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[OrbitalBeard]

I think the reason I loved this game so much is due to it being what I always thought the series was aiming for. In the very first game, you fight some enemies at the beginning, then spend the next hour or so exploring with Sully. I thought the game was going to be a mixture of this. It wasn't. Once combat starts again, it rarely lets up for the rest of the game. It really frustrated me. Uncharted 2 and 3 were a lot better in this regard, but they still focused too heavily on gunfights.

Uncharted 4, for me, finally got the pacing down right. If you were a huge fan of how the earlier games were set up, I can see why this game would disappoint you. But, for me, this is what I always wanted Uncharted to be, so I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out.

That being said, I really can't enjoy a game of this type very often these days. I've never been huge into "cinematic" games, so while I loved this one, I've had my fill for a looong time and I'm glad ND is ending the series.

After Uncharted, I REALLY need something like DOOM, which arrives in my mailbox tomorrow!

 

[BBboy20]

So, this is the other divisive game?

 

[Lima]

Guys, I might have liked U3 more than this one. Help.

Considering 3 was better than 2 this is fine.

 

[JTripper]

Considering 3 was better than 2 this is fine.

my man

 

[MaybeBurger]

btw, everytime in UC4, you transition from underwater to above water, it still makes me gasp at how amazing it looks. Does anyone do it better?

 

[Vault Dweller 111]

The hyperbole here is getting insane.

"30 minutes of climbing for 5 minutes of fighting" that is ridiculous.

Reading this thread I felt like I was misremembering how many gunfights there are. I'm on my second play through and even in a low encounter area like

Spoiler

Scotland

there are tons of shootouts.

You shoot an ass load of people in this game.

 

[ckohler]

Credits rolling. This game is a near masterpiece. Bravo.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

So, what? Did you want Drake to have a jetpack full with astronaut suit ready to blast off into millions of procedurally generated treasure planets?

Again, what do you want this game to be? Open world? This is Uncharted not Infamous, and even in that game the collectables are empty. If you wanted the treasures to have an impact or story or more than an item viewer then, again, I don't know what you've been playing for the past three games.

Actually the entire game is nice to look at, and again, this is not a puzzle game, either. It's not Talos, it's not Witness, it's not Swapper...it's Uncharted...

I'm not sure what you're arguing with any of these statements. I don't expect this to be open world, I don't expect this to be a puzzle game. I specifically said that yes, the other games in the series had the same qualities I was describing, and I was fine with the way they were executed there. But because there's significantly more downtime in this game, alongside significantly less encounters and a shift in the way the game flows, that only serves to place more responsibility on the non-action scenes to carry the game and earn your attention. Unfortunately, to me, the gameplay side of UC4 depends on its weakest pillars to support the experience more than ever. I was cool with Uncharted being a simple ass romp. Naughty Dog are the ones who stretched the hell out of the formula wanting it to be more than that, and in my opinion it's not an engaging experience.

It seems like you missed the point of this game and its premise.

There's nothing urging Drake the way glory and treasure hunting did in his heyday, he's dragged out of his new life with Elena, still unable to find a happy middle between responsibility and adventure.

That's what this journey is about, and the pacing reflects that.

You're clearly allowed to have expectations , and as much as it blows that they weren't met, when you're getting onto the fourth sequel in a series you gotta stop to wonder whether it's about what you want or what the creators want to do the fourth time around.

Luckily for me, they hit all the right notes.

I didn't miss the point of anything. I get the themes, I get what the pacing is attempting to do, and how the environments reflect the narrative, Drake's emotions, Sam's motivations, etc. And yes, the creators are free to do whatever the hell they want, lord knows Naughty Dog's multiplayer team has been for the last 7 years. I'm also free to criticize their decisions because, quite honestly, I wasn't invested.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Downtime reminds me of chilling in open world games.(while avoiding open world bloat)

There are many moments where I could just relax and enjoy the world they put together.

The encounters feel much more meaningful here...Like when the shooting broke out at the Ballroom I actually felt excited.

The older games were bloated with encounters.

