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What was the point of the part in Uncharted 3 when Drake was on a cruise ship?

Nakenorm

Nakenorm

"This guy are sick"
The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
22,527
Loved that ship, but as many others have said they came up with the set pieces first and designed the story after that. So it did feel somewhat shoehorned in.
werezompire said:
Does anyone play Uncharted games for the plot? The ridiculously over-the-top set pieces were always the point IMO.
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Oh I absolutely do. And the characters. That's what made me fall in love with the first game where set pieces wasn't as big a deal.
Ascenion said:
What? Games don't need to be fun? Isn't that the entire point of a video game is to be fun to play? Otherwise why play it if it isn't fun. I don't get this.
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Games can be enjoyable in more ways than just being "fun". TLOU is my favorite game of all time but I'd be lying if I said I haven't had more fun in other games.
 
CarterTax

CarterTax

Member
Oct 25, 2017
709
Not only is the ship just there because they designed it, it's such a poorly designed set piece and is almost devoid of interesting or fun gameplay.

Such a low point for this game.
 
Dragon1893

Dragon1893

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,453
So what if it doesn't move the plot forward? It's awesome. A specific part of the game being fun is more important than its relevance to the story.
Also, UC3>UC2.
 

Deleted member 4247

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,896
It's there because they really wanted the setpiece. Not every moment needs to move the story forwards, some stuff is just there because it's cool.
 
Boy

Boy

Member
Apr 24, 2018
4,602
The cruise ship was my favorite and memorable part for me. Actually, it's probably one of my favorite levels in the uncharted series.
 

Deleted member 42484

Banned
Apr 21, 2018
6,969
Mushroomer25 said:
Both 1 and 3 are legitimately bad games.

2 and 4 are great enough to make up for it.
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Only on a video game forum would games with fantastic presentation and competent gameplay, objectively well-put-together and complete games, be called "bad" because they aren't as fantastic as the others.

I guess I lived during the SNES-PS2 generations where there actually bad, broken, badly controlled, ugly games.

Just seems disingenuous or borderline mean to call these games bad. But maybe I'm being pedantic given this is an enthusiast forum.
 
LetalisAmare

LetalisAmare

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,969
psynergyadept said:
I use to think 3 was bad until I played it again via the Nathan Drake collection; shit was dope! On par with 2 imo. It just takes longer to build up; once you land in Syria it gets good.
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Same. I hated 3 when I played it on PS3 and was by far my least favourite of the series until I replayed it on PS4 and I just loved it. Funnily enough UC2 was my fave before 4 but after replaying it and the horrible blue smurf section that ruined the game for me it became my least favourite of the main games. Weird.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,332
Seattle, WA
Denman said:
Only on a video game forum would games with fantastic presentation and competent gameplay, objectively well-put-together and complete games, be called "bad" because they aren't as fantastic as the others.

I guess I lived during the SNES-PS2 generations where there actually bad, broken, badly controlled, ugly games.

Just seems disingenuous or borderline mean to call these games bad. But maybe I'm being pedantic given this is an enthusiast forum.
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I mean, it comes down to a simple fact. I'd prefer not to play either game, ever again. Obviously that's not the sole metric of quality - but I'd happily revisit 2, 4, or Lost Legacy.

1 & 3 both have enough major, memorable flaws for me to hold them in pretty low esteem. They disapointed me when I played them. I don't think anything else really matters here.
 

Deleted member 8257

Oct 26, 2017
24,586
"what was the point of Uncharted 3" is a legit topic unto itself.
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,133
Mushroomer25 said:
I mean, it comes down to a simple fact. I'd prefer not to play either game, ever again. Obviously that's not the sole metric of quality - but I'd happily revisit 2, 4, or Lost Legacy.

1 & 3 both have enough major, memorable flaws for me to hold them in pretty low esteem. They disapointed me when I played them. I don't think anything else really matters here.
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Saying Uncharted 1 was a legitimately bad game in 2007 is pretty laughable.
 
Meg Cherry

Meg Cherry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,332
Seattle, WA
leng jai said:
Saying Uncharted 1 was a legitimately bad game in 2007 is pretty laughable.
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For context, I played all three in the Collection prior to the release of UC4. However, I think I would've been bored to tears by the clunky combat & repetitive platforming at any point in time. Plenty of critics at the time were also underwhelmed.

Tech marvel of the time? Sure! But so was The Order 1886.
 
Firima

Firima

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,499
To create the worst combat encounters in the entire franchise, probably. Ballroom fight is a low point for that style of game, even worse than the water room from the first game, and that's saying something.
 
monketron

monketron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,913
Like with many of the adventure films that the Uncharted games are inspired by, there is no point. It's just an excuse for some cool looking set pieces.
 
Quad Lasers

Quad Lasers

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,542
That cruise ship section is probably the best part in the entire series.

They knew what they had, story be damned.
 
Huey

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,333
I mean, the uncharted series is largely a vehicle for moving you from setpiece to setpiece... that's why the games exist and why they're well known. This set piece was absolutely incredible too.
 
Mr.Deadshot

Mr.Deadshot

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,285
Still one of the best set pieces and action sequences ever created. I really miss crazy scripted action games like U3 in nowadays environments. The only thing that came close this gen was Uncharted 4's car chase scene. I was expecting a lot more crazy things in 4 than we actually got.
 
