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WELP. I picked up Uncharted 3 from redbox and banged it out in a day. I started on hard which, I guess for normal people like ethe-real-ity it is super easy but OH MY GOD. I wanted to kill myself so I ended up bumping it down to normal. (And then easy. And then very easy. I JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. I was tired of shooting people, I just wanted PLOT.)
So, anyway, here are some thoughts:
First: Young Drake. I have a bit of a weakness for that kind of character. Kid with no/crap parents who is constantly in trouble, has a hard life, but isn't an asshole/still able to have a good moral compass and kind of, you know, forced to grow up but still a kid at heart. Bonus for finding an unexpected father figure. (It's like Bobby and Sam & Dean in Supernatural. I don't really watch it anymore, but I did watch, you know, THAT episode.) And, yeah, I just really like it.
I still don't know how true it is that he's a descendant of Drake. It seems to me like it's something he made up when he was really young to make himself feel better or special or just, you know, less lonely, and it just kind of stuck. How fucking asjklfjsa;l is that? And I don't know if, at present, he's kind of 'deluded' himself into believing it, or if he's aware that it's not true, but it really doesn't matter in the end.
And jeez, I love the relationship he has with Sully. I just want to give out lots of hugs. If you know what I mean. But the entire ending with them just kills me. "I had a lousy father, lousy childhood. I hit forty thinking I was never gonna have a son of my own. Hell, I never wanted one! What the hell do I know about raising a kid? Then you came barreling into my life." Excuse me while I as;dljfA;LKJFDLAK;JFSLK;ASJFDASLK;FDJ So, take my weakness for scrappy kids and unexpected/reluctant father figures and add in my love for non-traditional families... Oh my god. Like, I can't even take how much I love it.
Also, even if it's incredibly unrealistic, I LOVE it in fiction when people are just lucky, you know? Like, come on, there is no way anyone could survive all the shit he goes through, but he still comes out alive in the end. That is straight up luck. He has some skill to help it along, but some of that shit... no way man. He's a lucky guy.
AND, another thing. I love that, despite his non-traditional upbringing, he's still a pretty good guy. He may be a little reckless and naive and careless at times, but he's still a decent person.
"Here's the thing, kid. We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real greatness is what you do with the hand you're dealt."
I DIG IT.
But I still wish there was more of their past relationship in-game. I can fill in the gaps, but it would be more satisfying to actually play it. But I think, overall, the relationship between Nate and Sully is definitely my favorite thing about the third game.
So anyway. Now that that is out of the way, I'm just doing some bullet points.
• CHLOE! God, she is so cool. And Cutter was really great too. I was pretty disappointed they weren't in more of the game. For awhile I was worried Cutter was just going to be another Flynn x) I liked the whole part with him being drugged. And then MAN when he shot Talbot. AWESOME. (Though I don't understand what Talbot could have hoped to gain by stealing the journal from Cutter. The journal led them to whatever was behind that pillar (I can't remember lol), so wouldn't Talbot want to stick around and see what it was? Or if he didn't need it, shouldn't they have just said 'fuck it' and followed him?? I'm confused.)
• I had.. a lot of trouble with this game when it came to finding my way out of areas. Like burning buildings. Nothing like running around in circles for 5 minutes while there is FIRE EVERYWHERE.
• On a related note: "Alright, let's try to do this quietly." LOL YEAH RIGHT.
• Tbh, I feel like the graphics weren't as good as Uncharted 2. Almost seemed like a step back in some areas? The texture on the faces was really nice, but wth happened to Elena and Chloe?
Elena doesn't look too different, but I think in both of them what they really messed up were the eyes. That's what made the two of them look really unique in the other games. And Elena's eyebrows never tapered at the edge. I'm more upset about Chloe, because I LOVED her old face so, so much. It's different. And the color is just weird on both of them. ANYWAY.
It was also really weird when they were running (sometimes Nates hands seemed to flap around a bit lol), especially when they were running up stairs. Most awkward thing to watch, ever. It looks more realistic in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, lol. And I feel like with this game they tried to add more animation to give it some variety, but it was kind of overkill. I also had a lot of trouble controlling Drake. Not that I am very good with these jumpy puzzle things anyway, but oh. my. god. Maybe it's just because I haven't played in awhile, or because I don't own a PS3. But MAN. I try and take cover and he jumps off the side of something. I try and run forward from cover and he jumps to more cover. I try to take cover behind something and he insists on taking cover everywhere that will get me shot. I run by some ammo, go back to pick it up, and I can't. I had a lot more trouble picking up ammo/guns in this game. Or, more specifically, getting it to register WHAT I wanted to pick up. Ugh.