Yep. I love how ND had the balls to do something like Chapter

Spoiler

12

. Reminds me of Assassin's Creed IV except less looking at the minimap to collect thing #124 and more "that's beautiful" and pirate lore. It comes right off of a bunch of crazy action so it makes sense to slow things down. In any past Uncharted game there's nothing like that at all. So pleasant.

 

[hydruxo]

Ending boss

Spoiler

Congratulations ND on making one of the worst boss fights off all time, and surely the worst last boss of all time. Like what the hell were they thinking!? ND just suck at making boss fights in general, they can't make a decent one even if they had a gun to their head.

I thought it was

Spoiler

pretty poor gameplay wise. Very cool concept, but I didn't feel like it worked very well in practice. The visuals were stunning though. The flames shimmering off the gold coins and everything.

 

[The Xtortionist]

"Mash X" platforming has always been one of the weakest aspects of UC, and 4 has more of it than ever without any relevant refinements. Exploration in UC has never been meaningful, while UC4 has the biggest environments in the series by far and they continue to be filled with nothing outside of a lore note here and there. The puzzles in UC have never been brain busters, but they're generally interesting visually and intricate...not so in UC4 for the most part.

It disappoints me mang. The choices made here don't make any sense to me.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

"Mash X" platforming has always been one of the weakest aspects of UC, and 4 has more of it than ever without any relevant refinements. Exploration in UC has never been meaningful, while UC4 has the biggest environments in the series by far and they continue to be filled with nothing. The puzzles in UC have never been brain busters, but they're generally interesting visually and intricate...not so in UC4 for the most part.

It disappoints me mang. The choices made here don't make any sense to me.

It's crazy to hear some people's opinions on the series' puzzles. They've only gotten better and better. In Uncharted 1 and 2, you're basically camping out in and constantly referencing Drake's journal to solve everything. In 3 and 4, puzzles aren't particularly difficult, but at least require more thought than memorizing as much from the journal that you can so you can solve the "puzzle" quicker. I don't want to be stumped by Uncharted puzzles, but they've at least been trying, so I have nothing but praise.

 

[hydruxo]

It's crazy to hear some people's opinions on the series' puzzles. They've only gotten better and better. In Uncharted 1 and 2, you're basically camping out in and constantly referencing Drake's journal to solve everything. In 3 and 4, puzzles aren't particularly difficult, but at least require more thought than memorizing as much from the journal that you can so you can solve the "puzzle" quicker. I don't want to be stumped by Uncharted puzzles, but they've at least been trying, so I have nothing but praise.

I really liked the puzzles in 4. Way more so than any of the ones in the first 3 games. The one where you have to

Spoiler

rotate the squares with the pirate sigils was cool.

 

[Slixshot]

"Mash X" platforming has always been one of the weakest aspects of UC, and 4 has more of it than ever without any relevant refinements.

Not true. They actually made it so the majority of the time, you don't have to press a single button. Drake will naturally grab what he's reaching for if it's within reach. The climbing is smooth as butter because of it. One of my favorite additions to the game, actually.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

So, what? Did you want Drake to have a jetpack full with astronaut suit ready to blast off into millions of procedurally generated treasure planets?


Again, what do you want this game to be? Open world? This is Uncharted not Infamous, and even in that game the collectables are empty. If you wanted the treasures to have an impact or story or more than an item viewer then, again, I don't know what you've been playing for the past three games.

Actually the entire game is nice to look at, and again, this is not a puzzle game, either. It's not Talos, it's not Witness, it's not Swapper...it's Uncharted...

It seems like you missed the point of this game and its premise.

There's nothing urging Drake the way glory and treasure hunting did in his heyday, he's dragged out of his new life with Elena, still unable to find a happy middle between responsibility and adventure.

That's what this journey is about, and the pacing reflects that.

You're clearly allowed to have expectations , and as much as it blows that they weren't met, when you're getting onto the fourth sequel in a series you gotta stop to wonder whether it's about what you want or what the creators want to do the fourth time around.

Luckily for me, they hit all the right notes.

He wants the game to be the shootouts and action sequences foremost, interspersed with downtime segments that compliment the action, like in Uncharted 2, for the most part.