Trigonometrize

Trigonometrize

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
The train in Uncharted 2 is (a) 10x the setpiece that the cruise ship was and (b) also moved the story along in a meaningful way by the end by further revealing characters' allegiances, wrapping up the tease at the start, and do delivering Nate to the best part of the game, the village using kinetic action instead of a standard cut to new location. So the defense that it's a series about setpieces so they can get away with anything is dumb.

The cruise ship was a middling set piece with lame story hooks.
 
jandg

jandg

Banned
Dec 23, 2019
141
So they first designed the set pieces and then the plot? Why is that a bad thing? Gameplay>>>>>>>>narrative . I don't remember almost anything from those Uncharted games in terms of Narrative. Just that Drake could really crack some great jokes.
 
Ricky_R

Ricky_R

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,997
Bishop89 said:
Doesn't sully get kidnapped and Drake is looking for him?
I don't see the problem.
Also it was an epic setpiece so I still don't see the problem.
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The problem, at least for me, was that this pirate dude came out of nowhere to take Sully God knows where (he wasn't actually on board of course), to have Drake jump off from the sinking cruise later on and to finally have him waking up on the shore at walking distance from Elena's apartment so the actual plot could continue conveniently.

I mean, regardless of tropes, that set-piece felt too forced into the story.
 
VanDoughnut

VanDoughnut

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,431
F4r0_Atak said:
Having the release date already set for UC3 early really didn't help. The PS3 days were hard for SIE. Post-2009, they were starting to gain momentum. Momentum they clearly didn't want to lose. A single delay could have changed their whole release calendar for their games. ND was already a household name then. SIE couldn't afford to have one of their biggest release miss its holidays' launch (which would move a lot of consoles for them). Despite the few issues with the story, it is still one of the highest critical success for a Sony game during that gen. 😕
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Yeah just one of my least favorite ND games cause you can feel the rush. It's still pretty good compared to other games and I see why it has the acclaim it has, but it has some major problems for me when you compare it to the rest of the series.

I think TLOU, UC2 and UC4 are another league above UC3. You can't rush that kind of quality.

But thanks for the backstory on UC3 and it's release schedule. It puts things into perspective.
 
AegonSnake

AegonSnake

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,566
Yeah i only play video games for the plot. Anything not in direct service to the narrative takes me out of the experience. Awesome setpieces, fantastic shootouts, and genuinely fun gameplay moments just get in the way of the story.

If i wanted interactive setpieces in my stories, i would go read a book.
 
Flon

Flon

Is Here to Kill Chaos
Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,122
Uncharted 3 is actually my favourite. However, I should also stress that I barely cared about the stories in any of them and I found the second half monster section in 1 and 2 to be incredibly annoying. Uncharted 3 was fun, and the ship section is still my favourite set piece in any of them, I remember that but I don't care to remember any of their stories.
 
FlintSpace

FlintSpace

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,817
I still think UC3's set pieces is among the best in Uncharted franchise. I will never forget the fire set piece.
 
Ohri-Jin

Ohri-Jin

Banned
Jul 11, 2019
1,129
The Netherlands
Ascenion said:
I platinumed Horizon and Spider-Man. Loved them, amazing games. Spider-Man is just fun to swing around the city. I'll still load it up and do that to de-stress. God of War I played once and that's it. It just didn't do it for me. The camera wasn't my friend.


To my credit or discredit, it was on auto sub and I never noticed it until I got a new card and Square emailed me about a declined payment. I do tons of things for my friends that I don't wanna do, like owning a PC and a Xbox/PS4 when at this point Nintendo gives me my fill. Or showing up for....anything.




What? Games don't need to be fun? Isn't that the entire point of a video game is to be fun to play? Otherwise why play it if it isn't fun. I don't get this.
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Well I Platinumed Spider-Man and GoW, but dropped Horizon Zero Dawn tbh..

Anyway that is nasty to hear about the auto sub.. the rest is not for me to judge. Fair enough take care!!
 
RavFiveFour

RavFiveFour

Banned
Dec 3, 2018
1,721
Let's not act like Uncharted 3 is trash, it did not surpass Uncharted 2 but it was a hell of a game and some gamers favorites.
 
Nooblet

Nooblet

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,676
To simply showcase the spectacle of water deformation and physics of moving level. And talk about it during the marketing.

It's known that ND design the set pieces first and then write the game around it. In case of UC2 it was the train level and it ended up sticking and working there but in case of UC3 it didn't and as such it feels disjointed.

If I'm not wrong Druckmann changed this with TLoU and they adopted a different design philosophy, as a result it seeped into UC4 as well as it was made by Druckmann.
 
Look! The Pie!

Look! The Pie!

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
794
Even with its questionable writing I vastly preferred UC3 to UC4 and honestly would have preferred it if the latter had included a few more nonsensical setpieces instead of yet more forced relationship drama, endless climbing/rope swinging and the shifting of focus onto a hitherto unmentioned long lost brother.
 
Chumunga64

Chumunga64

Member
Jun 22, 2018
14,407
set pieces

Uncharted 3 was really bad with its plot and how it progresses. It doesn't help but the story tried to be deeper but also went "no, let's not go all out with this"

This video sums it up for me

 
Shoe

Shoe

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,201
Considering it's one of the most entertaining sequences in the series, I can forgive it being rather throwaway plot-wise.
 
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