Finally being the owner of a Playstation 3 console, I’ve taken the chance to play some of the games I missed. One of those games is the original Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I’d played a little of the second, and a little of the third, but I had yet to touch the original. I came in with a general feeling of goodwill and an open mind.
And now I’m struggling with this. Though I’ve heard nothing but raves, I personally did not like the first Uncharted game. It’s hard to look at something so beautiful and say “it aged poorly,” but in many respects I think my problems with the game are that I came to it when I did, and not when it was new. It’s possible that when the PS3 was new this would’ve been awesome. In 2012 for a first-time player, it is less awesome (especially when the first time player is me). So let me tell you exactly what I didn’t like about Uncharted. And the few things that I did.
In Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, I play as Nathan Drake, a charming everyman adventurer who’s dexterous, but self-effacing and a little sarcastic. He’s good with a gun, too. And he had better be, because the game is about forty percent cover-shooter. Uncertain platforming makes up another forty percent, and the rest is split between vehicle sequences and cut-scenes.
The problem with the platforming in Uncharted is that it’s of the school that favors beauty over responsiveness. In a responsive platformer, the character jumps when the player hits the jump button. In a cinematic platformer – Tomb Raider was a leader in this school – the character jumps at the soonest possible time that his/her run animation will permit, some time vaguely around the time that the player hits the jump button. That means the jumping looks elegant to a third-party observer but feels sluggish to the player. In Uncharted (and Tomb Raider, and games like this) the platforming is usually cheated a bit by a ledge-cling power on behalf of the protagonist, so that while the jump itself is hard to time, the landing is forgiving. This is fine, and works great in lots of games. But it’s not always entirely clear in Uncharted how far I can jump and still cling to a ledge. It’s also not entirely clear how far I can fall before Drake perishes. Some drops of a story or more cause no damage in certain chapters but are instant death in others. It’s all exception-based depending on what’s going on at the time.
The environments are high-fidelity, and look marvelous. In this sense, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune wants to deliberately invite comparisons to Hollywood adventure blockbusters. I personally feel it compares a lot to Final Fantasy VII. Both games were developed early in the lifecycle of their respective consoles. And both games have environments that, while they are pretty, seem to be designed by people who didn’t yet know how to be responsible with the great power of the hardware they were working with. In attempting for the highest possible fidelity, Uncharted often fails to provide obvious affordances.
How am I supposed to feel, exactly, when Drake says “I’m goin’ around in circles in here”? Yes, I agree with you, Drake. The levels, while detailed and lovely, do get to look all the same after a while. It’s easy to get turned around. Your lampshading it just allows us both to share in a frustration that should not have existed.
And, no, Drake, I don’t know where all these guys with guns are coming from.
A lot of hay has been made of the ludonarrative dissonance of the Uncharted series, related, specifically, to all of the murder. Here I will just nod in general agreement. Indiana Jones certainly killed, but never in this volume or with this little excitement or sense of variety. I arrive in a tomb, ostensibly untouched for centuries, because I was the first one to solve the puzzle of how to open its entrance. I am entirely unsurprised to be somehow beaten there by three-dozen nameless, faceless goons. “Shoot to kill!” they all shout, because killing Drake is apparently more important than the fact that you’re ahead of him on his treasure hunt. As it turns out, this ancient, untouched corridor opens up to nowhere in particular anyway. Why’d I bother again?
Also, I can’t figure out why shooting is mapped to the right shoulder bumper. Why isn’t it on the trigger, like in every other console shooter? More to the point, why do I not even have the option of remapping controls I dislike?
As mentioned, Uncharted has a few puzzles. They are the opposite of what they should be. I obviously understand that I have to somehow arrange some sigils I found in a particular order, because I have a document onhand that numbers them. But how do I interact with them exactly? Do I touch – what button – oh, I climb up there? Maybe this is realistic tomb raiding, but it doesn’t engage my brain in an enjoyable way. What would be interesting is instantly knowing how to interact with the puzzle, but having to deduce the answer.
