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[blitzcloud]

Guess who got his wallpaper used for commercial purpouses:

http://www.chipspain.com/es/

^the huge banner with several pages.

Or... in picture format:

 

[leng jai]

I thought it was the wittiest game of them all. The exchanges between Drake/Cutter/Sully/Chloe and then Drake/Elena/Sully are the best and most humorous of the series. I agree about the aiming and the seemingly randomly generated enemies that spawn behind you off-screen. The encounter design is better in DF and AT.

Banter between characters worse than the UC2 for me, far worse.

 

[Atruvius]

Too bad Will have to try Crushing alone then. Should I be scared?

Not at all. Crushing is much easier than it was in previous games.

 

[R_thanatos]

Pretty certain there is a joke involved. Sully says something like "I've heard that before!"

Pretty much , the whole game is full of little sentences between drake and sully about events we don't know yet ..even when elena ask , we don't have the details..

i'm guessing lot of places didn't resist drake exploration skills.

Not at all. Crushing is much easier than it was in previous games.

The only trully hard crushing was in the first game ( IMO )

 

[Steroyd]

The only trully hard crushing was in the first game ( IMO )

I'd lean more towards the levels themselves which was what made Crushing harder in U1, outside of that, the enemies practically rushed at you relentlessly, which is easier to deal with than on the hard diffculty ironically.

 

[Metalmurphy]

Oh man, the puzzles in this game are SO much better. Thanks for making me feel dumb Naughty Dog. I'm serious! I love this shit.


I hate that Sully told me the solution to one of them without me asking though -.-


Oh and I still hate how Drakes Journal goes directly to the correct page when in a puzzle, let me search for the correct page and make the connections myself ND!!

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

While the game has some really jarring issues, the soundtrack is beyond great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6XHu9I7OI

That's the kind of shit I'd expect to hear in Battlestar Galactica or something. So good.

 

[Metalmurphy]

So I just got to this part of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwywuVzrJTg


But in my game there's more enemies there. I realize that's a really old build but the thing is, Drake says "better do this quietly", but it's impossible, you can kill the first guy quietly and the one one the right, but if you kill the one of the left the one in the middle hears it... I like being stealthy but the game ain't letting me.


Is this because I'm playing on Hard or is this an oversight by ND?

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

So I just got to this part of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwywuVzrJTg


But in my game there's more enemies there. I realize that's a really old build but the thing is, Drake says "better do this quietly", but it's impossible, you can kill the first guy quietly and the one one the right, but if you kill the one of the left the one in the middle hears it... I like being stealthy but the game ain't letting me.


Is this because I'm playing on Hard or is this an oversight by ND?

The entire sequence is different purely for demo purposes (for example, no

Spoiler

Sully tied up to a chair

later on). Devs do this all the time for press events.

 

[XxSlasherMcGirkxX]

Okay I kinda of a little interesting story GAF. I decided to break Uncharted 3 and glitch it out. These are my musings. Wall of text incomming. I'm going to spoiler tag it just incase someone doesn't want gameplay stuff spoiled.

Spoiler

So I was playing the Talbot chase scene and noticed that letting Talbot getting to far ahead did not warrant a game over like I assumed. I then noticed that I only got a game over if the police caught me. After realizing this I decided that instead of chasing after Talbot I would try to go the reverse direction and backtrack through all the areas I just went through evading the police the best that I could. This turned out to be really fun trying to break the game and go back. I discovered three possible scenarios play out.

1. Area is impossilbe to get back to due to being too high, invisible wall or an unclimbable terrain

2. Instant game over due to forbidden areas, touching a enemy "death zone" or being in certain areas for too long.

3. Taking certain paths or being in a area for an extended amount of time that DOESNT lead to a game over and can be fully explored.

I found some interesting tidbits from exploiting this. First I'll start off with the chase scene in chapter 2 and then do the Talbot chase.

Note: The term death zone refers to the area of an enemy which invokes a game over. The area often is much wider than the enemy itself. Picture it as a huge circle around the enemy. Get in its radius and get caught.

Young Drake Chase

1. A. First thing I tried to do was at the chapter start was to instead of going up the mueseum stairs to the goal, I was going to go down the stairs where one villian spawns.
At first this was very tricky but I was very determined on this one. Jumping past, rolling, hanging on the ledge and dropping and even going up the stairs and dropping down all resulted in hitting the death zone.

