Uncharted 3 Hate (In retrospect)- Justified or Not?

So, I've played through Uncharted 3 twice now, and I must say, I don't find the game bad at all. I mean, I absolutely loved Uncharted 2, and I still think it's the best game in the series so far, but Uncharted 3 has been getting a lot of unwarranted hate.

People have been saying it's too linear. I agree, it is. It's more linear than Uncharted 2, and I definitely prefered UC2's approach, which balanced between cinematic action and gameplay perfectly. But UC3 provides a different kind of experience, that is just as engrossing. Some of the levels are simply mind blowing, like the convoy section, and the Chateu- they're levels that can put UC2 to shame. While I definitely want future Uncharted games to give us more control over what's going on, I didn't mind the cinematic and linear approach that UC3 had, because I still had a hell lot of fun with the game.

People are also saying the ending is disappointing. Yes, it is, kind of. But only because of the lack of a boss battle. I expected a big boss battle against Talbot, but other than that, the last sequence was mind blowing. The spectacle of the city sinking into the desert was spectacular, and it felt too much awe-striking. Though I do prefer Uncharted 2's ending and was a little disappointed in UC3 for having no boss battle, the latter's ending isn't as bad as it is being made out to be.

Sure, compared to UC2, 3 isn't very good- few games can stand up to something as awesome as Uncharted 2. But it's still a great game, and it definitely is not as bad as it is being made out to be. It's still an awesome game.

THIS IS ALL OBVIOUSLY JUST MY OPINION.

Well it depends, really. Some of the hate is unjustified, sure, and that's mainly because people don't want Naughty Dog to do what they know best. I don't like linearity that much, but I really didn't mind it in games like Uncharted 2 mainly because there were so many amazing moments as you played along. It just stood out a lot in Uncharted 3, which made people question Naughty Dog's design choices.

Regarding the ending, well it seems as if it was rushed. Some characters just came and went and we didn't know much about their backstory. But it depends.

Uncharted 3 is a mixed bag; people either love it a lot or hate it. But I think Uncharted 2 was universally loved.

Its a good game. I was one of those people who LOVED Drake's Fortune, my 2007 GOTY. Uncharted 2 was better in every way. I did not expect to enjoy 3 more than I enjoyed 2, but I was hoping after one playthrough, I wouldn't prefer to play Uncharted 2 over 3. They could have released the same day and Uncharted 2 would still be the vastly better game. The multiplayer lost that simple charm in this iteration, the story drags with only one great reveal (which really was GREAT!), the shooting isn't as tight, the pacing is worse, the set pieces aren't as good, and it feels more linear. I can live with loosing control of Drake, but they take control from you a LOT and your always aware of it happening. Uncharted 2 is about 50 times greater than Uncharted 3. Hell I think I might like Drake's Fortune better to this day.

EDIT: I will say I'm happy that Naughty Dog was using half their team to bring us The Last of Us. I would stop thinking they were the best developers ever if they had all their manpower working on such a disappointment.

uncharted 2 had over 100 people working on it, this got cut down to 90 for uncharted 3 as the team split to work on THE LAST OF US, either way uncharted 3 is a great game and is up their in my top 5 games of the year

UC3 is my favorite UC.It took a while for it to take off but when it does it's very enjoyable.
The game really started for me after you encounter that pirate fella.

UC3>UC1>UC2.Pour moi.

I was disappointed with Uncharted 3, but I never said I hated it. :|

If it's anything like UC2, then I'll love it. Don't care what anyone else thinks about it.

I would have hated to have played the game after reading the hype found in this forum.

uncharted 2 had over 100 people working on it, this got cut down to 90 for uncharted 3 as the team split to work on THE LAST OF US, either way uncharted 3 is a great game and is up their in my top 5 games of the year

Chris_Williams

Yeah U3 felt kinda rushed and not as polished as U2. It was still great tho, people are starting to think that becuz some felt a little dissappointing that it means that the game sucked. It didnt sucked, yes it felt a bit short from U2 but still great. Yes its a 9.0/10 and thats the perfect score for it.

It's the worst game of the year. It's an abomination as far as video games go. They put more focus on cinematic approach than on gameplay. percech

[QUOTE="percech"]It's the worst game of the year. It's an abomination as far as video games go. They put more focus on cinematic approach than on gameplay. Nengo_Flow

[QUOTE="Nengo_Flow"][QUOTE="percech"]It's the worst game of the year. It's an abomination as far as video games go. They put more focus on cinematic approach than on gameplay. percech

Not sure how anyone but a fanboy could argue against it being a great game, but that doesn't stop it from, at least in my eyes, having been a disappointment. UC2 was just better in my opinion. Uncharted had the better cinematic moments, but UC2 was the better game.

