Uncharted : Drake's Fortune*

[betan]

Uncharted is a wierd game for me because it got easier towards the end. I only died 3 times facing the mercenaries (

Spoiler

in a courtyard when I came out of the underground

). I died a gazillion times fighting the early pirates though. Then the difficulty curve picked up again in the last 1/4, and finally I nearly choked my controller in the last level. Other people I spoke to have different experience (They think the mercs are tougher).

For me the combat excels when the waves of enemies come from opposite direction, when you cannot camp or retreat to a safe entrance where you only need to worry about occasional grenades. That's also when the game combat is most difficult, frequent relocation and cover taking becomes vital. For pirates, I remember the plane crush site like that, for mercenaries, the Church which was probably most difficult for me.

Otherwise (ignoring minigames and mixed platforming shooting), one can always abuse corner shooting without even taking cover explicitly.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Very true, and I like it that way. If you don't like it that way, the higher difficulty settings greatly increases damage from bullets. A couple of shots will quickly have you seeing things in grayscale. I can't remember if there were difficulty selection settings in the demo, though.

It's not so much the difficulty, but the realism. Even in the worst case, you could get a shot a couple of times, recover, get shot some more, recover, and eventually win out a hard fight while nursing a half-dozen bullets wounds.

This is just a pet interest of mine, but I'd like a game where you can outsmart, outmove, and outfight the baddies, rather than win by a miraculous healing power.

 

[Cornsnake]

In most of the bigger gun fights later in the game you cant abuse this healing ability to much because you'll be out flanked in no time. And if you still can change to a higher difficulty level. The game is at its best when you have to respond to whatever your enemies do and they respond to whatever you do.

 

[deepbrown]

I dl'd the demo last night. I've seen the game from the beginning but not really the major action. First impressions are that its god and all, but a bit awkward. Jumping down from the cliff to the first part of the ruins, and then running along the track behind them, I completely missed a pirate. He was off to the right. So I peeked out cautiously watching the pirates coming into the area, and then started getting shot from the right! The camera obscured the pirate in a way that was inrealistic.

AI is the best I've seen a game of this sort (which isn't many). They do seem quite human at times. They are far too accurate though, hitting you often even when taking cover, and they don't seem to run out of ammo. I haven't really tried that, but in theory you ought to be able to wait their shooting out and then take them on. As it is, firing from cover you inevitably get his sometimes, and that makes the game unrealistic. By the end of a fight Drake would be alive and well, after taking a dozen bullets!

If you want to be dead after three shots, play crushing. Shooters aren't realistic.

"and then started getting shot from the right! The camera obscured the pirate in a way that was inrealistic."

You were looking in the wrong direction, and a pirate stealthed you? That's your fault surely? And of course the camera isn't going to show you exactly what you'd see if it was FP view - that's because it's a TP game with the camera behind the character. Third Person view isn't realistic.

Uncharted is tough to start with - that's why the demo isn't the best meter of what it's like in the final game - because you get four levels of training in the game, which gets your skills up. And the game is 10x more fun when you're good at it.

It's not so much the difficulty, but the realism. Even in the worst case, you could get a shot a couple of times, recover, get shot some more, recover, and eventually win out a hard fight while nursing a half-dozen bullets wounds.

This is just a pet interest of mine, but I'd like a game where you can outsmart, outmove, and outfight the baddies, rather than win by a miraculous healing power.

Here's the deal - all games do this, except you don't have to pick up lame medic packs which cure you, or take drugs. Reason? Uncharted is a fast paced game - it's not a stealth game. This is fast action - it's like the movies where characters get shot and don't die. This is not a realistic game. This is a fun, fast paced action game. If you want slow paced, out smarting enemies gameplay then you'll have to play Metal Gear Solid.

Moreover, play the game on crushing if you want to play like that. You already sound like you find it too hard - with a guy shooting you when you couldn't see him - think how much LESS fun you'd be having if you were dead after three hits. That's the point - it's meant to be fun, not realistic.

 

[Kittonwy]

It's not so much the difficulty, but the realism. Even in the worst case, you could get a shot a couple of times, recover, get shot some more, recover, and eventually win out a hard fight while nursing a half-dozen bullets wounds.

