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This thread has been linked to the game 'Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception'.
This is my first entry into uncharted lands… I mean the Uncharted series and I would like to say that this means I have no preconceived notions about the game, but I can’t. I was always curious about trying Uncharted 2 with numerous perfect scores and critical praise. I was put off however, by the description of the sections of game play. The idea of puzzles with the answers in a notebook and climbing sections sounded pretty dull to me.
The game kicks off in England and my god it is stereotypical, with red phone booths and skin heads and flat capped males are the only thing in sight. A deal takes place in “the Pelican Inn” between Talbot and Nathan Drake.
The story takes the protagonist, Nathan Drake, back to when he was 14 in Colombia and shows his skills at climbing and pick pocketing. This section shows how Nathan comes to meet a mentor in Victor Sullivan and shows the motives of the main antagonists Katherine Marlowe and Talbot.
Now, I’m not a major fan of story in video games as I love thoughtful and involving game play more than anything. However, I have to say that the characters in the story were very memorable and interesting. I think it is the first time I’ve actually cared a bit about a character in a game. That said, Uncharted 3 needs a strong story to be able to make you forgive its interactive movie style game play. There are chase sequences that reminded me of L.A. Noire, but Uncharted’s chase sequences are more varied and interesting as you don’t know what obstacles will block you from them.
The chase sequences are predetermined, as there is only one way to do them. Try to go to an area which you weren’t meant to and Nate dies instantly. The same goes for the climbing sections, which leave no room for creativity. Once you have cleared guards out of an area, you will have to wait for your AI partner to ask questions or for you to press up to trigger an observation for you to continue onward, even if you have already figured out what to do.
Nathan always manages to find a way to climb to where he needs to go and can leap long distances like a professional squirrel. The climbing sequences are sometimes given some action with guards shooting at you as you climb and more often than not pipes and ledges crumble when you touch them, which makes me wonder why Nate is still surprised when it happens. For him it is a fact of life, like the guy who turns everything he touches into skittles. Everything that Nathan touches crumbles.
As I said previously, I haven’t played any of the previous instalments, but I have read that the combat mechanics were changed for this game. The combat system in Uncharted 3 reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum as you mash the attack button, stopping to counter their attacks. I felt that Uncharted is far easier to counter enemies than in Batman AA as you can mash the counter button and counter more than one opponent at a time. Arkham Asylum had a variety of guards with weapons such as an electric prod and a knife, which had to be countered in different ways. I’m glad that Uncharted doesn’t require you to memorise like this, apart from super heavy armoured guards can’t be hit and will stomp you to death if you try. The amusing thing about the combat system is how guards sometimes will watch you fight another guard, as if they’ve signed some form of fair play treaty against double teaming you.
The shooting sections are fairly easy for the first half of the game, but the difficulty cranks up to frustrating levels near the end. Survival is a challenge when Snipers one shot you, RPG’s one shot you, Grenades one shot you, Shotguns one shot you and M32-Hammers one shot you. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t get past one part on normal difficulty, when you have to face off against two heavy armoured guards with shotguns with snipers and hammers firing at you from above. I get flanked by both of them, so I'm sure its not the games fault. I finished the rest of the game on normal and I came back and tried again…. I’m sure I’ll do it someday.
Not only does the difficulty increase in the latter half, but the chase sequences and puzzle sequences almost disappear meaning the remaining half of the chapters are all shooting without respite. The AI has some issues such as blowing themselves up with grenades on occasion and sometimes they rush out into the open and forget that they are in a fire fight.
The things I most enjoy in games are puzzle sections, but I didn’t enjoy any of the ones presented in Uncharted 3. There aren’t many in the game at all really, but they are either simplistic or obtuse in logic. That said, they bring a nice change of pace from shootouts and climbing sequences.
You can tell that Naughty Dog thought hard over the set pieces within the game as every chapter has something memorable about it. There are sections in the game that remind me of Max Payne flash back sequences when you play out dream sequences within game play. That said, many of the set pieces do very little to advance the story and are only there to be shown off to the player.
The game does little to answer why Nathan wants to continue his journey, when nearly everything he decides to do ends up in a shoot out. If I were him, I would have gone back home for some retail therapy… and get into a shoot out over an argument over the correct amount of change. That said, Uncharted feels like a typical war game in that Nathan is an unstoppable one man army and always seems to overcome the greater numbers, so maybe I can’t fault him for having little respect for his well being.
