Game Discussion of The Week: Uncharted series

There's definitely a point here.  The fact that I could watch through the cut scenes of Golden Abyss on Youtube and not really miss much, except a few of the action beats definitely suggests that game play isn't Uncharted's strong suit.

That said, I have found that they play fairly well with an audience.  I certainly enjoyed watching my friend play several of them years ago, in the same way that I enjoyed watching him play through a number of survival horror games.  Heavy Rain is actually an interesting comparison.  I was once snowed in at a new year's party for a full extra day, and the host starting playing through Heavy Rain.  A full 10+ people spent more than 6 hours watching, calling out suggestions, etc.  Games like that have the potential to play very well with an audience, and even though I'm not a fan of "Let's Play" videos, or Twitch streams, I get the appeal more there than with other genres. 

As an aside to this, I find that with games that fit into that category, there is very little replay value.  I've enjoyed Uncharted for what I've played thus far, but I doubt I'll play through them again any time soon.  As for Heavy Rain, that was a fun afternoon, but I have no inclination to play it, the player from that day did not replay it, and to my knowledge, none of the other viewers from that day went out and played the game.

This does suggest to me that a console remaster of Golden Abyss should happen, since you can't really play a game on a Vita for an audience, and Golden Abyss uses so many Vita-exclusive features, that you can't even play the game properly on a soft-modded PSTV.  If they gutted most of the little mini-games and just made them cut scenes, this would be doable.  My friend actually pointed out that something similar happened with remaster of the original Uncharted, as the PS3 version apparently featured the six-axis motion sensors to avoid falling off logs, etc.  I'm glad it was left out of the PS4 version, even though the dual shock 4 controllers have that feature.