I really enjoyed almost every part of this game, but there were points where I was wanting another combat sequence or two between back-to-back puzzles/traversal/exploratory segments (which are easily the best they've been in the series). The more directed shootout/action sequences are great and the open areas that go from stealth, to shootout, and back are all great. I liked, even loved, some of the simple "walking around" moments, and he climbing and swinging provided some actual moments of "how do I get up there?" to me, which is refreshing as hell. Even still, some just went on for too long, or I couldn't find the one thing Inneeded to look at the trigger the next cutscenes ("THIEF" room coin seemingly never showed up for me until Sam looked at it).

But the game feels like a light exploration game first and foremost, with a lot of shootouts peppered in. it's got nothing to do with Drake's motivations, it's just that the pacing is completely different from the best in its prequels (or rather, prequel, UC2).

And you can acknowledge what the creators wanted to do and still not be pleased with it. You can't compared Uncharted 4 to 2 and say they're structured the same way as far as the basic gameplay goes. Not sure why you think that matters in regards to someone's feelings about the game or why you don't think everyone already knows this was the game ND wanted to make.

 

[RespectThySole]

I think I need to replay 3 again because it's kinda tough to justify putting 4 over it when I think about it. Yeah it had a couple annoying sections and that dumb melee system, but all in all, it probably had the higher highs and is more fun to replay.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Not true. They actually made it so the majority of the time, you don't have to press a single button. Drake will naturally grab what he's reaching for if it's within reach. The climbing is smooth as butter because of it. One of my favorite additions to the game, actually.

So instead of mashing X while holding a direction, I can just hold a direction and climb even slower? I'll try that out on my next run.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Not true. They actually made it so the majority of the time, you don't have to press a single button. Drake will naturally grab what he's reaching for if it's within reach. The climbing is smooth as butter because of it. One of my favorite additions to the game, actually.

Yeah, the platforming feels much smoother and refined in this game. It's a joy to control, especially when you're utilizing all your skills during a combat encounter. I also like that the platforms you can interact with are a little less obvious this time, so you have to be more aware of the environment.

 

[SSReborn]

He wants the game to be the shootouts and action sequences foremost, interspersed with downtime segments that compliment the action, like in Uncharted 2, for the most part.

I really enjoyed almost every part of this game, but there were points where I was wanting another combat sequence or two between back-to-back puzzles/traversal/exploratory segments (which are easily the best they've been in the series). The more directed shootout/action sequences are great and the open areas that go from stealth, to shootout, and back are all great. I liked, even loved, some of the simple "walking around" moments, and he climbing and swinging provided some actual moments of "how do I get up there?" to me, which is refreshing as hell. Even still, some just went on for too long, or I couldn't find the one thing Inneeded to look at the trigger the next cutscenes ("THIEF" room coin seemingly never showed up for me until Sam looked at it).

But the game feels like a light exploration game first and foremost, with a lot of shootouts peppered in. it's got nothing to do with Drake's motivations, it's just that the pacing is completely different from the best in its prequels (or rather, prequel, UC2).

And you can acknowledge what the creators wanted to do and still not be pleased with it. You can't compared Uncharted 4 to 2 and say they're structured the same way as far as the basic gameplay goes. Not sure why you think that matters in regards to someone's feelings about the game or why you don't think everyone already knows this was the game ND wanted to make.

Basically this.

The game is great but it definitely has some aspects that can go either way for people.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

So instead of mashing X while holding a direction, I can just hold a direction and climb even slower? I'll try that out on my next run.

It rarely ever being just one path through areas changes my attitude about that considerably. Rather than just mashing to get through a climb, the game actually made me consider where I needed to go, and not knowing the limits of the jump automation while swinging/jumping made some of those rope/grappling hook moments intense.

I'm already pressing buttons repeatedly in any other game, and it's the context that makes it interesting. I found it generally interesting here, both because of level design, the scenery and sneaking around enemies occasionally.

 

[theecakee]

Doing this over and over in Chapter 10 has been fun.

 

[bananafactory]

Doing this over and over in Chapter 10 has been fun.

holy shit lmao

 

[BBboy20]

Doing this over and over in Chapter 10 has been fun.

