I'm sorry but as much as I love this game the final
boss fight with Rafe is an absolute joke. I thought it was bull shit on my initial hard play through and it's just as bad now in my second crushing run. Dodge left is triangle, dodge right is circle yet he does vertical slices that seemingly can't be blocked with either and sometimes circle or triangle can block any attack. Sometimes he decides to spin attack at an inhuman velocity.
I can feel a blood vessel twitching in my head and feel ready to explode after trying for an hour now.
I'm sorry but as much as I love this game the final
boss fight with Rafe is an absolute joke. I thought it was bull shit on my initial hard play through and it's just as bad now in my second crushing run. Dodge left is triangle, dodge right is circle yet he does vertical slices that seemingly can't be blocked with either and sometimes circle or triangle can block and attack.
I can feel a blood vessel twitching in my head and feel ready to explode after trying for an hour now.
I'm sorry but as much as I love this game the final
boss fight with Rafe is an absolute joke. I thought it was bull shit on my initial hard play through and it's just as bad now in my second crushing run. Dodge left is triangle, dodge right is circle yet he does vertical slices that seemingly can't be blocked with either and sometimes circle or triangle can block any attack. Sometimes he decides to spin attack at an inhuman velocity.
I can feel a blood vessel twitching in my head and feel ready to explode after trying for an hour now.
There's a guy on the last page who said he found it easy even on crushing and it took him like two tries
thisisneogaf.gif
FYI, if I recall right,
the 'vertical' attack is actually a left one. Block with Triangle. IIRC he's using his right arm in a forearm strike, it's just more over his head/above his shoulder.
Finished the game last night. Naughty Dog is in top form when it comes to storytelling, no question. I also found the pacing to be essentially pitch perfect for my tastes. Obviously that's going to vary from individual to individual. Long before the reveal I was pretty certain that
Sam was lying about his escape from prison. Oddly enough I was getting less convinced by the time the game showed its hand.
What an incredibly satisfying end to the series, or at least ND's involvement. My hat's off to the team. I can't wait to see what they get up to next!
Anyone know if the "lock-on" aiming disables trophies?
I know I've read that the in-game cheats you can enable don't disable trophies but I'm using Infinite Ammo + Barrock Pistol to try to get that 70% accuracy rating using the lock-on is making this waaaaaay easier but I noticed in the chapter menu it also has every chapter marked as "used lock-on aiming"
I can't imagine that they'll let you use infinite ammo and the ability to give yourself power weapons and lock-on is the bridge that is too far but I thought I'd ask anyways.
Anyone know if the "lock-on" aiming disables trophies?
I know I've read that the in-game cheats you can enable don't disable trophies but I'm using Infinite Ammo + Barrock Pistol to try to get that 70% accuracy rating using the lock-on is making this waaaaaay easier but I noticed in the chapter menu it also has every chapter marked as "used lock-on aiming"
I can't imagine that they'll let you use infinite ammo and the ability to give yourself power weapons and lock-on is the bridge that is too far but I thought I'd ask anyways.
I finished at 18, but I was on hard (and had my ass handed to me many times over) and explored every little inch of the world. Still missed a ton of treasures though...
No, it's great. You may argue that enemies flank you but usually you dispatch them with a moment of blindfire (when they get close) and while the maps have a lot of destructible cover, it's not ubiquitously destructible cover.
Granted, I haven't reached the end of the game on Crushing yet, and I could imagine that gets annoying, but once you know that you need to protect yourself from explosives very carefully, you start playing differently. (Or at least, you should). For instance, during the Madascar Tower encounter, I used the stone ruins near the dynamite plunger to keep myself safe when shit hit the fan. I stayed back there, keeping enemies at bay and only rolling out to get ammo after an RPG shot. I prioritised enemies with explosives, I played carefully, and I didn't need to throw back a grenade/explosive at all.
Nah, it's lame. Blindfire only gets you far if you have a shotgun, boroke, flintock or pistole on you or if it's just one dude coming out at you and you can shoot with the para or assault rifle. It's is pretty ubiquitous, a lot of the time you want to be hanging because the only decent cover is like that, course the maps are designed in a way that enemies can get around below you to get around your defense. With enemies being more aggressive and wanting to rush you in groups like the cavern fight late game, yeah nah.
The Madagascar tower is open with lots of stone cover and the option to stealth a lot of enemies beforehand. Not a great argument against the forced encounters like chapter 20. Plus you have the benefit of having already played the game and knowing what to expect so I don't even know if you're playing legit or not with the bonus unlocks.
I didn't explore everything, I didn't try to find every single treasure (57/109) and I didn't die more than 10 times and it took me 19h.
