Reviewing Almost Every Uncharted Game

foreign it's kind of easy to break down naughty dog's portfolio by each Sony console I mean if the PlayStation one it was obviously Crash Bandicoot for the PlayStation 2 it was the Jack and Daxter series and then for the Playstation 3 it was Uncharted in The Last of Us and while the opinions at The Last of Us vary between love and complete hate I think it'd be hard for us to find people who don't appreciate the Uncharted games and Nolan Norse f is bringing Nathan Drake to life aren't you forgetting about somebody that will hands down some of those compelling arguments in whether or not you should buy the PlayStation 3 over the Xbox 360 and the fourth game was one of the comparatively few exclusives for the PlayStation 4 as well I think the best thing about a lull in game releases is that I've got the time to go back and play through things I wish I had more time to play through and that was the case for me when I finally got my own PS5 and realized it came with a copy of the Nathan Drake collection yes son all three original games remastered for the PlayStation 4 and what a great way to experience a brand new console than by playing something that's seven years old this looks promising now the first camera was released back in 2007 as a bit of a departure from the kind of games that Naughty Dog worked on in the past going away from cartoonish visuals fantasy and a science fiction setting and putting you on a tropical island in the shoes of treasure hunter Nathan Drake fighting back against murderous Pirates and trying to recover ancient treasure with the AWS longtime buddy Victor Sullivan and a pocket rocket journalist named Elena Fisher who despite being really sassy and Savvy wasn't smart enough to invest in a basic camera strap there's definitely a lot of influence taken from the Tomb Raider series and the Indiana Jones movies obviously the whole treasure hunting aspect exploring Dusty old tombs and avoiding booby traps and later on there's even references to Nazis you gotta be kidding but Nate is less about fortune and glory and more about finances and gold instead of thinking that something belongs in a museum he's more likely to say it belongs in his bank account but that's fine right I mean even treasure Hunters got to eat well what are we waiting for I'll get the story and you get whatever it is you're after it's actually a big part of what makes him so likable is that combination of him really just being involved in all of this for a little more than a paycheck but then he's willingness to do the right thing Above All Else showing direct concerns for his friends and also doing the whole thing with a sarcastic sense of humor what the hell was that an anti-aircraft fire cool this is the game that really put Nola North on the map and even to this day the cinematics and the dialogue which are all completely motion captured are still great fun to watch really pioneered that style of having your protagonist talking and bantering almost constantly only this time it's really earned due to those cinematic influences that Naughty Dog are pulling from favorite or all this all the same night and he's supposed former buddy Eddie Raja the leader of all these Pirates and you can genuinely tell that there was something resembling a friendship between these two guys at one point you actually want to watch these cinematics and you care about what happens to the characters Jake if we don't make it out of here I just want you to know I hate your guts it helped you that this game looked absolutely stunning for the time something which would just keep getting better and better with every new installment every Naughty Dog game's always been at the Forefront of the pack when it comes to presentation regardless of the platform it's been on and that's true even as far back as the old Crash Bandicoot games and then even as recent as their work on the last of us too Drake's Fortune is no exception and yeah I realize I'm saying that while I show off footage of this remastered version on the PlayStation 4 but I mean even footage captured on the actual PS3 still looks impressive what really set the game apart though was the set pieces and these scripted sequences and although games like Metal Gear Solid had done a great job at combining gameplay with Blockbuster movie production values Uncharted also added its own interpretation into the mix gameplay-wise the whole thing's broken down into three main modes solving puzzles platforming and then the combat puzzles are usually pretty simple and the solutions are more or less just outright given to you and overall this forms may be the shortest component of the game yeah keep that thought in mind for later on pretty deep because this was around the same time that Assassin's Creed came out and parkour was in every single third person game from this point on Uncharted also has lots of ledge grabbing and Cliff climbing showing off Nate's inhuman upper body strength but compared to like the Tomb Raider Series where you almost had to have perfect timing when making jumps the platforming in Uncharted is more or less just kind of launching yourself in the direction of a ledger an object and then Nate doing the rest of the work this is a good thing though because it means you could focus more on the spectacle of climbing these vast incredibly dangerous structures and enjoy the hair raising [ __ ] puckering side effect that came from that but without feeling frustrated if you failed these sections over and over raise your head or look down now that's not to say the platforming was easy and there's still sections here and there where it's not really communicated where you're supposed to be going but it's definitely a much more simplified approach to climbing things and was often interjected into the chapters for variety as much as it was just basic progression at the end of the day though solving centuries old puzzles and climbing Cliffs is only going to get you so far and you know sometimes you've just gotta shoot a [ __ ] thank you Gears of War had come out like a year prior to this and this was really the beginning of the cover shooting era games where you'd