Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Catch-All

With the caveat that I am still enjoying this game immensely, I agree with many of the complaints and think this is possibly an example of multiplayer ruining single-player. It feels as though the combat, and even just Drake's default movement, have been tweaked to running around a combat arena full of twitch gamers trying to shoot each other.

I just finished up on Normal on Saturday and I was very happy with the game. I thought the melee was more fun this time around and I didn't really have any issues with the gunplay. Sure I died a few times in some spots, but I thought they were fair deaths and not frustrating.

Some of the puzzles were just challenging enough to make me feel somewhat clever without being frustrating or really breaking up the pace. In fact, pacing is what this game does best.

The set pieces in this one were among gaming's best and the spectacle is second to none. There were a couple of plot threads I expected to go places that didn't pan out, but overall I was happy with the story and the characters.

There are so many great moments I keep thinking back to, both cinematic and gameplay - a sign of a great game. Now begins the long wait for Uncharted 4.

Thin_J wrote:

I hate the controller. I aim on the PS3 like an untrained orangutan might if handed the PS3 controller, smashing randomly at the sticks and hoping I luck out and it does something resembling what I want it to do.

I still never had an issue with any of the combat really... run back somewhere, plug away at all the far off guys and snipers right off the bat and then take out the leftovers hand to hand. I approached pretty much every piece of combat in the game this way and never had real trouble, other then getting super annoyed that I was spending an entire magazine of ammo trying to kill said faraway guys because I hate the controller and not because the game is actually challenging.

I think the game's aiming is making it worse for everyone who hates the controller. It just feels janky. I actually prefer the PS3 controller and I am having a very tough time targeting baddies, and I'm through chapter 12 right now. It's maddening. In a game like Bad Company 2 I can whip off headshots without even thinking about it with the Dualshock, but in U3 I spend so much time just trying to get the reticule over the guy he moves before I can shoot. Something just isn't right about it. It's been the same way for me in all the Uncharted games.

Evo wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

I hate the controller. I aim on the PS3 like an untrained orangutan might if handed the PS3 controller, smashing randomly at the sticks and hoping I luck out and it does something resembling what I want it to do.

I still never had an issue with any of the combat really... run back somewhere, plug away at all the far off guys and snipers right off the bat and then take out the leftovers hand to hand. I approached pretty much every piece of combat in the game this way and never had real trouble, other then getting super annoyed that I was spending an entire magazine of ammo trying to kill said faraway guys because I hate the controller and not because the game is actually challenging.

I think the game's aiming is making it worse for everyone who hates the controller. It just feels janky. I actually prefer the PS3 controller and I am having a very tough time targeting baddies, and I'm through chapter 12 right now. It's maddening. In a game like Bad Company 2 I can whip off headshots without even thinking about it with the Dualshock, but in U3 I spend so much time just trying to get the reticule over the guy he moves before I can shoot. Something just isn't right about it. It's been the same way for me in all the Uncharted games.

I played through Dead Space 2, Killzone 3, and Portal 2 on the Dualshock earlier this year and they all felt great. Something is most definitely just wrong with the aiming in this one. The reticule is fast and responsive if you're not near an enemy, but once it closes in, it slows to a crawl and makes it very awkward to target an enemy that isn't standing still. If they're relatively close to you and running side to side, you can't even keep up with them on the default settings. It's really weird. I never had this problem with Uncharted 2, so maybe all the talk of a bug affecting things has some real merit. Or Naughty Dog just straight goofed and tried to fix a problem that didn't exist.

That said, I feel like some of you are drinking the Haterade on this one a little too hastily. Even with the aiming quirks, the combat is very manageable and the rest of the game is an absolute joy to experience so far (chapter 11).

Chapter 11, eh? I too was so cocky. Wait. Easy will be your friend soon.

MisterStatic wrote:

Chapter 11, eh? I too was so cocky. Wait. Easy will be your friend soon.

Heh, I guess we shall see soon

The cruise ship section can be rough, and this time around it seems that the goons have no qualms about flanking and rushing you. But, what I like about that, is it forces you to stay mobile and not hunker down for too long.

I have no same admitting I bumped down the difficulty to finish the game. In my opinion the combat isn't really the focus point of the game for me and dying was taking me out of the flow of the game.

So I thew it on easy and enjoyed the ride. I had a fun time with it. Had a better time that I was able to rent it from redbox and only payed $6 for 3 days.

Secret Asian Man wrote:

I have no same admitting I bumped down the difficulty to finish the game. In my opinion the combat isn't really the focus point of the game for me and dying was taking me out of the flow of the game.

So I thew it on easy and enjoyed the ride. I had a fun time with it. Had a better time that I was able to rent it from redbox and only payed $6 for 3 days.

Yep, I feel the same way. After my bout of hollow hubris, I realized that this is a game where playing at a higher difficulty, even normal, actually detracts from the intended experience.

If anyone is starting this soon, just start on easy and enjoy the ride. I imagine you would even enjoy very easy. But for most people, normal will start giving unreasonable frustration right around...