For example, that Magascar's section that was shown weeks before the release took me 1 hour. The videos were around 20 minutes.
I think the difference could be the form you affront the fights. You can be stealthy and take 20 minutes to kill 10 men, or kill these same 10 men in 2 minutes.
Anyone know if the "lock-on" aiming disables trophies?
I know I've read that the in-game cheats you can enable don't disable trophies but I'm using Infinite Ammo + Barrock Pistol to try to get that 70% accuracy rating using the lock-on is making this waaaaaay easier but I noticed in the chapter menu it also has every chapter marked as "used lock-on aiming"
I can't imagine that they'll let you use infinite ammo and the ability to give yourself power weapons and lock-on is the bridge that is too far but I thought I'd ask anyways.
Go for it. I liked UC1 the first time I played it but the improvements to this version make it such a better game. The collection is worth it just for that.
For those that feel there was no supernatural element, I feel there was one there though it was actually quite subtle and nuanced.
Warning end game spoiler!
The treasure was cursed, in that everyone who desired it ended up dying in the pursuit of owning it. Sam and Nate escaped as they no longer wanted the treasure by the end, infact Sam is almost certain to die until he finally let's go of the dream, almost immediately Nate has the idea that saves him.
For those that feel there was no supernatural element, I feel there was one there though it was actually quite subtle and nuanced.
Warning end game spoiler!
The treasure was cursed, in that everyone who desired it ended up dying in the pursuit of owning it. Sam and Nate escaped as they no longer wanted the treasure by the end, infact Sam is almost certain to die until he finally let's go of the dream, almost immediately Nate has the idea that saves him.
For those that feel there was no supernatural element, I feel there was one there though it was actually quite subtle and nuanced.
Warning end game spoiler!
The treasure was cursed, in that everyone who desired it ended up dying in the pursuit of owning it. Sam and Nate escaped as they no longer wanted the treasure by the end, infact Sam is almost certain to die until he finally let's go of the dream, almost immediately Nate has the idea that saves him.
the human condition is the curse (same with TLoU). It's the greed, the selfishness, etc, which causes shit to turn sour. Arguably this accounts for that last moment, too, when Drake is finally like "Sam is about to die, and you know what, the treasure doesn't matter," then he opens his mind up and solves the problem.
I still think in Scotland during the chamber under the cathedral collapsing that there was something supernatural down in the depths. All this purple cloud, weird screamey noises. It sort of freaked me out and I was thinking "this is definitely going to come back in the last act!"
I should point out the curse of the treasure applies to those that are lost to greed and want all if it for themselves, Nadine also took some and she managed to escape.
The chemistry felt so real, and as a result I was deeply saddened by the potential prospect
of their marriage ending.
I was completely sold on
their relationship, Elena's emotional grievances, and Nate's innate inclination toward pursuing the next big hunt. The payoff for me was when Nate finally admitted to himself and Elena that he was selfishly looking out for himself. His newfound guilt and maturity coincided with the game as a whole, which felt profoundly more mature and sophisticated than all three previous Uncharted titles.
Also, as happy as I am with what the game delivered, I have my own idea of how I would have liked this game to be told, considering
there were a lot of flashbacks. If instead this entire game was simply a recollection of Nate being told to someone else, he could have been narrating the story throughout the game, which I'd find interesting. I love the way it's presented currently, but I can't help but wonder how it would have been in this sense.
Loved it. One slight gripe with the combat is they didn't really need grenade spamming, destructible cover *and* armoured shotgunners to keep you moving. Made it ridiculously difficult at times I thought, especially with enemies on multiple levels. I guess they really wanted you to use stealth as much as possible.
I think its one of their most well rounded stories. From brginning to end. IEven more so then TLOU. Everything bout the Avery stuff was impressive and how the treasure hunt pretty much impacted everyone on some personal level was great. The turn the Avery story takes and the way they executed it was engaging as hell especially in chapter 19 when you actually can see it.
Loved it. One slight gripe with the combat is they didn't really need grenade spamming, destructible cover *and* armoured shotgunners to keep you moving. Made it ridiculously difficult at times I thought, especially with enemies on multiple levels. I guess they really wanted you to use stealth as much as possible.
The firefight at the end of chapter 14 was a bit too over the top with like 3 or 4
armored shot gunners flanking, multiple snipers plus grenade spamming in the few viable areas to move around to.
Mobility was really limited in comparison to most of the other arenas with the way it was set up. One of my least favorite fights in the game. Big disappointment after the superb arena in
13 and how boring the chapter was up until that point.
Anyone know if the "lock-on" aiming disables trophies?
