UDF #4

My basic complaints so far:

1. "Waves" of bad guys. Lame. Given how organic the environment of the game feels, there needs to be a less obvious way of introducing bad guys.

2. The movement when jumping/climbing a la Tomb Raider needs to be just a hair more smooth. They've got some decent environments to work in, that don't look entirely contrived with ledges and whatnot, but there needs to be a little smoothing out of the diagonal jumps.

3. Don't be afraid to let people explore some dead ends or provide more than one path through the environment. Vines are all over this jungle, but only a few are climbable. Let the others be climbable, but lead nowhere. Or let them lead to other parts of the environment but be essentially useless. Something.

Finally caught up with Elena, the female sidekick. The game is much more interesting with her around. And I have a nemesis in the game now too. That's also helpful.

There is also a Smith & Wesson that is awesome. Single shot kills like in Resident Evil.

UDF #3

Much more combat tonight, well-mixed with climbing and jumping around the jungle and later in a fort. The story has slowed down, mostly because there is a lot of action while Drake catches up with his female sidekick. Hopefully things will get more lively when the two are together.

This isn't Tomb Raider. So far, there really aren't any ways to explore an area and puzzle out how to get from point A to point B. There is always only one way forward, and you can find very tiny niches to explore along the way, but that's it. Tomb Raider would at least throw you into a big room that acts as a hub and you explore different areas from there, possibly in an order of your choosing.

New weapons: RPG and an Uzi. Liked the Uzi. RPG go boom, but loooong reloads.

Spectacular scenery.

One thing that's a little weak about the jumping and climbing is that when you're scaling a wall there really is only a direction and a button push to go where you want to go. There isn't any timing, except when you get onto a breaking ledge. There isn't any figuring out which ledge to go to, since there is always only one direction forward and one back.

I'd like for level designers to feel a bit more free to put in some dead ends or means to make the climbing challenging. Here, I think the right thing to do would be to copy MGS2 and have Drake be limited in how long he could hold on by his fingers. That pressure would make the climbing sections a lot more tense, I think. If not that, then something.

If Tomb Raider went for the killing, you should see this game. I got a reward in the game for 30 headshots. Since I'm usually firing like mad, you can imagine that 30 headshots only happens after a hundred guys or more have died. Oh, and I got a 50-kills-without-dying reward, so that gives another measure of how many generic bad guys have died at my hand. I know it's not feasible to record 30 different actors doing bad guy voices, but would it hurt to use some modest modulation on 2 or 3 actors to make those voices sound slightly different every now and then? That way when I hear "I'm going to get you, airplane man!" for the 20th time, it doesn't sound like the previous 19 times...

UDF #2

I just finished a fairly long section of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I'm more impressed than ever before.

- The animation really is top-notch.
- The next Tomb Raider team better be taking some good notes. Drake is smoother than Lara in her last two games, and he's doing many of the same moves.
- As a side note, Drake is scripted kind of like Lara, but so far I haven't feel constrained by it. That is, I haven't found a situation where I wanted to do something natural and the scripting (i.e. magic) kept me from doing it. I think this really is a bit closer to the simulation than Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary were.
- Game starts with gunplay, but then I played for probably a good hour without a single shot being necessary (except one or two places where you can use it for a puzzle). Lots of exploring.
- I can't tell if I think the little hidden treasures along the way are a bad idea or not. It does take me out of character because I don't press ahead with the story's implied urgency...instead I loiter around and look for special stuff. I think I'm going to stop doing that and enjoy the story.
- Speaking of the story, it's great. And the dialogue and characters are entertaining.

"I'm in the captain's quarters [in a ruined ship]. And the captain's still here."
"What does that mean?"
"He's dead. And it looks like he was ripped to shreds. A bad way to go."
"That's too bad. [brief pause] Check his wallet!"

- Got a bit of the ol' Tomb Raider vertigo while playing. Very happy.
- Playing the demo made me a good combatant in the game. I'm suspicious that I'd've not liked the game so much had I not practiced so much on the demo. (I beat it four times, twice on hard.)
- That said, once you get the gunplay down, it really does become quite enjoyable. You think about where and how you're going to use cover, reloading on the run to save time, switching between your two weapons (nice touch...you can only take your pistol and one of shotgun or AK-47) as the situation warrants. No other 3D third-person action game with guns has been this fun for me. (God of War is great, but doesn't use guns.)

Feeling like GOTY. We'll see if it keeps up.

UDF #1

I just started Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for PS3.

- Really, really good looking. Immersion is relatively easy because of that.
- Characterization is awesome. Conversations are more natural than most game dialogue. I love the actor for Nathan Drake (main char).
- The woman playing Elena is good too, and they've made a woman who's attractive without looking like a model. Good job. I still would have preferred a brunette.
- There appears to be a fraction of a second lag between audio and video. Not distracting while in the game, but during longer cut scenes, can take my attention away.
- Not a whole lot new in terms of interaction. Lots of stuff familiar from Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary.
- Main interactions other than climbing/jumping are push/pull and shoot.
- Did find one hidden treasure. Woohoo for me. Only 59 more to go.
- Summary of story: Found Sir F. Drake's "coffin" which had a secret diary. Shows location of El Dorado. Attacked by pirates and escaped when Sully rescued us in his plane. Ditched Elena and headed off with Sully to find El Dorado. Made it into a deep underground temple/tomb and found where El Dorado, a solid gold statue and not a city, used to be.

Good stuff so far. Not much gunplay at all, which I like. Won't mind some shooting occasionally if plenty of TR-like stuff.