Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is coming out pretty soon. I’ve got an early copy and I’ve been meaning to check it out.
It’s got me wondering: which of the original three games do you like best?
I think the most obvious choice is Uncharted 2. It’s the game where the series really found its feet in terms of pacing, structure and story-telling. It also features — in my opinion — the most memorable Uncharted set-pieces.
But I do think Uncharted 3 is probably a little underrated. The whole Sully/Nathan story arc is really relatable and brilliantly put together. I love it.
Even Uncharted, with its flaws — mainly with the shooting sections — was a brilliantly put together video game.
Anyway. CHOOSE. CHOOSE ONLY ONE.
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37 responses to “The Big Question: The Best Uncharted”
definately 2
I concur.
U2 single player definitely, but more importantly the co-op levels for U2 were awesome. A mate and I spent countless hours working through them. Such fun.
Then U3’s came out and the co-op levels just seemed tacked on. No depth. No challenge. Real disappointing.
I love the series, but 2 just has the best stuff. That train. The building. That opening. My gods.
Uncharted 3 was a disjointed series of set pieces. There were far too many moments that made no sense in the context of the story but existed purely so that Drake could run dramatically towards the camera (that fucking boat) or shoot a bunch of bad dudes (that fucking boat).
On the other hand, Uncharted 2 felt a lot more complete. Sure, it was the same formula but it didn’t feel anywhere near as clumsy nor did it feel as worn out.
I didn’t play the first game and don’t really feel the need to go back. On the other hand, another play through of Uncharted 2 feels very tempting.
I actually really enjoyed 3.
I think 2 stands out more in people’s minds just because of it’s impact at the time. It was such a huge leap from the first game, and was ground breaking in many ways. I’d say 2 had the biggest impact, yet if I contextualise my memories, 3 was still a better game to me. It improved only slightly, but it was improved. The gun handling was so much nicer, especially in multiplayer, which I loved.
Also, I admittedly really enjoy the technical achievements in many movies and games. Naughty Dog focused on a particular theme/phenomena to focus their modelling efforts on in each game. In UC2, it was snow. In UC3 it was sand and water. The desert level[s] were absolutely fantastic, I really enjoyed how the sand behaved. And the boat level was brilliant! The wave/water effects were beautiful. When I think back on the whole series, that’s what I’m most looking forward to when I pick up the collection next week!
Plus, the story with Elena I really enjoyed. The ending made me so happy 😀
I agree with some of what you say re Uncharted 3. A lot of it felt like a bunch of set pieces that had been thought up in isolation and then they’d tried to cobble together a story that would fit around them. I still loved the game, but it felt a bit disjointed compared to Uncharted 2 which would have been my game of the generation if Naughty Dog hadn’t come along at the end and topped it with The Last Of Us.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
Yes, I went there.
All joking aside, I actually liked Golden Abyss. It was the perfect game to sell the potential of the Vita … just a shame Sony dropped the ball so soon.
Hey, it’s a good game (except for the final boss fight on Crushing – goddamn screen swiping)
Yeah that was a pain. That’s one of the easier platinum’s in the series, but beating it was a sheer delight … knowing I didn’t have to do that boss battle again :p
Oh boy, yep. Absolutely awful. At least the swipe directions were set and weren’t random. That would have been a real killer.
Love that the first feels like one cohesive location. I enjoyed seeing landmarks of areas you’re heading to and areas you’ve already been to on the horizon. Love the sense of scale and globe trotting in the second one. I honestly can’t decide between those two. Third game is the weakest, imo, but still plenty to like. 🙂
Admittedly, I have not finished the third game. But of the first two, I think Drake’s Fortune is better of the two.
The second one really showed that with effort and creativity, high detail graphics is possible and is not confined to the PC platform.
But as Yahtzee said, graphics are like janitorial services and are only doing the job right when they are not noticed so let’s move to the elements that matter and not the window dressing.
Looking at the game play itself, sadly both can be frustrating as some enemies keep coming almost as if there is a production line of them behind the walls and they only get shut down when their union quota’s expire.
Music, both OK there so not much more to say.
Finally, my favourite, the story.
Hands down, Drake’s Fortune bets Among Thieves hands down. While both had plots stretched out at least there was some character development and for the most part one could see the reason and role each character had.
Among Thieves though suffered in only having a stretched out plot and a lot of the characters were just there and disposable.
Even the main antagonises was the goal but no reason is given. What he’s designs if any are never explained and for all I know he was sound to change all the national anthems to Paris Hilton’s musical “hit”.
what’s uncharted?
it like a tomb raider wanna be, or an assassins creed wanna be?
Basically Tomb Raider, but without Lara Croft’s habit of being picky with the ledges during a 300 foot fall.
Ok. Ive never played uncharted. Seen it around in articles lots. But im a pc gamer.. i have a ps3 but my catalogue consists of 3 games after i pilfered it of my dad who had it for a younger family member. Dynasty warriors 6, surfs up surfing game. And a god of war trilogy i borrowed from a mate. Oh, i forgot a mega drive collection too.
I use it as a dvd and blu ray player so i never got into any popular titles on it.
There’s no harm in being a PC gamer but it comes with the caveat that one can miss out one some great games on other platforms.