In conclusion, the action packed set pieces and memorable characters manage to make you want to see the game to its conclusion, despite its shallow game play and I had fun playing it.
Good
+ Epic Blockbuster set pieces
+ Interesting Characters
Bad
- Shallow Interactive Movie style game play
8/10
The game kicks off in England and my god it is stereotypical, with red phone booths and skin heads and flat capped males are the only thing in sight. A deal takes place in “the Pelican Inn” between Talbot and Nathan Drake.
The story takes the protagonist, Nathan Drake, back to when he was 14 in Colombia and shows his skills at climbing and pick pocketing. This section shows how Nathan comes to meet a mentor in Victor Sullivan and shows the motives of the main antagonists Katherine Marlowe and Talbot.
Now, I’m not a major fan of story in video games as I love thoughtful and involving game play more than anything. However, I have to say that the characters in the story were very memorable and interesting. I think it is the first time I’ve actually cared a bit about a character in a game. That said, Uncharted 3 needs a strong story to be able to make you forgive its interactive movie style game play. There are chase sequences that reminded me of L.A. Noire, but Uncharted’s chase sequences are more varied and interesting as you don’t know what obstacles will block you from them.
The chase sequences are predetermined, as there is only one way to do them. Try to go to an area which you weren’t meant to and Nate dies instantly. The same goes for the climbing sections, which leave no room for creativity. Once you have cleared guards out of an area, you will have to wait for your AI partner to ask questions or for you to press up to trigger an observation for you to continue onward, even if you have already figured out what to do.
Nathan always manages to find a way to climb to where he needs to go and can leap long distances like a professional squirrel. The climbing sequences are sometimes given some action with guards shooting at you as you climb and more often than not pipes and ledges crumble when you touch them, which makes me wonder why Nate is still surprised when it happens. For him it is a fact of life, like the guy who turns everything he touches into skittles. Everything that Nathan touches crumbles.
As I said previously, I haven’t played any of the previous instalments, but I have read that the combat mechanics were changed for this game. The combat system in Uncharted 3 reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum as you mash the attack button, stopping to counter their attacks. I felt that Uncharted is far easier to counter enemies than in Batman AA as you can mash the counter button and counter more than one opponent at a time. Arkham Asylum had a variety of guards with weapons such as an electric prod and a knife, which had to be countered in different ways. I’m glad that Uncharted doesn’t require you to memorise like this, apart from super heavy armoured guards can’t be hit and will stomp you to death if you try. The amusing thing about the combat system is how guards sometimes will watch you fight another guard, as if they’ve signed some form of fair play treaty against double teaming you.
The shooting sections are fairly easy for the first half of the game, but the difficulty cranks up to frustrating levels near the end. Survival is a challenge when Snipers one shot you, RPG’s one shot you, Grenades one shot you, Shotguns one shot you and M32-Hammers one shot you. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t get past one part on normal difficulty, when you have to face off against two heavy armoured guards with shotguns with snipers and hammers firing at you from above. I get flanked by both of them, so I'm sure its not the games fault. I finished the rest of the game on normal and I came back and tried again…. I’m sure I’ll do it someday.
Not only does the difficulty increase in the latter half, but the chase sequences and puzzle sequences almost disappear meaning the remaining half of the chapters are all shooting without respite. The AI has some issues such as blowing themselves up with grenades on occasion and sometimes they rush out into the open and forget that they are in a fire fight.
The things I most enjoy in games are puzzle sections, but I didn’t enjoy any of the ones presented in Uncharted 3. There aren’t many in the game at all really, but they are either simplistic or obtuse in logic. That said, they bring a nice change of pace from shootouts and climbing sequences.
You can tell that Naughty Dog thought hard over the set pieces within the game as every chapter has something memorable about it. There are sections in the game that remind me of Max Payne flash back sequences when you play out dream sequences within game play. That said, many of the set pieces do very little to advance the story and are only there to be shown off to the player.
The game does little to answer why Nathan wants to continue his journey, when nearly everything he decides to do ends up in a shoot out. If I were him, I would have gone back home for some retail therapy… and get into a shoot out over an argument over the correct amount of change. That said, Uncharted feels like a typical war game in that Nathan is an unstoppable one man army and always seems to overcome the greater numbers, so maybe I can’t fault him for having little respect for his well being.
In conclusion, the action packed set pieces and memorable characters manage to make you want to see the game to its conclusion, despite its shallow game play and I had fun playing it.