This is just a pet interest of mine, but I'd like a game where you can outsmart, outmove, and outfight the baddies, rather than win by a miraculous healing power.

Unless you carry the damage with you through-out the game, medipacks basically do the same thing, except more cumbersome because you have to pick them up or look for them.

On crushing there's not much abusing of recovery, three shots and you're deadmeat. This is basically the equivalence of getting your wind back and steadying yourself, that's all.

Enemies don't run out of ammo because if they do, you can just go and melee them and abuse the game that way, and you won't have much ammo available because enemies would have spent them all.

Just generally good gameplay sensibilities Naughty Dog is employing that's all.

 

[Kittonwy]

I dl'd the demo last night. I've seen the game from the beginning but not really the major action. First impressions are that its god and all, but a bit awkward. Jumping down from the cliff to the first part of the ruins, and then running along the track behind them, I completely missed a pirate. He was off to the right. So I peeked out cautiously watching the pirates coming into the area, and then started getting shot from the right! The camera obscured the pirate in a way that was inrealistic.

AI is the best I've seen a game of this sort (which isn't many). They do seem quite human at times. They are far too accurate though, hitting you often even when taking cover, and they don't seem to run out of ammo. I haven't really tried that, but in theory you ought to be able to wait their shooting out and then take them on. As it is, firing from cover you inevitably get his sometimes, and that makes the game unrealistic. By the end of a fight Drake would be alive and well, after taking a dozen bullets!

You simply got flanked, it's not the camera. On crushing because you literally have to spend more time in cover, they have even more time to flank you by pinning you down in order to converge on your position. It would suck for gameplay if you can't recover because you have to continue fighting enemies, and the recovery system is much more elegant than having to constantly collect health packs, which wouldn't make sense anyway, since who would leave health packs all over the jungle?

 

[mister slim]

I dl'd the demo last night. I've seen the game from the beginning but not really the major action. First impressions are that its god and all, but a bit awkward. Jumping down from the cliff to the first part of the ruins, and then running along the track behind them, I completely missed a pirate. He was off to the right. So I peeked out cautiously watching the pirates coming into the area, and then started getting shot from the right! The camera obscured the pirate in a way that was inrealistic.

I don't know if I'd go that far.

 

[deepbrown]

You simply got flanked, it's not the camera. On crushing because you literally have to spend more time in cover, they have even more time to flank you by pinning you down in order to converge on your position. It would suck for gameplay if you can't recover because you have to continue fighting enemies, and the recovery system is much more elegant than having to constantly collect health packs, which wouldn't make sense anyway, since who would leave health packs all over the jungle?

Or barrellz.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't know if I'd go that far.

Typo FTW!

I think some people are missing my point. My complaints aren't specifically levied at Uncharted. My interest in a game more realistic is a general desire for something a little original. Uncharted was the best placed to offer that given the content, styling and implementation, but without I accept it's still a good game. Just not quite what I would have liked.

Regards getting outflanked, maybe. It was only my second play through. However if you are only supposed to win a game by playing it over and learning the secrets, again it's not pushing that realistic element I'd like (which is a personal preference and quite possibly everyone else in the world is happy with the way things are). I'll have to revisit that part of the map to see if I think it really would conceal an enemy that well or not.

 

[deepbrown]

Typo FTW!

I think some people are missing my point. My complaints aren't specifically levied at Uncharted. My interest in a game more realistic is a general desire for something a little original. Uncharted was the best placed to offer that given the content, styling and implementation, but without I accept it's still a good game. Just not quite what I would have liked.

Regards getting outflanked, maybe. It was only my second play through. However if you are only supposed to win a game by playing it over and learning the secrets, again it's not pushing that realistic element I'd like (which is a personal preference and quite possibly everyone else in the world is happy with the way things are). I'll have to revisit that part of the map to see if I think it really would conceal an enemy that well or not.

Yes and we're saying that if it was realistic it would be a crap game, wouldn't be fun, and would have an average review score of 5/10

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Perhaps in most people's eyes, but I would give it 10/10, if it was well implemented

 

[-tkf-]

It's not so much the difficulty, but the realism. Even in the worst case, you could get a shot a couple of times, recover, get shot some more, recover, and eventually win out a hard fight while nursing a half-dozen bullets wounds.

