I try to not let plot nitpicks stop me from enjoying a story, and I've never played uncharted. But yeah, wasn't the whole "deception" thing about Drakes lies to himself or something? If they completely dropped the friggen theme that then yeah, that's a pretty dumb turn in story telling.
From what I hear, Uncharted as very good writing. It's a shame they seem to keep emerging from the epic adventures they keep going on with status quo intact.
Also, I saw the desert level in a demo and was thinking, "wut?" I guess chronic dehydration and sunstroke never hurt anyone...
My problem with the game wasn't so much the game-play, it was the story line. I mean for ****s sake, they designed the story around set pieces. If that isn't S*****y writing, i don't know what is.
You know Yahtzee, you might as well just come out and say you love Uncharted and everything about it. I've been observing this for a while now, and it seems like you trot out all these same complaints every game, but in the end still wind up playing these games through to their conclusion, one after another, where major releases of AAA titles you genuinely loathe seem to be delayed for crazy amounts of time or simply "forgotten" entirely, sometimes with you mentioning it specifically in text in your videos.
I just want to point out that he plays these games to completion because he is PAID to review these games in full, and it's not fair to do so without completing the game. The exception being Final Fantasy XIII.
You know Yahtzee, you might as well just come out and say you love Uncharted and everything about it. I've been observing this for a while now, and it seems like you trot out all these same complaints every game, but in the end still wind up playing these games through to their conclusion, one after another, where major releases of AAA titles you genuinely loathe seem to be delayed for crazy amounts of time or simply "forgotten" entirely, sometimes with you mentioning it specifically in text in your videos.
I just want to point out that he plays these games to completion because he is PAID to review these games in full, and it's not fair to do so without completing the game. The exception being Final Fantasy XIII.
Again, I think people didn't get that I was in an odd mood and not being entirelty serious (and I don't routinely use that as a dodge or anything, in this case I'm serious about the original post being intended tongue-in-cheek) I should have tried to make that more clear with some emoticons and such.
That said, yes Yahtzee is a paid reviewer, but he seems to say routinely that he DOES get to choose what games to review and when. He has skipped numerous popular games that doubtlessly would have gotten him popular reviews, or made no bones about delaying them until weeks after release. If he totally loathes something he basically doesn't review it, or does something incredibly insulting and sarcastic like he has done with say "The Witcher" back in the day where if I remember he cut the review off after like 30 seconds or whatever.
... and yes, I understand his entire schtick about hating on games.
Yeah, all that stuff about Drake just being able to magically fight just fine when needed bothered me about Uncharted 2, even. As mentioned in the article,
He gets shot and is in a train wreck, and then has to climb out of the train wreck in cold weather without proper clothing on. You're playing as him and he's slow, stumbling around, obviously suffering from the gunshot, blood loss, and cold. In fact, as I recall, he sits down against some broken train car because he can't keep going with all his injuries anymore, but then enemies show up and suddenly he's perfectly okay again! You fight them all off with ease, and then suddenly it's back to weak Drake. Then he keeps walking for quite some time before eventually passing out. But some guy finds him immediately (how convenient) and helps him out. Drake's in bed for a few days and despite being shot, losing blood, and almost freezing to death, they give him a coat and now he's completely fine again, as if he had never been injured in the first place.
Same thing earlier in the game too. Drake gets sent to jail for, what was it, 6 months? I think it was six months. And I recall that he describes it as just being stuck in that cell going to the bathroom in a bucket the entire time. And yet he's still just as fit as he ever was. Shouldn't being stuck in a cell with nothing to do for that long cause him to be weaker? Bah.
See, the slogan on the back of the box for Uncharted 1 was "one ordinary man, one extraordinary adventure" and in Uncharted 1, he really was just an ordinary man. But then in Uncharted 2, he's not. I once joked that "They might as well have changed Nate's name to Clark Kent for all the times he should have been dead or at least weak" and "I think Drake will be able to fly and shoot laser beams from his eyes in Uncharted 3" because of all the times Drake just randomly was okay despite injuries in Uncharted 2. It's really disappointing to hear that while he still can't fly yet, he's gotten closer to being able to do so since Uncharted 2.
I agree with the "insufferable little shit" part 100%! That conversation with Marlowe was the best part of the game! She was the only interesting character and there was hardly anything of her in it.
the bigest problem i have with this game (besides being son scripted i don't know why the bother making this a game) is the friking motivation.....theres is NONE!!!
in the first one they motivation was to escape, drake himself said that the treasure wasn't worth it at some point, in the second one he has to save that chick i always forget her name....but now?? there is absoluty fucking NOTHING to kill so many people for....we KNOW he wont get al the treasure and live the rest of his life as the richest man on earth. So why the hell does he risk his life and the people around him? he also doesn't care at all for archeologic research, he basically cleans his ass with a 400 years old map, and destroyed THE BIGEST archeologic discovery ever by human kind
The game strongly implies that Drake has a pathologically need to constantly look for treasure and put himself in mortal danger, despite how badly it ruins his relationships.
My problem with the game wasn't so much the game-play, it was the story line. I mean for ****s sake, they designed the story around set pieces. If that isn't S*****y writing, i don't know what is.
There's no reason why that can't work, you know. Yahtzee even said that in the article that Uncharted 3's problem is that they just didn't put in much of an effort to string the set pieces together. I can agree with that for the same reasons he did, i just didn't let it ruin the game for me, because a lot of games tend to have some stroke of luck to move the plot along.
But why the fuck Drake didn't pick up some water or supplies from the crash (at least a little so he wouldn't be weighed down) perplexed me. He knew the desert was 600 miles across and he wasn't the one with the ability to read stars. It's like when an elephant just wanders away from everything to die.