As far as vehicle action goes, there’s a little fun, by the way of a rail-shooter sequence on the back of a Jeep. The other vehicle sequences involve a jet-ski, and they are the opposite of kinetic. One would think that riding a jet-ski up a roaring river, while men above shoot at you with guns, could not be made dull. But it is dull. The best way to approach the water sequences is by treating the game as a cover-shooter still: edging the vehicle slowly up the shoreline, hiding it behind pillars, and carefully waiting for men to pop out their heads to be shot. Any attempt to, say, go fast, or enjoy yourself, is going to result in death by snipers in short order.
Speaking of water sequences, when Drake dives into the water, his shirt gets temporarily wet. Having not played the game prior, I was nevertheless aware of this important detail from the marketing. What I didn’t realize was that, the first time this happens, Drake makes sure to point it out himself. “I’m sure wet!” he says, in a way that highlights the artifice.
The game has some good things, which I will give it its credit for. A horror-type enemy in the last act adds some much-needed combat variety. (Their AI is a little primitive, but I can’t really blame a melee-oriented monster for backing off when I get the high ground.) The cover shooting in itself is fairly responsive once you recognize the fact that the game is mainly a shooter. Uncharted is also a great tech demo for environment design. The tropical grasses and trees are lush and inviting. Colored light scatters playfully off of wet-looking surfaces. Characters’ eyes are glossy and their skintones scatter believably. Production values are definitely high in other areas too: the game has solid voice acting and snappy dialog.
So… maybe it’s a game/movie, like the marketing emphasizes. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve slogged through some unpolished, even downright terrible gameplay in service of a great game story. But Uncharted has … just an okay game story. It’s perfectly serviceable action movie pulp. But it’s a fairly straightforward story that doesn’t say anything new or take much advantage of the videogame medium in its telling. It also feels really tacked-on when the game implies Drake is covering literally uncharted territory, only to meet mobs of prepared thugs when he gets there. I think trying to be a Hollywood movie does the game a disservice in a way. If it were a Hollywood movie, it would be a fairly forgettable one.
One last thing I liked about Uncharted is that it is short. That seems like a sarcastic thing to say, as if I were saying, “at least it was over quickly!” But I actually sincerely mean that. It’s nice to try out a story-focused game with low commitment, something I can finish in a day. Of course, at about 8 to 10 hours (depending on how often you fall (and I fell a lot, so I’m calling it at around 9)), it’s still too long to be a film. There’s little reason to play it again, unless for some reason looking for glittery treasure bits in bushes to get Trophies is an interesting hook to you (it isn’t to me).
I do have the second Uncharted game, because I got them in a bundle. I’m likely to play it. And from what I have played of it so far, I find it all right, and a bit of an improvement on the formula. But, to sum up, I didn’t care much for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Given the plaudits it’s gotten that really surprised me. I guess maybe you had to be there when it was new to feel much enthusiasm.
Developer: Naughty Dog | Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment | Released: Nov 2007
Available on: Playstation 3 | Time Played: around 9 hours
Email the author of this post at aj@tap-repeatedly.com.
I just got a PS3 too (probably the same Uncharted 1&2, inFAMOUS 1&2 bundle you got), and I came away with many of the same thoughts. I was surprised and disappointed in myself that I couldn’t like the game I’d heard so much good about. The endless mobs of enemies really slowed down the action of the story in favor of the action of repetitive 3rd-person shooter gameplay. And the fact that there were always enemy gunmen ahead of you was even worse! The best thing about the game was the voice acting, which should not be the highlight of a video game.
I’ve played through the first two chapters of Uncharted 2 and so far, I like it much better. The animations are more interesting and varied during the interactive sequences (not JUST the cutscenes), and the gameplay includes a stealth section before getting to any gunning (which piques my personal interest).
I’m still going to buy and play Uncharted 3. How could I resist, after seeing Harrison Ford play it in that Japanese commercial?
I owned a PS3 since launch, and when it first came out Uncharted was like a breath of fresh air. The first year or so of PS3 ownership was tough going, and Uncharted was the first game worth owning a PS3 for. It had the same “so this is what the fuss is about” effect as Gears of War on the 360, even though Gears beat the PS3 to the punch in showing people what the next generation was actually about back in 06 and 07.