If anything the game is overpraised. The hate seems justified to me, considering my short time with the demo was the worst gaming experience I have had in a LONG time.

God the game plays like utter crap...

I think it's a great game but it has some really fundamental flaws in it's mechanics. It has some of my favorite characters this gen aside from the Mass Effect series.

It deserves the praise it gets (mostly) but I can clearly see why people are hating on it. I think it deserves a decent helping of both.

I prefer Uncharted 2, but Uncharted 3 is still a great game.

If anything the game is overpraised. The hate seems justified to me, considering my short time with the demo was the worst gaming experience I have had in a LONG time.

God the game plays like utter crap...

LostProphetFLCL

[QUOTE="LostProphetFLCL"]

If anything the game is overpraised. The hate seems justified to me, considering my short time with the demo was the worst gaming experience I have had in a LONG time.

God the game plays like utter crap...

khoofia_pika

Maybe. It was at a demo station in Best Buy. I played the Chateu level and was seriously underwhelmed.

I don't exactly have acess to a PS3 of my own to rent the full game and see if that was just a bad demo, but I honestly don't have much interest anyways...

I think it's a great game but it has some really fundamental flaws in it's mechanics. It has some of my favorite characters this gen aside from the Mass Effect series.

It deserves the praise it gets (mostly) but I can clearly see why people are hating on it. I think it deserves a decent helping of both.

heretrix

Yeah I think that is a pretty fundamental fact about pretty much every game.

All games have their issues and attention should be brought to those while they are there, even if the game is absolutely fantastic.

Balancing the praise and criticism seems to be hard though. Lots of games are either overpraised or overcriticized I feel.

It seems to me Uncharted gets away with alot of stuff that other games get absolutely reemed on.....

Definitely justified. This game is a huge step back from Uncharted 2. There are tons of plot-holes, the aiming controls are extremely clunky, and the pacing is pretty terrible.

I haven't played it yet, but chances are it's pretty much exactly what UC2 was, and that was amazing, so I think the hate is unjustified.

I do not think it is as good as the second one but I actually like the villian and story better. I have not got to the ending yet but I am pretty sure it has to be better than Drakes Deception and the stupid "Run around the tree, collect and shoot" ending. That was lame.

The reason for the hate is mostly due to the fact that ND took many risks, trying to perform amazingly in all aspects, and being lackluster in some. Though some of the hate is justified, it doesn't stop people from calling it the greatest game of all time, even if UC2 was better.

I don't hate it and I think it is a good game; but I was very disappointed with it. I still think it's worth owning, but it's no where close to being worthy of GOTY, nor AAAE.

My my main complaints:

• The game felt too linear. Uncharted 2 wasn't much bigger, but there were slightly bigger areas in the game.
• The entire secting with the pirates. It was long, boring, and entirely pointless. Nothing about that level effects the rest of the game in any way. The cruise ship was nice looking, but that's really it. It was a huge mistake to for ND to focus so much on that portion of the game.
• Chloe, Cutter, Elena, and the villians all had short roles. I honestly don't see how anyone can say the two new villians were the best of the series. The other three characters had short roles in this too. I hated the fact Chloe and Cutter both called in quits half-way through the game, and it felt like Elena only had a cameo. There's that other guy later in the game too, but he felt unneeded.
• The ending was anti-climatic. For two villians I didn't care about, they just died and I said, "meh". Climbing out of a collapsing city? Didn't that happen in Uncharted 2? Oh look, Nathan and Elena are getting back together...again.

Things I enjoyed:

• Learning how Nate met Sully. The game was made for the two, and that's where it shines.
• Reading Nate's jornal. Always fun.
• The start of the game/playing as young Nathan Drake.

In the end, the game felt half-assed in terms of gameplay, story, and character development, or tried to do too much. While the facials and lighting are both great, the rest of the game did not look graphically impressive, even for consoles (except for the desert. I loved the look of the desert). This felt like another game where reviewers were caught up in the hype, because it's no masterpiece in any way.

