@Pikminmaniac said:
@scottpsfan14:
TPS sections: the enemies are bullet sponges so you have to focus fire on a single opponent in order to down him which drags out the lengthy fire fights to a slog. There is almost no enemy variety to boot and the weapons and ways you can deal with them are equally uninteresting.
platforming sections: what platforming sections? The game has an annoying amount of on rails climbing portions that are no different than fast forwarding or rewinding a prerecorded tape. This constitutes dull and mind numbingly pointless gameplay and guess what? these genius developers thought it would be cool that every one of these portions be dragged out even longer by making absolutely every little thing cinematically break under Nathan's weight.
Pointless gameplay sections: Uncharted 2 is riddled with portions that are worse than merely spectating cutscenes. In most cases you can skip a cutscene, but Uncharted 2 forces you to play through gameplay dead scenarios like the opening sequence where Nathan has to limp through snow after an on rails climbing portion. How about the museum heist where you listen to your friend to do exactly what he tells you to do. God forbid you think for once. How about the ice cave where you are forced to follow a man named tenzen because it's fun to watch somebody play the game one second before you do. What about the chapter called "foreign town" in which you just walk through a town until you trigger a cutscene (that's it)? Even when there's a half interesting puzzle like the one where you reflect light, you have an AI controlled character that plays half of it for you.
Story: It started off somewhat interesting with ties into Marko Polo's travels but devolves into a simple race against an evil military army for magic power juice. It loses it's intrigue and cleverness reminiscent of a good Indiana Jones really quickly. I will admit the characters are enjoyable although very cliche.
The disconnect between scenario and gameplay: This is something almost every story driven game is guilty of to be honest. In Uncharted, the premise is that of an explorer akin to Indian Jones and you go globe trotting for a fascinating hidden treasure. So why is it a TPS? Most protagonists in these types of stories avoid confrontation and focus on exploring and solving puzzles. Uncharted gives you no exploration or adventuring. Instead the game tells you you're on an adventure and you play the parts where you murder armies of men. The Last of Us got it right. The gameplay, setting, and story fit perfectly together into one enjoyable experience. there was no jarring disconnect.
One last thing, platforming in Uncharted doesnt exist. Its traversal and its there to serve the gunplay. Which btw makes gun battles in Uncharted epic affairs! The moments of traversing the environments however are just there to change up the pace and give you a view of the beautiful scenery. It could all be improved sure, but its not broken or a neagtive. Its serving the game well. The PROBLEM IS YOU. YOURE not looking at Uncharted for what it WAS or TRYING TO DO.
With Uncharted, youre completely missing the forrest for the trees also and thats a HUGE SHAME.
Like with the opening sequence or the walk through the village etc..its the experience...the immersion....they only gave more weight and meaning to the following gameplay as well
Which perfectly brings me to the next point
Uncharted has always been known for its great pure TPS gameplay, cinematics, top flight action, and engaging character performances...
BUT here is why Uncharted 2 at its time also had some of the best story telling techniques you had ever seen in a video game up until that point ( Naughty Dog with the Last of Us pretty much took it all to the next level)
You see lets talk about that walk through the village you try and somehow turn into a bad thing.
When you first arrived at the village after being rescused from near death,
Remember how you had woken up, and were now walking along Tenzon, while seeing the villagers just going about their lifes? You were left wondering where you were just as much as Drake was. This beautiful mysterious place. I was intrigued. Every body was just happy, kids were playing, and people laughing ect. It was a great sequence, albiet it was for a little amount of time ...
But that sequence got you to start caring about the village and its villagers, and it occured all during gameplay
It was a story telling device specific to gaming being used by Naughty Dog.
Here it is:
Also look how you have freedom to explore. You could walk around and take the beautiful sights in. You could interact with most of all the villagers you came across too, even the animals lol.
That further immersed and drew you in into this world.
