Nathan Drakes Luck Meter

For those who haven't heard... https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/uncharted-apos-nathan-drake-isn-090200515.html

Uncharted games do not feature a health meter, they feature a luck meter. Drake is not a bullet sponge, he just runs out of luck before someone pops his ass to the game over screen.

I actually think this is a pretty neat concept that should be explored more, and implemented with purpose, but what really caught me was Amy Hennig talking about it...

"As Amy Hennig, director of the first three Uncharted games explained: "True! That was the original intention (to stay more aligned with the spirit and tone of the films we were homaging.)"

Staying more aligned with the spirit and tone of the films we were homaging...

That sentence right there is why I worry about video games future and why I don't look at uncharted games in the same light as say Bayonetta or super meat boy... This is one of the top writers of one of the most successful developers (yes I know she is no longer with ND) admitting that their scope is to chase the aesthetics of a film.... Not for gameplay purposes or to better serve their player systems, but to align more with chasing the feeling of watching Indiana Jones...

Games are sooooooo much more than films when a smart developer is squarely focused on building aesthetics around air tight gameplay. Our hobby transcends film, TV, and all other forms because it is interactive and can be so much more to the human experience than simply a film...

I like devs that make a game first and a film last.

This is why PS4 rules, super meatboy was a PS+ title and its a great game non-movie.

@ProtossRushX: smb may be one of the best ever... Certainly in its genre, but more so as an example of how to game.

Yeah I saw that in Yahoo, pretty funny!

Nathan Drake Vs Fortune(MGS2) Vs Domino(Deadpool) Vs Fallout Character with Max Luck.

100,000 bullets fired and no one gets hit. Match ends in a draw.

Stealth PS4 'movie' game bash thread confirmed....

I really don't care how they deal with player health, but that is an interesting way to look at it.

That's why Sony is so afraid of crossplay, they know there's no lucky meters online.

And yet they have cross play......

Uncharted would have been better without health regen. They expect you run and gun and jump around, but you're so weak, because giving you little health is the only way to make health regen challenging.

@scatteh316: Just not with their rivals.

People love to try to bash Uncharted like their little comments online have any chance of stopping it from being a f***ing juggernaut. If you don't like it don't play it. I've played them all and enjoyed them. Movie game or no movie game they're still a pretty fun one and done

One of my biggest issues with Uncharted 2 was that the gameplay was so far removed from the films they were homaging. The gameplay had more to do with Rambo than Indiana Jones. I wish it focused more on adventure and puzzles to counter the action.

@TheEroica: Thanks for the share :) Always took this as a given.

I know developers can do whatever they want to their games, and can come up with the most nonsensical explanations as to how and why things happen but, this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard yet lol.

On that note. I guess this applies to the enemies too. They took a lot of bullets before going down in Crushing difficulty.

I beat the end is nigh this year. Criminally underrated especially since it's such a great game for anyone who enjoyed meatboy.

Gotta love uncharted "puzzles." Open book and read answers.

Genius!

ButthurtLem!!!!!

10/10 GOAT! Stay Salty

Seems like a dumb excuse for an issue people haven't brought up since the days of "too brown/gray" and "eww it has a multiplayer pass". People are much more preoccupied with things like "derp microtransactions derp" that I would have just left this one alone.

If going forward they are going forward going to make it so enemy bullets just miss the player until the luck meter depletes, I wonder if that'll spark a new type of criticism likening enemy AI to storm troopers that can't hit the broad side of a barn.

As bad as Storm troopers' marksmanship is, EVERYONE in the GI Joe cartoon (80's) missed every shot. Nobody ever got shot.

I think this is why perhaps Amy has struggled to go anywhere this gen. More than anyone she really seems to be affected by the whole the gamplay has to justify the movie tone of a game. Reading that kotaku article about the trouble development UC4 gives you insight that actually the other team ended putting more gameplay than what she originally had in mind.

At first i was like hey something like this could actually be a cool video game mechanic if it wasn't done for the stupid excuse. If was expanded to the tactic of the game.

I wonder why...

Well, clearly, the answer is that there should be no more games like Uncharted. What we need are less genres. Choice is bad. In sameness, there is redemption. Sony should have never ever made a cinematic third person shooter and should apologize. Even though, people bought the first, second, third, and fourth installment of the franchise by the millions, it is very clear that this was an ornate deception to call something a game that makes people mad.

Sony is literally Hitler.

@cainetao11: lol.

Ya do realize all these two sentences are very hypocrite coming from a Mass Effect lover, right?

