Elitist1945
Member
In UC1 I encountered a bug where the camera got stuck in position so it wouldn't follow me as I walked on. Even when I got to another stage, the camera remained where it got stuck so I had to stay ADS to see where I was going lol.
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UNCHARTED |OT| The Master Thief Collection
- Thread starter Eggbok
- Start date
In UC1 I encountered a bug where the camera got stuck in position so it wouldn't follow me as I walked on. Even when I got to another stage, the camera remained where it got stuck so I had to stay ADS to see where I was going lol.
I remember that bug from the PS3 version of the game. It's amazing that it got carried over with the port.
They didn't really fix any glitches from the original release of any of the games. Probably the line of thought is, "If we fix this, it could cause something else to crop up instead." which wouldn't be all too surprising seeing as it has happened to them before with this very franchise.
DirtyLarry
Member
Awesome, thanks for the kind words. I will be the first to admit the gameplay itself is not perfect either, I just really do feel it represents a culmination of my personal journey with video games and as such I no doubt have a very emotional attachment to it that I am just not sure any other series will ever match.
So much so I was just sitting in the PS Store pondering if I want to upgrade my UC4 preorder to the Deluxe edition, but I held off doing so as there just is not enough concrete information as to what I will get by doing so. Honestly knowing I will get the SP DLC alone wa almost enough to pick it up, but I did hold off.
Played some more UC2 just now. It really is damn near perfect as far as I am concerned. It is right up there with Half Life 2 for me, which is about as high as praise as I can give.
*starts Uncharted 2 on Brutal*
Oh...oh no...
I did too. UC2 is looking to be another beast altogether though.
Oh...oh no...
I did too. UC2 is looking to be another beast altogether though.
No, you can only activate the tweaks for the difficulty you beat the game on or lower.
AFAIK you need to get medals by finding treasures and doing the 'challenges' to unlock all rewards. Originally you'd get money then unlock the rewards, it seems to be similar now, only there's no money anymore.
Yeah I mean like I said that's what I figured they were. I guess I prefer them to staring at a loading screen.
There certainly are a lot of "press triangle to lift gate" and things like that which are pretty slow and drawn out.
Two big tips:
1) Use the pistol, it's better than the AK (it downs enemies in three shots if you've got good aim). Only use the AK if you're out of pistol ammo and/or you're close enough to blindfire them with it. In addition, if you use a weapon similar to the AK (in that it is automatic) burst fire it, do not hold down the shoot button as most of your shots, due to the spread and recoil, will miss.
And uh, look for power weapons, even shotguns are really useful.
2) Do not stay behind one piece of cover. Move around when you can, especially before the enemies start to approach your cover. These games aren't like other shooters where you are supposed to sit behind cover and shoot them all -- cover is more of a supplement to Drake's movement and options so it's always a good idea to have the next place to go to in mind instead of sitting behind one spot.
Of course, there are times where you found the spot and can make it through an arena very easily and that's fine. Most of the time, though, you will want to move, move, move and not stay in one place.
They did? I thought RE4 did it first, or technically ICO, but Naughty has definitely used them a shit ton more than they are welcome
Krappadizzle
Member
Do you think Sony will release these games to be sold individually? I really don't care to pay/play through UC1/3 again. But I'd be down for a UC2 playthrough sometime in the near future.
alright, thanks. time to boot this baby up.
Primethius
Banned
Just got to Nepal in UC2. Holy crap, this game is so beautiful now. Makes me drool at the thought of getting to UC3.
Some pics:
Some pics:
Mate I think you are getting mixed up, that is from Uncharted 4.
You must be an Uncharted veteran.
Was there any shooter last gen that has such varied scenario design as UC2? It is so fking good.
TLOU 2 and UC4 should use UC2 as an inspiration. One of my reservations about hailing TLOU over UC2 is the scenario design. Every encounter in TLOU feels the same. - -- Go to an area and clear. There were attempts to keep it more varied with the upside down sequence and generator room but they were too few to really make the pacing interesting.
I am hoping both UC4 and TLOU2 keeps enemy and scenario design consistently fresh similar to UC2.