walk into an empty area that just happened to be full of chest High objects and then like clockwork enemies would pour in from somewhere near blyden to start attacking the player the same thing applies here and yeah it's a basic and repetitive Loop but there's still something kind of fun about it mostly I think because you really do feel like a bit of an action hero taking down these waves of pirates with pistols AK-47s a grenade launcher and a goddamn sniper rifle and for enemies hiding behind Carver or packed together like sardines you could throw out a grenade and even the odds it's also a setup that they used for every game in the series with the same weapon archetypes returning in one form or another you're still doing this to the point that if you played one Uncharted game you can more or less play the rest of them without any worries even the main theme composed by Greg Edmondson was kept intact with it just getting more and more epic with each new entry [Music] thank you that was beautiful the only difference is that after the first game they got rid of the awful six axis controls for lobb and grenades a design choice that was about as stupid as velcro condoms [Music] all of the weapons in Drake's Fortune felt balanced and useful it was never like one gun got replaced by another one I feel like there's a bit of a tendency in certain games mostly first person shooters where once you find bigger and better weapons those earlier guns often fall to the Wayside a good example of that is the pistol in Doom I mean that thing is made redundant as soon as you find your first shotgun and even more so once you get the chain gun but the pistols in Uncharted are still useful even right up until the end of the game it's kind of more about letting the player dictate their own personal play style so if you want to be more aggressive and really put some pressure on the AI then the shotgun's gonna let you do that but then if you wanted to hang back and rely more on shooting from Carver well then the pistols the AK and the sniper rifle are going to help you out in that regard also think too that these are some of Gaming's most underrated shotguns I feel like so many games these days bugger up how shotgun should work you know making them useless at anything other than Point Blank Range or not having to damage output high enough but the one here in Drake's Fortune man this thing's up there with the best of them let's see that in an instant replay that was beautiful weapons like The Wiz 44 and the Desert Eagle I'm sorry the desert five offer up high damage low ammo capacity options for players who have maybe better aim to really help them turn the tide of a fight and the grenade launcher helps you wipe out small clusters of pirates in one world placed shot so it's like you always know exactly what your limits and capabilities are with every single gun as soon as you pick them up is it perfect well no but it's really just a simple and a satisfying combat Loop and this is before the era of games where input delay became a deliberate design choice so you can easily zip around these Arenas and close the gap on your enemies without feeling like you're running around in slow motion the main issue with the combat I think is that taking cover and Dodge rolling is bound to the same button so you know what happens yeah when you're trying to roll away from gunfire you take cover instead and vice versa it's also a really [ __ ] hard game at times now the Uncharted games I think are best enjoyed on normal difficulty where it's got a good balance between being challenging and enjoyable but even still man this first game has some legendarily hard moments like the infamous water room which funnily enough was also the name given to one of re4's most challenging sections near the end of the story it's almost like it starts to turn into a horror game oh [ __ ] [Music] and you're inside these underground bunkers being attacked by people mutated by an ancient curse and these are more or less just zombies now these sections do get a lot of hate for how challenging they are and yeah they do kind of suck but credit where credit is due not once did they pull off some cheap [ __ ] like spawning in these guys in from behind you for a cheap kill the age of regenerating health and Uncharted had a pretty cool take on that one too I remember Naughty Dog describing it as Nate's luck slowly running out so whenever he's under Fire from enemies it's like death is literally closing in around him with the color slowly being sacked from the image until finally his luck runs out and he gets hit by that killing shot makes a lot of sense considering the movie influences and it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense than seeing the guy tank a bazillion bullets before buying the farm there's a really cool chapter where Nate and Elena are heading up River on a jet ski with Elena being the only means of Defense armed with a grenade launcher and infinite ammo and it's pretty easy at first but then they bring back this idea later on only this time she's only got a pistol and along with navigating the river you've got to fight back not only against Pirates but also the current pushing you back Downstream not to mention all these floating explosive barrels it's a cool example of the way the game slowly ramps up the challenge and it Harkens back to games like Crash Bandicoot we'd replay the same looking levels over and over with just new obstacles to overcome I mean even these scripted sequences when you're running towards the camera up they seem kind of familiar don't they the only downside to the whole experience I think is the final boss for starters you can't even directly damage this guy and instead you just need to mow down this final platoona bodyguards before the final confrontation which is basically just a quick time offense it all ends with Nate more or less getting the girl then selling off into the sunset with his buddy Sullivan in a giant polar treasure so a more fitting ending I cannot think of get us a boat uh we already have a boat yeah big boat I like this one better playing it now in 2023 you can definitely see some cracks here and there