What worked in the end was at the chase start go immediately to the right and you should see a tiny bench. If you jump on this bench in then quickly jump off of it and past the enemy you should get behind him. Now when you go down the stairs there is actually another floor down below. Once you reach that floor the camera starts to go a little haywire because you are going down when you are supposed to be going up. It felt really weird because I really had to struggle with the camera to get it centered again. Nothing really important or interesting down there just a blank square room with three doors and a invisible wall underneath the stair case. BUT something strange did happen the radius of the enemy death zone had been reduced greatly. Only resulting in a game over when characters bodies touched as opposed to instant game overs when being in radius of an enemy.

B Getting rid of the death zone gave me enough room to actually evade all three starting enemies and let me travel back all the way to the museum show room and look around.

2. The following part when the thugs try to break the door down to get to you was interesting as well. After the door gets broken down run up two flights of stairs and then turn around. Wait just a moment and jump over the first thug. Then turn right and jump over the next two thugs. Then run back through the door that was just busted down and then you can go back to the previous areas again. This time when I did it I went to the areas that I described in the previous sections only because I was further that the game became more glitchy and the camera was severely messed up. It was very uncontrollable and the game started flickering a little but otherwise was fine.

Note: If you fail one time when you spawn back and try to do this the door actually reappears. Even though they JUST broke it down.

3. After escaping the two thugs from the chained fence I found a couple of things.

A Trying to get back through the opened gate door is impossible. First you have to drop down unto the rooftop and then try to dodge four thugs. (two from each side of the roof) You can only go in two directions, one to the area you are supposed to go and two the other side of the roof. Going to the other side of the roof is an instant game over because you go over there an enemy instantly spawns on you. If you manage to evade all four thugs plus one that spawns out the door and climb back up to the chained fence door you can see a single enemy frozen in place in front of the door and touching him leads to an instant game over.

B Two other small things that I found funny is that the chained fence door is climbable. Why? If you jump and hang off it all the enemies will gather around you and just stand there for a few seconds before grabbing you down.

C Flying Drake After the chained fence door is opened if turn to the right there is a small box you can stand on. Turn around and jump in between the door and the fence. If you do it right Drake will stick between the door and do his jumping animation for like a minute straight before he falls and then gets caught. Just funny.

4. Next when Sully jumps out of the window and chokes a guy out and you run on the rooftops.

A. Have you ever managed to look into the room Sully jumps out of? It's a tiny L shaped room with nothing in it. No pictures no furniture no DOOR!? How the hell did you get in there Sully!?

B Sully the Wizard Okay so the objective of this part is to jump between the rooftops and climp up this other roof and jump to another building. So starting from the part where Sully chokes out the thug go all the way your supposed to go and stop when you get to the top of the area where you jump off a cooling fan onto the next building.

Okay this took a lot of tries but it was worth it. The goal was to get back to the building before Sully chokes the thug out. There are four enemies with very big death zones. Standing on the cooling fan, turn around and wait for the first thug to climb up and approach you. When he gets next to you jump over him and run over and hang on the building on the opposite side. Wait just a moment and thug #2 will start climbing up after you directly below you. When he does just drop down and use that hidden invincibility frames lol) go through him. Next on there is two rooftops that are in a shape of an L, with an enemy on both tips. Quickly jump from the corner of the L roof to the other to dodge thug #3.

Now after landing on the second roof the camera goes bat shit and turns itself completely around in the opposite direction that you are facing. Thug #3 will turn around and try to chase you and is very hard to dodge at first because you are recovering from a jump and a horrid camera. Thug #4 will most likely will do one of two things. One he turns around and jumps back towards the other roof and stands there or Two he disappears out of nowhere. Only a couple of times he gave chase.

ANYWAY....this all happening kinda fast so....after Sully chokes out the thug (It takes him a little while to actually kill the guy and move on) he jumps back in the window and proceeds to the next area to help Drake. But WAIT that room was empty! I wanna see where he goes. So looking through the window you can see Sully run around the corner, stop and just stand there where

I KID YOU NOT Sully starts breaking up and vanishes like lighting. Almost kind of like how mega man teleports after beating a stage. Then after that particles of Sully actually start filling up the screen and flickering in the color of his outfit and disappear. I tried this three times and all three times this has happened. Kinda weird glitch.

C One of the times I got back to the original starting point. I waited and evaded until all four thugs came after me and when the last one got on the roof three out of the four thugs instantly froze. I haven't been able to replicate this one though.

