I'm really struggling to get into this game. I totally loved Uncharted 2 but the third entry just can't deliver that epicness - not at all. Also, this game has fantastic setpieces some really decent gameplay but the transition from one to the other is very poor.
GAF and people how generally pay no attention to the story will love the game. People who do and like the characters will probably not. Or well, I sure don't.
I don't know. I'm baffled. Having also beaten the game I'm unsure why people who involve themselves in the narrative would be disappointed -- because I think this has the best plot in the series -- and I'm also confused why you feel the game can't deliver the "epicness". It has some of the most sensational set-pieces in any game I've ever played.
Perhaps it's difficult to clarify yourself without offering spoilers, but I'd appreciate it if you tried.
I really can only imagine those feeling "struggling to get into the game" either; a) aren't in the mood; or b) let their hype hit such ridiculous proportions that nothing could possibly ever deliver; or c) they consumed too much media pre-release.
I understand (and appreciate) everyone has different opinions. But... Well, this game caught me from the get-go and it didn't let go until I finished it. And then I started it again...
EDIT: I'm quoting my impressions from post on the previous page here. Seeing as they got totally buried at the bottom of the page. FML. Hope this is not frowned upon by the mods.
get2sammyb said:
Just finished the game. I cannot stress how incredible of an experience it was. You guys, that have kept yourselves cold and still have your first-play through ahead of you are in for a treat. In a way I'm kinda of jealous.
It's an absolute masterclass. Naughty Dog really is the master of its trade. Its testament to the strength of the series that the very opening scene prompted a massive grin across my face. And the appearance of
Elena
mid-way into the game sent
my heart fluttering. LOL.
I'm quite surprised by some of the comments so far. Each to their own of course, but I'm really staggered anyone could feel disappointed. The game is definitely a bit more slow-paced than previous entries --
you don't really fire a gun for a good hour or so
-- but that's great because it puts an emphasis on Uncharted's other strengths. I actually played a lot of the game in stealth, and you'll do a lot of melee brawling, which is really great.
I do think the game has some ill conceived difficulty spikes in places. On the odd occassion, you'll feel overwhelmed and a touch frustrated. But the checkpointing is spot-on, and the game reloads you into the action in seconds so it's not as frustrating as it could have been.
I should probably add -- for the majority of the game the shooting is really fun. The weapons feel solid, and the enemy AI is challenging and fun to fight against. I definitely feel like the game could stand tall just on the merits of its gunplay. That it's just -- relatively -- a small portion of the gameplay is phenomenal. Like I already said, I really enjoy the stealth and brawling in this game too.
As far as I'm concerned, the difficulty spikes -- and there are only a few of them -- are the only real blemish on what is otherwise an absolutely outstanding game.
I preferred the story immensely to the previous Uncharted titles. The characters really ground the plot, and make it intriguing from the off-set. As always the dialogue is absolutely top-notch, and the new faces are fantastic.
Even the very minor super-natural elements are well handled, and make for some interesting encounters.
I didn't feel like Uncharted 2 had much of a plot at all really, other than great character development. But Uncharted 3 does all that its predecessor did, while weaving a real plot around it this time. It's well researched, and, I personally found it intriguing. It really adds some background and depth to
Drake, Sully and Elena
which I strongly enjoyed.
The emphasis on Sir Francis Drake and Laurence of Arabia is also really pleasant, and perhaps the reason I enjoyed the plot so much.
I feel like most great games have one or two memorable moments at best. I always point to the Nuke from Call Of Duty 4, or the train from Uncharted 2, or the ride into Mexico from Red Dead Redemption. And so on. But -- and I'm looking at a list of notes here -- Uncharted 3 has at least six gob-stopping moments that I don't think I'll be forgetting in a hurry.
Even with Uncharted 2 being a banner game -- and a massively improved sequel -- I still feel like Uncharted 3 takes the franchise further. For me, it's the best in the series.
It's an absolutely sensational game. I started up a second playthrough almost immediately.
