I'm at chapter 13 or 14 in the first Uncharted, and wanted to ask about the game (without digging through the other threads for the sequels). I really enjoy it when there are those (few and far between) Tomb Radier "How do I get up there?!" moments, but the repetition in the firefights and lack of true exploration is starting to wear me down. I feel like every time I get into an awesome area that I'm excited to explore, I have to hide behind a pillar and kill about 20 dudes (the same 20 dudes I killed in the area before... and the one before that... and the one before that...). It's just tedious and not fun.

I'm going to stick with the game until I wrap it up, but I wanted to know if the gameplay ratio of shooting to exploration/platforming is similar in the sequels? I'm hoping that there is more emphasis on exploration instead of falsely padding out the game with annoying and drawn out shooting sequences every time the player gets into a gorgeous area. (Oh, so you like that waterfall and cliff ruins over there? Tough shit, here are three waves of non-descript Haitians (?) in Hawaiian shirts (?!) to shoot.)

A few observations:
- Drake is a jackass, but I like him. The dudeguy-bro version of TR:Legend era Lara.
- This game is BRIGHT. Love the graphics and lighting when outside in the tropical/forest areas.
- Not too many puzzles here, unfortunately.
- Funny how some people flipped over RE5 because of the skin color of the Majini, but all you do in this game is shoot black guys.

Gonna cut and paste the reply I gave to both avatar and Qui-Gon Joe back before Uncharted 3 came out:

"It's downright torture going back to the original Uncharted after the sequel.  Though it pretty much follows the same exact gameplay template as its predecessor, Uncharted 2 does it so much better in every conceivable way.  The pacing of the battles are more streamlined, and the unbearable waves of enemies are toned down to a far more desirable degree.  There's a larger variety in enemy types and more opportunities to use the different weaponry.  It's also MUCH easier to get a bead on the enemies here than the pirates from the first, since they're not staggering around like drunken monkeys every time you fire off a round on 'em.

The series has always been action-shooter, though, so if you're looking for something with more exploration, you might be better off elsewhere.  There's plenty of platforming, but like the first Uncharted, it's more or less on a guided path, serving to lead you toward the next big set piece action sequence.  But man, what incredible set pieces they are."

Uncharted 3 was comparatively less polished and more clumsily paced than U2, but still several steps up from U1.  If you end up playing U3, make sure you choose the optional aiming controls configuration available via post-release patch.

As Angela noted, a few years back I asked the same question you did. Basically, I enjoyed the beginning of DF but quickly got disillusioned. You must be far more determined than I am. Personally, I suggest watching this instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2t-eeyrkog

Angela, thank you so much for that! This is just what I needed to see:

I didn't want to go through the other threads in fear of accidentally reading spoilers. And, avatar!, gotta finish what I started, even if it's not awesome and I'm probably going to chuck it once I'm done. I'd like to at least get the story down for Uncharted 2.

I had a friend that gave me copy of Uncharted 2... and I have yet to get to it myself.

However, I've heard a million and a half people tell me that Uncharted 2 was the the peak of the series - at least thus far.

I'd suggest at least playing the series up to 2 and see if your opinion changes.

On that note I'm trying to think of a series I've played where the sequel was a significant improvement over the original... I can't really think of one off the top of my head. The closest ones I can think of are Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Resident Evil 2.

Mega Man 2, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat 2, Soul Calibur, Dragon Warrior 2, Ys II, Secret of Mana...

Sorry, I'm going to somewhat contest this one. Not saying Soul Calibur was bad but I don't think Soul Blade gets near enough cred these days.

However, nostalgia does kind of play into this considering how many hours I put into SB when younger.

I wanted to say something about this. I haven't played the games but if you think he is a jackass but you like him I think that really says something about the writing.

I had a LOL moment this morning during a cutscene when Nate was walking into some cavern and was talking about how he's always careful and won't get hurt... and then turned around and faceplanted right into a low-hanging ceiling. I enjoy Naughty Dog's PS2-era humor, and there's a little bit of that spark carried over into Uncharted.

Another thing I realized is that you can change the difficulty on the fly. Hello, easy mode! Not a HUGE improvement, but enough to notice and alleviate some of the frustration of the constant firefights.

I didn't think of this earlier, but this EXACT situation/opinion actually reflects my opinion of the original Crash Bandicoot.

I shelled out a good amount for mint black boarder and played it after Crash 2 & 3... and it didn't go very well AT ALL. Hell, I couldn't even finish the original Crash. It was pure torture in my opinion and these games only got better as they went on. Crash 2 makes the original look like a fledgling student project and Crash 3 is even better with its time trails being a surprising and great addition. Love Crash 3 to death.