5. When the thugs start shooting at you and Sully saves you for the second time.

A. Did you know that if you hang on the lampost for too long that one of the thugs tackles you while you hang on it and you both crash through the glass and die. Twas cool.

Talbot Chase

1. The scene after running through the kitchen and Talbot runs above you across rooftops.

A. My goal here was to actually get back into the kitchen area and see if I could go past that. The problem was that the door to those areas is covered by two cops that spawn through that door and give chase to you. Unlike the young Drake chase only two cops appear and spawn on only designated areas. After the start Talbot runs high above you and you run on a building below. You eventually come across a wooden blue bridge that connects two buildings.

A strange thing to note that on the building before the bridge is that if you hang on the side of the building and drop down there is a ledge you can grab and hang off of. This ledge has no purpose and I don't understand why you can even grab it. ND must have used this texture/building piece earlier in the game and reused it and the former one was grabbable I don't know but you can keep the chase going forever because the two cops are baffled to as where you went and just stand there. As soon as you jump up though it's instant game over.

Back to the goal. Simply going from starting point A and finnishing part B and turning around and evading the cops and heading to the door doesn't actually work. This is becuase when you try to go though the door Drake does this stumbling "Oh crap wrong way" animations and turns around and then gets caught be the cops. BUT! I did manage to find a way through this. Before finishing the section Talbot eventually jumps down to the same level as you and continues. If you actually jump up where Talbot came from and travel up the path he came from and head back to the beginning door the two cops won't chase you. Drop down and then try to enter the door again and Drake will do his "Oh crap wrong way" animation except only this time you can proceed back into the kitchen building.

All of the people are still there and you can explore the area, well for a couple of seconds at least. If you try to go to the 'freezer' area or hop the counter/door way to the area before even this one it's instant game over as a enemy instantly appears and grabs you. If you wait too long in the kitchen an enemy will appear from the door you came in and grab you.

2. Area where Drake gets hit by a car.

A. If you try to go left right or back it's instant game over. When you enter the next room and start climbing up the structure Talbot knocked down you can drop back down and try to go back unto the streets but the two cops are below too and have huge dead zones. It's kinda empty but still a little neat.

B. After climbing up no one will chase you until the next scene. So you can fully explore the rest off the hotel or whatever it is in peace. Love the cherry blossoms that fall down on the roof.

3. Running through the residential house.

A. Did you ever notice what the guy on the couch is watching on TV? It's just a bunch of trees. Surely TV in Yemen is more sophisticated than a bunch of trees moving back and forth.

B. In the bed room I had two interesting things happen. You are just supposed to run across the room real fast and jump out the window. Instead I first jumped on the bed in the middle of the room. One time I jumped over the chasing thug and back into the TV watching guy room and the thug did not give chase. So I just chilled and watched some trees move with my homie.

C. The second time I was on the bed and turned and faced the window. The chasing thug jumped up unto the bed. I jumped out the window. The thug then grabbed me at the same time. Instead of getting a game over. The game continued to the next scene. For the rest of my life I had the gray shaded out filter over the screen because I died but the game didn't register it. I managed to get the Next Gen filter with out the cheats. Score!

Well those are some of my more interesting observations. Had some more minor glitches but I dont' really think they are worth noting and all that blah blah blah. I didn't play any of the other chase scenes just those two. Let me tell you though it was tough but also very fun. Just wanted to share my experience with you guys andFIX THIS SHIT ND! YOUR GAME IS A BROKEN MESS! jk

Some one please respond to this I wasted way to much time on this post and this endevor!

 

[Metalmurphy]

The entire sequence is different purely for demo purposes (for example, no

Spoiler

Sully tied up to a chair

later on). Devs do this all the time for press events.

I know, i mentioned that it was a different build, but what I meant was more related to the fact that Drake says "lets do this quietly" or something, but you simply can't. Makes no sense.

 

[AranhaHunter]

I finished the game and it was enjoyable. I'm not franchise fatigued yet, but I'm glad ND is going with TLOU and Bend is doing a side story that I can get later on if I get the Vita.

I thought they really

Spoiler

killed Sully. I was surprised and sad when they did that but then I was like damn ND got balls to just kill Sully like that.....

Was a little surprised to see how small Chloe and Elena's role were in this game, but that's a good thing as the only real dependent character is Drake. Sully's role in Uncharted 2 was very small as well.

Also did anyone here shoot Sully when he was pointing the gun at you? I did lol

I won't try multiplayer until well into next year, but I really did enjoy the beta so I bet I'll like it.