TLOU 2 and UC4 should use UC2 as an inspiration. One of my reservations about hailing TLOU over UC2 is the scenario design. Every encounter in TLOU feels the same. - -- Go to an area and clear. There were attempts to keep it more varied with the upside down sequence and generator room but they were too few to really make the pacing interesting.
I am hoping both UC4 and TLOU2 keeps enemy and scenario design consistently fresh similar to UC2.
RE4 had actual doors though to break up scenes. I don't remember exactly with ICO.
Uncharted and TLOU does that thing where the camera zooms into the same animation so I'm assuming it's to hide background loading or something.
Could you give some examples from Uncharted 2 because I'm not sure exactly what you mean?
I cannot find any such patent...link?
Part of it is loading like you have mentioned, but they use the trick as well to cooperate with partners forming bonds through "gameplay", In TLOU they actually did something interesting with the boost mechanic just before the
giraffe scene
Funnily enough, Bruce Straley (Game Director on UC2 and TLOU) said his two favourite games of all time were ICO and RE4 so that might be part of the reason as well.
Hoping this post isn't serious
sighh it was a figure of speech.
Yeah that's one thing TLOU was pretty good about. They played with your expectations well in that regard and used it to develop the characters. I hope we see more of that kind of stuff in U4.
Butt, I fell for it.
esmith08734
Member
I honestly doubt it.
Well I meant unique scenarios. In UC2 I would say stuff like the train sequence, tank sequence, camera man sequence, caravan sequence etc.. Finding new ways to apply the core mechanics in interesting sequences. Even the billboard hopping sequence where you have to keep changing position on the billboard and take out enemies while elena opens the door is an example of varied scenario design taking advantage of the previously introduced mechanics.
In UC2 I was constantly bombarded with something fresh ( which is why it is the RE4 of the previous generation in terms of pacing ) while TLOU was samey throughout. Sure the story and setting changed but the way the scenario's played out mechanically were all fairly similar which was very disappointing to me.
lovely ladies
Member
UC3 looks pretty amazing in this edition. I didn't expect it to look this good.
Surely that was inherent to the switch in genre in terms of the them doing away with the bombastic set-piece type gameplay. Also consider the fact that Joel is far less agile than drake so you can't have the vertical gameplay like the billboard scene. Ultimately the gameplay set ups in the Last of Us relied far more on emergent type gameplay so the variety came from playstyle as well as the differences between Human and Infected encounters. I would argue that there are still some scenarios which altar things up, like defending the car in Bills, avoiding the Turret Truck in Pittsburgh, the Sniper section in Suburbs and likely many more. At the end of the day though, the less grounded world of Uncharted lends itself better to those crazy scenarios you are talking about. Luckily with Uncharted 4, they appear to be bringing over the more emergent type gameplay from TLOU and hopefully retaining the spectacle and crazy set ups from Uc2.
Admiral Woofington
Member
I was about to write an angry review on the uncharted 2 remaster because the gun kept shooting or stopped responding to my commands when I was pressing r2. But I Googled it and saw no one else with the issue. So obviously I took a closer look at my ps4 controller. This whole time lol. Oh well it's like 1 dollar for the pair of triggers and spring guess I'll use the other controller until those get here
Surely that was inherent to the switch in genre in terms of the them doing away with the bombastic set-piece type gameplay. Also consider the fact that Joel is far less agile than drake so you can't have the vertical gameplay like the billboard scene. Ultimately the gameplay set ups in the Last of Us relied far more on emergent type gameplay so the variety came from playstyle as well as the differences between Human and Infected encounters. I would argue that there are still some scenarios which altar things up, like defending the car in Bills, avoiding the Turret Truck in Pittsburgh, the Sniper section in Suburbs and likely many more. At the end of the day though, the less grounded world of Uncharted lends itself better to those crazy scenarios you are talking about. Luckily with Uncharted 4, they appear to be bringing over the more emergent type gameplay from TLOU and hopefully retaining the spectacle and crazy set ups from Uc2.