mostly in some of those difficulty spikes and yes some of the platforming Drake but I think over role it's still a really entertaining experience going somewhere hey Eddie it's usually one of the best PlayStation 3 games of all time combining action adventure comedy thank you hey horror and yeah even a bit of romance you two got a funny idea of romantic but it was bested in almost every single regard when the sequel Uncharted 2 among Thieves came out two years later in 2009 which is not only arguably one of the best video games of all time but really just one of the best sequels of all time too improving every aspect across the board visually it's a noticeable Step Up animations are smoother and less clunky I mean Uncharted 1 had 80 cinematic animations Uncharted 2 has over 500. the set pieces and environments are much larger and more detailed and the quality of life inclusions to the combat are a welcome addition like being able to precise aim with certain weapons now is a huge bonus removing the six axis controls for throwing grenades means you can actually throw these things now without looking like a one-armed man with dyslexia the melee combats also had the inclusion of a Dodge and a counter attack making it fireless button mashing while they haven't really added in any weapons what they've just done is kind of refine the list so you've still got pistols revolver and Desert Eagle the AK the M4 along with a couple of shotguns grenade launcher and the sniper rifle new weapons include a foul which has a much needed scope and a burst firing mode then there's a semi-automatic pistol and an RPG you can also pick up propane tanks and throw them into groups of enemies for an easy kill it's also just a really interesting story with Nate and returning buddies Elena and Sully trying to find something called The chintamani Stone you couldn't find your own ass with both hands and a map a mythical artifact which gives out immense power and is even said to have been used by conquerors like Genghis Khan Bill Gates and John McAfee they were all great men the main villain is a war criminal named lazarovich and this dude's got a personal Army doing his bidding who are really just the same as the parts from the first game but in a different get up new character Chloe Frazier is added to the roster as well and if Elena is the Girl Next Door well then Chloe is that bad [ __ ] from down the street yeah hello and she pretty much had me as soon as she opened her mouth and I heard that Richie did Australian accent I'm sorry do you have a plan to go along with that grenade yes I do the Story begins with night regaining Consciousness seriously wounded on a train Carriage that's dangling over the edge of a cliff that's my blood that's my blood that's a lot of my blood and the game gets you both back up to speed with how the controls work at the same time as wowing you with this immense task of trying to get to Solid Ground before you plummet your death inside this giant steel coffin after that it does get boring for a while with a sequence a lot of people I think will agree probably goes on too long for its own good when Nate and his buddy Flynn sneak into a Turkish Museum and have to stealth past a bunch of Clueless security guards this ends with Nate being double crossed by Flynn proving that all characters with British accents can't be trusted any Schoolboy could have figured that out leaving him locked up in a cell with not that much more than a bucket to pissing dear God oh no it's not that bad look I have my own bucket but after this is when the game starts to pick up pace and from that point it never really stops and we'll pay back's a [ __ ] there's a short Excursion in Borneo where it really just seems like naughty dog wanted to have another rainforest level just to show how much better they can make this look since the first game then after that you're in Nepal and Tibet for the rest of the story yeah I'm still here and once you get to Nepal man is where [ __ ] really kicks off and some of the sequences here are the best in the entire series effortlessly combining platforming and combat so you never feel like you're caught in a low between the two right from the get-go you're being chased by now I'm a truck and then thrust into gunfights with enemy soldiers [ __ ] later on you're being pursued by our goddamn Hindi behind having to LEAP across Ruth tops and using whatever you can find for cover and at one point an entire building gets leveled as these guys are trying to take Nate and Chloe out of the picture always enjoyed about the Uncharted games too is Nate's humanity and the fact that he always does the right thing despite his own interests or well-being and one of the best examples of that is a sequence where he's carrying this wounded Guy back To safety barely managing to escape all these pursuing soldiers stuff like this is why he's such a likable character and also well I can look past the fact that outside of this he's basically a one-man Army killing dozens and dozens of bad guys without a second thought the puzzles are often these football stadium-sized environments you need to physically navigate activating switches and pieces of Machinery with your body weight to solve these complex conundrums I mean you're quite literally risking life and limb here to complete these giant sized room Goldberg machines all right hey come on admit it you're impressed and if you're scared of heights while some of these areas are going to leave you in a cold sweat oh I'm exhausted just looking at you come on girly girl there you go statue of your mom Uncharted 2's best chapters though without a doubt are the two entirely set on a moving train and it's a scientific fact that train levels in video games are by far the best kind of levels I mean look at GoldenEye blood Time Crisis 2 and metal on a front line to name but a few now the story here is that Nate has to catch up to Chloe and Flynn and this train is the only way he can do it which involves him beginning at the back carriage and having to make his way to the front simple right but what's most impressive about this one is the technology behind it now when most other train levels you'd