Editing in "A Thief's End" would have been perfect.

 

[Windforce]

Doing this over and over in Chapter 10 has been fun.

Laughing so hard at this! lol!

 

[Slixshot]

Doing this over and over in Chapter 10 has been fun.

This was the first thing I did too!!!

 

[Net_Wrecker]

snip

It's funny to me that people are surprised that I wanted more of what made me love UC2. It's not that difficult to grasp.

Like brehs, I pre-ordered Firewatch. I'm looking forward to No Man's Sky. The Last of Us is arguably ND's best game (I say arguably because, again, UC2's pacing is mostly razor sharp IMO). I exhaust dialogue options in any game that provides them. I'm not against slower narrative or exploration driven experiences. But not only was Uncharted never that, UC4 also provides smaller doses of the swashbuckling high energy I've come to expect with nothing but walk (or climb) and talk filling the gaps.

 

[Roldan]

Finished the game this evening. The ending was better handled than I'd hoped.

I only have two problems, that most people seemed to cover, though: the sandbox encounters don't work quite well due to the flanky nature of the AI, and the villains aren't fleshed out as I wanted them to be

Spoiler

(I mean, Rafe was a douche, but Nadine seemed interesting enough)

Oh, and a complain about something minor, but, ironically, it was what bothered me the most. Wtf with the "choose your dialogue" prompt? It could've been used in Nate-Sam interactions to expose more of their past to the player or... whatever, I don't know.

Spoiler

Instead, it's used in 3 or 4 times throughout the entire game, for completely useless purposes. I mean, what?

The rest is pure gold. Loved following Avery's story, didn't mind the slower pace or lack of badass setpieces, and don't even get me started about the graphics, animations and acting.

I think it's my favorite Uncharted and that's probably because it's a little different from the others.

 

[NullPointer]

This wasn't a game made for me, this is a game made for people who only played UC for the story and got annoyed with the amount of action scenes. Sadly, Naughty Dog in 2016 wouldn't make Uncharted 2.

Perfect summary.

Technically and artistically UC4 is nothing short of astonishing, full stop. I honestly didn't think this little machine was capable of pulling that off, and the end product is a lot more than just hardware mastery. They've raised the bar to some dizzying heights.

It just didn't engage me with its gameplay, relying too much upon simple climbing and all too often box pushing while letting the classic Indiana Jones meets Die Hard bits fall by the wayside.

Spoiler

Madagascar, the clock tower and chase segment was flat out amazing though, but that was really it in terms of the action for me.

The other segments might have been great but they were snack sized and over just as I thought they were getting started.

Spoiler

The end battle segments were more punishing gauntlets than fun engagements, and felt like overcompensation for the lower ebb of combat in the rest of the game.

Don't make the mistake of thinking I just wanted more combat, as the difficulty and sponginess balance in UC4 is off too, so its still needs balance and tuning. I wanted to jump around and run and gun, but you're too vulnerable, and enemies are too accurate to make that over the top play-style very smart.

I won't take issue with the shower of 10s and GOTY/GOTG awards this game has coming, and deservedly so, but it feels like a major focus and audience switch to me (from summer blockbuster adventure battles and replayability to climb-and-chat and once-and-done design), and that's not the greatest thing to do with the last game of the series.

Again, what do you want this game to be? Open world? [...]

I know you're not asking me but its funny you should ask this. Personally I wanted a linear action adventure shooter, and

Spoiler

all the side areas around the Volcano

felt too much like open world filler to me.

 

[brickarts295]

Editing in "A Thief's End" would have been perfect.

Even better, just add the credits with the ND logo and directed by Straley and Druckmann.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

My biggest issue with the game, which makes sense in the context of the game though, is never being able to properly beat

Spoiler

Nadine at a fist fight in either encounter

. Once again it makes complete sense story-wise, it's still disappointing that you can't really do anything to turn things on your favor.


The fist fight mechanics in this are better than the other games, but I didn't get to use them much.

On a related note I feel I didn't take advantage of map layouts as much during gun fights since I usually took out like 70% of the enemies with stealth, so no swinging around in ropes and doing cool shit for the most part.