I know I've read that the in-game cheats you can enable don't disable trophies but I'm using Infinite Ammo + Barrock Pistol to try to get that 70% accuracy rating using the lock-on is making this waaaaaay easier but I noticed in the chapter menu it also has every chapter marked as "used lock-on aiming"
I can't imagine that they'll let you use infinite ammo and the ability to give yourself power weapons and lock-on is the bridge that is too far but I thought I'd ask anyways.
As far as I know none of the cheats disable trophies, including lock-on aim.
You can go wild with them basically.
Lock-on aim is great though, especially from an accessibility POV, which is where it is in the options. Good job ND for making your game playable by tons of less-abled persons.
Finished it yesterday.
On Hard, took me around 15 hours (with 1 and a half leaving Drake "idle", because i had stuff to do).
Overall i definitely enjoyed it, it's the best looking game out there, and it probably has the best story and gameplay, out of all the Uncharteds.
There are a couple of things that really bugged me though, one is enormous stretches between action sequences, i'm not against them in principle, as "wall to wall" action (as Druckman puts it) is indeed exhausting and ultimately boring, but there were several moments in this game when i wished they had been more severe on the cutting floor.
Some walk and talk segments go on for far too long, and the final phases have a LOT of platforming in areas that all look similar, it gets tedious after a while, given that the platforming itself is great as a tool in combat, and merely fine on its own.
This major focus on the story also highlighted how uninteresting these characters can get, to spend this much time with, for me.
I like Drake & co. and they did a great job with what they had, but they were never all that interesting behind the surface (not a flaw per se, neither is Indiana Jones or whatever other action hero) and it mostly underlined how much better Last of Us worked, with a similar pacing (despite having some problems of its own, i definitely prefer it over this, in general).
The combat that has improved a lot, but i feel i wasn't given enough opportunities to use it, with the sparse combat sections (probably similar in number, but spread out much more).
On the one hand i think it made for a smoother first time through the game, but on the other one, it'll make subsequent replays that more tedious and scatterbrain (even if you use the encounter feature, which in itself is a great addition).
Also, i'll never understand the reason why they removed the ability to throw back grenades, it was so cool.
Last gripe, the final boss:
I'm of the thought that a (final) boss should encompass a challenge requiring you to put to the test all the mechanics you've learnt throughout the adventure, in this case platforming, shooting, melee, the rope, the piton etc... instead we get yet another shitty minigame (at least the QTE in UC3 was quick and easy to get through, this took me 15 minutes).
Imagine if in Final Fantasy 7, instead of a regular battle, you faced Sephiroth in one of those minigames from the arcade.
-
Things i particularly loved, beyond the amazing graphics and art direction, the fluidity of the gameplay, they really pushed the idea of Uncharted a lot with it, and the rope was a great addition to it, along with the improved stealth.
I'm one of those that enjoyed the final chapters of Uncharted 2, as well as the ship graveyard in 3, because the shooting and moving around is my favorite part of Uncharted (over the cinematic elements) and this game really pushed that aspect forward, which is why i wanted more of it, and for them to really go crazy with the level design (what is there, is great, though).
I liked how they handled the brother thing, it was really hard to pull off, inventing a lost brother 4 games into the series, but i think they did a great job at making it sound believable.
Several moments in the story, where they purposefully pull back from the clichès you'd expect, those were also nice.
And liked both
Rafe and Nadine
, as villains... better than whoever we had in 3.
I also enjoyed the variety in locations, i think you spend a little too much time in the last one, but there's a lot of different places you go to.
Finally, the music was pretty nice, nothing mind blowing, but that combat theme was cool.
No, it's lame. You may argue, "oh hey, it pushes you out of cover", well you're pushed out anyway with all the different openings enemies can flank you on in most maps and the destructible cover that gets torn to shreds by a few bullets. Enemies get infinite grenades while you get an annoying explosion animation. Shit is tedious on Crushing.
Lock-on aim is great though, especially from an accessibility POV, which is where it is in the options. Good job ND for making your game playable by tons of less-abled persons.
I do think they missed a trick by not having a setting between the two though - sort of like a soft-lock rather than full on. Aiming can be tricky sometimes with weapon recoil and the whole 30fps limitation for the less coordinated out there, but the full lock-on they provide seems a bit wild.
I wish I knew about the lock on. I didn't turn it on because I thought it might disable trophies and I didn't want to step foot in any discussion a out the game before I finished. I hate combat in Uncharted* and I would rather have a lot more traversal and platforming, that lock on would have made the combat more enjoyable. Though I will go back through encounters and try to do perfect stealth for all. Because that was fun when I had the patience. I was just terrified of spoilers and wanted to get through the combat as fast as I could.
