Like many of you, while looking forward to the latest Uncharted game, I was thinking fondly of the great moments from the last one. After all, the Uncharted games are the best Hollywood blockbusters you could play — remember Urban Warfare? How great was that level? The “run ‘n gun” sequence was only done for that part (I think) and it was memorable for its scarcity. How about Locomotion? It was exciting and challenging and breathtaking and wonderful and kind of repetitive-in-a-way-you-don’t-mind-because-the-level-is-gorgeous-and-completing-it-will-allow-you-to-see-the-next-cutscene. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the link above.)

Trying to remember parts of that Hollywood blockbuster, I tend to forget the truth that there were parts that the movie could have done without.

I think the Kotaku article Overstaying Its Welcome: The Place of Uncharted 3 in the Medium articulates best what I mean: Uncharted 3 put more were it could have done with less.

Near the end, it became less puzzle/adventure/shooter more survive-the-same-firefight-by-memorizing-where-the-enemies-will-come-from. I ended up quitting the game a few times and coming back at a later time, out of frustration. Also, did I mention that it takes a bit longer to aim / aiming is worse than the last game? (Naughty Dog responds to Uncharted 3 aiming concerns)

More more more. More firefights, more hand-to-hand combat, more chases and more grabbing-the-ledge-at-the-last-moment-slipping-and-catching-another-part-of-the-ledge. (SPOILER: he *always* makes it)

Let’s break that down:

• More firefights! – Surviving isn’t an ordeal when after your nth attempt, you’ve already memorized where the enemies will be coming from.
• More hand-to-hand combat! – They emphasized that the hand-to-hand combat has been improved this time around. Here are my issues with that: 1.) it’s the same motion over and over again 2.) it’s useless when you’re in a firefight and snipers and grenade-launcher dudes and machine gun dudes are taking away the colors from your screen 3.) Arkham City’s freeflow combat has spoiled me.
• More chases! – Remember when I mentioned the “Run ‘n Gun” part of Urban Warfare from Uncharted 2 above? You get chased by _____ twice, with the same “unseen obstacles” angle. (Insert “spiders,” “flood,” and “water.”)
• More ledge-grabbing! – Drake always makes it. The effect is lessened because *every* almost-fall will have a ledge. Drake will grab onto that ledge. Always. I’ll be more surprised if he goes through a level and nothing big happens. Or if he just slips and spends the following weeks recovering.
• More murder! – No one acknowledges that Drake is a mass murderer. I read somewhere that Naughty Dog was going to adjust it to “breaking a few necks along the way to get treasure/ Drake’s the everyman etc,” but instead, we get a lot of shooting the same bad guys over and over again.
• More treasure! – Well … not really. Which would probably make Drake a horrible mass-murdering non-treasure hunter.

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