 

[camby]

I just beat the game and my knee jerk reaction is the game was great but was a little bloated. I might replay the collection before I take a run at the achievements. Then I'll have a better idea how l feel about it

 

[the_batman]

My biggest issue with the game, which makes sense in the context of the game though, is never being able to properly beat

Spoiler

Nadine at a fist fight in either encounter

. Once again it makes complete sense story-wise, it's still disappointing that you can't really do anything to turn things on your favor.


The fist fight mechanics in this are better than the other games, but I didn't get to use them much.

On a related note I feel I didn't take advantage of map layouts as much during gun fights since I usually took out like 70% of the enemies with stealth, so no swinging around in ropes and doing cool shit for the most part.

it's makes no sense leaving out a block or parry action. even if we are able to defeat them in a fight, they could change the ensuing cutscene to show Nate having to bail because their backup arrives.

 

[Later Alligator]

loving this game so far, the vegetation is gorgeous and probably the best ive seen out of any game

on chapter 9

 

[msdstc]

Yeah definitely feeling the fatigue already doing my subsequent playthroughs for collectibles. It definitely has its place amongst the greats, but I'm really conflicted here... I love what we got but I wish it was more uncharted. Neil said the tone would still very much be uncharted, but its just so different from the others.

 

[RespectThySole]

My biggest issue with the game, which makes sense in the context of the game though, is never being able to properly beat

Spoiler

Nadine at a fist fight in either encounter

. Once again it makes complete sense story-wise, it's still disappointing that you can't really do anything to turn things on your favor.

I really had a problem with that second encounter because it's the only form of action at all in that chapter. It doesn't hold up when replaying the game and the novelty of

Spoiler

her reappearing

is gone. It might as well be a QTE with how quick it's over and the fact that you can't change anything.

Yeah, it makes sense in the context of the game, but still annoying that there's no combat arenas at all in that chapter. That would've lessened the blow at least. As it stands, it just feels anticlimactic. The

Spoiler

story

part right after is great, but then they immediately follow it up with that ridiculous chapter 16.

 

[MagicWithEarvin]

I know most of us have seen the E3 demo, which is chapter

Spoiler

11

, but actually playing it... with my HyperX Kingston IIs and a 24" Asus IPS panel was such an amazing experience. Please tell me there's more awesome set pieces like this.

 

[NullPointer]

Am I the only one who figured that

Spoiler

the OT title was a hint that Chloe would show up at some point

?

That's probably my biggest disappointment ;p

 

[Admiral Woofington]

I think someone above hit it right on the head, where I wouldn't mind the big open action scenes if it wasn't for the AI all having aim bots. Instead Im just hiding behind cover 99% of the time.

 

[Digital-Hero]

I know most of us have seen the E3 demo, which is chapter

Spoiler

11

, but actually playing it... with my HyperX Kingston IIs and a 24" Asus IPS panel was such an amazing experience. Please tell me there's more awesome set pieces like this.

There are quite a few more. Just not of that length, which is fine.

I completed the game tonight, what a fantastic experience.

 

[Cave Johnson]

After playing some more I will double down on this as my final, list.

TLoU>U2>U4>UC1~UC3

There seems to be a few posters championing this impression scale and it definitely matches my experience with ND's output. Uncharted 4 is an improvement in both technical and storytelling-wise but it falls short of the encounter experience of its past games.

I think it's time for them to take all their experience and do whatever they did to make TLOU happen in a different IP format. I felt the game was a checkbox ND had to write off for the sake of closing the series altogether.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Yeah definitely feeling the fatigue already doing my subsequent playthroughs for collectibles. It definitely has its place amongst the greats, but I'm really conflicted here... I love what we got but I wish it was more uncharted. Neil said the tone would still very much be uncharted, but its just so different from the others.

I'm going through again on crushing, played up to the start of chapter 9 and I was bored out of my mind for most of it. Definitely one of the worst games for replays in recent memory.

 

[Dante316]

Play it with modifications such as helium voice and cel shade option. Makes replay more fun.