I wish I knew about the lock on. I didn't turn it on because I thought it might disable trophies and I didn't want to step foot in any discussion a out the game before I finished. I hate combat in Uncharted and I would rather have a lot more traversal and platforming, that lock on would have made the combat more enjoyable. Though I will go back through encounters and try to do perfect stealth for all.
I tried lock-on when doing the trophy stuff and it's pretty awful, imo. Auto locks to enemies but trying to get headshots is like impossible or maybe I'm just not used to it. Kept turning it off lol
Here's my video of a pretty fun kill. No story things, just combat.
I really love the encounters in this game and I think they feel much more dynamic than previous Uncharteds and TLoU. You could just shoot from one point of cover but if you really make an effort you can go wild. It's really fun.
Beat the game last night and cant help but feel a little underwhelmed by the entire experience.
First the good stuff:
The story is much more nuanced and dives into the character development a lot more than the previous efforts. The graphics are gorgeous. Shooting has definitely improved and the combat areas give a lot of tactical opportunities.
Now the Bad:
There is a ton of uneventful walking and jumping around; which wouldnt be too bad in itself if the climbing mechanics were a little bit deeper than just holding a direction and mashing X. I found a lot of it to be just kinda boring.
The open areas are largely wasted space. Its kinda curious that they added in these large spaces but had nothing to really fill them with. There are little trinkets to collect and some additional journal entries but none of them are really that interesting and feels more like busy work than anything else. In Tomb Raider, almost all the collectibles either gave you something that would help you in the game or, at the very least, give you experience, which made collecting and finding the trinkets feel a bit more important....there is none of that in Uncharted 4. Driving around for 15 minutes only to find another bowl that you will glance at for 4 seconds feels like a very unsatisfying reward for exploring.
The combat is pretty fun but Nate feels too delicate to utilize some of the more interesting possibilities of the environment. The combat areas seem to be designed for you to keep moving around them but in my experience, this only leads to you getting murdered. The most effective strategy that I found was to find some cover that was indestructible and dig in. The AI will occasionally flank you but if you are paying attention, you should be able to handle them.
Set pieces seem to be lacking as well. There are a few good ones in there but none of them feel as memorable as the train sequence of U2 or the cargo plane of U3. Some of them also just kinda feel like retreads of stuff from previous games as well.
Overall, its definitely still a good game but I walked away from it feeling a bit dissatisfied.
Hey are 2 and 3 really improved as well or just a new coat of paint and 60 fps? Any gameplay improvements in the collection? About to pick it up and I was just wondering
I tried lock-on when doing the trophy stuff and it's pretty awful, imo. Auto locks to enemies but trying to get headshots is like impossible or maybe I'm just not used to it. Kept turning it off lol
Finished it yesterday.
On Hard, took me around 15 hours (with 1 and a half leaving Drake "idle", because i had stuff to do).
Overall i definitely enjoyed it, it's the best looking game out there, and it probably has the best story and gameplay, out of all the Uncharteds.
There are a couple of things that really bugged me though, one is enormous stretches between action sequences, i'm not against them in principle, as "wall to wall" action (as Druckman puts it) is indeed exhausting and ultimately boring, but there were several moments in this game when i wished they had been more severe on the cutting floor. Some walk and talk segments go on for far too long, and the final phases have a LOT of platforming in areas that all look similar, it gets tedious after a while, given that the platforming itself is great as a tool in combat, and merely fine on its own.
This major focus on the story also highlighted how uninteresting these characters can get, to spend this much time with, for me.
I like Drake & co. and they did a great job with what they had, but they were never all that interesting behind the surface (not a flaw per se, neither is Indiana Jones or whatever other action hero) and it mostly underlined how much better Last of Us worked, with a similar pacing (despite having some problems of its own, i definitely prefer it over this, in general).
The combat that has improved a lot, but i feel i wasn't given enough opportunities to use it, with the sparse combat sections (probably similar in number, but spread out much more).
On the one hand i think it made for a smoother first time through the game, but on the other one, it'll make subsequent replays that more tedious and scatterbrain (even if you use the encounter feature, which in itself is a great addition).
Also, i'll never understand the reason why they removed the ability to throw back grenades, it was so cool.
Last gripe, the final boss:
I'm of the thought that a (final) boss should encompass a challenge requiring you to put to the test all the mechanics you've learnt throughout the adventure, in this case platforming, shooting, melee, the rope, the piton etc... instead we get yet another shitty minigame (at least the QTE in UC3 was quick and easy to get through, this took me 15 minutes).