But it’s definitely aged badly, I think. It was superceded in just about every possible way by Uncharted 2. In some ways it was a product of its time as well, especially technically. Particularly with the controller mapping you mentioned, Uncharted released at a time when people were still confused by the PS3 pad, with its terrible triggers, no rumble and “improvements” like Sixaxis. Ugh. I feel like some of the combat flaws were dictated by the trends at the time as well. Cover shooters kind of exploded around that time, thanks in large part to the aforementioned Gears of War, and I think Uncharted rode on the coat tails of the days trends. My issue with the Uncharted series isn’t that Uncharted 1 had too much cover based murder, it’s that the series has done nothing to evolve since then. If you’re not keen on Uncharted’s combat, I would give Uncharted 3 a wide berth. That game turned up the cheap, sloppy, bland, boring and stupid combat sequences up to 11, in my opinion, with none of the first two games’ charm or intrigue to carry it.
Still, really interesting to hear somebody’s impression of this game in 2012. I remember the euphoria when Naughty Dog revealed the game and when they delivered the first compelling reason to own a PS3, so its really great to compare all that hype from 2007 to impressions today.
Great review, AJ.
I started the series with Uncharted 2, and though I think I have the first laying around here somewhere I never actually played it. I’ll thus be very interested to hear your thoughts on the sequel, which – like Mat – I thought was brilliant. If anything I enjoyed the third even more.
Your comments about the ludonarrative issues are absolutely true. Our own Meho wrote about them quite a while back, as I recall. If you analyze the Uncharted games, it’s one of the most severe problems with the series; not only is the likable Drake a cold-blooded mass murderer, this franchise perhaps more than any other uses “killing bad guys” as a proxy for progress and forward momentum without ever actually placing parameters of meaning around the act of doing so. I’m experiencing something similar in Far Cry 3 right now, though Drake’s likability as a protagonist makes it a lot more noticeable in Uncharted.
Ultimately what really captured me with this series were the fantastic writing and acting, and the environment design. It was a story with moments where I laughed out loud, either at dialogue, lack of dialogue, or some action from the script. You find that so rarely it was a special treat. The environments, particularly in the color-drenched third installment, were so well done (due in part to the use of performance capture for the motion, something that also feeds into your issue with jump timing) that it really changed the way I thought about immersiveness in games. The series had and has its fair share of problems though, and I think, as you point out, age may have caught up with (at least) the first installment. Thanks for the analysis!
…this franchise perhaps more than any other uses “killing bad guys” as a proxy for progress and forward momentum without ever actually placing parameters of meaning around the act of doing so.
Yes, that’s it exactly. Why am I killing so many guys? Why are they SO determined to kill me? The fact that they’re human beings and not, say, aliens or even masked Combine makes this more jarring I suppose.
I’m with you on the dialog and voice acting. The characters are very well-drawn in the non-game moments.
@mat c: Good to know I should probably skip 3, then… we didn’t pick that one up yet. I did give it a try though at E3 in the multiplayer. But I could NOT get used to that ‘right shoulder button to fire’ thing and got creamed.
But I love Uncharted! Oh wait, except for that one part you mentioned. And oh yeah those other ones too. Um, was I saying I loved Uncharted? Not so sure anymore…
Amanda you have mercilessly exposed many of U:DF’s worst parts. For instance, I did not enjoy riding (trolling more like) the jetski for exactly the reasons you mentioned. But I still really liked the game. The pulp fiction and action hit mostly the right notes for me, but then I consider Robert E. Howard one of my favorite authors, so there’s that.
Also, I enjoyed the second game much more for whatever that’s worth.
There’s a possibility I’m being too harsh on Uncharted 3. It has its fans. I’m just not one of them. To me, the game felt rushed, possibly in part to the development of The Last of Us. It felt like Naughty Dog forgetting how to make a compelling Uncharted game, choosing to simply throw together all the bits of the first two games I didn’t like in to a mixing bowl. It felt to me like a “straight to DVD” take on a popular series, and I definitely prefferred Golden Abyss more, which is a strange thing to say about an outsourced handheld version of a series like Uncharted.
