My Experience with Uncharted

Uncharted was always one of those games that I wanted to play some day, but never got around to doing. That is, until recently. Now, when I first saw Uncharted I figured it would be like the Tomb Raider games e.g. lots of puzzles and some fighting. I have played every Tomb Raider game (actually I started with 2, but I did play anniversary). I haven’t played the last one though: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. I played the demo, and while it was fun, it’s another one of those games that, like Uncharted, I might get around to eventually.

So I pop Uncharted in, and for a while, it’s very much like Tomb Raider. Then the gun fighting starts. The last first person shooter I played was Doom 1 on the PC, and I did so bad that, at the end of the level when it was tallying up my time I shit you not; the numbers were replaced with the words “Time Sucked.” I didn’t give up on shooters until Quake at which point the running and jumping and looking up and down was too much for me. I need to see my character in front of me not just his arms. So, Uncharted is a third person shooter as opposed to a first person shooter. It didn’t matter to me, first, second, or third person shooter I suck at all of them. Nevertheless I persevered. That is until mid way through the game.

It’s around then that the snipers came in. Up to this point I had already met the rocket launcher guy (technically it was a mechina 34 or whatever the hell their gun was called) and now I had snipers. Both of whom could one shot me, and did, often. Which brings me to another unrelated point. How come I’m the only one who seems to be able to run out of ammo? I finally manage to kill a rocket launcher guy and I get three shots out of his gun while he gets ten or more? I call bullshit! The same thing can be said with the sniper.

So after the snipers I was ready to give up. I put the game down for a day or two. I told myself that when I came back I should treat the fighting more like a puzzle and figure it out rather then run in there with guns blazing. It worked. I started to enjoy the game again . . . that is until the final fight. So I’m back in the monastery fighting two rocket launcher guys and four five snipers and getting my ass kicked. (There should totally be a trophy for that by the way. Die two hundred billion times, get a trophy). I will say this about Uncharted, its load times are vast improvement over Tomb Raider where, if you die, you are taken to a load screen and eventually brought back to just before you died. In Uncharted you die and come right back to where the game last saved. Why in the hell I can’t save the game MY SELF anymore is beyond me. One of the most fun things about the old Tomb Raider games was that you could do a beautiful swan dive off a cliff and save your game right there, and die every time. I did it on purpose just for the sheer fun of it. Anyway I digress.

I finally get passed the monastery and now I’m on a boat. This time the sniper can shoot up to four shots and never run out of ammo. So here I am (after receiving my nonexistent two hundred billionth death trophy back in the monastery) on a boat, dead . . . again. So I finally make it to the end and there’s a quick time event. If there’s one thing I hate more than first person shooters it’s quick time events. Those things need to fucking die already. At least this quick time event was consistent; unlike another game I played- cough God of War cough.

So I finally beat the game. I liked it for the most part. But it’s got me thinking. The new Tomb Raider game is supposed to be a reboot. I’m fine with this, but the creators are taking inspiration from Uncharted (and Assassin’s Creed apparently) which is in itself already a reboot of Tomb Raider (Uncharted not Assassin’s Creed). Either way I will buy the new Tomb Raider. I just hope it’s more like Tomb Raider and less like Uncharted. Again, not to say Uncharted is bad, in fact the story, characters and the game itself were quite enjoyable, better than Tomb Raider in many ways (of which I won’t get into here) and I intend to play the next two games as soon as I can, but I grew up with Tomb Raider so I will always have a place in my heart for Miss Croft.

 UPDATE:

I liked Uncharted 2 even more than the first game. I am eager to go and pick up the third. But, as always, there are some things that I don’t like.

Now I don’t know a whole lot about guns, but I’m pretty sure, if a guy is wearing full armor (of any kind) and I shoot rocket into his face, he’s going to die. Not the case with Uncharted 2. Those machine gun guys took three hits with a rocket!

My only other issue with the game was the goat/ yeti/ purple zombie guys. I shot the thing in the face with a shot gun multiple times and nothing. The main villain (Gragoravich?) shoots one in the face with a shot gun and it dies instantly. That’s so not fair! He could one shot me as well though, so maybe he had a high powered shot gun, yeah, let’s go with that.

UPDATE:

So I beat Uncharted 3, which harkened back to Uncharted 1, which means more gun fights. There were times when Nate says “need to take these guys out quietly.” But every time I tried the guy turned around. It didn’t matter if I waited five seconds or five minutes to figure out his pattern. Once I started moving, he turned, initiating another gun fight. In the carefully thought out words of Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka I

  SHOOTERS!

Other than that, Uncharted 3 was a fun game. There are two things that baffle me though. 1, In Uncharted 1, 2, and 3, Drake had several chances to shoot the villains in the head, why did he not? It would have made life much easier. 2, I fail to see what Drakes “deception” was. Maybe I just missed it, or maybe it was the part of the game when he leaves (forgot blond girl’s name) behind to get on the plain, or maybe it’s referring to his name,  which apparently is not Nathan Drake, OR maybe it’s referring to Sir Francis Drake’s deception.

All in all it is a good game. I am looking forward to The Last Of Us. And probably Uncharted 4. I really must love torturing myself.