Or dont you think ME wasnt homaging the likes of Star Trek and Star Wars? Next you are going to tell me Mass Effect had "good" gameplay... AH

Couldnt have said it better myself. The man loves to hate on cinematic games (strangely enough, mostly the ones made by sony) while being a huge Mass Effect fan... Am I the only one seeing the irony in this?

edit: And want to know the biggest irony in this "gameplay vs story/characters" debacle? The Mass Effect with the best gameplay is also the most hated by the fans... it kinda makes you think, uh?

This is why Uncharted 3 and 4 were shitty gaming experiences for me. It is so obvious how hard they worked on consistently taking away play from the the gamer. Its difficult for me to enjoy any game that force feeds you cinematic and routinely take away control for storytelling.

Yeah you make a good point... and that's why I've always thought that Naughty Dog games are a bit overrated. They're basically just games with heaps of cutscenes (which are very well done), and some shooting in between.

However, I'm not against cutscenes in games & I'm certainly a fan of games having great stories/characters. But that shouldn't be put before gameplay. A game that comes to mind recently that gets the balance right imo is Nier Automata.

Its called "fear".

Its great to see that you are finally being honest with yourself. :)

Fear of what?

@TheEroica:

If that was a luck meter then why do bullets pierce Nate's body? We see it clearly hit his skin and blood splatter! Does luck make you bullet proof? It's obviously health regen! Just call it what is!

How dare you simplify the exotic nature of the luck system.

Movies are fun for a while.

Games can be (re)played indefinitely.

Movies can be replayed to.

@Pedro:

Hearing her call it a "system" really pissed me off. If we're going to rename health regen without the bar the luck system then I guess we must have ALOT of lucky protagonists!

Nate, Lara Croft, Marcus Fenix, Faith, Godzilla, etc. ND didn't invent the shit! Everyone uses it! It's all for the sake of immersion!

Fear of loss. Those with the most always fear losing it. Greg Miller was right when he said they aren't acting in strength they are acting in fear.

And? They're not Marty Mcfly to do everything everytime they're called chicken.

Wish Bruce and Amy would come back and Neal would get bounced.

The sum of all fears!

Fear the old blood.

@hrt_rulz01:

"Yeah you make a good point... and that's why I've always thought that Naughty Dog games are a bit overrated. They're basically just games with heaps of cutscenes (which are very well done), and some shooting in between.

However, I'm not against cutscenes in games & I'm certainly a fan of games having great stories/characters. But that shouldn't be put before gameplay. A game that comes to mind recently that gets the balance right imo is Nier Automata."

- All that is bs exaggeration. If you can stand talking to an npc for 20 minutes at a time in games like Mass Effect and Witcher and manage to stomach 1 hour long cutscenes like in Metal Gear Solid then there's no reason why Uncharted's cinematography should bother you! Uncharted's 5 minute cutscenes won't kill you! Unless you got some serious ADD.

Why was this brought up? Aren't (certain) movies and games supposed to take us away from reality? So what if the dude gets shot and health regens.

@nepu7supastar7: When you look at it now with this hindsight it does appear like the bullets don't really hit. I think the point that TC is trying to make is not really the mechanic itself. I think its about the mindset of the devs. That is why we go from UC to Super Meat Boy weird comparison. ND instead of basically answering the criticism by saying its a fuckin video game at the end of the day. The player can take several hits in an unrealistic way because its a video game. It really is just a form of health gen mechanic like the other games. They instead purposely felt the need to make the bullets not land in order to pay homage to the movie the game borrows inspiration from is what worries people like TC.

Because of that mentality questions can arise like did they remove climbing mechanics from UC4 because of production or was it because it would not fit the movie.

@ellos:

What do you call it? Deflection? Like I said, the bullets can be seen clearly hitting Drake. That's irrefutable evidence in the games themselves. So they can't just say that they magically miss now. It's not something to be ashamed about either! Uncharted was never meant to be a simulation!

I agree. Uncharted 2 is way overhyped IMO, because it just feels like one bombastic semi-on-rails set piece after another.

lol that is so lame, what a copout.

These are video games we are playing (though in Uncharted's case, you could argue otherwise hashtagdownwithmoviegames), I don't really care about any sort of realistic explanation. Let him be able to take 20 shots to the body.

Unless it's a simulation based on realism, I simply consider that video games take place in some alternate universe where humans have no internal organs and are just masses of muscle that can take a few shots :P

Naughty Dog has many qualities, unfortunately game design is not one of them.

By golly that's awesome.

You know people love to feel special and the easiest way of achieving that is by renaming it. I agree with your assertion.

@Pedro: But a movie remains the same if you watch it a second or third time. (I do like rewatching movies though)

A game experience can be completely different from one playthrough to the next.