 

[How About No]

I know, i mentioned that it was a different build, but what I meant was more related to the fact that Drake says "lets do this quietly" or something, but you simply can't. Makes no sense.

I tried to too. I would observe and try combinations for five minutes, but it just doesn't seem possible. Unless it requires crazy timing, because the guy on the left permanently sits down and faces your direction, and will see everything you do :/

 

[Manp]

so uhm, it's just me or the "Alternate Aim Settings" thingy doesn't save and you have to edit the setting every time?

 

[Melfice7]

Just wanted to say FAL is a piece of shit

bai

 

[methane47]

Question: Is online co-op different from the main story? or do some of those scenes actually play out in the game? I mean i was sure lazaravic died in part 2? why was there so much talk about him and in that chapter 1 of co-op?

 

[blitzcloud]

Either no one cares about bruce getting his wallpaper stolen by an online store or i'm late to the party/he gave permission, lol.

 

[Kenshin001]

So I just got to this part of the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwywuVzrJTg


But in my game there's more enemies there. I realize that's a really old build but the thing is, Drake says "better do this quietly", but it's impossible, you can kill the first guy quietly and the one one the right, but if you kill the one of the left the one in the middle hears it... I like being stealthy but the game ain't letting me.


Is this because I'm playing on Hard or is this an oversight by ND?

One of the failings of UC3 I think. People enjoyed using stealth in UC2 so they should have incorporated it better into the game. There were a lot of times I thought, oh this is going to be a good stealth section, only for it to end up being yet another run and gun battle.

 

[SuperSonic1305]

I'm on Chapter 7 now after stopping at Chapter 6 until the patch came out. Puzzles are so much better already than in the previous games but the gunplay is worse. Even with the better controls it doesn't change the constant grenade spamming and bad enemy spawns. I don't think there was a single time in Uncharted or Uncharted 2 where enemies just appeared behind me.

 

[excaliburps]

Ok, just finished this bad boy last night. While it's still a gem, its ending left a lot of things hanging and didn't have the impact UC2 did...at least in my opnion.

I do have a few questions that I hope people can answer though...it's like an itch I can't scratch!

Spoiler

What did Marlowe mean when she said she knew what Drake's real name is? Drake was lying about his ancestry?

So, Drake and Elena are/was married?

Was Marlowe a mystical old bitch that aged slower or was it just me that she already looked way old when Drake was a kid?

What was Drake's fascination with the decoder and what Sir Francis Drake was after? The juju juice was really all they were going after?

It was a shame they didn't show Cutter and Chloe at least one last time in the game's ending...

...and that's it! Add in more things I'm sure I missed, yeah?

Aside from getting frustrated with the controls and cheap AI from time to time, (I played Hard right off the bat) the game's still an awesome experience.

Now on to Arkham City!

 

[M_A_C]

Ok, I guess I really need to start playing this game...

http://youtu.be/9p6MoZHxE_U

 

[Ricky_R]

Ok, just finished this bad boy last night. While it's still a gem, its ending left a lot of things hanging and didn't have the impact UC2 did...at least in my opnion.

I do have a few questions that I hope people can answer though...it's like an itch I can't scratch!

Spoiler

What did Marlowe mean when she said she knew what Drake's real name is? Drake was lying about his ancestry?

So, Drake and Elena are/was married?

Was Marlowe a mystical old bitch that aged slower or was it just me that she already looked way old when Drake was a kid?

What was Drake's fascination with the decoder and what Sir Francis Drake was after? The juju juice was really all they were going after?

It was a shame they didn't show Cutter and Chloe at least one last time in the game's ending...

...and that's it! Add in more things I'm sure I missed, yeah?

Aside from getting frustrated with the controls and cheap AI from time to time, (I played Hard right off the bat) the game's still an awesome experience.

Now on to Arkham City!

Spoiler

Drake lied about being in Francis's family tree. He was more of an idol to him. As was explained by Amy. Drake could very well be written back as family if Amy chooses to though.

Yes. Drake and Elena were married, but separated.

Marlowe was supposed to be younger, but maybe they didn't spend much time making her look perfectly young. No mystery here.

His fascination with it was that it was the key to fill in the blanks of the search for Ubar.

 

[rCIZZLE]

I was also kind of confused about the

Spoiler

wedding rings

. Couldn't recall that being brought up in the previous game, if it was. I kind of stuck that in the back of my mind though since a lot of confusing shit was happening in this game.

