from interactive to passive. Sometimes I'd be ledge jumping or holding a button as per the prompt, and then it would suddenly though not obviously transition to non-interactive. Then the game would make Drake do what I would not, hence putting him in a worse position. It just adds up to make the player feel irrelevant or almost like an intruder upon proceedings.