The Uncharted series is revolutionary, and here's why

daviyoung said:
I have, and it's basically Tomb Raider.

Except in terms of tone, performance, storytelling, gameplay focus, and the way the game plays in general, yeah, totally the same.

Just because a game has guns and ancient temples in it doesn't mean it's like Tomb Raider.
 
upJTboogie said:
Oh Nepal huh, damn that was probably my favorite level in the game, I'm surprised it couldn't grab you, still I would recommend giving it another chance before you give up on it.

I think the back and forth witty dialogue really started to grate on me throughout that level.
 
ZephyrFate said:
No one's going to recognize the fact that the Soul Reaver series did voice acting far, far better than Uncharted could ever hope.
Well, I'm not sure I completely agree, but I know I miss my copy of Soul Reaver daily.

Stallion Free said:
TR wishes it could drop combat all together.
I'd be cool with that, but it certainly doesn't seem like the direction the reboot is headed.
 
Rahxephon91 said:
Yes they are just regular old video game cutscenes, I'm not so sure whats special about them? So this proves that FFXIII resembles an anime with it's emoting and the Uncharted cutscene resembles a typical hollywood action movie?

You aren't observing or perceiving anything beyond the most generic structure of these two cutscenes. You say so yourself, you are not so sure what is special about them. However, I get the feeling that you do in fact care, hence trying to argue your point but it's all clear now.

Rahxephon91 said:
I mean just listen to how the villain talks.

You have preconceptions at the floor of your premise. Nothing that I or anybody else in this forum can say will aim you otherwise.
 
upJTboogie said:
What chapter did you make it too?

I can't think of any game that does cutscenes as good as Uncharted personally.

LA Noire's cutscenes makes Uncharted 2 look dated, and the performances are impressive- so much farther ahead of Uncharted, it's kind of weird that this thread exists. I think Heavy Rain is the best in terms of camerawork and direction.
 
jett said:
That'd be nice except nobody speaks English in that level.

The dialogue between Drake and Chloe is what I am referring to. They didn't go back and forth on the level leading up to the helicopter fight?
 
Revolutionary? Hardly. I can't think of ANYTHING it hasn't lifted from another game, even it's theme and characters are similar to other media.

Uncharted series is great, but waaaay over-hyped.
 
ZephyrFate said:
FFXIII, God of War 3, Portal 2.
Portal 2 did have amazing voice acting and characters, but it didn't exactly have cutscenes.

Gow 3 didn't match Uncharted 2 in voice acting in my opinion, the lip syncing and subtle animations just aren't there.
 
Wolfgunblood Garopa said:
LA Noire's cutscenes makes Uncharted 2 look dated, and the performances are impressive- so much farther ahead of Uncharted, it's kind of weird that this thread exists. I think Heavy Rain is the best in terms of camerawork and direction.

Maybe in terms of tech sure, but actual script, VA and believability, no. LA Noire's speech at times is unrealistic and robotic in delivery, whereas U2's for example, flows much more believably with humorous banter and emotional clout.
 
MrOogieBoogie said:
Do you see this as becoming a trend for the next generation? Will video game advertisements feature "Starring..." bullets?
It's been a trend for years.

1079186882-00.jpg


.
.
.

More recently, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Fable III, Batman: Arkham Asylum has "Written by Paul Dini and featuring the voice talents of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy" on the back of the box.
 
Everything about Uncharted is just so completely bog-standard. It is the most wholly unoriginal boring concept/narrative/gameplay/design/package I can think of. But its polished like few other titles. Its beautiful, its funny, the game makes you want to like it. No, it makes you feel like you should like it. But none of that overcomes just how much of a fucking bore it is.

I played Uncharted2. I gave it the fairest chance I could ever hope to give a game. And it just didn't work. I didn't fall for it. The pizzazz and flash of it wasn't enough for me. And it absolutely is not the go-to example for good performance work, in any capacity. Don't get me wrong, it does that stuff well. Better than 95% of the industry, even. But revolutionary? You are just flat-out wrong, sir.
 
black swordsman said:
Seriously ?
yes. We're not talking about quality of cutscenes, but what is 'jawdropping' i.e. cinematic, matching lip synch, animations... FFXIII is top-of-the-line in that respect.
 
