There’s no reason to expect much from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. The developer, Naughty Dog, is commercially successful but creatively middling (their Jak titles have ranged from pretty decent to pretty bad). The game seems to be an unabashed rip-off of Tomb Raider, with the difference being that the main character is a dude, which out-Tomb-Raiders Tomb Raider for unabashedly ripping off Raiders of the Lost Ark. The prospects are not good.
I agree for the most part, but after playing the first game again, the shootouts were way too tough and over seeded. That being said, I think that after that game they found the right balance, for the most part.
This - "their Jak titles have ranged from pretty decent to pretty bad" - is the only thing I can truly disagree with in that review. They ranged from being among the best games of the generation, to 'okay'.
The combat is consistently the worst part of the Uncharted series. Enemies have too much health, inflict too much damage, come in too-large groups, and are generally more of a hassle to deal with than anything else.
Reading these has been kind of fascinating. I mostly agree with the Drake's Fortune review, but I find the quippiness a little too focus-grouped (across the franchise, really) for me to consider it "great." I'm also not a huge fan of Among Thieves, which has a really dumb story that is too Scooby-Doo-like to enjoy (and also relies on awful lot on the assumption that the player is going to love Chloe's ass Chloe as much as the devs did).
But I didn't find Drake's Deception to be significantly worse than the others--except for the one section you liked, the ship graveyard levels. They have nothing to do with the rest of the story and are just a nonstop parade of Uncharted's ever-frustrating combat encounters.
I'd be curious to read your thoughts on A Thief's End, which I mostly think is a big improvement in a number of ways over the preceding three games.
It seems like such practices would cause trouble hiring in future...I guess that's why they're defunct. How did you feel about the Jak games, by the way? It's a bit unfair to tease us readers with vague opinions.
While I loved the story, I felt U1 was the weakest in the franchise due to the repetitive loop with waves of enemies. Toward the end you get a nice change of pace, but before that point, it's very repetitive. Great for its time, but I believe Uncharted 2 is a better game. I thought the pacing was better and the combat scenarios much more varied and exciting. The setpieces were a nice addition as well.
I would put U3 ahead of U1, but U3 has some odd pacing issues, but overall, I felt that was a great game too.
I’ve just started the series, and I agree with the combat. I also really miss the targeting system in Tomb Raider.
I’m about 60% in the first game (just finished the shootout in the Trapped section), and I’m not sure I like the main dude. But I don’t dislike him, either.
I got the Uncharted 4 bundle when I got my PS4, so I’m just burning through them as fast as I can to get the story.
I replayed Uncharted 1 in the remastered version - it’s the worst in the series and it’s not even close, and the goofy physics (guys flying back when hit) is unintentionally funny at this point. This game also hadn’t quite figured out the formula yet - the pacing isn’t as good, environments are more cramped, and the waves of enemies are silly at times (both in sheer quantity of enemies and the manner in which they appear). The story-telling gets significantly better in Uncharted 2. The first Uncharted is also, by far, the most difficult game to complete in Crushing difficulty,
I’m actually tempted to replay the non-remastered version of Uncharted 3 to see how the 3D looks now that I have a 3D OLED. Funny how a new TV makes me want to check out old games like Resistance 3, Gears of War 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3 (all of which other than Uncharted 3 I bought but never got to play).
I play them on easy. I just don’t have the patience to play them on any other difficulty level. I’m also impressed they managed to make sections of a game where you are on a jet ski unfun.
I’m impressed you can get anywhere on Crushing difficulty. You must get a lot of headshots. I remember when I played it on PS3, even on Normal difficulty if you didn’t get a headshot, you had to shoot almost whole clips into enemies to bring them down. It must be even worse on Crushing. Headshots must be even more important. Since I played on the PS3 though, headshots were virtually impossible for me to get on those loose thumbsticks. I found them to be much easier to get on the PS4 when I played Uncharted 2 remake on PS4 vs when I played it on PS3, so I imagine the same is true for the first game.
I like Hard difficulty because it forces you to really learn the weapons, environments and enemies and to use available tactics. Crushing takes that to an extreme, but there are a lot of parts that are no more difficult on Crushing than on other difficulties (all the jumping, puzzles, etc.).
The big difference on Crushing is not the durability of enemies - it’s your lack of durability. You just can’t be in the open for more than about 3 seconds or you’ll die - and that includes popping your head up to shoot from behind cover. In Uncharted 1, because of the lack of maneuvering and the fact that you’re often facing multiple opponents, you are actually far better off on Crushing difficulty if you never use the cover system as intended (pressed against it, popping out to shoot) and just ambush opponents around corners by standing back a bit.
The later Uncharted games are a little more unforgiving on Crushing, so I do use cover, but they also have larger environments and allow you to be more mobile (essential in Crushing, as you are pursued aggressively). Which makes them more fun on harder difficulties, in my opinion, as you really have to develop skills at using all weapons and types of attacks and seizing opportunities. There are really only a few bottlenecks of difficult sections in each game, and some of them are essentially as difficult on Hard as Crushing (like the final battle in Uncharted 2, which is probably the most annoying battle in the series).
I’m a 100% trophies/achievement junkie, but I definitely think my opinion of the Uncharted games wouldn’t be as high if it wasn’t for playing them on the hardest difficulties, where you are really forced to understand the game and develop skills and knowledge to overcome challenges. The games I do tend to go for 100% on are ones like these and the Souls games for the same reason. I think I skipped a 100% run on Uncharted 2 though because the multiplayer trophies were impracticable for me to get. I really wish the multiplayer trophies for games were separate, but U3 and U4 have pretty simple multiplayer trophies.
Aside: what the heck is up with games in general becoming unfun around the 85% mark? Both this and Tomb Raider have turned into a slog fest. I noticed in Uncharted around the time of the Generator fight, the game started to become very stingy with save points.
