UnchartedL Nathan Drake Collection

09 May 2020

I don’t really like shooting games, and this didn’t really change my mind about them, but for a free titles on the Playstation, I had a good time going through the stories. I’m not saying everything was delightful, there were some extremely frustrating parts, some thing that were not telegraphed well, and somethings that really were just not great experiences. Uncharted 1 was by far the clunkiest of the bunch, I did enjoy the story elements, but the story was very derivative and the characters really pulled through the game. When the supernatural element showed up the tone of the game changed, which freshed the pace, but it was a frustrating part of the game. The second was really cool, I thought that it had the best story and it really played with the narrative in a way that made it fresh while calling back to the basics of adventure and Indiana Jones. The villains were a little on the dumb end and the characters were not as compelling as the first title.

Visual Evolution

The games other than a graphical face lift, experimented with the cameras quite a bit. The first explored elements that were enhanced in the later ones and I’d say is definitely the weakest title. The second explored verticality and defined some really interesting puzzle design, the third takes the cake on the puzzles and the camera takes a more panoramic perspective in many scenes.

Action Homages

Each of the games play with themes in the Indiana Jones movies, exhilarating set pieces, exploration of regions that have not been tainted by modern man. The first plays close to horror, the camera is close, and the set pieces being more gothic lends itself to a darker game. The second explodes in color and vistas, from jungles to glaciers, the color palette is explored here in such a way that leads to the most drastic contrasts that really make the game stick out in memory. The third is probably the most mechanically dynamic and the action set pieces of horse riding is really exciting and interactive.

Recommendation?

Not sure if I’d recommend the series, the basic execution varies in quality and against since I really don’t like shooting games I would say I’m not the best judge. I will say however from a cinematic perspective it is enjoyable especially if you like the adventure style movies. For me I’m completing the series, but not spending more than the bare minimum game time, as I received the product for free I’m not compelled to nor do I feel the obligation. Seeing the story through was satisfying but it really wasn’t my cup of tea. Bioshock was an exception to this rule, due to the sandbox nature of the game systems and interesting story, this doesn’t have the same gravitas as those titles so I do not keep them on the same caliber.

Frustrations

I thought that the first game was probably the easiest in terms of combat, 2 and 3 add more elements and it is more interesting, however they also add these really tanky enemies that are just frustrating to deal with. Grenade counter throwing in 3 helped with the frustration a bit, and the melee system in 3 is better than 2.

Summa

If you wanted to check it out, I’d say start with 2 or 3. The first isn’t good enough to recommend and the characters introduced in 1 don’t really change much in the series.