Uncharted is a joy to play! this and Demons Souls are the few games this gen that i absolutely loved EVERY minute of it
 
jett said:
Traversal is just that, about getting Drake from point-A to point-B, only in a more interesting fashion than just running around with your feet glued to the ground like in other shooters. And even if the puzzles in Uncharted were hard, once you know how to do them they finish being even remotely challenging. I mean, of COURSE they'd still be 'simple' if you replayed the game on a harder difficulty.

The 'traversal' mechanics btw really come to their own in multiplayer, and there you can see what makes Uncharted different from other shooters.

I don't mean on consecutive playthroughs. The puzzles are easy, even prompting you for the solution if you take too much time.

The traversal mechanics make it nearly impossible to fail- climbing, jumping, pathfinding- it all happens for you. You would have to intentionally try to mess up for it to happen. I know this is great for multiplayer.
 
Marleyman said:
I found that fight to be extremely boring from just watching it. You have your opinion and it seems fairly set in stone, right? I just don't get why you need to trash another genre just because you don't enjoy it.

Given the insane omnipresence of shooters both first and third person, it's practically a duty to trash the genre.

The thing is, there are several shooters I do enjoy. I really like Deus Ex for the augmention system and the multifaceted ways of dealing with obstacles and completing objectives. I like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines for it's political intrigue, decadent goth-punk setting and the similar approach as Deus Ex. I like Metroid Prime for it's utilization of the Action-Adventure genre, exploration and permanent upgrades which imbue it with more depth than Uncharted could ever hope to have. I like Red Steel 2 for the fact that it has probably the single best first person melee combat system in gaming to date.

The fact of the matter is that the games I rag on are incredibly vapid, bland and boring.
 
Jtwo said:
Everything about Uncharted is just so completely bog-standard. It is the most wholly unoriginal boring concept/narrative/gameplay/design/package I can think of. But its polished like few other titles. Its beautiful, its funny, the game makes you want to like it. No, it makes you feel like you should like it. But none of that overcomes just how much of a fucking bore it is.

I played Uncharted2. I gave it the fairest chance I could ever hope to give a game. And it just didn't work. I didn't fall for it. The pizzazz and flash of it wasn't enough for me. And it absolutely is not the go-to example for good performance work, in any capacity. Don't get me wrong, it does that stuff well. Better than 95% of the industry, even. But revolutionary? You are just flat-out wrong, sir.

Very true. A friend gave me Uncharted and it became tiring after the first few missions. The level design was great, but linear as call of duty. Shooting mechanics were generic and repetitive as could be. Game had great production values but it all was hiding a very shallow B grade hollywood story.

Polished is the right word, revolutionary is not. It takes absolutely no risks, and does nothing exceptional. The whole series is extremely overrated.
 
Mortrialus said:
Given the insane omnipresence of shooters both first and third person, it's practically a duty to trash the genre.

This stance doesn't make much sense to me, but it is your opinion and I respect it.

Mortrialus said:
The fact of the matter is that the games I rag on are incredibly vapid, bland and boring.

You are entitled to feel that way but calling your opinion on a game a "fact" is a bit much.
 
The Uncharted series is so overrated it hurts.

They're good games don't get me wrong and I enjoy the acting but the games don't have much substance.

There is nothing revolutionary about a third person shooter with automatic platforming.
 
nib95 said:
Maybe in terms of tech sure, but actual script, VA and believability, no. LA Noire's speech at times is unrealistic and robotic in delivery, whereas U2's for example, flows much more believably with humorous banter and emotional clout.

LA Noire knocks it out of the park- there might be a few lines that are robotic, but the dialogue and writing is a bit more serious than Uncharted. Heavy Rain, now that has moments that could be criticized as robotic or unrealistic.
 
My experience of Uncharted 2:

Gameplay: This is fucking awesome.
Cutscenes: This is tedious, god-awful cheesy shit. Which (from memory) I cannot skip. Fuck this shit.
 
Wolfgunblood Garopa said:
LA Noire knocks it out of the park- there might be a few lines that are robotic, but the dialogue and writing is a bit more serious than Uncharted. Heavy Rain, now that has moments that could be criticized as robotic or unrealistic.
Oh yeah, let's not even get STARTED on LA Noire. Uncharted 3 still looks behind that technology.
 
we.are.the.armada said:
You aren't observing or perceiving anything beyond the most generic structure of these two cutscenes. You say so yourself, you are not so sure what is special about them. However, I get the feeling that you do in fact care, hence trying to argue your point but it's all clear now.



