PS3 - Uncharted 3
Entry posted by EricBall
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The pack-in in my PS3 bundle was Uncharted 3, so I'm playing through it. (Probably much to my wife's annoyance as she would really rather I didn't play shooters.)
Playing through it is a good description as the game is linear. Sure, sometimes there are battle areas where you get a little more choice for directions to go, and there are short branches for "hidden treasure" (which doesn't seem to do anything from a gameplay perspective). But there's really no chance of getting truly lost - you are either killed/captured if you get too far off course (and then restart from the last checkpoint) or you get to fumble around until you find the way back to the path. Time is also flexible - although the game tries to hurry you along, typically there's no penalty for going slow.
In theory, the reason for this linearity is so the story isn't compromised. The problem is the story is like an action movie - with all of the problems they have. Now, I haven't played the other Uncharted games, so there's probably a bunch of backstory which would help explain Drake's motivation in doggedly seeking this lost city in the face of almost overwhelming opposition, and why his friends would follow him through this near suicidal adventure. I also don't understand the villains. They send hordes of minions out to kill Drake, but then don't kill him when he's at their mercy. (And minions who would rather fight Drake than escape a burning building.) The villains also seem to have the ability to follow Drake through every puzzle, almost like they know the answer, but never get ahead of him.
Then there's the combat. I'm gradually learning how to make better use of the hand-to-hand combat rather than just mashing the square button. There does seem to be some intelligence as I found last night if I maneuvered myself close to a club I'd pick it up and use it. There also seems to be some timing as I get better results pressing the square button slower rather than as quickly as possible.
I'm also figuring out how to shoot from cover, although aiming from cover seems to expose Drake more than I'd like. The game also doesn't explain the advantages between the different handguns (you can only carry one at a time).
I'm playing on "Normal" difficulty, which is still probably a little on the easy side for most of the game. Not only can Drake take a huge amount of damage, but he regenerates if you can avoid getting hit for a minute. None the less, there's a few spots which were very difficult to get past, like the RPG attack on the top of the castle. (It turns out it's better to be more exposed so you can avoid the rockets than take cover and die in the explosion.) And while having Drake run towards the camera may be more cinematic, it makes it much more difficult to follow the one safe path!
Last night I had a gun battle with a bunch of pirates in a ship graveyard. (Why pirates would be patrolling inside the graveyard is one of those action movie plot holes - try not to think to hard.) The problem was Drake was unarmed and there wasn't any good cover other than underwater. (And you thought you hated swimming as Mario...) I eventually found a place which had some weapons, then (after a couple more deaths) I found a machine gun nest which I could take out. This made it much easier to handle the bad guys with sniper rifles, although I still died a couple of times being attacked from my blind side & via a few grenades.
But eventually all of the bad guys fell to my bullets & fists and the graveyard was strangely quiet, with nary an obvious exit. Finally I realized I needed to climb a tower (there's lots of climbing in Uncharted, but it's rarely difficult). What I didn't know is climbing the tower triggered a few more baddies to come out of hiding and send me falling to my doom in a hail of lead. So it's back to the last checkpoint to try again...
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