It wasn’t for me. Its one of the only games I’ve started in recent years that I haven’t finished. Tom Chick makes a much better case against the game than I can. His 4/10 review sparked outrage at the time and certainly raised eyebrows (including mine, surely ND couldn’t drop the ball that hard after U2! That Tom Chick, grrr!), but retrospectively I thought every one of his complaints was spot on.
I have higher hopes for The Last of Us, though. Uncharted 3 is the only Naughty Dog game I didn’t enjoy so im hoping it was a blip.
Great review, AJ.
I have a love/hate relationship with the Uncharted series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two games, with the second particularly blowing me away. I do tend to be a graphics-whore at times and on a technical level, Naughty Dog may be the best on the console side. I have been constantly blown away by the visuals in this series, especially in 2 & 3. The production values are really top-notch and I find the voice acting and cinematics to be the best in the industry. While the storylines aren’t anything mind blowing, I find the dialogue and banter between characters witty, natural and humorous.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the 3rd game however, and I think it is a result of no longer being as impressed with the “set pieces”, since after countless games (not just in this series, but others), all these amazing things that are happening have been ramped up so much that I have become desensitized to the over-the-top action.
I have also developed a HUGE problem with the platforming, as you mentioned, and not really feeling like my input has much of a result in the outcome. It was exciting at first, since visually it looks nice. But after a while it just started feeling like I was playing a modern version of Dragon’s Lair. You press a direction, a button, and the game does everything for you. It just wasn’t fun. That really became apparent in the 3rd game for me and I just didn’t enjoy it.
The exact same thing happened to me with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I wanted to like the game, but the platforming and design felt incredibly canned and limiting.
In fact, that is something that has recently been bothering me a lot in games, losing control in favor of cinematic quality. It’s become a huge pet peeve of mine.
I played through the game for the first time this year as well. That killing thing is by far my biggest complaint. There’s just SO much of it! If they cut the enemies down to a third, tripled bullet damage, and gave means for nonlethal takedowns, I think the problem might be solved. But it remains kind of an issue throughout the series. They started to address it in the second one by giving Drake a tranquilizer for some of the game, but well before you make it to the third game, Drake’s back with a vengeance: killing everybody and their brother. I was planning on finishing the third game, but more interesting games have kept me from getting back to it for the past four months.
Oh, and Amanda, if you’re still wondering why the aiming and gun-firing is mapped to the L1/R1 instead of the L and R triggers (L2 and R2), it’s because the PS3 triggers suck. I am a big fan of the PS3 over the Xbox, but even I have to admit that the triggers on a PS3 control don’t feel good at all.
Even AAA FPSs like Call of Duty map those controls to the shoulder buttons instead of the triggers on the PS3. It’s just more desirable.
Interesting review AJ, I didn’t play Uncharted until… last year I think, in lieu of the praise Uncharted 2 had been receiving. I thought Uncharted was resoundingly okay. The platforming was competent if a little unclear at times (due to the fidelity of the environments) and too artificially forgiving in that Drake seemed to make jumps and grabs that were perceptively unrealistic. For instance, you fumble a jump but somehow he manages to miraculously make up the space mid-air to grab that ledge just out of reach. From an accessibility point of view it’s sound enough, but it didn’t capture the uneasy gymnastics of the first Tomb Raider for me where you had to be more precise and careful.
The gunplay, weapon switching and particularly the cover system, I thought were tremendous and very fluid. I’d just come from GTA IV though and have very little experience with Gears of War (and of what I played of that I didn’t like the sticky cover system).
The ‘puzzles’ were particularly weak if only because of Drake’s infernal notebook that more often than not spelled out exactly what you have to do. If my memory serves me, Uncharted 2 was just as bad in this regard. Here’s a puzzle, and here’s the solution, now get to it. I didn’t mind working out how to put the solution into practice but I’d have preferred less hand holding. Discovery, experimentation and all that.