You have preconceptions at the floor of your premise. Nothing that I or anybody else in this forum can say will aim you otherwise.
ok? But the op wants to make a case that these cutscenes are revolutionary and that paints a picture meaning that all games should follow in it's lead. But why? The writing? No it's typical action movie fare, maybe good typical far, but even that's debatable. And games can already do that. The acting? I guess, but then that means LA Noire is more revolutionary when it comes to games because it is deploying something new. I also think Ninja Theory has them beat in this field as well. Aren't the faces in the Uncharted series animated anyway?

So whats so revolutionary about Uncharted? If the thread was "Uncharted is a great series" then that would be a different story.
 
richisawesome said:
My experience of Uncharted 2:

Gameplay: This is fucking awesome.
Cutscenes: This is tedious, god-awful cheesy shit. Which (from memory) I cannot skip. Fuck this shit.
You can skip em.
 
Even still, the Metal Gear Solid series doesn't hold a candle to Uncharted's level of writing, voice acting, and, like I mentioned before, ACTOR PERFORMANCES.
you forgot to add, "IMO".

I think MGS2 beats Uncharted cut-scenes combined, let alone the movie-like feeling you get from MGS4. nothing come close to MGS series cut-scenes IMO.
 
ZephyrFate said:
Oh yeah, let's not even get STARTED on LA Noire. Uncharted 3 still looks behind that technology.
really? i own la noire and while the facial animation looks outstanding, the faces are attached to terribly animated bodies. uncharted is so much more consistent in the looks department.
 
Nothing about the series is revolutionary, but it does so many things so much better than its competitors that it can feel revelatory at times.
 
richisawesome said:
My experience of Uncharted 2:

Gameplay: This is fucking awesome.
Cutscenes: This is tedious, god-awful cheesy shit. Which (from memory) I cannot skip. Fuck this shit.
Same here, and like other people said you can skip em.I don't play games for a "cinematic experience", if I want that I'll go the movies.
 
tbh, I find all the cinematics at the beginning of UC2 a huge issue when I replay the game. It's like a hurdle to get over. You can't even skip half of them because you are technically "playing" during them.

And Uncharted didn't revolutionize anything. It raised the bar on a few things, but that isn't revolutionary.
 
I think Naughty Dog's implementation of the camera outside of the cutscenes is more interesting. They're not afraid to move the camera around while the player is still in control.

A favorite moment of mine is the first time you see the yeti. Where the foreground is a little out of focus but it's standing right there.
 
I want to have an opinion but I still haven't played uncharted 2 :( I will soon.
Demon's Souls won't play itself
. From what I remember of Uncharted 1, It was decently fun shooting that got old in some segments because of a massive number of human bullet sponges. I enjoyed a lot of the platforming. Story was fun but not massively memorable or anything. Unless the sequel was very very different, I don't understand the damn near religious worship the series gets. They are still very fun, and I appreciate having a big-budget game series that doesn't feel like it wishes it were halo or CoD.
 
Btw the OP didn't say the gameplay was revolutionary, just the acting and characters. I rarely see anyone argue that UC's gameplay was revolutionary or even anything particularly original. So, many of you are arguing with strawmen.
 
Uncharted isn't a very good video game and it's a terrible movie. I don't like "interactive cinematic experiences" I like video games. Anytime you have to do something in a cut scene instead of allowing the gameplay to tell me the story, show me the cool thing, you're failing as a game designer. But it's pretty and easy to play so it's going to be popular.

jay_sherman_it_stinks.jpg
 
MrOogieBoogie said:
I have no problem with asserting that the Uncharted series has revolutionized video game cinematics--and more importantly, acting. I can't think of another game or series (besides L.A. Noire) where I feel like I'm watching actors PERFORM. When an Uncharted cinematic comes on, I don't get that instinctive feeling of, "Cool video game cutscene time!" I become engrossed with it not unlike a movie or TV scene. Not only that, but this is the first series where I feel like I care who's doing the voice-work and the motion capture performances. I associate Nolan North, Emily Rose, Claudia Black, and Richard McGonagle with their respective characters in a way I haven't encountered in other games.

