Uncharted Series (dunkview)

Going back to the Uncharted games on the PS3 you notice how fucking ass the shooting mechanics were. Every time you aim out of cover, you are just pointed at nothing, you aren't even aiming in the same direction that the camera was pointing. But with the Nathan Drake collection for PS4, Bluepoint has gone back and completely overhauled the shooting for each game.

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Uncharted : Drake's Fortune



The original Uncharted was actually my last game to beat from the series. Even in this remastered version it's incredibly dated. The environments hold up visually, especially on this remake with a few areas that could be mistaken for Uncharted 4, but the cover system is really wonky and unreliable. Enemies will often shoot you even when you're behind cover and the movement feels really stiff. The story also doesn't really fit in with any of the other games. Drake immediately leaves Sully for dead and then he's really adamant about stopping the adventure early for safety's sake. Pretty much everything you've learned about Drake in the sequels doesn't ring true in the original.



Still worth checking out if you're a fan of the series, but a pretty mediocre game all around.



2 out of 5

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Uncharted 2 : Among Thieves



This game was such an enormous leap from the original, that the series pretty much starts here. Uncharted 2 was a technical marvel when it was first released in 2009 and most developers today still haven't caught up to this title. Bluepoint has done an incredible job with this remaster, the framerate has doubled from 30 to 60 and the controls are flawless.



Crushing difficulty feels perfect and while the levels are visually stunning, they're very much designed around the gameplay. Every combat section offers a new twist, offering a huge sense of variety. There's levels in the jungle, there's snow levels, there's a train level, and there's a lot of stunning set pieces in between. The game's story isn't hugely memorable, but it's got some wit and really compliments Uncharted 4's stronger narrative.



I highly recommend you play this version, it's one of the best shooters out there.



4 out of 5

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Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception



I forgot how much crazy shit is in this game. Uncharted 3 is hugely ambitious, but feels rushed in a lot of places and this remastered version has a lot of weird glitches that weren't in the original version. The shooting also has this stupid snapping effect and a big headshot obscuring reticle.



Level designs are more focused on being flashy than well thought out, with some really obnoxious areas that are highlighted on crushing difficulty. The story is also pretty weak, desperately trying to string together the insane diversity of levels. Drake's Deception does a lot of stuff wrong that it's predecessor nailed, but it's still a solid shooter with an overwhelming amount of jaw dropping set pieces.



3 out of 5

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Uncharted 4 : A Thief's End



(spoiler alert)



After going through the whole series last week and then revisiting this latest installment, you can see very clearly see the influence The Last of Us had on this game. Uncharted 4 has probably more downtime and climbing sections than the other three games combined, which turns out to be good and bad. It lets the story (the strongest in the series) breath, but really highlights the combat sections which are hit and miss in their design.



On moderate difficulty you breeze past the combat encounters while getting away with practically anything. You end up with a game that's 70% story and 30% gameplay. With the harder difficulties you start to see more a balance in gameplay and story, but you also start to really scrutinize the shortcomings of the combat. On crushing the game is very doable until you hit chapter 13 "Marooned".



Up to that point the levels are designed to be a lot more open, but with "Marooned", it gets very narrow and you have very little room to experiment. This is a problem I've always had with the original releases of Uncharted 2 and 3 where the mechanics don't feel competent enough to warrant the harder difficulties. You have the drop back down to 30 fps. You have weird checkpoint placements. You have enemies shooting you through trees and brush, completely concealed to the player, which sucks because you also lose the ability to mark and track enemies on crushing. There's an auto-aim function that is just complete ass and beats the whole game for you. From Chapter 13 on, the shooting sections can be described as a god damn mess. I think hard difficulty is the closest you can get to some level of challenge without losing the stuff that makes the shooting unique, but it still feels off.



Also the motion blur is fucking stupid.



So yeah, my thoughts are much more negative towards the shooting mechanics since my video review, but I did enjoy the story more this second time around. I also enjoyed seeing your responses to my critiques on the game's story, which you can check out here https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/4jt896/uncharted_4_dunkview/ . Before I made that video I couldn't really find any in depth discussion about Uncharted 4's story. In the thread weaknessx100 and bg93 make some strong counterpoints to my disgruntlement and MarianneThornberry articulates my own view much better than I did.



I still think it's pretty discordant how Elena has Nate all patched up off-screen after dude just fell off a cliff, and I can sorta buy that their marriage is still on the rocks in the following chapters, but throughout the series Nathan is always doing some really stupid and in the end him and Elena end up together reguardless, there really was no doubt in my mind that it wouldn't be fixed. Although Elena's fakeout really got me good. Intentional or not I found the sub-stories about Avery and the pirates much more intriguing than the drama between the main characters because I didn't know where it was headed. But i thought it was very smart how Avery's story impacts Nathan's.



At the end of the day I have really mixed feelings on Uncharted 4. The story is the strongest of the whole series, but not strong enough to mandate such a heavy focus on narrative over gameplay. The shootouts don't really feel tuned towards the higher difficulties, which can largely detract from the games pacing. It's obviously a quality title, it's almost great. But for now I still say, it's only good.



3 out of 5.



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