This is why others and I are platform agnostic; we’re gamers for the games and not platforms.
That aside though, if you can find them in the used game bargain bin, they are worth a shot. Just make sure you at least play the first one as (for reasons I listed above) it is the strongest of the first two.
Can’t say anything about the third until I reach the final cutscene.
I should have said ive been mainly a pc gamer fir the last couple of years. Ive had sega master system, sega saturn, n64, ps1, xbox, game cube, wii, wii u, ps3 and new 3ds. The ones i still have that work are game cube, wii u, 3ds and ps3. So yeah. I am a gamer for games, its just i do most of my gaming on pc these days.
Uncharted 3 was awful compared to the other two.
Every action piece had two waves of enemies and the second would respawn in the same spots as the first even if there was no logical way it could have happened. Was more than happy to respawn a guy right on top of you at times. Couple that with the fact the guns were re-tuned around multiplayer reducing their stopping power and that they decided that every enemy should start spamming grenades the instant you had the temerity to duck behind cover for a second and it was an incredibly painful and frustrating game to play.
None of the set pieces came close to anything in Uncharted 2 (the train sequence in that is a technical masterpiece, one of the defining moments of that generation), the plot isn’t great and has a lot of sequences where you have to run from something or do something that’s not well signposted and you insta-fail if you don’t do exactly what the designer wanted. The wheels come off way too easily and when it does it absolutely ruins the cinematic feel they’re going for.
I couldn’t wait for that game to be over and would never even consider going back to it, unlike the first two.
Definitely 2.
I returned Uncharted 3 after finishing it (and got Arkham City which was much much better).
While there were moments of brilliance, there were also several massively un-fun set pieces.
The bit in the boat with the guys up on the balcony in particular was awful and took multiple attempts before I cheesed my way through it. Any other flaw could be forgiven if it had decent level design.
Uncharted 1 was also good, but I played most of the game sniping from cover. U2 balanced the combat approaches much better.
The boat section way too long. Kind of soured my experience of 3.
Option 4 = All of them are fantastic.
Can’t wait to play them all again
2 was the best, It changed things. 3 was more of the same and followed a lot of the same beats of 2.
It’s hard to argue that Uncharted 2 wasn’t the most impressive, but I voted for the first one. I liked the setting and the story more than the second, but I would not argue with anyone that picked the second – it also had a better balance. It’s a weird feeling for me because I’m not normally a story driven guy.
It’s probably my favourite PlayStation Franchise of all time.
The board game. While it’s extraordinarily ugly, particularly for a tie in to a video game that’s known for it’s aesthetics, the mechanics are surprisingly solid.
Uncharted 2 is definitely the most complete that I can think of. But I think the most memorable moment is the fountain section towards the end of uncharted 3. It was a emotional punch to the gut that I didn’t see coming and I made a point to melee kill everything that came afterwards because guns were too quick for what i thought they did to sully
I only played the first one but I was really hyped for 2… despite that I never got around to actually buying and playing it.
Uncharted 2 is the winner by a mile. It refined much of what the first did well and addressed some of the concerns.
From what I understand, the design process of 3 was ass backwards – they came up with the environments prior to the story and shoehorned everything together. Not to mention the awful shooting that they had to patch.
I thought Uncharted 3 played a lot better mechanically – the combat felt easier, the climbing/jumping (and stealth) felt more precise, it just felt a little more polished really. That said, I still love Uncharted 2 more because of the story and setting.
The first game was great at the time too but I never enjoyed it anywhere near as much as the other two.
Best game was 2 IMO, but most spectacular was maybe 3?
Uncharted 2 was easily my favourite of the series. I couldn’t finish the first game as I started it a while after finishing Among Thieves and everything felt clunky and uninspired. Drake’s Deception was also tough to get through. It was what made me buy my first PlayStation console after sticking with Nintendo, Xbox and PC beforehand.
I’m hoping this collection comes out on PS+ before Uncharted 4 comes out next year. Otherwise not that interested in picking it up.
PSA: The Uncharted Collection’s demo came out today. Chapter 5: Urbsn Warfare, from Uncharted 2.
The collection was already a lock for me but I just couldn’t help but download it. Just waiting for it to finish!
I absolutely loved 3, but it still didn’t touch 2. I haven’t played the first one, I bought my PS3 just before number 2 was released…actually, it was one of the reasons I bought my PS3.
I have swapped to a ps4 at the behest of friends, so far I have been extremely dissapointed with the sony exclusives that have been hyped up over the last decade. Will uncharted finally be the one that makes me believe sony fanbois wernt just hyping anything they knew others couldnt get all this time? I guess we will find out shortly – it’s going to be compared to other 3rd person action games, like alan wake and tomb raider.
It’s not just Sony. Just about all the major players these days (Nintendo, Microsoft, etc) are coming out with new shiny consoles but seem to be putting off making games for the bloody things until after said consoles hit the market!
Depends. If you like a male version of Tomb Raider (seriously, it was called Dude Raider at one point) but without the main character fearing breaking a nail over falling on jagged rock junction then Uncharted should be your cup of tea.
Anyone remember the motion control bullshit in the first one?
Remember walking across that damn log, in like the first level, and having to tilt the controller to keep from falling off?
Thanks Christ they dropped that shit for the next two.