The two worst parts in the game for me however, was the jungle jeep massacre which was unbelievably stupid and the final ‘boss’ QTE. I don’t know how many times I had to restart that encounter, trial and error-ing my way to the finish line. Sheesh, that was up there with Beyond Good & Evil’s final boss and Psychonauts’ final stages.
You hit the nail on the head, I think. Uncharted is not a bad game. It is a mediocre game with some lovely but misjudged production values and a patchy understanding of filmic spectacle.
I played through half of it earlier this year and agree with pretty much everything in your review, though I think in places you’re being overly kind! The puzzles are pretty poor and the jetski sequence is an abomination.
I was given Uncharted 2 and 3 by a friend (AJ, in fact, from AR) alongside the first one on the proviso that he never see them again, and that I play about a third of the first game, half of the second and a quarter of the third. By that point he reckoned I would have seen enough of the highs and lows to judge the remainder!
Also, Gregg – apparently Double Fine have ‘fixed’ the Meat Circus! Now if only Ubisoft would do the same for that ridiculous final boss.
Ah, didn’t refresh the page and didn’t notice the new comments.
I really enjoyed Uncharted 2. Like tanis says, the storylines might not be anything to write home about in the Uncharted games, but the dialogue and interplay between characters is consistently brilliant, convincing and often funny. I think in U2 they really nailed the set-pieces as well, whereas in the first game they err a little too much on the side of dull and/or tedious and frustrating.
@tanis: you’re bang on the money with the “losing control in favor of cinematic quality”. That’s what I was alluding to when I said the platforming was too artificially forgiving; it funnels you too much. And I’m glad you mention Enslaved because while I haven’t played the full game, the demo had perhaps the most canned and unsatisfying ‘platforming’ I’ve ever encountered. Case in point, when I was over at my brother’s house with Mat C and another friend, I showed them how I could complete most of the demo by purely holding forwards and jabbing the jump button. I literally held the pad aloft while doing these things, sometimes not looking at the screen! It’s nigh on impossible to fall to your death despite how deadly the whole introduction is supposed to be. It’s incredible how undermining and devaluing that sort of thing is.
@Shaun: Are you following me? 😉
That’s good to hear because it’s a game I wouldn’t mind playing through again at some point but… those final sections… the Meat Circus… gggnnggh.
@Orion – Well, that’s a fair comment about the controller. This is why my main complaint is really “let me remap it.” If I had tried that, and had a bad experience, then I’d know!
@GreggB – Yeah, the individual shooting I didn’t have much of a problem with. I didn’t mention the final boss in the review, but: agreed! What the hell was that? Near as I can figure, you had to run up to him, press …square? without being prompted just to initiate the QTE, then hit the QTE, then immediately and with no forgiveness at all, repeat this process.
I actually thought the jungle jeep was fun but I’m totally with you, Shaun, on the jetski. I undersold how terrible it was. The fact that you have to stop to shoot anyone kills all potential momentum, and if you don’t shoot anyone, you will die.
I am a sucker for really great setpieces that I feel control organically, and while I do agree with everyone’s issues regarding Uncharted’s controls, many of the setpieces here felt very natural to me – I’m thinking particularly (probably because it’s most fresh in my memory) of the chasing-a-taking-off-plane-in-a-jeep scene from Uncharted 3.
Of course, any setpieces fall apart if the controls aren’t organic or self-evident or natural seeming. This too is a problem I’m experiencing with Far Cry 3 right now. I always felt Uncharted seemed pretty comfortable in my hands, though like AJ the R1 to shoot control drove me mad.
What bothered me with the jeep sequence was the sheer volume of people you kill and vehicles you blow up. It’s incredible. Here’s me thinking that you were just up against a rag-tag bunch of bandits or soldiers and the next thing you’re fighting an almost endless stream of dudes hurtling through the jungle after you. The scale just shifted too suddenly for me.
I totally forgot about the jetski sequence, which may speak volumes about what my brain did with that memory.