 

[Ricky_R]

I was also kind of confused about the

Spoiler

wedding rings

. I kind of stuck that in the back of my mind though since a lot of confusing shit was happening in this game.

Well it's not confusing, but you never really know until the end.

Spoiler

You can assume that they were married from their first conversation in Yemen, but there's doubt.

When he laid down on her lap and grabbed her hand, you can also deduce it, but there's still some doubt. Only at the end they clearly let you know that they were indeed married.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

Just beat the game. Took me 11 hours on Hard.

I'd rank the series as follows: Among Thieves > Drake's Deceptions > Drake's Fortune

Compared to Among Thieves, here's what it does better/worse:

+ More memorable soundtrack
+ More engaging puzzles
+ Greater visual fidelity (some of the set pieces late in the game have to be seen to believe)

- Worse combat and enemy encounters
- Worse plot
- Worse pacing (takes a while to get good)
- Less developed characters
- Overdone and wonky animations for Drake
- Stealth is not nearly as effective
- Dialogue is less witty
- Cutscenes are less interesting
- Ending is not as satisfying (including boss, thanks to the less developed characters)

Ultimately, the game felt far more rushed than the previous entries. It takes a while to really get going (not until chapter 12, really), and once it does it's still marred by some jarring inconsistencies. The pacing is a huge issue, but this is almost entirely due to the combat scenarios. Even with the aiming patched, the game's enemy encounters are just not fun compared to Among Thieves, period. The arenas are set up closer to Drake's Fortune, which is not a good thing. The enemy AI is perhaps the worst I've encountered in a game of this size and budget, which makes no sense considering how satisfactory it was in the previous entries. Enemies literally scurry around the map like mindless rats, making it hard to hit them and keep track of them. Plus, every encounter is virtually identical: couple snipers, an RPG, dudes in armored suits who are annoying to take out, and a plethora of grunts running around aimlessly.

The puzzles are satisfying for the most part, but they cease to exist from Chapter 12 and onward for whatever reason and are instead replaced by near consistent combat encounters in the last few chapters. Very annoying considering the combat is not fun at all in this game. It's impossible to even stealth your way through it, which is contrary to Among Thieves, a game that allowed you to stealth entire areas even on Crushing.

Anyway, there are a lot of small quibbles in the game that add up, like Drake's animations (making jumping into and out of cover more frustrating than it needs to be), the fact that the villains and supporting characters are barely explored, the fact that the story and plot is all over the place, etc., but ultimately it IS an Uncharted game, so it's automatically more engaging than most other games out there. The set pieces once again are truly incredible, there is some amazing artistic direction here, the soundtrack is one of the best all year, and when the game works, it's sublime. Unfortunately, this one could have used some more time in the oven.

Final rating: 8.5 or 9 out of 10, not sure.

 

[Dance Inferno]

^^ I agree with pretty much everything you said. The game just felt rushed, as it lacked polish in some very important areas (animations, combat encounters, aiming, multiplayer graphics, plot).

 

[Emwitus]

^^ I agree with pretty much everything you said. The game just felt rushed, as it lacked polish in some very important areas (animations, combat encounters, aiming, multiplayer graphics, plot).

If uncharted is rushed i dont know what id call all the other 98% of games. Graphics? Animations? It has the best of those. Aiming i can see. Multiplayer i never touch so whatev.

 

[Dance Inferno]

If uncharted is rushed i dont know what id call all the other 98% of games. Graphics? Animations? It has the best of those. Aiming i can see. Multiplayer i never touch so whatev.

Seriously? Animations are jumpy/erratic as all hell, the plot has so many damn holes that are extremely simple to address if they wanted to, and the difficulty curve of the campaign is so lumpy it results in trial-and-error memorization and frequent bouts of yelling at the screen.

It was definitely rushed compared to Uncharted 2. I will give you that the graphics are phenomenal though.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

If I'm not mistaken even Naughty Dog has commented on the game's very specific release window.

 

[Dance Inferno]

They did mention they had the worst crunch of any of their projects, which tells me they couldn't finish everything in time. Hell, they had a game-breaking texture streaming bug on phat PS3s up until a few days before final submission.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

I mean, they even forgot to turn on the motion blur in the final product. lol

 

[Mooreberg]

Where are the replay files uploaded to? Are they easy to export to Youtube?

 

[Rewrite]

Where are the replay files uploaded to? Are they easy to export to Youtube?

