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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End |OT| You're gonna miss this ass

NeoRausch

Member
I'm maybe late, but i just realised the licens-plate of the Jeep is totally 1337!

lurtp.jpg
 
A 12 to 14-hour game can be chock-full of action and each encounter still feel satisfying. Uncharted 2 did that, and it was because each encounter had something different from those before it. Combat becomes a slog when nothing interesting is done with it and it's just used as filler. Considering what's possible with 4's gameplay, it could've been back-to-back combat and still not feel repetitious.

For me it would've just worn thin. Uncharted 2 is definitely a tighter package but they went with something a little different here where I felt like if there were too many combat scenarios that it could've worn out its welcome. I liked the exploration and sort of "open world" sections like Madagascar. Also really loved the platforming. So for me the number of combat scenarios were just right, there's enough there to have plenty of fun with, some are very long, and generally have great game design.

Again I get what you're saying, maybe I would've been okay with more, but I'm happy with the hand I had dealt. For once I actually liked that they showed some restraint with the amount of combat. I don't think anything will really top 2's pacing but 4 felt more like an adventure to me, I enjoyed exploring and driving the damn boat and jeep (and using the winch!) just as much as anything really. I think the first third of the game could have been paced way better though.
 

highrider

Banned
One thing I enjoyed about Uncharted 2 was replaying the cool combat parts with different skins, and the combat in general was fun. Is this game kind of repayable in that way?
 

Windforce

Member
I finished RotTR shortly before starting UC4, it's a great game. It's a shame the story and characters are so one dimensional, forgettable and just severely lacking in charm and charisma, which is the precise opposite of UC.

Despite the heavy UC inspiration, mechanically TR2013 was a cut above, but it released 2 years after UC3 so it was natural for it to build upon that template and add it's own ideas to the mix. RotTR was mostly the same but slightly improved, but just like with the first game, constantly having to collect crap got old really fast. The game feels great though.

Now the ball was in ND's court and I was curious to see where they went with UC4 and it ended up halfway between the prequels and TR which I think is fine.
The rope was a great addition, the piton added a little twist to the climbing but overall they refrained from going too far and preferred to keep things simple, which makes sense since this a sequel in a well established franchise and not a reboot.
UC4 is a lot more ambitious in terms of scale and setpieces even allowing you to drive vehicles in big open spaces and yet still manages to feel slightly more polished.

The whole thing of revisiting previous areas to unlock secrets with your new toys is nice but doesn't really make much sense.
It would be weird if the game allowed you to teleport between
the island
and other locations at will.
Imagine you're about to descend into
the cave with Avery's ship
and suddenly decide to teleport back to
King's Bay
and just mess around there for an hour, just before the game's climax.
TR tries to avoid this by not allowing you to fast travel in certain crucial moments of the story but the truth is that it doesn't make any sense which is way I can understand both points of view from a game designer's perspective.

RotTR also almost completely removed puzzles from the main story, relegating them to the optional secret tombs.
I really recommend checking them out because they provide a much needed break in the action and really improve the pacing of the game imo. Otherwise it will be gunfight after gunfight througout most of the game which will get old really fast.

Anyway, I highly recommend PS4 owners checking it out when it's released but be prepared for a game that is very heavily focused on action and where the writing doesn't hold a candle to UC4.
You get to craft stuff and upgrade your weapons like in TLOU, but unlike that game where resources are scarce and you're actually happy when you find something so you can craft yourself a bomb that might make the difference in your next encounter, TR fills it's levels to the brim with crates and expects you to go around picking them up by the hundreds.

It feels like we are talking about great games, each of them catering to different tastes though.

What you didn't like in Tomb Raider is exactly what I prefer - for example, the management of resources in The Last of Us mostly irritates me and stresses me out than it keeps me immersed in the game. Same for a 'need' to stealth, or a slower paced game, or a better written story. I care largely more about a comfortable and fun gameplay than good writing - I don't even midn shallow, cliche, or cheesy narratives - it's fine as long as I have good combat.