Spoiler:

the end of the cruise ship.

Then you have to feel a bit shameful when bumping the difficulty down. For better or worse, this is a game to be experienced with as little interruption to flow as possible and should not be a test of thumb-skillz.

Secret Asian Man wrote:

In my opinion the combat isn't really the focus point of the game for me and dying was taking me out of the flow of the game.

I agree with this. I just wish somebody had told the developers that.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
Secret Asian Man wrote:

In my opinion the combat isn't really the focus point of the game for me and dying was taking me out of the flow of the game.

I agree with this. I just wish somebody had told the developers that.

I did the exact same as the posters above, though I held out until chapter 19 to drop down. I've always felt like Uncharted was trying to be two games at once. The story-driven Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones style of game, and then the shooter. Since I really only want to play the first of those two games, the constant shooter that they kept forcing me to play was just annoying.

I also felt like this one really reduced the scope of the puzzle sections. There was nothing like the big

Spoiler:

suspended dagger room

from the second game, and I really missed those.

Finished the game tonight on normal. I haven't checked my stats yet, but I pretty sure I died more than 100 times. It didn't even cross my mind to lower the difficulty until I read it here and I was in the middle of Chapter 19, I just kept saying, I've made it this far.

The aiming is definitely off and I would have preferred more balance between puzzles and gun fights, but I couldn't stop playing, so I guess my complaints don't carry much weight.

I finished the game over the weekend and was really conflicted about the experience. I loved the story, characters, puzzle, adventure, set pieces, basically everything that was not combat. Unfortunately, as many have pointed out, a whole lot of this game is combat. I don't recall being frustrated with the combat in Uncharted 2, but there was more than a few times that I almost completely quit Uncharted 3 out of frustration. I think one of the bigger problems is the melee, I don't know how many times I died because I was locked in a punch animation or Drake pushed someone instead of rolling, etc. I suppose coming right off Arkham City doesn't really do any favors to my perception of the melee combat in this game.

The first half or so of the game was not really difficult, IMO, but at a certain point it just turned into an incredibly frustrating game for me. There was no difficulty curve either, it was like someone flipped a switch.

Spoiler:

The ship graveyard was the point that the game became ridiculous to me, which is sad, that's one of the cooler locations in the game.

I wish I had thought to turn the game to easy, but I didn't until the last chapter or two, and at that point I figured I might as well stick it out and get a trophy out of it.

Despite all that, everything else about the game is amazing enough to still make it an incredible game. I just hope they figure out what to do about combat in this series, it doesn't fit well and it's not fun IMO.

Chaz wrote:

I also felt like this one really reduced the scope of the puzzle sections. There was nothing like the big

Spoiler:

suspended dagger room

from the second game, and I really missed those.

I'm not done yet, but although they may not have been as impressive, I felt the puzzles have been more interesting. Whereas the puzzles in 2 felt like either "look at the journal and match the thingy up to it" or basically just a traversal puzzle as in "where's a handhold so I can get to the next switch/lever I need to interact with"...

Spoiler:

The one where the tiles on the ground showed a different symbol depending on what side you were looking at them and the one where you had to position the viewer lens in the room with all the floating body parts

...both play with perspective in a neat way.

juv3nal wrote:
Chaz wrote:

I also felt like this one really reduced the scope of the puzzle sections. There was nothing like the big

Spoiler:

suspended dagger room

from the second game, and I really missed those.

I'm not done yet, but although they may not have been as impressive, I felt the puzzles have been more interesting. Whereas the puzzles in 2 felt like either "look at the journal and match the thingy up to it" or basically just a traversal puzzle as in "where's a handhold so I can get to the next switch/lever I need to interact with"...

Spoiler:

The one where the tiles on the ground showed a different symbol depending on what side you were looking at them and the one where you had to position the viewer lens in the room with all the floating body parts

...both play with perspective in a neat way.

Agreed, I really like the latter example of those puzzles you mentioned. I thought that was a really eerie and cool puzzle. Some of the puzzles are laughably contrived though. For example, where you figure out you need three or four people to trigger some ancient mechanism and you just happen to have that exact number of people with you. How convenient!

Finished this up tonight. I tend to echo the general sentiment: the story, setting, characters, visuals, etc. were all great. The combat was... not. The melee combat especially felt out of place and not nearly as good as Batman's (which it clearly was copying). One thing I did love, however, was:

Spoiler:

No incredibly annoying final boss fight!

Dyni wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:

Chapter 11, eh? I too was so cocky. Wait. Easy will be your friend soon.

Heh, I guess we shall see soon :)

Ok. I finished the game, and while I never had to turn it down to easy, I definitely see where the complaints come from. Malor's comments about the melee grab and roll being bound to the same button became crystal clear toward the end of the game, and there were too many rocket/grenade launching 1-hit kills.

Do you think people would complain about the combat as much if Naughty Dog dumbed down the AI a bit? Everyone always says they want smarter AI, but it seemed like much of the frustration would have been gone if the enemies didn't flank so aggressively.