Usually I hate the tar out of time trails. Looking at you Tomb Raider Anniversary.

The difficulty settings in the first Uncharted always felt grossly disproportionate to me.  Normal seemed better suited as Hard, and even Easy is a hair too challenging for what I would consider as 'Normal' in any other action game.  I've yet to try my patience on Crushing mode. Doubt I ever will.

On the other hand, I wholeheartedly recommend going 'Hard' for Uncharted 2.  Maybe it's an aftereffect of the ballbusting difficulty one tends to experience going through U1, but U2's Normal seems insultingly easy by comparison.

I wrapped up Uncharted last night, clocking in around 7h30m on Easy. True to form, the last stretch of the game was basically the same style of awesome exploration (that huge treasure room was AWESOME) and immensely frustrating and unnecessary overdone firefights, wrapped up with a stupid last chapter and final boss "fight". Instead of being one solid type of game, it tried to be two different games - PoP/TR style platforming and crappy GoW-ish shooter - and didn't really succeed well on either level because the balance is so off.

Going on everyone's notes, and from what some friends say, I definitely won't be playing this one again, but I am glad that I checked it out because now I'm familiar with the characters and story, which will make Uncharted 2 more enjoyable since I have the context. Overall I'd give this game a (generous) 5/10 or so, maybe a 6/10 because I fell in love with the environments.

Random thoughts/review notes:
+ Awesome graphics, environments. Love the brightness and bloom in the outdoor areas, and the dank and cold areas underground.
+ Nate is such a wanker, but in the best way. Can't wait to see how his character develops in Uncharted 2.
+ When this game is at its best, Nate hanging off of platforms and climbing outdoor towers while the sun shines over the ocean in the background, it is a total joy. I'd be pumped if the game had more of these segments.
- Crap and way too frequent shooting segments.
- Crap and way too frequent shooting segments.
- Enemies seem to have laser accuracy; walk into a new area and you get picked off immediately. Meanwhile, the recoil in Nate's guns are more noticeable, which leads to less accuracy from his end.

This is a big gripe I tend to have with games like this sometimes. Enemies with very keen (unbelievably keen) aim can just make a segment of a game torture.

Wait. What you've written states that Uncharted failed to succeed at being a "crappy GoW-ish shooter". Is that correct? Just gonna throw out this question: If you don't like Gears what did you expect from this? (You liked RE4 though, right?)

Is this because you don't like combat in general or killing enemies in large numbers? Do the encounters have a lack of diversity in stage layout and winning strategy? How is the movement and cover system? Are the weapons you acquire/find while you progress not making you eager to try them out?

It sounds like you want to play an adventure game. Acknowledging that that genre is dead how would you make this game better while including action elements?

Sounds frustrating. Getting shot at by position advantaged enemies who have ungodly accuracy is extremely frustrating. I remember I was playing FarCry2 and this one injured enemy was shooting me while grounded. It literally took me 5-10 minutes to find and kill him. Getting killed by something so impersonal as a bullet is probably the most annoying way to die in a game, esp. as a repeatable primary source of death, if you ask me.

Loved Gears 1-3, and do love RE4. The cover mechanic wasn't well fleshed out (especially compared to Gears), and when it's a prime and mandatory part of the most frequent and frustrating part of the game, that's a problem for me.

I like combat and killing tons of dudes (see RE4 and Bulletstorm, which I just finished and loved every minute of). There's a lack of diversity, movement is fine but cover ain't great, and the weapons are just OK. On the tip of RE4, it was like taking out Island-level Ganados with an unmodified Shotgun or Riot Gun - I felt that the weapons needed more power, and that these dudes shouldn't be taking 7-8 shots before going down, which is why I put the difficulty on easy to finish up.

Acknowledging that adventure gaming is dead? Disagree on that (especially from there point of view where there are tons of those games that I just haven't discovered/played yet), but less shooting and more exploration would have made for a more balanced experience for me.

Yeah, agreed 100%! Position-advantaged is the perfect description. You're behind a wall that's collapsing from enemy fire, your guns suck, your cover mechanics are flimsy at best, and there's a dude a football field away picking you off with a pistol every time you poke your head out to have a look at the area. Not fun!

I'm curious, did you try out Uncharted 2?

Not yet! I just got through another round of Shadows of the Damned and started Sly Cooper 4 this morning. It's on the list, though, and I'll post impressions once I get to it.