I'm checking out Rise of the Tomb Raider day one on PS4, and definitely going to explore every bit of optional areas (probably needed to earn a Platinum trophy on it).

Thanks for sharing your impressions!
 
What are peoples' favourite chapters in the game?

For me I think it's 17 because it has a really nice mix of character-work, exploratory moments, gun-fights and set-pieces. The second (talk heavy) lift sequence and the 4x4 journey that follow felt to me like U4's equivalent of the Giraffe scene in TLOU.

8, 9, 17,18

11 was good too, but it needed a
firefight after the setpiece to take it to the next level instead of jumping to the boat so quickly
 
It feels like we are talking about great games, each of them catering to different tastes though.

What you didn't like in Tomb Raider is exactly what I prefer - for example, the management of resources in The Last of Us mostly irritates me and stresses me out than it keeps me immersed in the game. Same for a 'need' to stealth, or a slower paced game, or a better written story. I care largely more about a comfortable and fun gameplay than good writing - I don't even midn shallow, cliche, or cheesy narratives - it's fine as long as I have good combat.

I'm checking out Rise of the Tomb Raider day one on PS4, and definitely going to explore every bit of optional areas (probably needed to earn a Platinum trophy on it).

Thanks for sharing your impressions!

I'm sure you'll love it, movement and gunplay feel very good.
Personally I'm a sucker for survival/resource management lol.
The game looks really good btw, I played on PC and I'm curious to see how the PS4 version holds up, it will surely be one of the best looking games on the system.
 

TitusTroy

Member
are there plans for any single player story DLC content (sort of like the Left Behind DLC for Last of Us)?...or is the DLC all going to focused on multiplayer?
 

SDR-UK

Member
just did a Google search and only found older articles from 2015 talking about a single player DLC but with no details...is this official and when approximately is this going to be released?...any detailed articles online?

Nothing on the release date yet but it took The Last of Us from June 2013 (launch) until February 2014 for Left Behind. I'd expect a similar situation here.

No details on what it will feature either unfortunately.
 

JawzPause

Member
Just finished it.
I thought it was good. The set pieces are definitely the best in the series and the graphics are some of the best I've ever seen.
....however, i thought the story could have been better and i was really disappointed that the dialogue options were barely used throughout the game.
All in all i had fun playing it and I'd probably put it second in the series after uncharted 2.
8/10
Edit: oh and i almost forgot, the last boss fight was terrible. Probably the worst in the series. I might have to bring my score down to 7.5 after playing that shit
 

16BitNova

Member
What is the controller audio in the options for? I usually play with the volume pretty loud so if it's important stuff like audio logs I'll switch it to off.
 

leng jai

Member
Anyone else disappointed that they went back to the generic glow for treasures instead of actually rendering them in game? They put so much detail in the visuals and somehow these "treasures" that are ridiculously hard to find at times are relegated to a literal shiny. I could have sworn they had the actual treasure appear in UC3.
 

Rated-G

Member
Anyone else disappointed that they went back to the generic glow for treasures instead of actually rendering them in game? They put so much detail in the visuals and somehow these "treasures" that are ridiculously hard to find at times are relegated to a literal shiny. I could have sworn they had the actual treasure appear in UC3.

Yeah it was weird that they kind of stepped back in that regard. I was also disappointed there weren't any treasures found by shooting them down from the ceiling or high parts of the environment. I'd grown used to that from Uncharted 2 and 3, and The Last of Us.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Oh man...I don't geek out over things, but I just geeked the fuck out. The coolest moment I've experienced in a game since I don't know when.
 

16BitNova

Member
I hope Naughty Dog, being one of Sony's major first party studios, got a heads up on PS4K and will release an update to this game to be 60fps (if that's possible) I'm blown away by the graphics and animations right now and at 60fps the smoothness mixed with these graphics would be legendary.
 

