Uncharted (series)

[Designer1]

5 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

Sooooooo. Is this game as good as everyone thought it would be?

Not for me.

Massively disappointed.

[sexbelowsound]

1 minute ago, Designer1 said:

Not for me.

Massively disappointed.

As in wouldn't recommend at all or just not quite lived up to the franchise?

[PieFacE]

17 hours ago, hogso said:

As a bunch of us have already said, it definitely isn't!

 

Aye, but the reviews for the game are generally 10/10 and I'm failing to see why. It's good, don't get me wrong. But... 10/10 in 2016 for a game that's so repetitive. I think they all just jumped on the Naughty Dog hype to be honest. 

[hogso]

38 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

Sooooooo. Is this game as good as everyone thought it would be?

It's exactly what I hoped it would be, yes. Uncharted turned up to 11 and refined as well as possible, and a really nice send off for the characters.

What it isn't is an Uncharted game that changes the foibles of the other games in the series, and as such, still suffers from some linear areas, and the explore/climb/fight/puzzle cycle which every entry in the series could be criticised for.

[hogso]

42 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Aye, but the reviews for the game are generally 10/10 and I'm failing to see why. It's good, don't get me wrong. But... 10/10 in 2016 for a game that's so repetitive. I think they all just jumped on the Naughty Dog hype to be honest. 

I think a lot of that might be down to just how **** awesome it looks, which might seem an odd thing to say as I would expect most of us aren't really too bothered about how a game looks, although it is a nice bonus. U4 though is a proper benchmark in terms of, well, more or less everything outside of the gameplay and story. MoCap, voice acting, lighting, animation...all of that stuff. I thought the water effects, mostly splashes when swimming on the surface of the water were a bit crap, but then when you dive, the underwater bits are astounding.

I get the repetition criticism, and it's fine not to like that, but I am surprised when I've read it here and elsewhere that people are really not liking the game due to it. Literally all three games have been the same. Worse, if anything. Perhaps the more fondly remembered 2 is let off the hook a bit cos those spectacles and set pieces were so dramatic, and a lot unlike anything at the time, you didn't really care about the iffy bits inbetween, you knew something else was gonna come along and blow your socks off.

To me though it's a bit like saying an FPS is repetitive cos you're bored of shooting things. It's just what you do, ent it?

I am very glad they didn't make Uncharted 4 an open world game, which is the current in thing, put it that way. Naughty Dog stuck to their guns, but they're not being thick headed and recognise the faults of the series, so they've canned it. I think they deserve plaudits for that, and if that means a few 10s instead of 8s out of ten, then so be it.

Edited May 18, 2016 by hogso

[PieFacE]

1 minute ago, hogso said:

I think a lot of that might be down to just how **** awesome it looks, which might seem an odd thing to say as I would expect most of us aren't really too bothered about how a game looks, although it is a nice bonus. U4 though is a proper benchmark in terms of, well, more or less everything outside of the gameplay and story. MoCap, voice acting, lighting, animation...all of that stuff. I thought the water effects, mostly splashes when swimming on the surface of the water, but then when you dive, the underwater bits are astounding.

I get the repetition criticism, and it's fine not to like that, but I am surprised when I've read it here and elsewhere that people are really not liking the game due to it. Literally all three games have been the same. Worse, if anything. Perhaps the more fondly remembered 2 is let off the hook a bit cos those spectacles and set pieces were so dramatic, and a lot unlike anything at the time, you didn't really care about the iffy bits inbetween, you knew something else was gonna come along and blow your socks off.

To me though it's a bit like saying an FPS is repetitive cos you're bored of shooting things. It's just what you do, ent it?

I am very glad they didn't make Uncharted 4 an open world game, which is the current in thing, put it that way. Naughty Dog stuck to their guns, but they're not being thick headed and recognise the faults of the series, so they've canned it. I think they deserve plaudits for that, and if that means a few 10s instead of 8s out of ten, then so be it.