often just get the same scrolling background the entire time but the one in Uncharted 2 somehow constantly changes so you feel like you're moving through a real environment and not one that's just being copy pasted over and over it also does a really good job of slowly ramping up the challenge adding in more enemies and even hazards on the side of the train like Telegraph poles and signs you need to avoid and to me again it really feels like naughty dog making a throwback to the Crash Bandicoot games heads up good night boys you know what I mean like moving ahead in a single Direction jumping across gaps whilst avoiding enemies and other hazards it's the same formula they used back in their early days when they'd repeat the same thing multiple times over the same themed levels only here they've done it in one segment at first that's pretty easy and you get the bonus of being able to choose how and when to initiate combat with stealth kills off and thinning out the pack beforehand but then at one point you start getting attacked by a chopper and can do little more than just try to not get turned into swiss cheese it's also like they knew when people would find getting shot at by this thing to become annoying because just when it starts to really grind your Wang you get some much needed Refuge inside a tunnel foreign this whole section is the boss fight which is utterly dog [ __ ] against a guy who can soak up dozens of bullets and this is the first of many examples of naughty dog not knowing how to make the combat more challenging outside of just giving enemies more Health points then after the train crashes you're forced to replay through that prologue sequence again because I guess someone at naughty dog was really proud of that and thought that it merited a second playthrough it didn't by the way after you found Solid ground there's a really cool shootout in a snowstorm which is not only really atmospheric but it also gives you some neat tactical options with the blizzard limiting enemy visibility and then in one of the few moments of realism in the entire game Nate passes out and succumbs to his wounds in a sequence which feels like a throwback to The Empire Strikes Back before waking up in a Tibetan Village the small glimpse into how peaceful and wholesome this Village is obviously done to make you more encouraged to defend it like an hour or so later when it's under attack it also highlights again just how spot-on the pacing is with ensuing chapter named mountaineering is that so yes this really just feels like a way to help the player get over that recent combat fatigue as this entire chapter is focused on storytelling and platforming including even more impressive and elaborate puzzles to solve with moving parts and components that could crush Nate into a fine paste [Applause] after this there's a really cool Siege at that Tibetan village where you have to defend these poor Villages from lazarovich's private Army even going up against a goddamn tank then another one of the game's most impressive set piece is a good old-fashioned Convoy Chase where you've got to make these daring leaps from vehicle to vehicle I mean this Chase was so good that they tried to reuse it twice more once in Uncharted 3 and then again in Uncharted 4. but the original as they say is always the best and playing through this again now is still as thrilling as it was 14 years ago wait a minute 14 years ago [ __ ] I'm getting old now I think Uncharted 2 is at its best when it's trying to be an action movie and not as good when it's trying to be a video game and what I mean by that is the best moments when you're living out the power fantasy as this charming treasure hunter going after the score of a lifetime and scraping behind all these intense gunfights sadly though this is not what the last few chapters of the story feel like and from this point on you're really playing a video game because this is when you really start getting used to seeing enemies walking around in body armor along with a tougher variance who also carry mini guns and can tank multiple shots from the RPG and the grenade launcher and you really have to start approaching the combat differently at this point almost forgoing the movement aspect of these combat Arenas and just planting yourself in a safe spot and shooting at all these guys from cover it gets even worse when you're up against the Guardians these big blue bastards infused with the power of the chintamani stone who soak up an insane amount of damage yeah you know how I said before how naughty dog don't know how to make enemies challenging outside of just giving them all Health points yeah well this is a classic example of that and it's just not very fun having to shoot these guys a hundred times before they finally die and as a result of that these fights just seem to drag on and on I'm not ashamed to admit that I've beaten all of these games on the crushing difficulty which is definitely true to its namesake and some of the final encounters towards the end of the campaign here I still have PTSD over why won't you die there's some areas where there's so many enemies to deal with that they give you these infinitely spawning weapon pickups to prevent you from running out of ammo Daniel ends with a boss fight against lazarovich after he gains the power of the chintamani stone but something which apparently cures him of all these burnt scars but sadly can't cure his receding hairline what the hell and at least compared to the first game this is like an actual boss fight and not a quick time event but even then like you can't even fight this guy head-on you need to run around and shoot these giant chunks of resin to even damage him 12 times in total no along with avoiding a mini super shotgun which seems to have infinite range and again crushing difficulty PTSD it's brutal it's challenging and it's punishing but you know what I guess in some aspect that's kind of what you want from your final boss fight right so these minor Miss steps aside Uncharted 2 is still an amazing game I'm sure you're gonna tell us and its praise is definitely well learned in fact I'd almost say you could get away with playing this thing