When I played uncharted 2 more than two times I began to see how a lot of the story is just shoe-horned together set-piece by set-piece so I'm a bit more excited to see uncharted 3 with more of a plot than previous entries in the series
The puzzles in this game are pretty intricate. Also there are places very similar to dungeons. I'm at chapter 12 now, and I'll forewarn everyone playing this game- It is NOT A SHOOTER. It is so much more.
I disagree. In the context of a movie yes. It cuts out some boring bits here and there. You'll get a 'star-swipe' once the crew have decided where they're going to go next. But it's not like the plot just totally abandons the narrative and goes "Next we're going to do... Then we're going to do..."
The puzzles in this game are pretty intricate. Also there are places very similar to dungeons. I'm at chapter 12 now, and I'll forewarn everyone playing this game- It is NOT A SHOOTER. It is so much more.
I think its because most video games are designed from a gameplay point of view, where they'll design, develop, and engineer a group of interesting set pieces, locations, and encounters for the player to interact with. THEN they go about putting some story together that will connect the dots. Now I don't know if Uncharted does this, but it certainly feels like it with the last two games. Luckily the animation, dialog, acting, etc is top notch that it doesn't really bother you that there's barely a plot and it makes less sense the more you think about it.
During Gametrailer's bonus round, Naughty Dog people said how they made the story of the game - it's weaved around the epic moments, not the other way around.
Just beat the game. Best Uncharted game in my opinion. I slightly prefer Uncharted 2's gunplay, but other than that U3 trumps it predecessor. More and great puzzles (as said above, they'd fit in a Zelda game), more fun hand-to-hand combat, more incredible set-pieces, better story, ... It takes a bit longer than U2 to hit its stride, but when it does it's hard to put down the game.
Love it.
One story related thing that isn't that clear to me though:
What was up with the dead body of the bad guy that was in a far state of decomposition? They never explained that, did they?
During Gametrailer's bonus round, Naughty Dog people said how they made the story of the game - it's weaved around the epic moments, not the other way around.
Sure. But it's still cohesive in my opinion. It makes sense. Definitely the game emphasises the most spectacular moments, like a movie. For example, you won't see Drake and Sully taking an uneventful plane ride to the next location. But it always makes sense where they're going and why they're going there.
The plot's much stronger in Uncharted 3.
Grisby said:
Like Zelda and not a shooter eh? Well, your kinda dampening my mood a tad.
Yeah, I'm joshing a bit. I'm sure its still got a lot of shooter mc shooty bits in it. I am curious to see what they did with the puzzles considering I always thought they were just nice window dressing mechanics in the other games. Well...maybe not that general but they definitely took a backseat to the action.
So it'll be interesting to see the mash-up here. Can't wait to play. 3 more sleeps.
Outside of the first couple of levels, I don't feel like there was a particularly well thought out story in UC2. To me it felt like exactly what you're describing.
Well, I didn't say that it was anything spectacular. It however made some sense. For U3 I'm permanently in a WTF expression.
Like, ok, Nate and his buddies blow half of a castle to pieces and then just walk out at the front door after? With tourists, an empty bus and all standing around? Really? And the game is full of stuff like this. Could mention the stuff but I don't wanna spoiler anything.
The game even contradicts the last entries in some points.
In U2 it is said that Nate used to be in the circus. Here we get to know he clearly wasn't.
And some stuff about Sully as well. I just doesn't add up.
I mean, you can call this nit picking but it really does bother me. I really got to like the characters over the past few years and now ND is just messing around with them.
It depends on the scenario. Most seemed well set-up for stealth, which I enjoyed. But you can go in all guns blazing if you prefer. You're free to scale the environment and choose your own cover-points, etc if you want to. But you get pinned down a bit more heavily in latter encounters.
It depends on the scenario. Most seemed well set-up for stealth, which I enjoyed. But you can go in all guns blazing if you prefer. You're free to scale the environment and choose your own cover-points, etc if you want to. But you get pinned down a bit more heavily in latter encounters.
I think its because most video games are designed from a gameplay point of view, where they'll design, develop, and engineer a group of interesting set pieces, locations, and encounters for the player to interact with. THEN they go about putting some story together that will connect the dots.