Yeah they are all fair points. Though, I would like to point out that this is my first experience of an Uncharted game. So i'm going into this game seeing it getting reviews of 10/10 reviews and not really knowing what to expect from gameplay, maybe that's why i'm a bit confused by it all. It does look incredible, it's an incredibly well made game, it's been flawless in performance for me but the game play doesn't feel like it's deserving of the hype. Now, maybe the hype is there because of the way it looks, maybe it's because it's the last Uncharted game, or maybe something else.... not sure. It's a let down to me, but as I didn't really know what to expect from the game, I was probably expecting too much, if that makes sense? 

[jacketspuds]

Loving this so far. Chapter 12 now but hopefully there's still quite a bit left to do.

[Risso]

On 18 May 2016 at 12:17, sexbelowsound said:

Sooooooo. Is this game as good as everyone thought it would be?

Yes, in a manner of speaking!

[Ginko]

On 18 May 2016 at 12:59, hogso said:

What it isn't is an Uncharted game that changes the foibles of the other games in the series, and as such, still suffers from some linear areas, and the explore/climb/fight/puzzle cycle which every entry in the series could be criticised for.

I've also read your post after this one and agree but I figured I'd quote the shorter one.

I'd like to add another point to this; that the linearity and formulaic approach is seen as a bad thing in games has always irked me. Maybe it's because I'm interested in writing and narrative more so than the average person and know a little more about story structure, but the fact is that you can't tell a story as well and as assuredly as Naughty Dog do in these games, as well as The Last of Us, without tight focus.

What I mean is, if you open the world up to the player by giving them more choice, you do the same with the story, and if you are writing a story with potentially thousands of tiny permutations here and there then you can't focus tightly enough on the narrative otherwise potential player choices just won't make sense and you run the risk of the story and characters becoming nonsensical.

A good example of this -- and it's my only criticism of the game because I do love it -- is Red Dead Redemption. You have the choice to play as an asshole, murdering innocents your entire playthrough, but then you get to the next story beat and cutscene and it shows John Marsten as a good guy, helping someone or repenting his past sins, worrying about his family who are the driving factor for the character. It's jarring and makes no sense story-wise. When you play as the good guy -- the way Rockstar intend you to play -- it all slots into place, but there's that openness in the game that allows you to go off the rails.

Some people prefer open gameplay and story is secondary, totally fair, but there are plenty of games out there like that, Fallout, Mass Effect, GTA to name some off the top of my head. All three franchises have undergone varying degrees of criticism over the years for their stories.

Naughty Dog buck the trend and value story over gameplay and I personally love that. I get lost in the flow and as long as the set pieces are spectacular, the puzzles are interesting and challenging, the climbing sections gorgeous and fun, the gunplay well placed and not too frequent throughout (I'm playing the first game again and firefights are so common that it's dull and silly, glad they've learned since then) and the story, characters, dialogue and voice acting are all top notch and to the high standard they've set for themselves then it'll be a hit with me.

TL;DR: It's intentionally linear because they value tightly focused narrative over gameplay variety and player choice and there's nothing wrong with that. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine so meh.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Ginko

[hogso]

Well in Ginks. 

Something further to my last post, I've since understood that Sony could just get someone else to make further games, like they did with the Vita game. Naughty Dog oversaw production of that, but might not necessarily in the future. 

I didn't play the Vita game, it's not supposed to be too bad. The team that made it developed both the decent Syphon Filter series, and the worst game ever contender Bubsy 3D

[Ginko]

Eh, I suppose they could do that, maybe set them earlier in Nate's life. I didn't play the Vita game either on account of not having the console but I'd heard decent things.

Really looking forward to a new IP from them. I suspect it'll be a while away and we'll get The Last of Us 2: Joel's Revenge as their next release, though.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Ginko

[Risso]

1 hour ago, Ginko said:

I've also read your post after this one and agree but I figured I'd quote the shorter one.

I'd like to add another point to this; that the linearity and formulaic approach is seen as a bad thing in games has always irked me. Maybe it's because I'm interested in writing and narrative more so than the average person and know a little more about story structure, but the fact is that you can't tell a story as well and as assuredly as Naughty Dog do in these games, as well as The Last of Us, without tight focus.