by itself and still be able to follow what's going on speaking of not being able to follow what's going on next we come to Uncharted 3 the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade of the series which actually had the worst comparison to make because like the Last Crusade not only has it set in the desert but it also brings back Sully who was barely around for the second game which kind of feels like seeing Salah again after his absence in the template Doom yeah Temple of Doom also known as the best Indiana Jones movie there's a similar sequence where you've got to explore the Crypt of a night ending with someone opening a coffin and making a rubbing on a piece of paper there's even a whole Convoy Chase in the desert towards the end with trucks and horses being the main modes of transportation Sullivan they even both get rescued by a friendly Ally horseback the main problem with Uncharted 3 though is that its story is just all over the place in borderline nonsensical at times I don't understand with gaping holes so gaped that the last time I saw something similar was when your mum had her ankles tucked behind relobes seriously don't flatter yourself this story is more about Nate's personal history and this is directly intertwined with the new antagonist Catherine Marlow who's as close to Helen mirror and his naughty dog could get without hiring Helen Mirren we've been duped Catherine's part of a secret organization comprised of as far as I can tell just gun toting Thugs who wear black suits and she's trying to find something called the Iran of the pillars which is a lost city hidden out in the desert she's also a former member of the Sullivan dick riding organization having bumped Douglas with the guy back on who is doing his best Magnum PI impersonation and she also knows Nate from back when he was just a street rat straight rat riffraff I don't buy that Nate's team up again with Sully and Chloe and even new character cutter voiced by the same guy who voiceless arovich oh it looks like I missed out on some fun yeah you did actually it was very very uh cathartic yeah it's funny and eventually even Elena turns up again too looking like she's had a bit of Botox work I know what you mean shooting Marlo's Armani suit wearing moocs does make a nice change to shooting mercenary soldiers over and over but at the end of the day there's only so many times you can shoot The Hired Guns of some rich power hungry psychopath before it all just starts to seem a bit repetitive Drake's Deception at least opens with a pretty fun sequence set inside a bar where it seems that being bald is a condition of entry and ends with a fist fight against a guy that's twice Nate's size which also shows that someone really liked that airstrip fight in Raiders of the Lost Ark [Music] so much so that they repeat this fight over and over and over but they really didn't learn their lesson from people complaining about how slow that opening was in the second game and it seems this time they decided to outdo themselves because now there's like a whole chapter dedicated to Nate's childhood and how he met Sully which is kind of nice I guess but it just doesn't really add anything new to the overall story and it just makes the current day plot even harder to follow story often gets to the point of ridiculousness like at one point seeing Carter jump off a super tall building in a cinematic which somehow then only ends with him injuring his leg the constant repetition of everyone asking Nate if this adventure is really worth it is just kinda weird as well they all keep saying that Marlo's really not playing around despite the fact that Nate literally went up against the goddamn war criminal in the previous game who happened to have an entire Army at his disposal but for some reason taking on Milo is just supposed to be too much or something isn't worth it mate let this one go you'll also have to really work your suspension of disbelief muscles and Nate doesn't just have a guardian angel looking after him this time he's got an entire chorus during one sequence you miraculously escape a cruise ship before the whole thing gets scuttled followed by Falling overboard into the ocean and somehow making it back to land without any kind of floating device somehow washing up right in the very City where you need to be a convenient then just after that being the only Survivor of a plane crash that lands in the middle of the desert then somehow surviving for days exposed to the sun without any shade or water only to then somehow come across an abandoned Village in the middle of nowhere where the main enemy faction just happens to be stationed [ __ ] it's strike oh yeah and then getting into gunfights with these guys and somehow having the energy and the gumption to fight back and I mean yeah I get it Nate's an action hero and all that kind of stuff but even Indiana Jones had to take a nap every now and then please I don't need a nurse I just want he's such a baby that man climbed a mountain in a snowstorm and even that guy could barely stand on his feet so what you're telling me is that Nate has more stamina than Indiana Jones and Batman and look I just don't buy that it's little things like this that make the whole thing feel like an unpolished story naughty dog have even said they came up with the set pieces first and then wrote the storyline around them which is probably why the whole thing feels so disjointed and the reason for getting from place to place are so contrived I mean there's a good two to three hour chunk of the game where you more or less go off on a side quest to try to rescue Sully from a group of pirates and this involves navigating through a graveyard of ships before then stolen away on a cruise ship that the Pirates have converted into their Hideout and yeah look it's a really cool idea in concept the first area has a neat mechanic where you can swim underwater to break line of sight and the section after that is in really choppy Waters and the way the environment undulates with the tide is genuinely impressive even the stuff on the cruise ship is amazing from a technical standpoint but the whole thing violently rocking back and