I think they're uploaded to their servers. You can download the cinema file onto your PS3 HDD and from there put it on your computer and upload it to YouTube.

 

[R_thanatos]

- Overdone and wonky animations for Drake
- Stealth is not nearly as effective

Stealth is effectiveit's just that you can't do stealth in entire areas

Drake animations ar eimproved .. he has different sets of animation considering where he is ( ground , sand , boat ) or how he feel ( normal , druges , tired , exhausted ) , drake now has animations for when he is running near corners and plenty more when near a crowd.

You can even see the benefits of teh new animation during melee.. it's much more dynamic and fluid than before and way more engaging.

Animations are definitly improved ...

 

[Chuck Norris]

What I think I liked least was the structure of the game. Uncharted 2's setting made sense, there was a clear flow of how Drake moved from area to area. In Uncharted 3 it was so disconnected, and I believe that's because they built the story around set pieces rather than the set pieces around the environments and story they were creating. They mentioned from the get go they wanted a cruise ship set pieces a plane crash set piece and a desert from the start. Its quite obvious that they struggled to give a good way to connect these things. The boat part (as much as I loved it, and especially the boat graveyard) just made little sense in the overall context of the game

I believe this focus on set pieces first is also what led to the game fizzling out in the end. They are building highs and lows in the pacing of the story based on explosions and set pieces rather than what is happening with the characters. There was so much potential but it felt like when they ran out of set pieces they also happened to run out of story.

I really hope Amy Hennig re-examines this approach. I know she can do a lot better and the story started off very strongly

I get the feeling they are holding off a lot on Drake's story too though for future sequels. But they should be giving more than we are getting

One thing she said in the interviews is that they design the story to be a balance of new and familiar to the players. Well I don't really want familiar. This game was too familiar, to genre tropes and to Uncharted 2. Stop following and start leading, Uncharted is now above the rest of the pulp genre IMO, start setting benchmarks and new standards that in 20 years time we'll see others in this genre adhering to.

 

[Chuck Norris]

I mean, they even forgot to turn on the motion blur in the final product. lol

I'd say its more like they discovered a game breaking glitch related to motion blur just before going gold, so it was necessary to leave out

 

[AranhaHunter]

Just beat the game. Took me 11 hours on Hard.

I'd rank the series as follows: Among Thieves > Drake's Deceptions > Drake's Fortune

Compared to Among Thieves, here's what it does better/worse:

+ More memorable soundtrack
+ More engaging puzzles
+ Greater visual fidelity (some of the set pieces late in the game have to be seen to believe)

- Worse combat and enemy encounters
- Worse plot
- Worse pacing (takes a while to get good)
- Less developed characters
- Overdone and wonky animations for Drake
- Stealth is not nearly as effective
- Dialogue is less witty
- Cutscenes are less interesting
- Ending is not as satisfying (including boss, thanks to the less developed characters)

Ultimately, the game felt far more rushed than the previous entries. It takes a while to really get going (not until chapter 12, really), and once it does it's still marred by some jarring inconsistencies. The pacing is a huge issue, but this is almost entirely due to the combat scenarios. Even with the aiming patched, the game's enemy encounters are just not fun compared to Among Thieves, period. The arenas are set up closer to Drake's Fortune, which is not a good thing. The enemy AI is perhaps the worst I've encountered in a game of this size and budget, which makes no sense considering how satisfactory it was in the previous entries. Enemies literally scurry around the map like mindless rats, making it hard to hit them and keep track of them. Plus, every encounter is virtually identical: couple snipers, an RPG, dudes in armored suits who are annoying to take out, and a plethora of grunts running around aimlessly.

The puzzles are satisfying for the most part, but they cease to exist from Chapter 12 and onward for whatever reason and are instead replaced by near consistent combat encounters in the last few chapters. Very annoying considering the combat is not fun at all in this game. It's impossible to even stealth your way through it, which is contrary to Among Thieves, a game that allowed you to stealth entire areas even on Crushing.

Anyway, there are a lot of small quibbles in the game that add up, like Drake's animations (making jumping into and out of cover more frustrating than it needs to be), the fact that the villains and supporting characters are barely explored, the fact that the story and plot is all over the place, etc., but ultimately it IS an Uncharted game, so it's automatically more engaging than most other games out there. The set pieces once again are truly incredible, there is some amazing artistic direction here, the soundtrack is one of the best all year, and when the game works, it's sublime. Unfortunately, this one could have used some more time in the oven.

Final rating: 8.5 or 9 out of 10, not sure.