It's definitely a preference thing, I personally prefer UC type gameplay, but I understand why someone would prefer TLOU with the limited ammo and bigger focus on stealth and melee.
Of course UC has potential for more combat options than TLOU (or any other shooter), solely because Drake is very agile and can do things in vertical levels that Joel and Marcus Fenix can't do no matter how good the level design is. That is all potential of course, because that potential wasn't realized fully in the previous UC games because of the broken stealth mechanics. But a fully realized UC would be more dynamic than any fully realized TPS out there.
Lara has the same potential as Drake, but I don't know why they refuse to even give her basic hipfire, which is a shame.
Krappadizzle
Member
Damn...bummer. Thanks.
OfTheOverflow
Member
Love that moment
Especially the facial animation with Joel expecting Ellie to be there then you can visually see him confused as to why there's no boosting happening haha. Hope they 'ground' the mechanics like that in Uncharted 4; subvert expectations a bit like they managed in TLOU occasionally.Yep, and we got a glimpse of that at PSX
Love that moment
Me too
Do the enemies in UC3 finally understand they've been shot in the remaster ?
On PS3 the bullets just absorb into them without any animation and then they fall over when they die. Never understood why they couldn't have even used UC2's animations for that if they couldn't manage to add some new ones. Enemies should probably move when they get shot.
On PS3 the bullets just absorb into them without any animation and then they fall over when they die. Never understood why they couldn't have even used UC2's animations for that if they couldn't manage to add some new ones. Enemies should probably move when they get shot.
RyanardoDaVinci
Member
Nope, you're still shooting marshmallows at scurrying cockroaches.
xrnzaaas
Member
I've finished Uncharted 1 yesterday (for the 1st time). It was a very good game. I loved the characters and the setting. It had its small issues like the cover system not working perfectly or enemy reinforcements showing up out of nowhere (or behind your back ), but overall it held up really good for a 2007 game. I was playing on crushing difficulty so there were some battles I had to repeat 10+ times, but I never did a rage quit on it. Today is reserved for cleaning up and hopefully getting the platinum trophy.
), but overall it held up really good for a 2007 game. I was playing on crushing difficulty so there were some battles I had to repeat 10+ times, but I never did a rage quit on it. Today is reserved for cleaning up and hopefully getting the platinum trophy.the_batman
Banned
yeah, the lighting is really improved over the other games.
I've finished Uncharted 1 yesterday (for the 1st time). It was a very good game. I loved the characters and the setting. It had its small issues like the cover system not working perfectly or enemy reinforcements showing up out of nowhere (or behind your back
Go hunt the treasures in normal mode now. You can experiment a really different way to play by running and gunning (and punching) a lot more than in crushing mode, because you can take much more bullets. It's pretty fun to take down ennemys like that.
boredandlazy
Member
Just finished UC3 on Crushing and well... The gameplay is pretty average relative to 2.
The enemies reactions(or lack thereof), tying the roll button to also be the grab button in melee is awful etc. It really just wasn't as much fun as I remember. Playing it directly after 2 really show they tried to do a little too much with the controls and it just becomes a bit messy to play. Overall still enjoyable but a bit of a letdown after 2. I still think overall it's a really good game though.
The enemies reactions(or lack thereof), tying the roll button to also be the grab button in melee is awful etc. It really just wasn't as much fun as I remember. Playing it directly after 2 really show they tried to do a little too much with the controls and it just becomes a bit messy to play. Overall still enjoyable but a bit of a letdown after 2. I still think overall it's a really good game though.
They eventually released Left Behind as standalone, so maybe, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Usually it's used when they need to make sure in-game dialogue is completed before you go to a new area where a new event will trigger. Or if they need to focus the camera in a certain way for story purposes.
Working my way through Brutal on Uncharted 1 at the moment... Chapter 16 right now. This is absolutely silly and I hope it doesn't find it's way to Uncharted 4.