forth but then you find out Sully's not even there to begin with and this pirate faction is never seen or heard from again for the rest of the game so it just feels like a wild goose chase which it is which it is doesn't help either that it's also the hardest section in the entire game I know a lot of people say that the Gin enemies was the Ender tougher but I counter that argument with exhibit B in the form of all those revolver and grenade launches they left lying around in the same area now don't get me wrong the set pieces here are still amazing to look at and the visuals are somehow even more of a step up from the second game Naughty Dog proved yet again that they're the masters of using natural light and some of these areas set inside these abandoned ruins just look awesome now the NATO on this Castle Lord Godfrey returned from the Crusades in the 12th century that iconic wide shot of Nate walking across the desert is just incredible and the Very Lawrence of Arabia inspired music they play over the top of it is a definite vibe foreign [Applause] that was beautiful it's just a shame that they're also interchangeable and I reckon you could put these in any random order and they'd still feel out of place as for the gameplay Uncharted 3 is more the same just with things slightly modified it's got an ear identical weapon lineup to among Thieves with automatic rifles shotguns and pistols along with those harder hidden guns like the grenade launcher and the RPG foreign they've just kind of been changed around visually like instead of the uzi you've now got a Mach 10. the akm is like a stockless alternative to the AK and the foul is replaced with gal and there's an lmg which I think shows up twice in the entire game probably the best new edition though is being able to throw back enemy grenades which is a simple but really useful new mechanic I believe that's what's referred to as giving someone a taste of their own medicine also known as how you like them apples applesauce [ __ ] I also really like some of those new combat takedowns being able to soften up enemies with gunfire and then finish them off with a powerful melee attack and yeah I know these are in the pry games but something about them this time just feels way more satisfying [ __ ] you the combat areas definitely feel less Polished in this one than the previous games though and I still think out of all these original Three that this is the weakest one I mean some of the chapters just have these insane difficulty spikes and I think if you go from cruising through a level to suddenly dying over and over in the same spot like 10 times well then that's telling me that something's not been designed properly that area in the ship graveyard for instance against all those pirates I mean I think I honestly got stuck there for a good hour the first time I played it and trying to get past that thing on crushing difficulty is the kind of thing that really builds character the worst area is late game in a sandstorm and despite the fact that you can barely see your own dick enemies up in the distance are somehow able to pinpoint you at all times the upsiders that some of these areas can be stealth entirely if you really want to but it doesn't change the fact that some of the others are just kind of lame and poorly designed it often feels like you more or less just need to know where enemies are gonna Spawn from ahead of time and after you've eaten your 50th grenade or an RPG from someone who's hitting you off screen yeah well you'll understand why I'm saying that where it really suffers is when it ruins some of the scripted set pieces some of the more memorable sequences like the plane crash should be these one and done experiences short and exciting sequences where you can appreciate all the hard work that's gone into pulling it all off but when you get killed by someone out of the blue it just kind of takes all the fun out of it as for the final boss well they've again made that return to a combination button mashing and a quick Time Event proving once again that naughty dog can't design a good boss fight for this franchise if they're goddamn lives depended on it give me some respect and I think the main reason as to why this game isn't as good as the others is that by this point Naughty Dog were also hard at work on the Last of Us and the team was literally split in half and it's probably safe to say that the people working on this with a B team I still remember when this thing first launched just how bad the controls were to the point that Naughty Dog even hired people off the internet to come to their office and help them patch out the controls and it's reasons like this way Uncharted 3 feels less honed than the others not a bad game but just not as refined as among Thieves which still retains to the crown for the best in the series hey check it out Marco really fun no Marco however this all pales in comparison to Uncharted 4 a thief's end and one of the greatest Mysteries of the modern age is why this thing is rated as highly as it is really released for the PlayStation 4 in 2016. it tells a story that never needed to be told in the first place bringing back these characters who more or less got their happy ending in the third game this time Nate's thrown back into The Fray with his brother Sam who up until this point hadn't even been mentioned a single time in three games and is the very definition of plot convenience I'm a goddamn and because this thing came out in 2016 of course he's voiced by Troy Baker try to keep the Ducks clean series creative director Amy Hennig has also been removed from the team replaced with The Last of Us director Neil druckman who's brought along his penchant for long-winded and often boring dialogue how'd you find out about it Neil's a guy who just very clearly wants to make movies only he's ended up successful in the wrong field and does the best he can with the medium he's got and that's what this feels like at times man it feels more like a movie than a game where you barely have to do a little more than just press the thumb stick down and occasionally the jump button they've really managed to outdo themselves this time as far as