Game Discussion of The Week: Uncharted series

Typed out a fairly long response to this one and then mistakenly closed the browser tab. Might attempt again tomorrow

In the meantime, here's what CGR has had to say about the series over the years.

Mark's review of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune



Mark's Review of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End


Derek's Undertow Review of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune



Ray's Undertow review of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves


Amanda's Undertow review of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Part 1 and Part 2)




Ryan's Undertow review of Uncharted: Golden Abyss


Ryan's Undertow review of Uncharted: Fight for Fortune


(Man, watching these reminds me of how much of a mixed bag the Undertow reviews were over the years.  Both in terms of writing, and presentation.  I enjoyed TJ, and Derek had his high points, though was an acquired taste, but a fair number of the other rotating reviewers seemed unsuited to voiceover or on-screen presentation.)

There was a licensed game in the 90s based on a movie for the Super Nintendo callled No Escape published by Sony themselves. In many ways I feel Uncharted is the spiritual successor of that game.

Obviously licensed games are not usually very good, and No Escape from what I heard was not the exception. Uncharted feels like a more polished version of what that was.



There was also a game called Uncharted Waters New Horizons by Koei, also on the Super Nintendo that is an actual pirates based game. The protagonists do resemble a little bit Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, but it looks like the gameplay is closer to something like Nobunaga's Ambition than anything else.



Of course we can't forget Pifall!! by Activision on the Atari 2600 which is the first time I feel these type of games appeared. There was also another No Escape! game by Imagic on the Atari 2600, but that one was definitely a different thing. Pitfall!! definitely suits more the series, and pretty much any Indiana Jones game for that matter.

The later Naughty Dog ones were clearly influenced by Tomb Raider, but they incorporated their own things. I like how they deal with mythological content as those are my favorite topics to get covered in video games.

I do own Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake's Deception for the PS3, but just like any other game that doesn't suit the arcades, I never felt motivated to finish them. In fact I haven't even touched the second one which people say is the best one.

I did go pretty far into the first one. I think I'm already in Chapter 18, but it has taken me years to get that far. I do appreciate the Spanish from Spain translation, it feels appropriate. I do have intention to finish those games, I just don't know when.

If I get to finish the first 3, I'll get 4, but I have no rush for it, as that one sounds like the weaker one of the 4. From all I heard, 4 is more about the story than the gameplay, and I'm sure that would definitely kill it for me.

I think Amy Hennig was the main person dev for those games, then she left for 4. Considering she worked in Crystal Dynamics before, which in my opinion is a superior studio than from what I've seen of Naughty Dog, I can't expect much from 4 with her absence, but I'll check it out for sure just to complete the story I guess. Everyone's is saying they really liked the end story.

Uncharted was decent, and I loved Uncharted 2 back when I first played. But I've tried to get into 3 and other cinematic action games recently and I think I'm getting bored with them. I have no desire to finish 3 or try 4 anytime soon.

Played the first one. I intend to play the others eventually.

I loved uncharted 1 and 2 when i was younger, because i didn't know better. After developing my tastes, i can't stand them now.

So, I've been watching a friend play these for years, and finally decided to give them a shot recently.  The Nathan Drake Collection was available on the PSN store for $25 Canadian, a friend recently bough a PS4 Slim with Uncharted 4, but didn't want it so gave it to me, and I realized that I owned Golden Abyss for the Vita through PSN+.  Seemed like a good time to get into it.  Here's some impressions of what I've played so far:

Uncharted: Drakes's Fortune
Even a generation late, this game seems very pretty.   Environments are gorgeous, voice and motion capture are top-notch, and the voice-acting is great as well.  Nate, Sully and Elena are all very enjoyable characters, and I can see why this was such a showpiece for the PS3 early on.

That said, there were some negatives when playing it.  Puzzles and platforming are essentially similar to the post-Sands-of-Time Prince of Persia games, except less complex.  They're quite tightly scripted, and seem largely there to break up the cut-scenes.  When Drake has Elena or Sully along, there's a fair bit of banter to help things along, which works well, and keeps these sections from becoming monotonous.

Exploration sections are also frequently broken up by wave after wave of enemy combatants, which seem to be there for little reason other than to pad the game length.  I appreciate that Drake comes from a line of roguish archaeologists from games and cinema who didn't shy away from a bit of violence, but I'd killed well over 200 mercenaries by the end of the game, and these sections had begun to feel both excessive and boring.

So, despite complaints, it was an overall positive experience, and I knew it would get better from there.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
This is known as the high point of the series for many, and I can see why.  The environments are more varied, and cover more than a single island.  Returning cast members are joined by equally entertaining allies, and villains.  The platforming and puzzles seem more interesting, and situation presented makes the combat seem less forced, even though it is more ridiculous and over-the-top at the same time.  I'm only about a third of the way through this one, but I'm consistently entertained by it.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss
This was a launch game for the PS Vita, and a prequel for the whole series.  I actually gave up on this one about 2 hours in.  The developers seemed to want to use it as a showcase for all the Vita's capabilties (touch screen, back touch panel, gyroscopic motion sensors, etc), and while these features are neat, I found that it annoyingly interrupted a lot of game flow.  Eventually I gave up, and watched the rest of the story on Youtube.  I found it enjoyable, though as a prequel that was made after the first 3 Uncharted entries, I would have liked to see some callbacks to characters that Drake had a past with (like Chloe or Harry Flynn from Among Thieves), rather than the new characters introduced here.  That said, the environments, motion capture, and acting were all up to series standard.  It was nice to have Sully back, and Chase was an interesting enough character.

My friend who introduced me to Uncharted actually started playing this on my Vita recently, as he doesn't own one.  He got much further than I did, but grew frustrated by the last puzzle he encountered. I was driving him home late at night, and he encountered a puzzle that required Nate to hold a piece of parchment up to bright light to reveal hidden characters...this was of course done using the light-sensing feature on the Vita's back panel.  Since it wouldn't allow him to advance without this, or back out of the puzzle, I ended up having to pull the car over and turn the interior lights on to enable him to get past that point and save.  Great example of an attempt at immersion that has the complete opposite effect.