Running behind on my game posts LOL Suffice to say, at this point, I have now played all four Uncharted games. I already posted about the first one, so here’s some quick thoughts on the other three.
Uncharted 2 was a culmination of 12 hours of profanity, screaming at my TV/game, and insulting the characters and game! Wee! Much as with the first game, the awesome, compelling story kept me going through a game that I’d have otherwise noped out on for its difficulty. I did better with 2, at least, dying only 98 times instead of the 150+ of the first game. I particularly liked the interplay with Nate, Chloe, and Elena. I also like that Chloe and Elena are relatively competent, even if they are lousy shots when helping with battles (though still better than Sully was in the first game LOL).
I really wanted a chance to just beat the tar out of Flynn, so I was disappointed the game never gave it to me. I will admit, I found Lazarević to be a bit of a blah bad guy. He was tough, no argument, but he felt a bit one dimensional. Just another power-hungry dictator-wanna-be. Overall, yeah, I cussed a lot and had a lot of frustration with this game, especially since I stuck to Normal mode again. It also made me say “he survives this” a lot, but meh, we’re used to that with games right? 😀 Still, I enjoyed it and started Uncharted 3 the same day.
One week (and about 9.5 hours of gameplay time) later, I finished Uncharted 3! From the first three games, which I played via the Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection, Uncharted 3 was my favorite. Once again it blended a tightly formed story with no filler to pad out the game time and it hit some great emotional notes while including Nate’s signature humor and a villainess that I hated almost instantly because she is seriously evil.
This game had some particularly great relationship moments, both with Nate and Sully and with Nate and Elena. It also finally tells us how Nate and Sully ended up being together and really shows the depth of their feelings for each other. It’s really awesome, and something you don’t see often in media: deep male friendships. It also had me damn near crying at one point while streaming (and the only reason I didn’t totally bawl WAS because I was live streaming :-P)
I also appreciated that this one included new gameplay elements, including significantly improved stealth mechanics and a new variety of guns, plus some new challenges such as dealing with a burning building and attacking a convoy from horseback. There are still some seriously frustrating sequences and I cussed a lot, but yep, I would say I enjoyed that one the most of the first three games. You can keep them spiders though… *shudder*
After a short break, I started Uncharted 4 the same night. This one was longer than the other three games, clocking in at just over 18 hours and it took me longer to finish it because life. Again, I quite enjoyed the game, with even more added stealth mechanics (awesome), new weapons, and again a great story! The graphics also had a nice boost, being made for the PS4 versus a remaster. It has so much lovely grass! (Rob loves water, I love pretty grass)
As with all the Uncharted games, I had plenty of moments of frustration, with some sequences being more difficult or even more fiddly than others versus previous games. I really felt stymied by the developers forcing you to do some things the way they wanted versus letting you be a bit more flexible without who dealt with situations. For example, making some water areas insta-kill just to avoid animating a climb out sequence, even though it’s obvious the water shouldn’t be deadly and easy to get out of. And insta-kills from some jumps just because doing the jump meant skipping a cutscene.
I died way more times in this one, I think maybe even more than I did the first one. The gun controls seemed pickier too, though I did get more headshots so maybe just my perception. Plenty of times I WTF’d at some near-invincible enemies or the sheer stupidity of the bad guys, but still, yeah, I had fun which is the most important thing 🙂
Overall, I am really glad I finally played the Uncharted series and I’ve enjoyed seeing Nathan grow and mature throughout the games. I loved the game’s handling of things between Nate and Elena and while the ending was a bit cheesy, I still liked it.
Despite the good reviews for it, I most likely will NOT play Lost Legacy. Lots of people say it’s great, but I really don’t like the central characters in it. I love Nathan, Elena, and of course, Sully is my bud! But Chloe was never really a favorite for me even with me enjoying Uncharted 2, and I don’t really want to spend more time with Sam (who I was seriously wishing would die by the end of 4) or Nadine (crappy personality and too far over the bad guy side for me to the point that I had no sympathy for her even when the game tried to generate some).
I did Twitch stream my entire playthrough, and those videos are up on my YouTube. They have their own playlist for ease of watching.