boring prologues go and it's even more polarizing playing through this after marathoning the first three games the whole thing opens with an exciting sequence set in the present time in a boat chase which completely misrepresents the game because after this we're going back in time to when Nate was a kid because yeah I guess we totally needed another flashback and at this time I guess it's different as they're going to explore the relationship between Nate and Sam you're bailing on me come on don't be so dramatic after that it cuts to a point 15 years before the present time when Nate is in prison with Sam and a benefit Factor named Rife trying to track down clues about a pirate named Henry Avery and his long-lost treasure hidden away on some Island in a supposed pirate Utopia this sequence shows off the melee combat which is amazingly a step backwards from the third game because for some reason they decided to remove the Dodge move yeah good one then after some completely threat-free platforming there's another completely threat-free jailbreak which is more or less unfailable after this it then transitions to just before the present day showing Nate in his new life as a garbage collector I'm sorry Salvage collector who goes diving to collect lost supplies from wrecked ships okay trailers secure ready to go before then giving us a glimpse into his home life with wife Elena and despite being married to a hot piece of ass like Elena he still Longs for adventure only he's stuck listening to how his wife's day went and eating dinner in front of the TV how was your day today did you have a good day today or a bad day today well what kind of day was it how about you how was your day in one point see the guy doing [ __ ] paperwork for Christ's sake I mean they had about a sequence where he was taking a [ __ ] and reading the paper wouldn't have surprised me and about the most exciting bit here is when Nate players around in his attic with a toy gun along with playing through a crappy Port of Crash Bandicoot with Elena oh yeah way to go there not bad not bad sand then shows up around the 90 minute Mark detailing how he escaped from prison in a chapter which actually lets you shoot things only it's also unsatisfying because you're not even getting to play as Nate and as we learn later on spoiler Sam's story is complete [ __ ] at one point in this scene someone hands Sam a gun and asks him if he still knows how to use it you remember how to use it and at this point I feel like that was a direct question to the player ironically asking them if they still remembered what the [ __ ] controls were so keep in mind by this point we're roughly around the two hour mark and we still haven't fight a single weapon as Nate our leading man all right Nate and Sam then go to France to try to steal an important artifact or something from an auction which at least does introduce returning Champion Sully it's been a while but this is yet again more walking around more talking and more platforming combined with a scene where we see Nate get his ass beat by dodaragonist Nadine I'm not in the mood for games who's really just got the unfortunate situation of unknowingly working for the bad guy who happens to be Rafe have you heard enough yeah Nadine is so badass she kicks his ass twice before finally around two and a half hours into an Uncharted game we finally get to start shooting things as we make our harrowing escape with sand but then just when you're getting into the swing of things no pun intended it all comes to an end and you're back to running around climbing Cliffs and listening to people talk this time summer in the middle of Scotland what a [ __ ] and this right here forms the loop for the entire game you run around with sand for 20 or 30 minutes swinging around on a rope and clambering over Ledges followed by solving some completely boring and uninteresting puzzle Ethan look I think you got it then you get like a four or five minute action sequence that bookends the chapter then you get to the next chapter and the process repeats itself I mean that's pretty much the entire game in the other games in the series it was like a ratio of maybe 70 30 with the combat to the puzzles platforming and the story stuff here though I'd say it's like the other way around in fact even more and it's like they really know when you're starving for something exciting to happen because it's always just around the point where you're starting to call it quits where you finally get to play through a really exciting set piece but it's also bittersweet because you know it's going to be followed by another half hour of bugger all happening and it just leaves you feeling so unsatisfied it's like a way to bring it over a nice piece of steak but then after you've had like two bites they take the plate away you think that once Nate and Sam reached this part on they've been searching for that things might get more exciting but no you wash up on the shore after that boat chase and yeah guess what you spend another 20 minutes climbing up cliffs in the rain they even found a way to work in another flashback near the end of the story which is like when you watch a Netflix show and they've got like an entire episode dedicated to a character's backstory in their previous games platforming puzzles and cinematics felt like a welcome distraction and a bit of a solution to the fatigue you get from pressing that R2 button so much here though you need the combat to just wake you out of a stupor stupa yeah I guess the puzzles are complex and impressive they're well designed and interesting but there's just not enough combat in between to keep me compelled to get through them there we go even the Rope which is one of the new mechanics is really only used for platforming it's really been designed around being able to be used during combat at one point you're driving around Madagascar having to hop out of a Jeep every five minutes use a winch to get up these steep muddy Hills and look getting your car out of bogged mud is about as fun in a video game as it is in real life that is to say not fun at all you know what the funniest thing is is that there's a song on the soundtrack