That was my exact issue with Uncharted 3. It felt like a game that was designed based on coming up with a bunch of cool ideas and locations, and then just stitching them all together at the last moment. That's how to develop a mario game, not a story-driven adventure.
Uncharted 2 and 4 both feel a lot more organic (even though they both have just as many different locations)
@Dezzy Exactly, it very much followed the Mario design philosophy of introducing something new each chapter, and then quickly moving on. Which is kinda cool, but makes a game of this type feel a bit disjointed.
The only part that felt like it lasted particularly long was the shipyard portion which - ironically - has pretty much no impact on the story whatsoever. Plus it's Drake on his own which, IMO, is never as compelling as when he has partners alongside him.
On reflection, I think I much prefer Uncharted 2. IMO Uncharted 3 starts really strong, but I don't think the lasting impact is quite the same.
It does deserve credit for having my 2 favourite scenes in the entire series though. The 'fall out a plane' scene, and the 'drowning in a cruise ship' scene. Those 2 are absolutely incredible technical achievements.
@Dezzy Yep, it's amazing what they could run on the PS3. I've seen people describe 3's setpieces as the best in the series, and I can see where they're coming from.
Makes you wonder if we could have such a game on the Switch...
On that note, a couple of chapters into Golden Abyss now. The game looks and plays surprisingly well on the Vita - however the gun controls are pretty awful, somehow feeling stiff and slippery at the same time. A lot of the touch and motion controls feel really shoehorned in...although I really like how you can swipe out a path for Nathan to climb - I actually kinda prefer it to buttons. I can see this not being as satisfying as a fully-fledged Uncharted game, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
@timleon Pokemon Rescue Team and Destroy All Humans were also from 2005 with full remakes. Pokemon Rescue Team basically brought all the original story and dungeons into the modern QoL version of the gameplay, while Destroy All Humans featured a ton of QoL improvements and cut content.
Even Xenoblade I'd throw in the same boat, though it's less of a remake, with tons of QoL.
...though, all those series had improved significantly since the games that were remade. It's hard to say the same thing for RE.
I need a little help on something. Earlier today I got a Vanilla gift card and planning on using it to get a game or two off the PSN store for my Playstation 3. One of these games im planning on getting
God of War Ghost of Sparta
Persona 5
Ys I and II Collection
Ys Seven
Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness for PSP
or get a Playstation 3 blockbuster favorite game at a higher price.
The Ys games and Disgaea im kind of thinking about getting and to transfer to my PSP.
Completed Uncharted Golden Abyss at the weekend, concluding the series for me (that's Uncharted 4, Lost Legacy, 1, 2, 3 and Golden Abyss within a month!)
With all of them fresh in mind, here goes my ranking:
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss
I was actually very impressed with this one. Bend Studio did a great job bringing the core gameplay of Uncharted to a handheld. Unfortunately, while the game is pretty good, I don't think it ever reaches the highs seen in every other title in the series. The climbing segments have translated well (even improved to some extent with the ability to trace paths using the touch screen), and the combat is serviceable (I hated the controls at first, but they just need some getting used to. Gyro helps a ton, but it never reaches the precision of the console games). The game is fairly limited in scope, but that's to be expected given the nature of the game as a handheld spin-off. In a way it feels a lot like Drake's Fortune, but with elements from later in the series such as stealth. The characters and story are disposable - again somewhat expected - but it was quite nice to see Nate with some new faces and I ended up quite liking Chase and enjoyed hating Dante. I quite liked how your partners could die in combat - it made me wonder why this isn't standard for the series, and a highlight for me was the segments where you'd protect Chase or Sully from enemy gunfire. This is overall a solid effort which only loses out to Drake's Fortune because the latter game is more iconic.
5. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
The game that started it all...and it shows. Kinda strange to go back to this one after seeing the series evolve. The climbing and combat all feel much less developed, as do the characters and the story (I think the villains in particular are quite weak). The scope of the adventure is smaller than previous adventures, being focused on a single island - however the dynamic between Nate and Elena, and the supernatural twist about 2/3 through the game, make this adventure fairly memorable. It's also a short and sweet adventure that can be easily completed in a weekend.
4. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
This is where the series had really hit its stride. Mechanically, this game is excellent - combat, climbing and puzzles are as good as the series ever gets. Many argue that this game has the best setpieces in the series - I'm not 100% I agree, but it certainly has some of the most dramatic. However, whereas this game has some great moments, the sequence of events in the game can feel a bit disjointed, as if the setpieces were decided on and then strung together at a later point. This reflects in the story - as not only does the ending feel very rushed, but we never seem to learn enough about Talbot and Marlowe, who both had potential to be the series' most interesting villains, but fell short. This lack of cohesion in the narrative unfortunately makes this game a lot more forgettable than others in the series.
3. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
I really have a personal soft spot for this one, and I really wanted it to place higher on the top of the list. This game really shows that Uncharted has potential outside of Nathan Drake's story. I've always loved Chloe as a character, but she really comes into her own in this game. I also really liked Nadine in U4, was glad she got some redemption, and managed to team up with Chloe in this game. Their relationship is the absolute highlight of the game. The gameplay, like U3, is as good as ever. The new twist in this game is the inclusion of an open world area, which worked very well in my opinion. I'd love to see the game explore more open level design in the future. Outside of character development and the open environments, however, I don't think this game does much else that hasn't been done in the series before - but as the most recent game in the series, it does what it does really well.
