I've been playing back through the game again. This time, trying to get past Crushing. Boy, it's hard. I'm at Chapter 8, and I'm seriously thinking about dialing it back down to Hard, just so I can get my skills back again, and then re-trying on Crushing.
Even though this is like the seventh or eighth time I've played through the game since it's release, this game holds up so much better than most games I've played in the past few years and gone back to later. The last game I came back to like this after some months had past was Heavenly Sword, and even though I thought that game held up remarkably well from a gameplay perspective, (I liked the controversial "stylized, wushu-inspired" combat system) a did notice a lot of the minor graphical flaws in the cutscenes and stuff that I didn't notice when the game was new.
Now I know why. Uncharted totally spoiled me in terms of polish that every other game, even a pretty one like Heavenly Sword, just has a hard time keeping up. Playing this game through again, you notice so much more in terms of beauty and graphical detail--things you may have glossed over the first few play throughs--that the game really delivers again and again. The quiet moments in the game between attacks are just stunning sometimes. Clouds of gently floating, blowing leaves carried by the breeze under a waterfall, the occasional toucan or monkey or other jungle animal, the water (and the way your enemies dead bodies float on that water when you kill them) all blow me away.
Now, I just need to get good enough again to get through Crushing. I want that medal, but these guys are killers.