Steerpike, that entire plane sequence was pretty fantastic in Uncharted 3. Up until that point I wasn’t really enjoying the game. But that sequence, and especially the one right after when you “get off” the plane, were just batshit over-the-top awesomeness!!!
This was a pretty fair review, and it seems most are in agreement about Uncharted’s general overrated-ness. When I played it two years ago I was able to enjoy the experience for what it was because I knew mostly what I was getting into, and thus accordingly put on my DudeSauce BroQuest hat.
The jet-ski sequence though was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had in any game. Why do shitty vehicle sequences still get lumped into otherwise fluid, compelling games? It left a terrible taste in my mouth, so all these comments of disgust have been quite pleasing.
I need to replay the first game, because I do not remember the jet-ski sequence being as horrid as others do. But I am sure it was.
I love Uncharted unapologetically, but I’ve been around the block often enough to know that the things that work for me are things that work for me in a very particular way, not things that work for everyone. I’m rather with Botch on part of that being my strong affection for pulp and my general feeling we don’t get enough of it, least of all done moderately well.
Uncharted 2 > Uncharted > Uncharted 3. 3 is big and ambitious in some ways and has its moments, but it definitely felt like they went the MGS4 route with it.
@Gregg – slightly, yes. 😉 I have a fraction more time on my hands so decided to add another gaming blog back onto my RSS feeds, and decided it should be Tap Repeatedly. 😛
I agree with you, Brandon, that Uncharted strikes a fine balance of delivering that…*something*, a fiction sweet spot that isn’t anywhere close to dumb, but it also forgoes a seriousness, meeting in some middle place that conjures comparisons to a work easily enjoyable but also special, for example: The Last Crusade.
I liked that about Uncharted. What I found myself surprisingly liking the most about the gameplay was actually the cover and shooting mechanics. They felt very loose in a good way. It’s just too bad, as Amanda notes, that the whole mass murder thing seems completely disassociated from the plot and Drake’s personality.
A nice review, but I think you have to consider games in the context of their time, the same way you’d review books or any other work of art. In context, in my opinion, as a relative newcomer to the PS3 (though earlier than Amanda) Uncharted 1/2 were fresh and at times exhilarating. Uncharted 3, in contrast, I found to be really dull.
[…] new due to lack of the proper hardware. I don’t think I will write a full review for it like I did Uncharted, though it’s still possible. I’ll figure that out for sure when I’m in further. […]
[…] On Waking Mars: “What It’s Like to Play Waking Mars” guest post on Culture RampOn Halo 4 (and Cortana, and the game’s story themes): “The Naked Vulnerability of Halo 4″ on Tap-RepeatedlyOn Primordia: a game I liked a lot! Review of PrimordiaAnd today, on Uncharted (and why I didn’t like it so much): Review of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune […]
Late to the discussion, but I only got a PS3 a year ago and just finished this game. I had to force myself to play it, which is why it took me a whole year. I finally decided to accept its flaws, and after that it became fun enough (I also had to accept the inescapable flaw inherent in trying to aim a gun in a 3d person shooter using a game controller instead of a mouse). Just a few things to add; why is it easier to shoot a guy in the head from a hundred yards than to shoot a barrel floating down a river ten feet away from you? How do you survive multiple bullet wounds, hours of strenuous ledge-hopping, vine-swinging and climbing without once stopping for a rest, or eating anything? (in other games, you can at least imagine that your character took a break between levels). Why the hell am I suddenly playing Doom 3? Can Uncharted 4 be just the flooded city expanded into an entire game, with no enemies to distract you from the scenery? Aside from that, I agree with everything in the review. One reason I’ve mostly stopped playing games is that they have been dumbed down, and not in a fun way. They give you a false sense of accomplishment for pressing a particular button when told to do so, or collecting random items. Nathan Drake does some pretty cool hand-to-hand combat moves, but all I’m really doing is pressing the same button over and over (I know there are special combos, but I have no idea if I pulled them off or not).
The second game seems a lot better so far.
Welcome to Tap, Mark!