• Elena. So, to start, something that made me go "?????"... how does Elena know Cutter and Marlowe? I guess Nate could have told her about Marlowe, but what did he go around and introduce her to all his shady treasure hunting friends? I have to admit, I'm a bit torn on how I feel about the marriage thing. Nathan's never really struck me as the marrying type. I could probably understand it if I was given more INFORMATION IN-GAME, NAUGHTY DOG. That was kind of my big problem. Yeah, it's kind of cool that it's kept vague, but for me it's almost too vague, I think. It felt more like a side note that they couldn't be bothered to expand on. Though maybe my opinion will change once I watch a walkthrough of the first game; I don't really know too much about their relationship because I haven't played it. That might be my problem.
• Marlowe and Talbot. They were... yeah. Flat. One of my problems with Marlowe was that she seemed to be set up as this person that Nate has a bit more of a history with, aside from that one time in the flashback. I can't believe that they never ran into each other in the past 20 years, especially if she wanted that ring so bad. She doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would just give up, lol. I mean, Elena knows who she is, which means Nate probably had to tell her, which means she must have been a big enough (recurring) problem for him to feel it was important enough to mention, and not in a 'here's the funny story of how Sully and I met' kind of way, judging by Elena's tone when she mentions her. And I don't remember who said it, probably Sully, but he said something to the effect of "you beat her, now let it go", which, idk, to me implied an ongoing rivalry or something. So, yeah. I feel like there's just so much that was left out of this game :\ Oh, and Talbot? Besides looking like Richard Armitage, what was his point? There was so much more that could have been done. I was really waiting for some big surprise about his character because he kept getting shot and disappearing and reappearing and he was so mysterious but... nope. Nothing. :\ I thought Marlowe's death was definitely anti-climatic. I know I went on up there about him being a good guy, but I wish he hadn't have tried to save her. Man, I hate when the "good guys" always have to try and save the villains. Fuck that. They're villains for a reason! You can let her sink in the sand pit. A lot of people will probably thank you. You don't need to prove anything, Nate, so you really should have just gotten the fuck out of there. I liked the fight with Talbot though. Yeah, it was an anti-climatic "boss fight" (can it really be considered a boss fight if he is the lackey?), but I liked that it was kind of low key because you don't really see that too often.
• OH. OH. FAKE KILLING SULLY. (TWICE.) WAS NOT COOL. I was going to be seriously upset if it was real. But they did get me to question if the real Sully was, in fact, real. I really liked that they kind of messed with your head in this game, haha. I was expecting more of that, but they didn't really deliver.
OKAY. So, wow. I'm being kind of a downer. I liked it. I still really like the ending, even more than the U2 ending honestly. But overall, Uncharted 2 was much better.
So, anyway, here are some thoughts:
First: Young Drake. I have a bit of a weakness for that kind of character. Kid with no/crap parents who is constantly in trouble, has a hard life, but isn't an asshole/still able to have a good moral compass and kind of, you know, forced to grow up but still a kid at heart. Bonus for finding an unexpected father figure. (It's like Bobby and Sam & Dean in Supernatural. I don't really watch it anymore, but I did watch, you know, THAT episode.) And, yeah, I just really like it.
I still don't know how true it is that he's a descendant of Drake. It seems to me like it's something he made up when he was really young to make himself feel better or special or just, you know, less lonely, and it just kind of stuck. How fucking asjklfjsa;l is that? And I don't know if, at present, he's kind of 'deluded' himself into believing it, or if he's aware that it's not true, but it really doesn't matter in the end.
And jeez, I love the relationship he has with Sully. I just want to give out lots of hugs. If you know what I mean. But the entire ending with them just kills me. "I had a lousy father, lousy childhood. I hit forty thinking I was never gonna have a son of my own. Hell, I never wanted one! What the hell do I know about raising a kid? Then you came barreling into my life." Excuse me while I as;dljfA;LKJFDLAK;JFSLK;ASJFDASLK;FDJ So, take my weakness for scrappy kids and unexpected/reluctant father figures and add in my love for non-traditional families... Oh my god. Like, I can't even take how much I love it.
Also, even if it's incredibly unrealistic, I LOVE it in fiction when people are just lucky, you know? Like, come on, there is no way anyone could survive all the shit he goes through, but he still comes out alive in the end. That is straight up luck. He has some skill to help it along, but some of that shit... no way man. He's a lucky guy.
AND, another thing. I love that, despite his non-traditional upbringing, he's still a pretty good guy. He may be a little reckless and naive and careless at times, but he's still a decent person.
"Here's the thing, kid. We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real greatness is what you do with the hand you're dealt."
I DIG IT.
But I still wish there was more of their past relationship in-game. I can fill in the gaps, but it would be more satisfying to actually play it. But I think, overall, the relationship between Nate and Sully is definitely my favorite thing about the third game.
So anyway. Now that that is out of the way, I'm just doing some bullet points.