Tenzon takes you to Shaffer and he tells you to investigate the ice caves with Tenzon to uncover the truth about the chintamonte stone etc
The relationship you build up with Tenzon IN GAMEPLAY during the ice cave level was pretty amazing...
And then it happens,
Upon your return from the ice caves, it happens...what Drake and Elena feared .....
The Village is ransacked and pillaged!!!
(By the way, the ice cave level was a gigantic and very atmospheric level with out of this world platforming on giant mechanisms. It was badass, im not sure what youre smoking Haha. Im sure the begining of the level will be in the vid above. Continue watching the playthrough to see the ice cave level either way)
You now see the village destroyed and in ruin. The people you were interacting with before in total distress now. I felt real emotion because of my walk across the village before all of that had happened. It was subtle but powerful. Such great story telling techniques used by Naughty Dog.
Then you have these epic shootouts spanning accross the ransacked village. The villagers are fighting along side you trying to protect their village etc.
Not going to lie, it was a little heart warming lol
You then start battling a tank in the middle of it all too! Truly EPIC. The whole village seige level was FRIGGEN EPIC beyond belief.
The way Naughty Dog used story-telling devices to set it up, and give the gameplay so much more meaning was just phenomenal.
And the gameplay itself was awesome too - Level design was so good in the way traversal + gun play was encouraged, and in how you could take different routes to flank enemies or how you could always take the high grounds for that advantage etc. I will post a video to show you this in a little bit. Hang tight:)
But yeah everything was brilliant!
Naughty Dog really is operating on another level of creativity, story telling, and video game development. and they FURTHER CEMENTED that with the Last of Us whick took EVERYTHING to the next tier of levels
NO other developer can touch Naughty Dog in any area of game design. All they can do is attempt to copy Naughty Dog, like they attempted to copy Uncharted, but of course to no avil ...
Now here is the begining of the awesome seige level:
(Feel free to keep watching all the parts)
Really look at how stunning the level design is. Once the player makes it to open space, look at how you can either climb up the side to the left, flank the gunner, and take the high ground on the enemies below...
OR how you can go to the right and tackle the enemies from inside the hut while having cover etc
The player here decides to go right, but you can find other videos with the player going to the left and taking the high grounds for an advantage.
Like ive been saying, MANY levels in Uncharted 2 give you the option in how you want to tackle enemies,
And the stunning level design really encourages the use of traversal during gun play - to take out enemies from high ground etc
Uncharted has the BEST pure TPS gameplay (and enemy encounters) of any 3rd person shooter out there - due to the options you have and the traversal aspects which interweave flawlessly into gunplay etc etc etc
A TPS game like Gears of War has such barebones and restrictrive gameplay in comparison to Uncharted's gameplay. Gameplay in Gears really is laughable compared to the superior gameplay in Uncharted.
Anyway, back on topic now! It was all such a well built sequence of events in Uncharted 2:
To summarize:
From the peacful stroll across the village, seeming almost mysterious and mystical, to the ice caves, which envoked the same feelings, and then coming back and seeing the village destroyed. It was like wow. Then the epic shoot outs that ensued there after etc
Just amazing all around.... And it was the best use of story telling i had ever seen yet in a video game up until that point.Very innovative video game story-telling techniques from Naughty Dog displayed. It was all done and fleshed out through gameplay too, which is even more impressive. Uncharted 2 really was a GROUND breaking game on so many levels;
All the way from the smooth, varied, and great gameplay, to the superb story telling, to the cinematics, to the action, to the great acting etc
The way it all came togther too etc
Uncharted 2 WAS revolutionary and like i have already mentioned, Uncharted 2 revolutionized the last gen. The only 3rd person action shooter game that can even match Uncharted 2 is Uncharted 3, and Naughty Dog created Uncharted 3 too. The ONLY series that has even OUT CLASSED Uncharted since is Last of Us and Naughty Dog created Last of Us too.
Naughty Dog is like a PRIME Manny Pacman, while all the other unorginal developers of this industry are like a bunch of Ricky Hattons to Naughty Dog.
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