This is just a pet interest of mine, but I'd like a game where you can outsmart, outmove, and outfight the baddies, rather than win by a miraculous healing power.

I can confirm that the "healing" power is at most a breather but no secure way out. When your out matched you wont last long in any case, by out matched i mean not playing well enough

I havent played the game that much, but i had a friend over that sat down and played it for 4 hours straight, he is more used to Console shooters (xbox kind a guy) and i felt like i was watching a action adventure movie. If anything i really think this game has been underscored in pretty much every department, the graphics and sound is pretty spectacular and in this genre i can´t recall anything from this generation coming close? And even the story had me guessing both wrong and right

 

[deepbrown]

Perhaps in most people's eyes, but I would give it 10/10, if it was well implemented

What you want to play is a stealth game. Uncharted is meant to be a fast romp, it's perfectly fitting for its genre.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

What you want to play is a stealth game. Uncharted is meant to be a fast romp, it's perfectly fitting for its genre.

Not sure what you mean by fast romp, but if you mean that Uncharted is a fast paced game, then i have to disagree with you because uncharted is slow.

Uncharted is certainly not faced paced, the cover system makes sure of that. For a shooter the gameplay is slow and not particularly hard, started on the highest difficulty unlocked, that was a breeze, on crushing im crusing along just fine aswell (at level 10 or so, but dont have much time to play lately)

 

[deepbrown]

Not sure what you mean by fast romp, but if you mean that Uncharted is a fast paced game, then i have to disagree with you because uncharted is slow.

Uncharted is certainly not faced paced, the cover system makes sure of that. For a shooter the gameplay is slow and not particularly hard, started on the highest difficulty unlocked, that was a breeze, on crushing im crusing along just fine aswell (at level 10 or so, but dont have much time to play lately)

It's intended to be fast, and it is fast. it's a reason why there's so little platforming, why the puzzles are easy, and why there's no underwater swimming sections. Some find it easy, some don't. I started on normal, found it challenging. Hard was hard, crushing was almost impossible.

It's a fast action game, perhaps not fast in comparison to an FPS. It's certainly faster than Tomb Raider etc.

 

[-tkf-]

Not sure what you mean by fast romp, but if you mean that Uncharted is a fast paced game, then i have to disagree with you because uncharted is slow.

Uncharted is certainly not faced paced, the cover system makes sure of that. For a shooter the gameplay is slow and not particularly hard, started on the highest difficulty unlocked, that was a breeze, on crushing im crusing along just fine aswell (at level 10 or so, but dont have much time to play lately)

For you it may not be a hard shooter game, but that is how these kind a games work on consoles. I battle the controls more on Console shooters than i battle actual enemies, i just suck at pointing a crosshair with a console controller. For me Drakes is hard enough.

 

[StefanS]

Not sure what you mean by fast romp, but if you mean that Uncharted is a fast paced game, then i have to disagree with you because uncharted is slow.

Uncharted is certainly not faced paced, the cover system makes sure of that. For a shooter the gameplay is slow and not particularly hard, started on the highest difficulty unlocked, that was a breeze, on crushing im crusing along just fine aswell (at level 10 or so, but dont have much time to play lately)

Actually I had exactly the same experience. I also found it fairly easy on hard. Crushing was a bit better, but still a long shot from being what you expect from its name...

 

[patsu]

StefanS and Ostepop, did you play it like a "traditional" stop-n-pop cover shooter ? Or did you run constantly and duke it out with the enemies ?

 

[deepbrown]

StefanS and Ostepop, did you play it like a "traditional" stop-n-pop cover shooter ? Or did you run constantly and duke it out with the enemies ?

Yeah I did the latter - didnt stay all stealthy - I was out punching dudes etc.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

StefanS and Ostepop, did you play it like a "traditional" stop-n-pop cover shooter ? Or did you run constantly and duke it out with the enemies ?

Both. Sometimes you have to go to cover to get health, simply because on crushing some enemies never miss even if you do constant evade rolls.