Uncharted 3 is my favorite in the series and Uncharted 2 is my least favorite. There are some legitimate complaints I can understand (Plot Holes and Glitches) but I think some are stupid. Alot of people seem to want Uncharted 2.5 with the same reused over the top set pieces and such which to me were overdone. The story in Uncharted 3 besides the couple of plot holes was the best in the series and brings in a deeper meaning to the series. The gameplay was fine for me since I played on hard mode and didn't experience any A.I. issues. I also didn't have any problems with the shooting. I enjoyed the pacing and more mellow tone more then Uncharted 2 as well. FlamesOfGrey

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

It was a great game. I personally liked Uncharted 2 more (and thought it was a Near Perfect blend of Cinematics and Gameplay, while 3 felt a lot more leaned towards the former) but Uncharted 3's SP is Great Fun to go through. Never bothered with the MP though :P

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"]Uncharted 3 is my favorite in the series and Uncharted 2 is my least favorite. There are some legitimate complaints I can understand (Plot Holes and Glitches) but I think some are stupid. Alot of people seem to want Uncharted 2.5 with the same reused over the top set pieces and such which to me were overdone. The story in Uncharted 3 besides the couple of plot holes was the best in the series and brings in a deeper meaning to the series. The gameplay was fine for me since I played on hard mode and didn't experience any A.I. issues. I also didn't have any problems with the shooting. I enjoyed the pacing and more mellow tone more then Uncharted 2 as well. GreySeal9

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"]Uncharted 3 is my favorite in the series and Uncharted 2 is my least favorite. There are some legitimate complaints I can understand (Plot Holes and Glitches) but I think some are stupid. Alot of people seem to want Uncharted 2.5 with the same reused over the top set pieces and such which to me were overdone. The story in Uncharted 3 besides the couple of plot holes was the best in the series and brings in a deeper meaning to the series. The gameplay was fine for me since I played on hard mode and didn't experience any A.I. issues. I also didn't have any problems with the shooting. I enjoyed the pacing and more mellow tone more then Uncharted 2 as well. FlamesOfGrey

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

Fair enough. It's just that you're the first person I've ever encountered that likes UC1 better.

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"][QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

Fair enough. It's just that you're the first person I've ever encountered that likes UC1 better.

[QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"]Uncharted 3 is my favorite in the series and Uncharted 2 is my least favorite. There are some legitimate complaints I can understand (Plot Holes and Glitches) but I think some are stupid. Alot of people seem to want Uncharted 2.5 with the same reused over the top set pieces and such which to me were overdone. The story in Uncharted 3 besides the couple of plot holes was the best in the series and brings in a deeper meaning to the series. The gameplay was fine for me since I played on hard mode and didn't experience any A.I. issues. I also didn't have any problems with the shooting. I enjoyed the pacing and more mellow tone more then Uncharted 2 as well. FlamesOfGrey

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

ALL of the final bosses in Uncharted series are lame. But I think U2 was the better out of them, at least it was intense. U1 was just take cover and a mini QTE (and you are fighting a guy who wasnt even the main bad guy of the game), U3 was just fighting that guy with the lame melee combat as the city crumbled (didnt even feel like a final boss fight)

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"][QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

ALL of the final bosses in Uncharted series are lame. But I think U2 was the better out of them, at least it was intense. U1 was just take cover and a mini QTE (and you are fighting a guy who wasnt even the main bad guy of the game), U3 was just fighting that guy with the lame melee combat as the city crumbled (didnt even feel like a final boss fight)

Uncharted 3 was very disappointing for me. The story didn't grip me at all, and certain gameplay mechanics felt much weaker then the 2nd game.

UC3 isn't as revolutionary as UC2 was and some people would argue that is enough reason to dislike the game. I disagree but everyone has their own opinions.

The game is a well made action-adventure game that focuses heavily on the story and the characters. Some people like that and some people don't.

I enjoyed the game but also found it very monotonous, from the beggining your thrown into a fight and that's exactly how the game plays from then on. If you find the combat at the start boring then you might as well stop right there as the game throws that at you every 5 minutes. I didnt think that after finishing it I'd ever go back but a friend and I are trying to complete it on Crushing, and that is a lot of fun, add so much to the combat and the decision choices.

A friend and I are trying to complete it on Crushing, and that is a lot of fun, add so much to the combat and the decision choices.

sailor232

[QUOTE="FlamesOfGrey"][QUOTE="GreySeal9"]

You really like Uncharted 1 better than 2? :?

GreySeal9

Fair enough. It's just that you're the first person I've ever encountered that likes UC1 better.