 

[Javin98]

For those who find the downtimes and quiet moments boring, why not just skip straight to encounter select then? As soon as I beat the game yesterday, I went back to retry some encounters and I was kicking myself for not being more creative on my first playthrough.

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

fun

Pretty much for me too. Not sure why, but after 1 hour I felt bored and felt I needed to do other stuff. Doesn't happen with games like Dark souls, not sure why, the game has everything going for it...

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Pretty much for me too. Not sure why, but after 1 hour I felt bored and felt I needed to do other stuff. Doesn't happen with games like Dark souls... not sure why, the game has everything going for it...

I hope we get a "Uncharted should be more like Dark Souls" thread at some point .

 

[Hellwarden]

So, for me, 2>3>4>1.

Uncharted 4 is a good game.

But I personally can't call it fantastic. The pacing is just too wonky, and it doesn't grow into a cohesive whole as a result.

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

He wants the game to be the shootouts and action sequences foremost, interspersed with downtime segments that compliment the action, like in Uncharted 2, for the most part.

I really enjoyed almost every part of this game, but there were points where I was wanting another combat sequence or two between back-to-back puzzles/traversal/exploratory segments (which are easily the best they've been in the series). The more directed shootout/action sequences are great and the open areas that go from stealth, to shootout, and back are all great. I liked, even loved, some of the simple "walking around" moments, and he climbing and swinging provided some actual moments of "how do I get up there?" to me, which is refreshing as hell. Even still, some just went on for too long, or I couldn't find the one thing Inneeded to look at the trigger the next cutscenes ("THIEF" room coin seemingly never showed up for me until Sam looked at it).

But the game feels like a light exploration game first and foremost, with a lot of shootouts peppered in. it's got nothing to do with Drake's motivations, it's just that the pacing is completely different from the best in its prequels (or rather, prequel, UC2).

And you can acknowledge what the creators wanted to do and still not be pleased with it. You can't compared Uncharted 4 to 2 and say they're structured the same way as far as the basic gameplay goes. Not sure why you think that matters in regards to someone's feelings about the game or why you don't think everyone already knows this was the game ND wanted to make.

Uncharted 2 fucking sucks compared to this game, though!

What fucked up crack are you all smoking???

That's a dinosaur of a game compared to this! Fuck the funneled pacing! lol.

Everybody keeps bringing up Uncharted 2's pacing as some sort of shining example, when realistically, it's got nothing to do with the gameplay and more with the expository intermissions.

Like, honestly, tell me if you play any of the Uncharted games on easy mode and skip the cutscenes they won't all have the same brilliant pacing. Bang, bang, GO, SETPIECES, CREDITS. Masterpiece.

U1, 2, 3 to a lesser extent were all a bunch of killboxes interwoven by on rails set pieces (quite literally in 2), it's bullshit to say this game has poor "pacing" in relative terms.

Absolute. Bullshit.

I didn't miss the point of anything. I get the themes, I get what the pacing is attempting to do, and how the environments reflect the narrative, Drake's emotions, Sam's motivations, etc. And yes, the creators are free to do whatever the hell they want, lord knows Naughty Dog's multiplayer team has been for the last 7 years. I'm also free to criticize their decisions because, quite honestly, I wasn't invested.

That's great. I'm just saying your criticism is weak and misplaced.

 

[Coolbgdog12]

I tried to play UC2 remastered today. I made it to chapter 2 and turned it off. The shooting felt terrible. I love UC2 but it's old now.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Eh, I think Uncharted 2 still holds up pretty damn well. Just replayed it a few months ago.

Don't get me wrong, I think the combat in U4 is vastly improved...I just wanted a bit more of it.

I tried to play UC2 remastered today. I made it to chapter 2 and turned it off. The shooting felt terrible. I love UC2 but it's old now.

Do you even shoot a gun in Chapter 2? That's the heist mission.

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

I hope we get a "Uncharted should be more like Dark Souls" thread at some point .

Not what I meant, for some reason I can only play this game in small doses... maybe its just me.. .but after a while I get bored, not even sure what it could do different, guess for some reason it didn't jive for me.