that plays during one of the gunfights that's called cut to the Chase and that's really what this entire campaign should have done cut to the [ __ ] chase I know I don't even think some of these set pieces are all that impressive either the one you'll always hear people Rave about is that truck Chase which is more or less just a rehash of the same Chase you've played twice by this point even having to shoot this truck apart when you're on the motorbike with Sam is more or less the same as it was in Uncharted 2 and they even recycle the same gimmick near the end of the story the combat Arenas aren't very well designed either and there's much more of a focus on stilting through these entirely with that overused tall patch of grass mechanic used to make Nate more or less complete and visible watch it [ __ ] and even if you choose to go loud the combat is just really unsatisfying the shooting feels like [ __ ] most of the time thanks to this artificial bullet spread which kind of makes it feel like you're shooting people with a goddamn water sprinkler and most of the Arenas don't really accommodate for this combat approach and really just kind of forces you into trading pot shots with these remaining enemies from cover icons for all the weapons look very similar to magnet confusing as to what type of gun you're even picking up Uncharted 3 had 5 rifles for instance Uncharted 4 has 15 and trying to ascertain whether you've got one that's automatic is single or burst fire or has a scope on the Fly is next to Impossible you know it pisses me off even more is how I can't use the sniper rifle without looking through the scope I have to aim through this thing all the time and lose all my peripheral vision yeah you know just another minor thing they've somehow managed to ruin from the previous games along with the option to throw back enemy grenades yeah thanks and don't even get me started on those [ __ ] exploding mummies yeah thanks for that one Neil thank you we're also four games deep at this point and yet despite completely changing the button layout they still haven't found a way to map taking cover and Dodge rolling to separate buttons so yes it might be the longest the bestest looking and the most epicous story in the entire series but it's come at the expense of just delivering a concise and tightly packed experience and this really is the poster child for a game not having any consideration for the Player's time we're waiting as for why this thing scored so highly well I think it has to deal with the climate of gaming at the time of its release most of the lack appears for exclusives and the kind of people who are paid to write about video games back then you've got to remember right that this is the era of journalists who felt the need to write entire articles validating why they played a game on easy mode I mean go to Google type in Uncharted 4 easy mode and you'll see what I'm talking about so it doesn't surprise me that those same people gave this thing glowing reviews considering it's a game where you spend over 75 percent of the time being completely unchallenged and being able to steal through most of those combat sequences means that just like in real life they can avoid having to interact with other human beings [Music] another reason is maybe just because of how good the whole thing looks and maybe they fell for the old shiny object dangled in front of their face incredible way credit is due there this game does look phenomenal even more so now playing it on PC I mean it could easily pass off as a 2023 game with no issues looking sharp by the way go bad yourself as for why the fans like this so much well I think it's a combination of it being a glass of water in the desert for releases and they take anything they could get I mean at the time there really wasn't that many PS4 exclusives if you stop to think about it and while some of them are pretty good the sheer lack of titles overall meant ponies ate up everything they got I mean I want to clarify I don't think Uncharted 4 is bad I mean that's insulting to call it that but it does deviate a lot from the simple Loop that the previous games had really nailed what I will say is though that I can't see how someone who could be such a fan of the original 3 could then play this and find it anything other than completely middling hey Sam come here this looks promising and part of how much I disliked Uncharted 4 is the reason why I've just never bothered to play through Lost Legacy and probably never will I mean look man I've got a 12 month old now so if I'm gonna go off and play a game for two to three hours even if it is for my quote unquote job I don't want to do it for something that's only going to excite and engage me in five minutes stints that's just basic time management in an age where visually stunning highly cinematic games are becoming commonplace though it is fun to go back and replay through what's more or less responsible for making this trip popular and yeah well there might be cracks here and there which is standard for something that's over a decade old these games overall still capture that feeling of heroism excitement and [ __ ] puckering acrobatics which make them a joy to play through just to a lesser extent with Uncharted 4. so if there is some kind of video game Valhalla a Spirit in the Sky about all the great video game protagonists eventually go to rest I think that Nate alongside guys like Solid Snake Duke Nukem Max Payne and Mario is gonna definitely have earned his seat at the table foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: GmanLives

Views: 389,536

Keywords: uncharted review, nathan drake, tom holland, nathan drake collection, nathan drake theme, uncharted trailer, uncharted movie, uncharted 2022, uncharted movie review, video game, naughty dog, uncharted tom holland, naughty dog new game, uncharted review pc, uncharted review ps3, uncharted review ps5, uncharted 2022 game, video games, video game music, drakes fortune review, among thieves review, a thieves end review, uncharted 4 sucks, gmanlives, gggmanlives

Id: r4yIheXJGNI

Length: 45min 50sec (2750 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 15 2023