I do have a couple of questions though for those of you who have been spending time with the collection. I've only touched Drake's Fortune so far, but does anyone else have a problem in the UI where in menus, going down a list causes two sounds to play at once? I'm hearing the normal clicking sound that indicates moving between options, but with the confirmation bongo hit played at the same time. If I move up the list, I just hear the click as normal and as it was on PS3.
Also, is there any way to permanently dismiss the "NEW" flags on the Rewards menu? Every time I load up the game, all the flags are back, even though I've used and explored all of these options multiple times. Both of these issues aren't a terribly big deal, but are becoming irritating.
Other than that and the fact that Brutal is even a thing, I'm really enjoying playing these games again.
Nice to see that perma-wet Nate can still happen in Drake's Fortune. Also, I think I broke the "kilometers ran" stat in this game, because it reset and started counting from zero again some time after I passed 6,000km.
I do have a couple of questions though for those of you who have been spending time with the collection. I've only touched Drake's Fortune so far, but does anyone else have a problem in the UI where in menus, going down a list causes two sounds to play at once? I'm hearing the normal clicking sound that indicates moving between options, but with the confirmation bongo hit played at the same time. If I move up the list, I just hear the click as normal and as it was on PS3.
Also, is there any way to permanently dismiss the "NEW" flags on the Rewards menu? Every time I load up the game, all the flags are back, even though I've used and explored all of these options multiple times. Both of these issues aren't a terribly big deal, but are becoming irritating.
Other than that and the fact that Brutal is even a thing, I'm really enjoying playing these games again.
Nice to see that perma-wet Nate can still happen in Drake's Fortune. Also, I think I broke the "kilometers ran" stat in this game, because it reset and started counting from zero again some time after I passed 6,000km.
Breakfast at Noon
Member
So, uncharted 2 end boss on crushing (fuck brutal)
What is he like nowadays? I cheesed him on ps3 because... well it's bollox.
What is he like nowadays? I cheesed him on ps3 because... well it's bollox.
the_batman
Banned
and the loading is pretty much not noticeable at all.
Enemies have knockback animations like with the 2nd enemy in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz7nwGI5leA
I think you have to hit them on their upper body part and other conditions but I'm not sure.
But I agree with you. I prefer the way it works in U2.
That was the first thing i noticed when i played UC3 after UC2 (on PS3). Had a "WHY.jpg" face. Took a bit fun out of the gunfights.
uncleniccius
Member
WRT brutal mode why shouldn't they include it? The only real question is whether people want a harder mode, it isn't for me - i usually play on normal, but options are cool.
Playing uncharted 2 and it looks ridiculous in places.
On another note, which motion blur option is best for you guys? I genuinely have no idea.
Playing all three Uncharted games back to back has been really interesting for me. UC1 was the game I remembered the least, yet held up better than I expected. That said, it's mostly just adequate at what it does, but it's nice to return and see how far ND has come since then. While it leverages a bit too heavy in the actual enemy waves/combat and I'm not a big fan of the pretty big tone change in the late game, overall it's still a fun romp to go through.
But 2...man, what a jump. This is a huge showcase of why pacing is so important yet something not often really talked about, good pacing just kinda goes unnoticed with you sitting there thinking "...damn" when it's all over. I do agree with what seems to be the common consensus regarding it not really kicking in until Nepal, though--the opening heist and borneo are fair enough for being character building/tutorialized but once you get here the whole game just has an excellent flow. I could mentally just retrace Drake's adventure as you head to the hotel, run away from the heli, go through the temple, etc. etc. all the way until the credits roll. The game constantly mixes up what you do even in small scenarios such as the billboard shootout which is such a damn clever use of Uncharted's unique integration of verticality. More than just having solid mixed up encounters, it knows when to have rising and falling action. Bombastic moments like the pre-train shootout leading into the train ride itself are followed by the slow paced Tibetian walk leading into the ice cave exploration. This gives a nice breather before you get into the hectic endgame with the village under siege, into the convoy leading to a small breather once again as you stealth your way into the (gorgeous) monastery area which has SO MANY COOL ENCOUNTERS AHHH. You can examine most of UC2 with a damn magnifying glass and just come out even more impressed, its pacing is up there with RE4, which is literally my favorite game of all time, so that's high praise to say the least. ND improved so much from 2 in creating engaging, well crafted setpieces that are as fun to play as they are to watch, so much so that it still gets aped by tons of developers to this day. 2, along with TLoU, are by far the best games ND have ever put out.