What I mean is, if you open the world up to the player by giving them more choice, you do the same with the story, and if you are writing a story with potentially thousands of tiny permutations here and there then you can't focus tightly enough on the narrative otherwise potential player choices just won't make sense and you run the risk of the story and characters becoming nonsensical.

A good example of this -- and it's my only criticism of the game because I do love it -- is Red Dead Redemption. You have the choice to play as an asshole, murdering innocents your entire playthrough, but then you get to the next story beat and cutscene and it shows John Marsten as a good guy, helping someone or repenting his past sins, worrying about his family who are the driving factor for the character. It's jarring and makes no sense story-wise. When you play as the good guy -- the way Rockstar intend you to play -- it all slots into place, but there's that openness in the game that allows you to go off the rails.

Some people prefer open gameplay and story is secondary, totally fair, but there are plenty of games out there like that, Fallout, Mass Effect, GTA to name some off the top of my head. All three franchises have undergone varying degrees of criticism over the years for their stories.

Naughty Dog buck the trend and value story over gameplay and I personally love that. I get lost in the flow and as long as the set pieces are spectacular, the puzzles are interesting and challenging, the climbing sections gorgeous and fun, the gunplay well placed and not too frequent throughout (I'm playing the first game again and firefights are so common that it's dull and silly, glad they've learned since then) and the story, characters, dialogue and voice acting are all top notch and to the high standard they've set for themselves then it'll be a hit with me.

TL;DR: It's intentionally linear because they value tightly focused narrative over gameplay variety and player choice and there's nothing wrong with that. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine so meh.

 

I can understand why people like the story telling, but for me the set pieces are dull, the puzzles would insult the intelligence of a new born chimp, the climbing bits are ridiculous and repetitive and the gunplay is very poorly executed.  Each to their own though.

[Ginko]

That's fair enough, as you say, each to their own. Did you think the same about The Last of Us?

What are some of your favourite games? I'm just curious.

[Risso]

3 minutes ago, Ginko said:

That's fair enough, as you say, each to their own. Did you think the same about The Last of Us?

What are some of your favourite games? I'm just curious.

Re: The Last of Us - yes I did.

 

Off the top of my head, favourite games would include:

Red Dead Redemption, Ni No Kuni, MGS Phantom Pain, Witcher 3, Mass Effect 2, Journey, Bioshock.

I think that the gameplay from most of those blasts any of the Uncharted games out of the water, and overall the story telling fits in with the gameplay much better, even if they don't do it quite as cinematically.  For me the gameplay in Unchartered is a series of pointless and badly executed interruptions to the cut scenes, that mostly don't fit in with them in any way.  It's about balance in my book, and overall the Uncharted series is far too heavily weighted towards the dramatic areas.  Again, that's fine if it's what you enjoy, but I'd rather spend the time either watching a film, or playing a decent game.

[Ginko]

Fair enough, I'm a big fan of ME: 2, RDR, Ni No Kuni and Bioshock too but I personally think the gameplay is arguably more repetitive in some of those games (perhaps not RDR) than Uncharted.

I enjoyed Journey too, but I don't think it's a good example of gameplay in general let alone balanced and fun gameplay 

I'm not disagreeing though. As we've both said, it comes down to what you like and what you value more.

[PieFacE]

Just completed it. Took me 15 hours 30 minutes. Definitely worth the £40. On the whole, I enjoyed the story! Gameplay was lacking but I never felt so bored I couldn't carry on. 

8/10 from me. 

[dubbs]

Struggling on chapter 13, just been washed up on an island,  plodding round trying to find the correct route. Seems to have slowed down a lot, hoping this bit doesn't last too long.

[Ginko]

It doesn't, don't worry. I love that bit. Nate is so sluggish compared to usual which considering he just got shipwrecked you would be really.

The route isn't too hard to find. Don't give up.

[PieFacE]

So I'm going to trade this game in.  Any other PS4 exclusives worth picking up?  I've played TLOU.  

[The_Rev]

Until Dawn is good fun.