2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Drake's Fortune was a good proof of concept, but Uncharted 2 is where the series really started to show what it could achieve. Arguably the most memorable adventure in the series, it introduced some great characters in Chloe, Flynn (why so many evil Brits?) and Lazarevic, and took us on a thrilling, yet well-paced, tour through Borneo, Nepal, the Himilayas and, eventually, Shambhala. This is where the setpieces really started to impress, and the combat was vastly improved by the inclusion of more diverse arenas and stealth mechanics. I also think this gives us the best instance of Nate and Elena teaming up - the main downside being that we get much less of the Nate and Sully team in this game!
1. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Naughty Dog really knew what they were doing at this point. Certainly Drake's longest adventure - this game manages to pack in all the great gameplay elements, great character moments (think Nate and Elena, Nate and Sam, and even villains Rafe and Nadine), and all sorts of great story beats (from prison sequences, to auction heists, to discovering lost pirate cities, to that heartwarming epilogue) into a single place. There's not much I can say about this except that it is the perfect example of what the series does so well.
Phew. Such a shame now that I don't have any more games in the series to play.
Also quite interesting how much ranking is exactly the same as Push Square's...
@timleon Putting aside The Lost Legacy (haven't played it), I'd rank the games, from worst to best:
Uncharted 1
Golden Abyss
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Uncharted 4
Golden Abyss holds up better versus the original, IMO, and was super impressive for a handheld game.
And yeah, I'm one of those "Uncharted 3 has the best setpieces in the series" people. I liked the focus on Nate's childhood and his relationship with Sully as well. Uncharted 2 also had some setpieces that brought the game down for me, and the stupidity of the supernatural elements was at an all time high for the series.
@urrutiap Persona 5 is the best game on that list, so I'd get that unless you're absolutely hankering for something to play on a handheld.
@Ralizah Yeah, I'm tempted to agree regarding Golden Abyss. The only reason I place it below 1 is that it's the most "skippable", not adding much to the series narrative-wise. But I do find that it's surprisingly technically better than UC1 in many ways.
I kinda see your reasons for placing UC3 above 2 (again, it was my favourite of the original trilogy until I replayed). I just think for me the overall narrative takes precendence over the moment-to-moment experience, and I think UC2 was stronger in that. It was nice to see some of Nate's past with Sully, but I personally think this was ultimately underdeveloped (especially seeing how they handled Nate and Sam's past in UC4). And I think the whole idea of Sully / Marlowe being old business partners was wasted a bit...this wasn't really explored any further and Marlowe herself got a pitiful amount of screen time. But conversely UC2 has some bits that drag...it's quite annoying having to do the train climb twice, and the chapters leading up to Shambhala, while building a lot of necessary tension, do seem excessive. With regards to supernatural elements...some people feel quite strongly about this, but to be honest I'm fairly neutral on it as I think generally the series doesn't go too outlandish with it (I guess UC2 is the most "supernatural" of all with the sap granting immortality...at least in other games strange occurrences could be attributed to viruses or hallucinations!).
Still, nice ranking! You're bound to get slight differences in opinion here when every game in the series is so good.
It would be a real shame if the series didn't go forward. I can definitely see Naughty Dog abandoning it this gen - it was unusual for them to work on the same series for two generations in the first place (I suppose this was alleviated with The Last of Us). But considering how competent Bend Studio (the developers of Bubsy 3D, apparently?) were with Golden Abyss, I'm sure another studio could have a decent shot at a few entries. With Chloe, Nadine, Charlie, Sam and Sully they've already got a range of established characters to work with. And who's to say they can't try someone new (or revisit another point in Nate's past?)
@timleon I thought all of the Uncharted games (aside from 4) had poor narrative elements. Very tropey. With that said, I found Zoran to be probably the worst antagonist in the series, which factored in for me. The entire sequence with the tank was really obnoxious, too. Didn't care for the yeti, either, and it has, IMO, the worst climax in the entire series.
But it's probably the best overall when it comes to its relentless pacing, and I can see why it's a fan favorite, even if I'm not as gaga over it. Some of that might be that I didn't play it when it was fresh and new. Uncharted 2 was the game that really sent the series into the stratosphere, and I'm sure that probably heavily factors in for some people as well.
RE: Uncharted 4, I LOVED the downplayed supernatural elements, the fun villain, the (literal) swashbuckling climax, the development of Nate and Elena's relationship (and the Breaking Bad-ish undercurrent of Nate going behind her back to do dangerous adventure-y stuff to fill a void in his life), the more dynamic fighting, the organic integration of stealth, the much more open level design, etc. The long lost brother trope was played a bit too straight for my liking, and it's a bit weird that Sam didn't pop up at ALL in Uncharted 3, but overall the game was just excellent in almost every way.
I don't mind if the series ends here, IMO. I hope they let it lie, and move onto something else. Ditto with TLOU. There's nothing worse than developers clinging onto a successful property long after it has peaked.
A friend of mine got a PS5 and asked for game recommendations, I gave him an extensive list which he proceeded to ignore and bought AC and COD instead, because those were the games he recognised. This is what's wrong with gaming lol.
@Octane
I'm sick to see the mindset "I'm too cool to try different games".
They should be forced to play completely different games to open their mindset and understand that they have discovered something new.
And that's why i hate being a mainstream gamer like that.
@Anti-Matter Sure! Forcing someone to play something is the way to go!
And you are not the one to talk about playing new things. When you start playing R-rated games then you can preach to others about playing different games.
@Anti-Matter There's an element of irony/hypocrisy from what you said as you're closed minded yourself with "banning" things and don't try new things. ;p
@jump
My case is different.
I have something that allowed and not allowed.
I have broadened my gaming genre into other genre that i have never played before but still following my gaming rules such as Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Toy Story 3, etc.
Yes, i still have restriction that i created for myself because i will feel very uncomfortable to play something that really against / crossing the line with my acceptance.
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