All in all i liked Uncharted 3, but unless they plan on doing some actual character development in Uncharted 4 i'd probably rather not see it made (And i've platinumed the two first, working on the third and when a fanboy starts losing interest you should probably stop >_>)
I don't think it's because they made Nathan Drake the hero that he wasn't interesting, it was more the fact that he stayed Nathan Drake. He's Nathan Fillion minus the charm, with the invincibility of John Cena, Edward Cullen's hair jell and the luck of an offspring of a rabbit's foot gang-banged by horse shoes in a field of four leaf clovers. And being smug and annoying may be a relatable character flaw but it's not an endearing one.
These are the people I trust with writing stories:
Hideki Kamiya
Fumito Ueda (Only if Shadow of the Colossus is good; Ico, Ico may go to hell)
Guy(s) who wrote the Infamous series
Tim Schafer (big concession there)
Ken Levine (Enough trust to make Bioshock Infinite, which scares me, look marketable)
Whoever writes the Assassin Creed's series (I don't like the games but the story works fine)
Whoever writes the modern Legend of Zelda games (I can't find his name, but holy crap this guy knows what he is doing)
Probably a lot of people I forgot
These are people I trust to develop the aesthetic and narrative of games for future writers. I like them because they are at least capable of keeping all the elements of the story together, all compact-like. See, a story can't be made by trying to raise emotions or tension. It starts by making a story.
I played Uncharted 2 and I think it's equivalent to Naruto for me. In that it's boring and it's trying to be a lot of things. It is trying to be a lot of things by shoving all of those things in its mouth as fast as possible. Which will eventually come out of its ass.
Edit: I'll concede, Infamous has never made a lot of sense plot-wise, I saying this without really needing to justify it. But at least it's interesting and doesn't try to gorge on drama and emotions. No, it gorges on trash monsters and ice nazis, to which I say live on, live on.
so... you know. to me... Nate's portrayed as immature dumbass on purpose. everyone telling him to give up isn't hyperbole. its pointing out for the player a big character flaw.
Amy Henning is also responsible for Raziel and if you want an unsufferable shit look no further. I am sure many hardcore UC fans find Nate Heroic but that doesn't mean it was entirely black and white... He's only good superficially. and while the advertising shys away from this point I feel the writing does a decent job of pointing it out.
I have to admit the whole getting ship sequance was one of my faviorete parts of the game but as mentioned in the artiule (not to mention every other reviewer and crtic) it didn't really need to be there. It felt like they should have just stuck with either the cargo plane or the ship( it probally would havr worked better if instead the city he washed up in the desert) but naghty dog kind of screwed themselves with this one. They couldnt get rid of the plane it was in the teaser and the actual game box art and they showed of the ship at E3 and since it ended up being one of the most talked about demo's if someone did notice that it didnt work with the overall plot they knew they couldn't take it out other wise we all be here saying what happen to that awesome ship sqeance they showed I really wanted to play that. yahtzee also talks about how the game hints that drake is not who he says he is and nothing comes of it. Uncharted 3 had a lot of plot points beasides this that arent concluded. For example when cutter breaks his leg this whole concept of tarrot cards are introduced and are even put in drakes journal but are never brought up again. it seemed like the script for this game went therw alot of rewrites which might explain the inconcenties. I still like this game regrdless but naugty dog is better then this.
See, a genuinely unique and funny solution to the desert second wind scene would be to have him get it, but replace the enemies with thirst hallucinations. Like giant gummy bears shooting lasers from their groins until you use the flower in your hand to plant a heart right between the eyes. Finally, the illusion would slowly melt away after water was found... leading to the horrific discovery that you'd just massacred an innocent village. Now there's a moral dilemma we haven't seen in gaming yet.
Yahtzee! Stop hitting that nail on the head. What did it ever do to you?
This sums up my experience. Favorite moment was that bit in the cafe, where we learn that Drake isn't Drake. I also like Cutter.
I knew something was up with this series when I played 2, where I'm supposed to swallow that Drake, who can't plan for shit and keeps making bad decisions constantly, in the manner of an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation, keeps pulling out a doctorate in archaeology and masters' in dead languages when we have no reason to think he completed high school algebra (circa the third game).
I groaned, physically GROANED when Elena turned up again, and considered who to stab when he walked off with her into the sunset again. I actually feel better when I imagine them flying off to time loop back to 1 at the end of three.
However good the Yahtzee intentions are, these statements are obvious. The holes in the plot are the size of the moon for sure but the real issue is: why the hell no critic sees that! Seriously, in Uncharted 2 there is this big action movie cliché where the hero can kill the bad guy and end up all there but it doesn?t because "I'm not a murderer" or any shit like that. BUT the player pause the game and ban! 900 deaths so far. Man, if Drake killed the villain he could save dozens of lives, a serious act of humanity. But, no critic saw it.
It's too bad that the rumors of Naughty Dog 'abandoning' Uncharted like they did Jak and Daxter and Crash might be true, it's been done those two times already after a trilogy and a side game or two, it can happen again.
Golden Abyss, a prequel, is already outsourced. So it's pretty close to being true.
They seem to be shifting their focus to The Last of Us, which was in development for at least four-ish years by part of the design staff, and does look interesting and maybe even good. Though the game is reminicent of the environments of Enslaved with the gameplay of a Half-Life/Left4Dead vibe, or Resident Evil 4. Though they could just make it play essentially like Uncharted with tweaks, never know.
Would be nice to have some solid character development for Drake to make him human, but it may not come to pass. Never know, Naughty Dog could suprise us....maybe.
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