I guess the word ‘refinement’ just isn’t good enough. As said, motion capture is not a new concept. It’s quite better in Uncharted 2 but it’s far from revolutionary. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary with its virtual camera system, targeting in Ocarina of Time was revolutionary, Grand Theft Auto III was revolutionary because it invented a new genre that was mimicked with SR, the getaway… the list goes on. Why can’t Uncharted simply be good? Oh no, the word 'revolutionary' has to be thrown around like it has no meaning anymore. That’s generally the problem with the Uncharted fans, the game simply cannot be a good mix of what has come before it, instead the superlatives have to be extreme as possible.

MrOogieBoogie said:
Sure, I know David Hayter does Snake, but in a different, more "video game fact" kind of way. Even still, the Metal Gear Solid series doesn't hold a candle to Uncharted's level of writing, voice acting, and, like I mentioned before, ACTOR PERFORMANCES.

“Compassion is the enemy.” “Hmm... Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin, Pol” Pot... They were all great men.”

You call this good writing?
You remember this part?
We'll suppose to feel for the death of Jeff the Cameraman... he got shot by the villain and dies instantly, despite the segment where he can survive being hit by a load bullets in gameplay as you’re dragging him through the battlefield.
What about that cut scene where
Nathan and co survive a grenade blowing up next to them
? Stupid writing.
 
The-Warning said:
Btw the OP didn't say the gameplay was revolutionary, just the acting and characters. I rarely see anyone argue that UC's gameplay was revolutionary or even anything particularly original. So, many of you are arguing with strawmen.

Yet when I mentioned how much better an animated or CG movie is than UC the only responses I got were "but you play it lol"

Except you don't actually play the acting or characters; they're prescripted locked in events.

The problem with this whole thread is there's so few people that understand the concept of polish. Polish is a really important part of virtually every mainstream successful game but it does not make a game revolutionary, innovative, creative, or even good (Not that UC is actually bad).

EDIT: And to really pull the trolls into this thread: An example of a potentially revolutionary feature would be Diablo 3's RMAH; this is something that could completely alter the microtransaction landscape.
 
fredrancour said:
I want to have an opinion but I still haven't played uncharted 2 :( I will soon.
Demon's Souls won't play itself
. From what I remember of Uncharted 1, It was decently fun shooting that got old in some segments because of a massive number of human bullet sponges. I enjoyed a lot of the platforming. Story was fun but not massively memorable or anything. Unless the sequel was very very different, I don't understand the damn near religious worship the series gets. They are still very fun, and I appreciate having a big-budget game series that doesn't feel like it wishes it were halo or CoD.
imagine a sequel where every problem you mentioned in this post was fixed and every strength was strengthened. that is uncharted 2, imo. your perception of uncharted 1 is very similar to mine, but uncharted 2 was eyeopening.
 
No. It's a fun series....okay not a series the first game sucked. But whatever. 2 was a very good game, but it was hardly revolutionary in any one department
 
btkadams said:
really? i own la noire and while the facial animation looks outstanding, the faces are attached to terribly animated bodies. uncharted is so much more consistent in the looks department.

This is true, sometimes the body animation isn't that good. Uncharted is more consistent here. But the facial animation is so incredible, it makes LA Noire a revolutionary new experience.
 
mxgt said:
The Uncharted series is so overrated it hurts.

They're good games don't get me wrong and I enjoy the acting but the games don't have much substance.

There is nothing revolutionary about a third person shooter with automatic platforming.

This pretty much nails my opinion on it.

It's certainly fun to play and experience, but good lord it's like most of GAF has never played a good video game before.
 
Uncharted 2 was great, but "revolutionary" ? Really now?
:lol
:lol

Oh GAF and its love for PS3 exclusives.


Already have Uncharted 3 paid off :)
 
How can it be revolutionary when the first game was mediocre? The second game was fantastic but at the same time didn't do anything to change the gaming landscape, it was just a great game.
 
cuyahoga said:
I like Uncharted, but I completely disagree with you—game has pretty forgettable writing and performances, when compared to, say, a Tim Schafer game, something from Valve, or Deadly Premonition.


has any of Tim Schafer's game sold more than 5 copies?
 
Ulairi said:
I don't like "interactive cinematic experiences" I like video games. Anytime you have to do something in a cut scene instead of allowing the gameplay to tell me the story, show me the cool thing, you're failing as a game designer.

Did you actually play the game?

Unregistered007 said:
has any of Tim Schafer's game sold more than 5 copies?

I'm sorry, but your argument is as dumb as his.
 
Top Bottom