It shouldn't matter which version you play, stats are saved server side. I started the summer beta with the HK version and then switched to the US version when it came out and I kept everything. I've also seen people who were on the US Subway version switch to the EU PS+ version without any stat loss, retail should be the same.
Loudninja said:
So would you guys say you have more freedom to approach a battle? or is it like UC2.
Definitely more freedom this time around. There's this one spot that stood out for me, it's a short tower you have to climb that has a couple of enemies. You have the option of either climbing ladders that the enemies are camping or you can climb the water wheels on the side of the tower and surprise the enemy.
So guys, I never played Uncharted and know nothing about it, but I saw an ad today that portrayed this game as some kind of big Hollywood action movie with no gameplay. Is there something more to this game, or was that just one bad advertisement? I don't want to play a movie or watch a game.
Sure, but the script and storyboarding and such happen before you do any of the filming, casting, editing, sound design, visual effects, anything. The story comes first. Where oftentimes in video games, the script and the scenes connecting the gameplay sections together happen very late in the production.
The way UC's are written is more a kin to trying to do a concept album, you have a set structure dictated by the music, and you're trying to create a cohesive story within that.
You're naive man, sorry. Just read one of the screen-writing books and you will get an idea of what a screenwriter has to pay attention to when he writes the story. As said, it's not the same obstacles like in the gaming industry but I assure you there are equally as many.
You're naive man, sorry. Just read one of the screen-writing books and you will get an idea of what a screenwriter has to pay attention to when he writes the story. As said, it's not the same obstacles like in the gaming industry but I assure you there are equally as many.
This is the issue, Uncharted is more like a blockbuster style production, you don't go to Transformers for the cohesive masterfully interwoven yarn, you go because shit blows up good.
This is the issue, Uncharted is more like a blockbuster style production, you don't go to Transformers for the cohesive masterfully interwoven yarn, you go because shit blows up good.
You're naive man, sorry. Just read one of the screen-writing books and you will get an idea of what a screenwriter has to pay attention to when he writes the story. As said, it's not the same obstacles like in the gaming industry but I assure you there are equally as many.
I have plenty of screen-writing/movie books and collections that go in detail about the conception stage of how films are created. Hell, I just got done reading about "The Complete Making of Indiana Jones" a couple weeks ago. Sure you have set pieces and ideas in mind before hand; concept art, models, paintings, but they are almost abstract until they get some kind of concrete form of a draft. The story creation is the genesis of the Indiana Jones films; the set pieces and the characters, events, and dialog that drives the plot through those set pieces are formed in the beginning, before the main development of the film even happens. With video games, the story can be done several months INTO development of the core game. That's one of main reasons why video game stories are almost universally mediocre; they are literally an afterthought.
Well, I didn't say that it was anything spectacular. It however made some sense. For U3 I'm permanently in a WTF expression.
Like, ok, Nate and his buddies blow half of a castle to pieces and then just walk out at the front door after? With tourists, an empty bus and all standing around? Really? And the game is full of stuff like this. Could mention the stuff but I don't wanna spoiler anything.
The game even contradicts the last entries in some points.
In U2 it is said that Nate used to be in the circus. Here we get to know he clearly wasn't.
And some stuff about Sully as well. I just doesn't add up.
I mean, you can call this nit picking but it really does bother me. I really got to like the characters over the past few years and now ND is just messing around with them.
Well, I didn't say that it was anything spectacular. It however made some sense. For U3 I'm permanently in a WTF expression.
Like, ok, Nate and his buddies blow half of a castle to pieces and then just walk out at the front door after? With tourists, an empty bus and all standing around? Really? And the game is full of stuff like this. Could mention the stuff but I don't wanna spoiler anything.
The game even contradicts the last entries in some points.
In U2 it is said that Nate used to be in the circus. Here we get to know he clearly wasn't.
And some stuff about Sully as well. I just doesn't add up.
I mean, you can call this nit picking but it really does bother me. I really got to like the characters over the past few years and now ND is just messing around with them.