I agree almost 100% with this post, I think the metacritic for it is spot on and the order of the quality of the Uncharteds that you have is also spot on. This game felt rushed and they have hinted that it was. Thankfully we have gotten this quote from the presidents:

When the fruits of this labour of love will be shared with gamers, no-one is saying. And, in the wake of the brutal crunch endured by the Uncharted 3 team in order to meet a release date it recklessly announced a year in advance, that should come as no surprise.

"We will never do that again, not a year out," sighs co-president Christophe Balestra. Wells agrees: "The minute we saw [the date] on screen we were like, oh god, I really regret that."

Hopefully that means they don't have Insomniac's "1 game (2 games?) a year mentality". Hopefully GG feels the same way as Killzone 3 felt even more rushed than Uncharted 3.

 

[Himself]

Animations are definitly improved ...

I concur. They way they changed with the specificity of the situation was pretty ingenious.

 

[Minamu]

Alright, then I'll probably try crushing soon It'd be nice to get a triple platinum in one series

 

[JB1981]

While the game has some really jarring issues, the soundtrack is beyond great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6XHu9I7OI

That's the kind of shit I'd expect to hear in Battlestar Galactica or something. So good.

I actually felt that UC2 soundtrack was vastly superior.

 

[Kenshin001]

What I think I liked least was the structure of the game. Uncharted 2's setting made sense, there was a clear flow of how Drake moved from area to area. In Uncharted 3 it was so disconnected, and I believe that's because they built the story around set pieces rather than the set pieces around the environments and story they were creating. They mentioned from the get go they wanted a cruise ship set pieces a plane crash set piece and a desert from the start. Its quite obvious that they struggled to give a good way to connect these things. The boat part (as much as I loved it, and especially the boat graveyard) just made little sense in the overall context of the game

I believe this focus on set pieces first is also what led to the game fizzling out in the end. They are building highs and lows in the pacing of the story based on explosions and set pieces rather than what is happening with the characters. There was so much potential but it felt like when they ran out of set pieces they also happened to run out of story.

I really hope Amy Hennig re-examines this approach. I know she can do a lot better and the story started off very strongly

I get the feeling they are holding off a lot on Drake's story too though for future sequels. But they should be giving more than we are getting

One thing she said in the interviews is that they design the story to be a balance of new and familiar to the players. Well I don't really want familiar. This game was too familiar, to genre tropes and to Uncharted 2. Stop following and start leading, Uncharted is now above the rest of the pulp genre IMO, start setting benchmarks and new standards that in 20 years time we'll see others in this genre adhering to.

Agree with this 100%. I found it odd they tried to fit a story around set pieces and in hindsight the story was kind of weak and not really coherent compared to UC2. Also felt some parts were rehashes of the previous games, particularly the ending. For the life of me I can not remember what the story in UC3 was about in any detail or who the guys in red ties were.

 

[Samara]

How do you play Co-op in this game???

At first it told me to get a key. My bf was like "what the hell?"

WE do put the key, but then we see 2 people who look like Cutter and a heart flag...and all of sudden guys are coming from EVERYWHERE and I'm like What the hell!

seriously, what is this. In the thumbnail I can see Sully and Nate, so this is what I want...

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Stealth is effectiveit's just that you can't do stealth in entire areas

Drake animations ar eimproved .. he has different sets of animation considering where he is ( ground , sand , boat ) or how he feel ( normal , druges , tired , exhausted ) , drake now has animations for when he is running near corners and plenty more when near a crowd.

You can even see the benefits of teh new animation during melee.. it's much more dynamic and fluid than before and way more engaging.

Animations are definitly improved ...

More animations doesn't mean they are improved. A lot of the time they are really wonky, and Drake goes into animations that he probably shouldn't be doing at the time. He does the 'put hand on nearby wall for balance' animation way too much, and most of the time his hand isn't even touching a wall. It looks bad.

I went back to Uncharted 2 immediately after finishing Uncharted 3, and while there are less animations, I think everything looks a lot better and more consistent. Most importantly, it's fun to control Drake since he isn't all squirrely.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

I went to the trouble of writing this in the "was UC3 rushed because of The Last of Us Thread" so I might as well post it here, too.

I've been playing UC2 again for the last couple of nights and it seems like a better game to me in most ways.

-The animation is more solid, even though there's less of it. Nate feels grounded, his feet don't slide, he doesn't feel as squirrely as he does in 3. He has fewer walk speeds, but they all look right.