One thing I did love, however, was:

Spoiler:

No incredibly annoying final boss fight!

Yes! Exactly how I felt at the end.

Pretty sure I found my first Easter Egg. When you first see the cruse ship when you're in the ship graveyard, I noticed,

Spoiler:

When you look at it through the binoculars you can clearly see it's called The Seaward. That's the name of the boat GOB buys in Arrested Development, a riff on "the c-word." I had a pretty good laugh at that.

I'm putting this game on the pile until they patch the controls. Rumor has it they've been working on one, but I'm not actually convinced. If it's not fixed in a few months, I'll just deal with it.

gregrampage wrote:

I'm putting this game on the pile until they patch the controls. Rumor has it they've been working on one, but I'm not actually convinced. If it's not fixed in a few months, I'll just deal with it.

Yeah, but you have to watch rumors, especially from the Sony camp (either from PR or simply overzealous fans). When LittleBigPlanet came out with horrible, loose, floaty jump controls, they originally claimed that it was something that would be patched. Then they shifted gears and claimed that it would be fixed in the sequel. Sadly, they still suck.

Jasonofindy wrote:
gregrampage wrote:

I'm putting this game on the pile until they patch the controls. Rumor has it they've been working on one, but I'm not actually convinced. If it's not fixed in a few months, I'll just deal with it.

Yeah, but you have to watch rumors, especially from the Sony camp (either from PR or simply overzealous fans). When LittleBigPlanet came out with horrible, loose, floaty jump controls, they originally claimed that it was something that would be patched. Then they shifted gears and claimed that it would be fixed in the sequel. Sadly, they still suck.

Yeah I'll probably just give it until after I finish All 4 One and Arkham City.

You really won't feel like it needs a patch if you play it on easy from the start. I know I keep saying this, but you truly don't need (or even want) to play it on Normal. I don't even understand what a patch would do. The difficulty change helps in several aspects concerning the control. An example:

Spoiler:

There are some enemies that require a well-aimed head shot to kill on Normal, but Easy will allow you to hit the body as well for a kill.

Stele wrote:

Yeah this one is setup to be like Batman with the cool melee attack/counter/grapple fights. Except it forces you into that melee fight, and you can't use your gun anymore, or evade like before. It changes the controls of the game. :?

It's got one of the same issues that Batman has - namely, that the enemies are immune to their allies weapons. I can grapple a bad guy in either game, and other bad guys will fire into that melee with automatic weapons fire, and I'll take damage, but the guy I'm fighting won't. Hand grenades are a possible exception.

Speak of the devil... turned it on just now and got a patch... searching for notes...

Naughty Dog

Fixed an issue so that 3D works properly on all Sony SimulView 3D TVs.

Wow... that's it?

MisterStatic wrote:

You really won't feel like it needs a patch if you play it on easy from the start. I know I keep saying this, but you truly don't need (or even want) to play it on Normal. I don't even understand what a patch would do. The difficulty change helps in several aspects concerning the control. An example:

Spoiler:

There are some enemies that require a well-aimed head shot to kill on Normal, but Easy will allow you to hit the body as well for a kill.

A patch would make the controls work like they did in Uncharted 2 (and supposedly the multiplayer). I played Uncharted 2 on hard and loved it. I don't mind hard combat. I just want the aiming to work.

gregrampage wrote:

A patch would make the controls work like they did in Uncharted 2 (and supposedly the multiplayer). I played Uncharted 2 on hard and loved it. I don't mind hard combat. I just want the aiming to work.

Agreed, I don't want to play it on easy because I enjoyed the shooting in the first two Uncharteds. I'm hoping that they are able to "fix" whatever is reportedly wrong with the aiming before I get my copy for Christmas from whatever secret relative my wife passed the idea on to.

Honestly, all of the talk in here has me really apprehensive about the melee combat in Uncharted 3 as well. I was not a fan of the melee combat in Arkham Asylum, and to hear that they made melee a bigger part of combat Uncharted at the expense of the shooter bits is disappointing. I played Batman:AA for the exploration/Metroid bits and the stealth combat stuff. I thought the melee rooms were the worst part. (I realize I'm strongly in the minority on AA's melee combat). Arkham City basically opened with two consecutive melee brawls, and I immediately put it back down and went back to playing Dark Souls.

EDIT: accidental double post

gregrampage wrote:

I'm putting this game on the pile until they patch the controls. Rumor has it they've been working on one, but I'm not actually convinced. If it's not fixed in a few months, I'll just deal with it.

Not just rumor.

juv3nal wrote:
gregrampage wrote:

I'm putting this game on the pile until they patch the controls. Rumor has it they've been working on one, but I'm not actually convinced. If it's not fixed in a few months, I'll just deal with it.

Not just rumor.

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. They haven't confirmed a patch yet, but there's confirmation they're working on it. That's some next level effort in fixing it though, I'm very impressed they handled it that way.