But that leaves us with 3. Heading into it, I wasn't actually expecting 2 to get topped, and merely wanted another fun uncharted romp. But 3, just as much as the jump from 1 -> 2, is a very different game from their previous outing. While there are clear moments that look to match(or even one up) uncharted 2 in the setpiece department, the pacing magic is no longer here, and the game feels very cut up and stop-go all over the place. A glacial opener, jumping around areas constantly instead of having a more directed free flow feel to the progression, etc. all crop up. Drake will one minute be in syria on a bus with Cutter and Chloe, then cut to Yemen never to see the previous characters again. Get abducted to an area with zero plot relevance for a huge chunk of the game then magically wash ashore...somewhere(I guess Yemen). The game in general also takes on a much more combat heavy focus in the later stages, with the few puzzles being front ended. That said, though the series always had simplistic puzzles, the ones that you go through in 3 are much better than before so it's a shame they pretty much vanish after chapter 11.
However, pacing isn't all that it takes for 2 to be held as highly as I put it, as those little moments I mentioned such as the billboard shootout are key. This heads more into the combat which is where 3 is seriously heartbreaking. On launch when I originally played 3, the aiming was noticeably fucked up the moment I tried to aim. Funnily enough there's a quote very early on from Sully where he asks if you forgot how to aim, and that was definitely true at the time as Drake was apparently drunk. Thankfully this has been ironed out for the collection here and I can aim like a sober human being, and that really does go a long way to make me like the game more. But at the same time, it also makes the issues with the core design of the combat stick out that much more.
There are three main issues with the very strange combat changes in UC3. To preface this I think I get what ND was trying to do; utilize movement much more to make for active and exciting firefights where you aren't just plopped in cover. Being able to throw back grenades actually has a large impact against this, as it almost promotes camping. Previously, a grenade would be thrown to flush you from your cover, opening the enemy up for a killshot. With that no longer being a flush, it's now up to the enemy itself to do it. This leads into bullrush suicide charges where guys will go without any cover just to run directly where you are, which is...weird. I posted this in here before which is the type of thing that happens, but for an extended test I actually intentionally stayed back here. What happened? Lo and behold, literally every enemy in the entire encounter actually ran right over there to get beat up. You can hear Cutter almost constantly getting into fistfights, and it's particularly apparent around 2:03 as the enemies that were shooting at me just give up and run right in the open. The video got cut off a bit at the end, but you can still catch the final 2 people running towards me. It's ridiculous looking, and actually problematic because of the next combat change.
Melee! UC3 seemed to really want to have Drake use melee attacks. There are multiple brawls where it's just him vs. a bunch of enemies you punch and counter out. In its own right these are fairly dull moments that mostly just have some cool camera work and a lot of interactivity in the environment, but the design in these sections actually seeped into the main game for some baffling reason. O, the button that is always used to take cover and/or roll is now mapped to GRAB AND THROW. This is unbelievably idiotic when you have a gun, as the standard melee fights in 3 take quite awhile to resolve. Naturally, this means one thing: An enemy is right next to you, and there is no escape. Try to roll away, and Drake now grabs and tosses the guy in that direction. The enemy throws a punch and suctions you into him, which is almost guaranteed to kill you. Two examples of this: here we see a guy punch me and the game might as well have killed me there--look how long the melee takes to do anything, and I'm under fire the whole time. Special note for this is it happened right after I died, it spawned me in this area I was not previously at while under fire(it's a stealth segment the first time), UC3 also does that a lot for some reason. Here is another one that shows how well and truly fucked you are. I threw a guy while I tried to roll...had this been UC2 I would have been able to roll away and blindfire once I saw all those people I ran into. Enemies that rush you mixed with this problematic melee is already a recipe for frustration, but what's the magical third piece?