Imagine if in Final Fantasy 7, instead of a regular battle, you faced Sephiroth in one of those minigames from the arcade.
-
Things i particularly loved, beyond the amazing graphics and art direction, the fluidity of the gameplay, they really pushed the idea of Uncharted a lot with it, and the rope was a great addition to it, along with the improved stealth.
I'm one of those that enjoyed the final chapters of Uncharted 2, as well as the ship graveyard in 3, because the shooting and moving around is my favorite part of Uncharted (over the cinematic elements) and this game really pushed that aspect forward, which is why i wanted more of it, and for them to really go crazy with the level design (what is there, is great, though).
I liked how they handled the brother thing, it was really hard to pull off, inventing a lost brother 4 games into the series, but i think they did a great job at making it sound believable.
Several moments in the story, where they purposefully pull back from the clichès you'd expect, those were also nice.
And liked both
Rafe and Nadine
, as villains... better than whoever we had in 3.
I also enjoyed the variety in locations, i think you spend a little too much time in the last one, but there's a lot of different places you go to.
Finally, the music was pretty nice, nothing mind blowing, but that combat theme was cool.
That about covers it, i think.
Oh yeah, no
____Chloe____
? C'mon Naughty dog!
It was annoying on Hard, too.
I swear to God they spam those things with no remorse, and you die in two or three hits out of cover.
This is a great point. The autoplatforming does work pretty well in combat with the open level design, but the extended sequences of pure platforming just drag. The first half of
13
was particularly bad, I thought, especially sequenced after 12 which was literally
nothing but platforming and that one dumb puzzle.
I agree on the story too. It is thrilling the first time through as our last story with Nate and co. Very well done, but it's not the type of story that grips you and keeps you coming back imo like TLoU does for some.
You're correct about Sam too. Surprisingly, he didn't feel shoehorned at all.
Soundtrack is good for what it is, but it's not a soundtrack that elevates the game past those individual moments. The theme in the ship graveyard is probably it's peak.
The encounter select was a great decision because some parts of this game are just a chore to replay. And yes
Beat the game last night and cant help but feel a little underwhelmed by the entire experience.
First the good stuff:
The story is much more nuanced and dives into the character development a lot more than the previous efforts. The graphics are gorgeous. Shooting has definitely improved and the combat areas give a lot of tactical opportunities.
Now the Bad:
There is a ton of uneventful walking and jumping around; which wouldnt be too bad in itself if the climbing mechanics were a little bit deeper than just holding a direction and mashing X. I found a lot of it to be just kinda boring.
The open areas are largely wasted space. Its kinda curious that they added in these large spaces but had nothing to really fill them with. There are little trinkets to collect and some additional journal entries but none of them are really that interesting and feels more like busy work than anything else. In Tomb Raider, almost all the collectibles either gave you something that would help you in the game or, at the very least, give you experience, which made collecting and finding the trinkets feel a bit more important....there is none of that in Uncharted 4. Driving around for 15 minutes only to find another bowl that you will glance at for 4 seconds feels like a very unsatisfying reward for exploring.
The combat is pretty fun but Nate feels too delicate to utilize some of the more interesting possibilities of the environment. The combat areas seem to be designed for you to keep moving around them but in my experience, this only leads to you getting murdered. The most effective strategy that I found was to find some cover that was indestructible and dig in. The AI will occasionally flank you but if you are paying attention, you should be able to handle them.
Set pieces seem to be lacking as well. There are a few good ones in there but none of them feel as memorable as the train sequence of U2 or the cargo plane of U3. Some of them also just kinda feel like retreads of stuff from previous games as well.
Overall, its definitely still a good game but I walked away from it feeling a bit dissatisfied.
I've got a feeling the 'open world' stuff was really just to play up to graphics gawking and a sense of scope with the PS4 hardware. It is underutilized but I'm guessing ND decided to go for that rather than totally a one path claustrophobic adventure.
Personally I think it pays off for a first time playthrough just to enjoy the tech side of things, but a second playthrough? No need at all to do much more than steamroll down the required path.
Could be they are dipping their toes into trying a truly open world game one day.
One complaint I definitely had with the game is you just have far too little health on hard and upwards. I'd rather enemies got bullet-sponged than the "3 shots, you dead" nature of the harder difficulties.
It stopped me from doing a lot more of the cool traversal kills and risk taking on my first playthrough (Hard, since normal was usually too much of a cakewalk).
They also really shouldnt have shown the truck/crane chase in its entirety before release because that was the one big setpiece of the game which also wasnt as big a ride as the train or tank segments in Uncharted 2.