Good
+ Epic Blockbuster set pieces
+ Interesting Characters
Bad
- Shallow Interactive Movie style game play
8/10
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This is my first entry into uncharted lands… I mean the Uncharted series and I would like to say that this means I have no preconceived notions about the game, but I can’t. I was always curious about trying Uncharted 2 with numerous perfect scores and critical praise. I was put off however, by the description of the sections of game play. The idea of puzzles with the answers in a notebook and climbing sections sounded pretty dull to me.
The game kicks off in England and my god it is stereotypical, with red phone booths and skin heads and flat capped males are the only thing in sight. A deal takes place in “the Pelican Inn” between Talbot and Nathan Drake.
The story takes the protagonist, Nathan Drake, back to when he was 14 in Colombia and shows his skills at climbing and pick pocketing. This section shows how Nathan comes to meet a mentor in Victor Sullivan and shows the motives of the main antagonists Katherine Marlowe and Talbot.
Now, I’m not a major fan of story in video games as I love thoughtful and involving game play more than anything. However, I have to say that the characters in the story were very memorable and interesting. I think it is the first time I’ve actually cared a bit about a character in a game. That said, Uncharted 3 needs a strong story to be able to make you forgive its interactive movie style game play. There are chase sequences that reminded me of L.A. Noire, but Uncharted’s chase sequences are more varied and interesting as you don’t know what obstacles will block you from them.
The chase sequences are predetermined, as there is only one way to do them. Try to go to an area which you weren’t meant to and Nate dies instantly. The same goes for the climbing sections, which leave no room for creativity. Once you have cleared guards out of an area, you will have to wait for your AI partner to ask questions or for you to press up to trigger an observation for you to continue onward, even if you have already figured out what to do.
Nathan always manages to find a way to climb to where he needs to go and can leap long distances like a professional squirrel. The climbing sequences are sometimes given some action with guards shooting at you as you climb and more often than not pipes and ledges crumble when you touch them, which makes me wonder why Nate is still surprised when it happens. For him it is a fact of life, like the guy who turns everything he touches into skittles. Everything that Nathan touches crumbles.
As I said previously, I haven’t played any of the previous instalments, but I have read that the combat mechanics were changed for this game. The combat system in Uncharted 3 reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum as you mash the attack button, stopping to counter their attacks. I felt that Uncharted is far easier to counter enemies than in Batman AA as you can mash the counter button and counter more than one opponent at a time. Arkham Asylum had a variety of guards with weapons such as an electric prod and a knife, which had to be countered in different ways. I’m glad that Uncharted doesn’t require you to memorise like this, apart from super heavy armoured guards can’t be hit and will stomp you to death if you try. The amusing thing about the combat system is how guards sometimes will watch you fight another guard, as if they’ve signed some form of fair play treaty against double teaming you.
The shooting sections are fairly easy for the first half of the game, but the difficulty cranks up to frustrating levels near the end. Survival is a challenge when Snipers one shot you, RPG’s one shot you, Grenades one shot you, Shotguns one shot you and M32-Hammers one shot you. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t get past one part on normal difficulty, when you have to face off against two heavy armoured guards with shotguns with snipers and hammers firing at you from above. I get flanked by both of them, so I'm sure its not the games fault. I finished the rest of the game on normal and I came back and tried again…. I’m sure I’ll do it someday.
Not only does the difficulty increase in the latter half, but the chase sequences and puzzle sequences almost disappear meaning the remaining half of the chapters are all shooting without respite. The AI has some issues such as blowing themselves up with grenades on occasion and sometimes they rush out into the open and forget that they are in a fire fight.
The things I most enjoy in games are puzzle sections, but I didn’t enjoy any of the ones presented in Uncharted 3. There aren’t many in the game at all really, but they are either simplistic or obtuse in logic. That said, they bring a nice change of pace from shootouts and climbing sequences.
You can tell that Naughty Dog thought hard over the set pieces within the game as every chapter has something memorable about it. There are sections in the game that remind me of Max Payne flash back sequences when you play out dream sequences within game play. That said, many of the set pieces do very little to advance the story and are only there to be shown off to the player.
The game does little to answer why Nathan wants to continue his journey, when nearly everything he decides to do ends up in a shoot out. If I were him, I would have gone back home for some retail therapy… and get into a shoot out over an argument over the correct amount of change. That said, Uncharted feels like a typical war game in that Nathan is an unstoppable one man army and always seems to overcome the greater numbers, so maybe I can’t fault him for having little respect for his well being.
In conclusion, the action packed set pieces and memorable characters manage to make you want to see the game to its conclusion, despite its shallow game play and I had fun playing it.