• CHLOE! God, she is so cool. And Cutter was really great too. I was pretty disappointed they weren't in more of the game. For awhile I was worried Cutter was just going to be another Flynn x) I liked the whole part with him being drugged. And then MAN when he shot Talbot. AWESOME. (Though I don't understand what Talbot could have hoped to gain by stealing the journal from Cutter. The journal led them to whatever was behind that pillar (I can't remember lol), so wouldn't Talbot want to stick around and see what it was? Or if he didn't need it, shouldn't they have just said 'fuck it' and followed him?? I'm confused.)
• I had.. a lot of trouble with this game when it came to finding my way out of areas. Like burning buildings. Nothing like running around in circles for 5 minutes while there is FIRE EVERYWHERE.
• On a related note: "Alright, let's try to do this quietly." LOL YEAH RIGHT.
• Tbh, I feel like the graphics weren't as good as Uncharted 2. Almost seemed like a step back in some areas? The texture on the faces was really nice, but wth happened to Elena and Chloe?
Elena doesn't look too different, but I think in both of them what they really messed up were the eyes. That's what made the two of them look really unique in the other games. And Elena's eyebrows never tapered at the edge. I'm more upset about Chloe, because I LOVED her old face so, so much. It's different. And the color is just weird on both of them. ANYWAY.
It was also really weird when they were running (sometimes Nates hands seemed to flap around a bit lol), especially when they were running up stairs. Most awkward thing to watch, ever. It looks more realistic in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, lol. And I feel like with this game they tried to add more animation to give it some variety, but it was kind of overkill. I also had a lot of trouble controlling Drake. Not that I am very good with these jumpy puzzle things anyway, but oh. my. god. Maybe it's just because I haven't played in awhile, or because I don't own a PS3. But MAN. I try and take cover and he jumps off the side of something. I try and run forward from cover and he jumps to more cover. I try to take cover behind something and he insists on taking cover everywhere that will get me shot. I run by some ammo, go back to pick it up, and I can't. I had a lot more trouble picking up ammo/guns in this game. Or, more specifically, getting it to register WHAT I wanted to pick up. Ugh.
• Elena. So, to start, something that made me go "?????"... how does Elena know Cutter and Marlowe? I guess Nate could have told her about Marlowe, but what did he go around and introduce her to all his shady treasure hunting friends? I have to admit, I'm a bit torn on how I feel about the marriage thing. Nathan's never really struck me as the marrying type. I could probably understand it if I was given more INFORMATION IN-GAME, NAUGHTY DOG. That was kind of my big problem. Yeah, it's kind of cool that it's kept vague, but for me it's almost too vague, I think. It felt more like a side note that they couldn't be bothered to expand on. Though maybe my opinion will change once I watch a walkthrough of the first game; I don't really know too much about their relationship because I haven't played it. That might be my problem.
• Marlowe and Talbot. They were... yeah. Flat. One of my problems with Marlowe was that she seemed to be set up as this person that Nate has a bit more of a history with, aside from that one time in the flashback. I can't believe that they never ran into each other in the past 20 years, especially if she wanted that ring so bad. She doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would just give up, lol. I mean, Elena knows who she is, which means Nate probably had to tell her, which means she must have been a big enough (recurring) problem for him to feel it was important enough to mention, and not in a 'here's the funny story of how Sully and I met' kind of way, judging by Elena's tone when she mentions her. And I don't remember who said it, probably Sully, but he said something to the effect of "you beat her, now let it go", which, idk, to me implied an ongoing rivalry or something. So, yeah. I feel like there's just so much that was left out of this game :\ Oh, and Talbot? Besides looking like Richard Armitage, what was his point? There was so much more that could have been done. I was really waiting for some big surprise about his character because he kept getting shot and disappearing and reappearing and he was so mysterious but... nope. Nothing. :\ I thought Marlowe's death was definitely anti-climatic. I know I went on up there about him being a good guy, but I wish he hadn't have tried to save her. Man, I hate when the "good guys" always have to try and save the villains. Fuck that. They're villains for a reason! You can let her sink in the sand pit. A lot of people will probably thank you. You don't need to prove anything, Nate, so you really should have just gotten the fuck out of there. I liked the fight with Talbot though. Yeah, it was an anti-climatic "boss fight" (can it really be considered a boss fight if he is the lackey?), but I liked that it was kind of low key because you don't really see that too often.
• OH. OH. FAKE KILLING SULLY. (TWICE.) WAS NOT COOL. I was going to be seriously upset if it was real. But they did get me to question if the real Sully was, in fact, real. I really liked that they kind of messed with your head in this game, haha. I was expecting more of that, but they didn't really deliver.
OKAY. So, wow. I'm being kind of a downer. I liked it. I still really like the ending, even more than the U2 ending honestly. But overall, Uncharted 2 was much better.