Your issues with Uncharted are right on the money and it’s hard to disagree with them. I certainly enjoyed the second and third more, but there is certainly a need to suspend all disbelief and approach Uncharted as a zany romp rather than anything particularly lifelike. You might enjoy The Last of Us, which is a darker story, slower-paced, with less platforming and plenty of gorgeous scenery.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a game that offers a palpable sense of accomplishment and addresses your (valid) complaint that games have been dumbed down, look no further than Dark Souls. Deadly Premonition might also be worth your time – it plays like a survival horror game, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Deadly Premonition plays like a bad survival horror game, you mean. It is more than that, but it should be clear that the gameplay is pretty terrible.
I do wonder, now, further out, why Uncharted seems to be the game people latch onto during conversations about how little sense shooter mechanics ultimately make. It commits many of these sins but hardly invented them, and it generally doesn’t purport to be “realistic” as some shooters (say, Call of Duty) do.
Dark Souls is great though.
My guess is that many people latch onto Uncharted and are critical of its flaws because it’s arguably the PS3 game/franchise, and Nathan Drake its poster boy. As with many things, I think products that become known for excellence are held to a higher standard. This seems to be why Uncharted 3 is not as fondly viewed as 2 among internet denizens.
I just finished Uncharted 3 a couple weeks ago and it didn’t really change the formula from the last game which could be good or bad. I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed 2; the pacing was maybe slightly more jumbled but there were also fewer parts I disliked. I don’t think 3 had a “jet ski” moment. What I’ve taken away from Naughty Dog’s last three games is that I now firmly expect to dislike their climaxes. *SPOILER WARNING*
I hated the lost city in 2 (Shambala, I think?) and the super mutant freaks within. Totally killed the momentum the game had built up for me. Likewise, I hated the lost city/insanity water at the end of Uncharted 3. And to keep the trend going, the gameplay part of the hospital in The Last of Us is one of a handful of sections that I like least about that game. I know I’m not alone on the TLoU bit, though I don’t really know if the Uncharted 2 and 3 endings are generally disliked (I just mean the insane difficulty spikes, not the riding-into-the-sunset actual endings, or the supernatural stuff which I accept because hey, Indiana Jones had that stuff). As for the ending of Uncharted 1, I actually don’t remember it. I don’t remember most of that game. I guess because Uncharted 2 seemed like exactly the same game to me, but better (minus Shambala). If you told me that Drake’s Fortune ended with a dance competition I’d believe you.
Anyway, I’m very interested to see if Uncharted 4 will be TLoU-ified (i.e. better than the other Uncharted games) or if they’ll just do what’s always worked for them. I’m sure it will be successful no matter what, but after three Uncharted games that are generally identical I feel like they need to be different with 4. I’d be happy simply with more adventure/puzzle-solving and less combat. And fun surprises, like the surprise early on in 3.
Drake’s Fortune ended with a QTE on a boat. So, close to a dance competition?
I’m pretty sure I’d play Drake Drake Revolution.
I kind of agree with you about ND’s climactic moments. Their set pieces in-between tend to be better. Part of this is that arguably the biggest hole in their design skills (relative to the kind of games they make) is boss design; the Jak series also had just so-so bosses, and that’s always been a problem for Uncharted, and is probably part of the reason why The Last of Us didn’t have much that looked like a traditional boss encounter.
Personally? I liked Shambala fine, save for the boss fight, I suppose, but the repetition of the “mutant natives” trope (used also in Drake’s Fortune) bothered me a little – not because it was there, but because it didn’t match my headcanon. See, early on, you get hints that the Cintamani Stone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that it seems to have driven the crew of Marco Polo’s lost fleet insane or something, my first thought was: oh, they’re going to pick up the thread of Drake’s Fortune and the drives-people-insane virus hidden within El Dorado! And then they didn’t, but they STILL had crazy mutant natives and such…all the same trademarks.
Heh, I was about to say “Yeah, the ending to Drake’s Fortune is up there with Psychonauts and Beyond Good & Evil for Worst Gameplay Endings Ever.” But it seems I already said it a year or two ago. Hurrah for consistency!