Good
+ Epic Blockbuster set pieces
+ Interesting Characters
Bad
- Shallow Interactive Movie style game play
8/10
The game kicks off in England and my god it is stereotypical, with red phone booths and skin heads and flat capped males are the only thing in sight. A deal takes place in “the Pelican Inn” between Talbot and Nathan Drake.
The story takes the protagonist, Nathan Drake, back to when he was 14 in Colombia and shows his skills at climbing and pick pocketing. This section shows how Nathan comes to meet a mentor in Victor Sullivan and shows the motives of the main antagonists Katherine Marlowe and Talbot.
Now, I’m not a major fan of story in video games as I love thoughtful and involving game play more than anything. However, I have to say that the characters in the story were very memorable and interesting. I think it is the first time I’ve actually cared a bit about a character in a game. That said, Uncharted 3 needs a strong story to be able to make you forgive its interactive movie style game play. There are chase sequences that reminded me of L.A. Noire, but Uncharted’s chase sequences are more varied and interesting as you don’t know what obstacles will block you from them.
The chase sequences are predetermined, as there is only one way to do them. Try to go to an area which you weren’t meant to and Nate dies instantly. The same goes for the climbing sections, which leave no room for creativity. Once you have cleared guards out of an area, you will have to wait for your AI partner to ask questions or for you to press up to trigger an observation for you to continue onward, even if you have already figured out what to do.
Nathan always manages to find a way to climb to where he needs to go and can leap long distances like a professional squirrel. The climbing sequences are sometimes given some action with guards shooting at you as you climb and more often than not pipes and ledges crumble when you touch them, which makes me wonder why Nate is still surprised when it happens. For him it is a fact of life, like the guy who turns everything he touches into skittles. Everything that Nathan touches crumbles.
As I said previously, I haven’t played any of the previous instalments, but I have read that the combat mechanics were changed for this game. The combat system in Uncharted 3 reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum as you mash the attack button, stopping to counter their attacks. I felt that Uncharted is far easier to counter enemies than in Batman AA as you can mash the counter button and counter more than one opponent at a time. Arkham Asylum had a variety of guards with weapons such as an electric prod and a knife, which had to be countered in different ways. I’m glad that Uncharted doesn’t require you to memorise like this, apart from super heavy armoured guards can’t be hit and will stomp you to death if you try. The amusing thing about the combat system is how guards sometimes will watch you fight another guard, as if they’ve signed some form of fair play treaty against double teaming you.
The shooting sections are fairly easy for the first half of the game, but the difficulty cranks up to frustrating levels near the end. Survival is a challenge when Snipers one shot you, RPG’s one shot you, Grenades one shot you, Shotguns one shot you and M32-Hammers one shot you. I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t get past one part on normal difficulty, when you have to face off against two heavy armoured guards with shotguns with snipers and hammers firing at you from above. I get flanked by both of them, so I'm sure its not the games fault. I finished the rest of the game on normal and I came back and tried again…. I’m sure I’ll do it someday.
Not only does the difficulty increase in the latter half, but the chase sequences and puzzle sequences almost disappear meaning the remaining half of the chapters are all shooting without respite. The AI has some issues such as blowing themselves up with grenades on occasion and sometimes they rush out into the open and forget that they are in a fire fight.
The things I most enjoy in games are puzzle sections, but I didn’t enjoy any of the ones presented in Uncharted 3. There aren’t many in the game at all really, but they are either simplistic or obtuse in logic. That said, they bring a nice change of pace from shootouts and climbing sequences.
You can tell that Naughty Dog thought hard over the set pieces within the game as every chapter has something memorable about it. There are sections in the game that remind me of Max Payne flash back sequences when you play out dream sequences within game play. That said, many of the set pieces do very little to advance the story and are only there to be shown off to the player.
The game does little to answer why Nathan wants to continue his journey, when nearly everything he decides to do ends up in a shoot out. If I were him, I would have gone back home for some retail therapy… and get into a shoot out over an argument over the correct amount of change. That said, Uncharted feels like a typical war game in that Nathan is an unstoppable one man army and always seems to overcome the greater numbers, so maybe I can’t fault him for having little respect for his well being.
In conclusion, the action packed set pieces and memorable characters manage to make you want to see the game to its conclusion, despite its shallow game play and I had fun playing it.
Good
+ Epic Blockbuster set pieces
+ Interesting Characters
Bad
- Shallow Interactive Movie style game play
8/10