Hit reactions! I keep seeing it mentioned in this thread, and yes, in 3 specifically the enemies love to shrug off bullets like they're no big deal. Like...I don't even know what happened here? How on Earth did the game coming after UC2 go backwards in such a key spot? This is primarily a TPS, which in its most simplest terms means you shoot many dudes with a bunch of guns. Feedback is, like, the most essential part, y'know? What the hell is this? That's an enemy that holds a laser sight on you, and after it being beaded in on you, leads to an instant kill. He manages to hold it in sight for long enough to pull this off while being pointblank blasted a whole bunch of times. Or this, again, power weapon user that isn't getting interrupted under fire. This is another compounding issue that despite the videos focusing on particularly rough occurrences is omnipresent in every shootout. We got bullrushing dudes with vacuum melee that also like to ignore bullets when they feel like it. Now that sentence is scarier than most horror games I've ever played.
Ultimately, even if 3 lacked the flow of 2, I would still be alright with it being a normal ass uncharted game, but the combat just outta nowhere is such a mess. Like I just wrote all those paragraphs and I still didn't cover multiple huge topics, like the spawning system. This is the worst occurrence in the entire game to me, in the cruise ship. First, you start here. A lot of pressure right off the bat, but eh. Once they're taken care of, there are immediately dots on your back as enemies came in from the door up above and almost cheap shot you in a super blatant fashion. But that room gets worse even after you switch sides pre-emptively for the backwards spawn. When a single enemy remains from that side, they do it AGAIN and have a bunch of people spawn behind this side. It's like you take a box, put the player in the corner, lock them in that corner with heavy fire, then punish them for not moving out of it by lighting them on fire until they have the magical ability to telegraph when the game pulls something like this. So now that's added into the mix above, where you have a frenetic combat system that wants the player to keep moving, but with actual backwards spawning on top of the enemies already running around like a bat out of hell makes it overwhelming and sloppy. If it isn't outright spawning like that, it's other power weapons out of nowhere. You can't have this happen to a player, where they fight through a combat wave, move up and trigger a spawn which lights them up with no damn warning. It's not like these are new to the series, there were plenty of rockets, grenade launchers, and snipers in UC2--they were just placed with tact in ways that didn't lead to TKOs outta nowhere. The moment the combat starts to become 'die, learn the spawns, kill the priority targets, breeze through' it should be apparent something is off. It feels videogamey as hell in some masochistic trial by fire with some of this stuff. Another example here. The enemy type near the end of the game is also a pain in the ass and is capable of teleporting right behind you. Thankfully they're only present for ~3 or so encounters.
So...yeah, man. Some weird stuff happened in 3, and it really pains me to once again come to this realization. Where 1 is an alright TPS, 3 is just actively annoying and rarely shines when it comes to the actual structure of the combat zones. It's an absolutely gorgeous game with a nice soundtrack to boot, and finally added some punch to the sounds of the guns, but there's sadly not much else for me there. Has a few solid moments(I still like the Chateu chapter the best), and where they were heading with the Sully and Nate relationship was nice but in the end I put UC2 leaps and bounds above the rest of the games, and still hold 1 higher than 3 in the end even if all three aren't without their warts. I really hope 4 pulls off what I know ND is capable of, and I can hold another UC game in a very high light. At the very least give me some damn hit feedback.
That noise is specific to DF from what I can tell. Use the dpad instead of the stick in the menu and it doesn't happen IIRC.