-The aiming is really very good, still better than patched UC3. Part of this might be the hit detection, bullet spread, and recoil. But the point is I feel accurate and dangerous, which is how I'd like to feel in a shooter.

-The camera work and the scene framing during gameplay seem more carefully thought out (maybe 3D is to blame for UC3's different style?)

-The dialogue is better and the drama is more captivating, possibly because conflicts between characters are inherently more interesting than two pals cracking wise and name-dropping explorers and scientists.

-The melee is slightly less complicated, but less problematic in terms of utility. I don't think it animates any worse.

-The enemies both react to being shot AND go down after just a few bullets.

-The distribution of set-pieces vs. traversal is better. I found myself propelled to keep playing (even though I've played it many times before).

-The path you travel is more coherent. I very much agree at this point with the criticism that UC3 feels like it was built around linking setpieces together (and putting that stupid dynamic water tech to thorough use).

-The combat situations are really pretty varied, and take place in interesting areas, not just arenas. I think they put a lot more thought into the combat environments in 2. I won't go so far as to say it's of RE4 quality, but the same spirit is there. The combat scenarios I remember best from 3 are all big open areas, which allegedly have the benefit of being a dynamic combat sandbox, but in practice it felt to me like I had to take on enemies in a certain order or be demolished by shotguns or grenade launchers.

-The ice cave was a massive platforming puzzle that was also beautiful. There isn't anything quite on that scale in UC3.

The only thing from UC3 that I miss in UC2 is the grenade throwback. All the other changes they made were lateral moves, not improvements, IMO.

 

[Nappuccino]

Just finished.

Great game, but not as good as the predecessor, imo. ND is definitely running out of ideas. I mean, the last section is

Spoiler

pretty much exactly like in Among Thieves. The horse/truck section is also a spin of the truck section in Uncharted 2. The game recycles way too many ideas.

Seems to me they tried too hard to fill the game with "epic" moments. It came off a little forced to me, like they tried to wow me too hard.

And the villains have no development at all. They don't really explore their motivations at all. It's just "they are a bunch of people wanting power". That's it. Who are they?

Best part in the game was the

Spoiler

ship graveyard. Though I was angry with Drake the entire time since it was always blatantly obvious the pirate was lying about Sully. If Drake already knew Marlowe needed him, why the hell would a hired pirate have the guy? I mean, c'mon.

I love Uncharted, but the franchise needs to rest for a few years. I'm ready for The Last of Us.

Agreed on all points.

Also,

Spoiler

The pirates should have had Elena giving that whole segment some purpose... though the moment when drake returns was really touching

 

[JB1981]

uncharted 2 impressions.

I am playing through it again and agree with all of your points 100%.

 

[AranhaHunter]

How do you play Co-op in this game???

At first it told me to get a key. My bf was like "what the hell?"

WE do put the key, but then we see 2 people who look like Cutter and a heart flag...and all of sudden guys are coming from EVERYWHERE and I'm like What the hell!

seriously, what is this. In the thumbnail I can see Sully and Nate, so this is what I want...

Are you trying to play split screen or online? The key is for online pass and it seems like you picked the wrong option on the menu.

The guys coming from everywhere part is the "horde" mode and you have to kill them all to go to the next level.

 

[ProfessorMoran]

I know, i mentioned that it was a different build, but what I meant was more related to the fact that Drake says "lets do this quietly" or something, but you simply can't. Makes no sense.

You can take out maybe 2, 3 guys at most, no you can't take out the whole room via stealth, would be nice though.

 

[Manp]

More animations doesn't mean they are improved. A lot of the time they are really wonky, and Drake goes into animations that he probably shouldn't be doing at the time. He does the 'put hand on nearby wall for balance' animation way too much, and most of the time his hand isn't even touching a wall. It looks bad.

I went back to Uncharted 2 immediately after finishing Uncharted 3, and while there are less animations, I think everything looks a lot better and more consistent. Most importantly, it's fun to control Drake since he isn't all squirrely.

100% agree.

also i think hey_it's_that_dog, Chuck Norris and MrOogieBoogie are all making really good points, i definitely agree.

 

[Shai-Tan]

-The path you travel is more coherent. I very much agree at this point with the criticism that UC3 feels like it was built around linking setpieces together (and putting that stupid dynamic water tech to thorough use).

The same criticism also applies to UC2 so it confuses me that people hold it up as somehow doing a better job. It's about as coherently put together as The Mummy 2.