Monday, February 13, 2012

Uncharted 3



I do like the Uncharted series but think some people are a little bit too enthusiatic about them. I'd definitely recommend Uncharted 3, it's a well produced game that's lots of fun. I do however have a few gripes about it that stopped it being any where near as good as the second game in the series.

Firstly the game seems a bit rushed. I noticed quite a few bugs while playing the game, mostly animation errors but stuff like the aiming being ridiculously slow until the game is patched are quite telling. Some of the enemy placements and design can be poor in some areas. It's only in a few areas where this is noticable but they stand out due to the high quality of the rest of the game. A few firefights have enemies that will spawn behind the player and will kill them before they even notice that they have arrived. It's frustrating and there's really no excuse for it. I also feel that the heavily armoured enemies were a mistake and are more a pain in the ass to take down than truly challenging. I'm also not a fan of the new hand to hand combat system which borrows a lot from Batman Arkham Asylum. Some people love the combat in that game, I found it way too simplistic. Combat boils down to hammering the square button and every so often hitting triangle to counter when prompted. It just boils down to one big QTE. They have added some new elements like pushing enemies into scenery to use the scenery against them, it's always entertaining when Drake throws someone off a cliff or smashes a bottle over their head.

Anyway I've been far too negative about the game so I'll just end by saying I really enjoyed playing it despite the niggles. It never reaches the heights of the train section in Uncharted 2 and Amy Hennings writing is entertaining with some sharp one liners although she still hasn't managed to make the over arching story interesting or make Nathan Drake seem like a sociopath. Definitely one of the best of last year.

4 comments:

  1. Didn't Harrison Ford play this game and talk shit about it?

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  2. There's some japanese commercials of him playing the game, don't think he really played it and talked shit about it though. One of the commercials is here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJuC9pGR4zE

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  3. I've little experience with the series having only played bits and pieces at random, but it's always struck me as an overly cinematic experience that seems to want to forget it's a game half the time. Flawed assumption?

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  4. Not entirely. I manages to combine cinematics and game quite well to be honest. The gunplay is good if not great and platforming is fun and makes for some very cinematic moments even if it feels very scripted. They're good games, I just think they are a tad over hyped. I certainly isn't as bad as MGS 4 for forgetting it's a videogame first, uncharted makes sure you are in control for the most part even if events are scripted and cutscenes are short but sweet.

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