But 2...man, what a jump. This is a huge showcase of why pacing is so important yet something not often really talked about, good pacing just kinda goes unnoticed with you sitting there thinking "...damn" when it's all over. I do agree with what seems to be the common consensus regarding it not really kicking in until Nepal, though--the opening heist and borneo are fair enough for being character building/tutorialized but once you get here the whole game just has an excellent flow. I could mentally just retrace Drake's adventure as you head to the hotel, run away from the heli, go through the temple, etc. etc. all the way until the credits roll. The game constantly mixes up what you do even in small scenarios such as the billboard shootout which is such a damn clever use of Uncharted's unique integration of verticality. More than just having solid mixed up encounters, it knows when to have rising and falling action. Bombastic moments like the pre-train shootout leading into the train ride itself are followed by the slow paced Tibetian walk leading into the ice cave exploration. This gives a nice breather before you get into the hectic endgame with the village under siege, into the convoy leading to a small breather once again as you stealth your way into the (gorgeous) monastery area which has SO MANY COOL ENCOUNTERS AHHH. You can examine most of UC2 with a damn magnifying glass and just come out even more impressed, its pacing is up there with RE4, which is literally my favorite game of all time, so that's high praise to say the least. ND improved so much from 2 in creating engaging, well crafted setpieces that are as fun to play as they are to watch, so much so that it still gets aped by tons of developers to this day. 2, along with TLoU, are by far the best games ND have ever put out.
But that leaves us with 3. Heading into it, I wasn't actually expecting 2 to get topped, and merely wanted another fun uncharted romp. But 3, just as much as the jump from 1 -> 2, is a very different game from their previous outing. While there are clear moments that look to match(or even one up) uncharted 2 in the setpiece department, the pacing magic is no longer here, and the game feels very cut up and stop-go all over the place. A glacial opener, jumping around areas constantly instead of having a more directed free flow feel to the progression, etc. all crop up. Drake will one minute be in syria on a bus with Cutter and Chloe, then cut to Yemen never to see the previous characters again. Get abducted to an area with zero plot relevance for a huge chunk of the game then magically wash ashore...somewhere(I guess Yemen). The game in general also takes on a much more combat heavy focus in the later stages, with the few puzzles being front ended. That said, though the series always had simplistic puzzles, the ones that you go through in 3 are much better than before so it's a shame they pretty much vanish after chapter 11.
However, pacing isn't all that it takes for 2 to be held as highly as I put it, as those little moments I mentioned such as the billboard shootout are key. This heads more into the combat which is where 3 is seriously heartbreaking. On launch when I originally played 3, the aiming was noticeably fucked up the moment I tried to aim. Funnily enough there's a quote very early on from Sully where he asks if you forgot how to aim, and that was definitely true at the time as Drake was apparently drunk. Thankfully this has been ironed out for the collection here and I can aim like a sober human being, and that really does go a long way to make me like the game more. But at the same time, it also makes the issues with the core design of the combat stick out that much more.
There are three main issues with the very strange combat changes in UC3. To preface this I think I get what ND was trying to do; utilize movement much more to make for active and exciting firefights where you aren't just plopped in cover. Being able to throw back grenades actually has a large impact against this, as it almost promotes camping. Previously, a grenade would be thrown to flush you from your cover, opening the enemy up for a killshot. With that no longer being a flush, it's now up to the enemy itself to do it. This leads into bullrush suicide charges where guys will go without any cover just to run directly where you are, which is...weird. I posted this in here before which is the type of thing that happens, but for an extended test I actually intentionally stayed back here. What happened? Lo and behold, literally every enemy in the entire encounter actually ran right over there to get beat up. You can hear Cutter almost constantly getting into fistfights, and it's particularly apparent around 2:03 as the enemies that were shooting at me just give up and run right in the open. The video got cut off a bit at the end, but you can still catch the final 2 people running towards me. It's ridiculous looking, and actually problematic because of the next combat change.
Melee! UC3 seemed to really want to have Drake use melee attacks. There are multiple brawls where it's just him vs. a bunch of enemies you punch and counter out. In its own right these are fairly dull moments that mostly just have some cool camera work and a lot of interactivity in the environment, but the design in these sections actually seeped into the main game for some baffling reason. O, the button that is always used to take cover and/or roll is now mapped to GRAB AND THROW. This is unbelievably idiotic when you have a gun, as the standard melee fights in 3 take quite awhile to resolve. Naturally, this means one thing: An enemy is right next to you, and there is no escape. Try to roll away, and Drake now grabs and tosses the guy in that direction. The enemy throws a punch and suctions you into him, which is almost guaranteed to kill you. Two examples of this: here we see a guy punch me and the game might as well have killed me there--look how long the melee takes to do anything, and I'm under fire the whole time. Special note for this is it happened right after I died, it spawned me in this area I was not previously at while under fire(it's a stealth segment the first time), UC3 also does that a lot for some reason. Here is another one that shows how well and truly fucked you are. I threw a guy while I tried to roll...had this been UC2 I would have been able to roll away and blindfire once I saw all those people I ran into. Enemies that rush you mixed with this problematic melee is already a recipe for frustration, but what's the magical third piece?