Kaswa101

Member
Chapter 20 crushing... Fml

You can do it. :) Took me three days and only started with 1 Condor shot and about 20 bullets for that rapid-fire pistol, no grenades, but finally finished last night using a combination of ideas from YouTube walkthroughs. :p

I'd recommend you practise the first wave the most, and get to the point where you're just left with the two snipers and the one guy at the top of the boat. Toss a grenade between them and immediately get one of the sniper rifles and the Barok and grenade just to the left of them, then either rush back to the beginning cliffs and pick off the remaining guys, or take cover beneath the ship where there's an ARX behind you (if you wanna play more aggressively).

The heavy machine-gunners shouldn't be too bad once you've taken out the grenade launcher and the chokers. I was lucky in that both machine-gunners stayed at their spawn point and only one came towards once I dropped back down for ammo. Killed the far-away one with about five sniper rounds, and waited for the other one to come closer and then threw four grenades at him. :p

Overall it's easily the hardest part in any Uncharted game imo, if played without cheats obviously. Should be smooth sailing from there. Just make sure you have a Barok or some such for the
beach section too.
 

Striek

Member
Finished it. Loved it. Easily the best in the series and by extension, top of its genre. Bittersweet ending. Finally nailed a perfect last boss fight (with mechanics I'd like to see expanded into its own game).
 

Auctopus

Member
Just got to the
fight in Avery's house
on Crushing.

Literally how.

Edit: beat on crushing. Complete chore like usual (when will ND learn how to balance) but still an amazing game.
 

ephemeral

Member
Anyone else getting freeze lag from time to time? For example the first chapter gave me a lot of them, and when being
pushed by the guard in prison
I would get a minor freeze lag everytime. It takes me out of the immersion and it's very annoying.
 
Finished it. Loved the ending.
I understand all the critique but as a fan of the series i just went with it and loved the game from start to finish.
Too slow? Yes. Too many boring buttonpress climbing?
Too many cutscenes? Yes. It's all true. But fuck it. I enjoyed it and can't wait for new projects by ND.

Loved the stealth and the rope, by the way.
 

Mudron

Member
Just a heads-up that some friends and I had a lengthy spoilercast about Uncharted 4 this week, at the 1 hour 20-minute mark: http://podcast.boyhowdy.org/archives/1650

We're all huge Uncharted fans (more for the characters than the gameplay), though my cohosts seemed to adore the game without reservation more than I did.
 

StewboaT_

Member
Hey guys, if I start a new game on my buddies ps4, signed into my account, can I pick up where I left off on my own system? Do I just save my file to the cloud? Just want to make sure before I start the intro. Cheers.
 
I just visited Kashmir and man, a couple of areas really reminded me quite a bit of UC4 (er.. or the other way).

And just seeing all the lush green jungles in person is making me want to replay UC4 right away.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
I think this game in the near 18 months I have had the PS4 is the ONE game that has got me hooked to see it right through to the end, even the latest Batman game and Metal Gear 5 haven't been able to do that...for all intents and purposes this is the PS4's "killer app" ....
 

J 0 E

Member
Yeah, I expected more. I felt the Tomb Raider reboot had a more modern gameplay and system especially post game. The bow was incredibly creative and fun to use.

Uncharted 4 did not let me free roam. Even getting the collectibles is awful - missed one and need to go back? No, autosave just fucked you over - gotta restart the chapter.

Tomb Raider's metroidvania elements kept early areas interesting to back to with better weapons. Uncharted is more linear.

If Rise of the Tomb Raider keeps the same elements from the 2013 reboot I will be really happy and probably enjoy it more than Uncharted 4.

Uncharted don't need to be TR is terms of gameplay mechanics to be enjoyable and vice versa, each game has it's design and personality.
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
just beat the game

i liked the story and the environments were gorgeous but combat actually felt worse than the last few games, and the platforming, apart from a few sections, wasn't as good either. I honestly felt like it was at it's best when being a walking simulator

i guess my series rating would be 2 >= 1 = 4 >*infinity 3
 
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