Hit reactions! I keep seeing it mentioned in this thread, and yes, in 3 specifically the enemies love to shrug off bullets like they're no big deal. Like...I don't even know what happened here? How on Earth did the game coming after UC2 go backwards in such a key spot? This is primarily a TPS, which in its most simplest terms means you shoot many dudes with a bunch of guns. Feedback is, like, the most essential part, y'know? What the hell is this? That's an enemy that holds a laser sight on you, and after it being beaded in on you, leads to an instant kill. He manages to hold it in sight for long enough to pull this off while being pointblank blasted a whole bunch of times. Or this, again, power weapon user that isn't getting interrupted under fire. This is another compounding issue that despite the videos focusing on particularly rough occurrences is omnipresent in every shootout. We got bullrushing dudes with vacuum melee that also like to ignore bullets when they feel like it. Now that sentence is scarier than most horror games I've ever played.
Ultimately, even if 3 lacked the flow of 2, I would still be alright with it being a normal ass uncharted game, but the combat just outta nowhere is such a mess. Like I just wrote all those paragraphs and I still didn't cover multiple huge topics, like the spawning system. This is the worst occurrence in the entire game to me, in the cruise ship. First, you start here. A lot of pressure right off the bat, but eh. Once they're taken care of, there are immediately dots on your back as enemies came in from the door up above and almost cheap shot you in a super blatant fashion. But that room gets worse even after you switch sides pre-emptively for the backwards spawn. When a single enemy remains from that side, they do it AGAIN and have a bunch of people spawn behind this side. It's like you take a box, put the player in the corner, lock them in that corner with heavy fire, then punish them for not moving out of it by lighting them on fire until they have the magical ability to telegraph when the game pulls something like this. So now that's added into the mix above, where you have a frenetic combat system that wants the player to keep moving, but with actual backwards spawning on top of the enemies already running around like a bat out of hell makes it overwhelming and sloppy. If it isn't outright spawning like that, it's other power weapons out of nowhere. You can't have this happen to a player, where they fight through a combat wave, move up and trigger a spawn which lights them up with no damn warning. It's not like these are new to the series, there were plenty of rockets, grenade launchers, and snipers in UC2--they were just placed with tact in ways that didn't lead to TKOs outta nowhere. The moment the combat starts to become 'die, learn the spawns, kill the priority targets, breeze through' it should be apparent something is off. It feels videogamey as hell in some masochistic trial by fire with some of this stuff. Another example here. The enemy type near the end of the game is also a pain in the ass and is capable of teleporting right behind you. Thankfully they're only present for ~3 or so encounters.
So...yeah, man. Some weird stuff happened in 3, and it really pains me to once again come to this realization. Where 1 is an alright TPS, 3 is just actively annoying and rarely shines when it comes to the actual structure of the combat zones. It's an absolutely gorgeous game with a nice soundtrack to boot, and finally added some punch to the sounds of the guns, but there's sadly not much else for me there. Has a few solid moments(I still like the Chateu chapter the best), and where they were heading with the Sully and Nate relationship was nice but in the end I put UC2 leaps and bounds above the rest of the games, and still hold 1 higher than 3 in the end even if all three aren't without their warts. I really hope 4 pulls off what I know ND is capable of, and I can hold another UC game in a very high light. At the very least give me some damn hit feedback.
That noise is specific to DF from what I can tell. Use the dpad instead of the stick in the menu and it doesn't happen IIRC.
The Xtortionist
Member
A lot of these issues didn't happen to me. Did you try sliding into cover?
Good post, I agree on most points.