Uncharted 2 was the weakest of the trilogy (for me)

[remnant_phoenix]

So I just got around to finishing my playthrough of the Uncharted trilogy, and I realized that the second was my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, it's only my least favorite in the sense that mozzarella is my least favorite cheese when placed next to cheddar and pepper jack. Cheese is one of my favorite foodstuffs, and mozzarella is great (how are you gonna make a good pizza without it?), but in terms of overall flavor, I enjoy cheddar and pepper jack significantly more.

For me, 1 and 3 seemed to be more character-driven experiences, while 2 was more plot-driven.

When I think of 1 & 3, I remember all the little character moments like Nate and Sully's back-and-forth, the bonding moments between Nate and Elena, and, in 3 particularly, the moments where Nate is forced to think about what he's doing and why he's doing it. The stories were built more around the characters and how their relationships grow and change.

When I think of 2, I think of the attack on the village sequence (which was exciting), the train sequence (which was really exciting) and the "climbing around on giant clockwork gears" sequence (which was really boring). The story seemed to be built more around exciting over-the-top moments, unexpected double-crosses, and questioning loyalties; 2 was great fun while I was playing it, but it didn't really stick with me.

Am I off-base here? Am I remembering wrong? It has been a while since I played 1 & 2, while 3 is in my very recent memory, so that's possible. Or am I just strange for being comparatively unimpressed with what gaming mags and the internet call "One of the BEST GAMES EVARR"?

 

[BrotherRool]

I mean I'd say you're opinion is probably a little unusual compared to many other's. I still think the story of Uncharted 3 was a mess, with events barely linking to each other at all and not really capitalising on any of the character stuff they were trying to do, and Uncharted 1 had some dodgy plot contrivances (like Sully's death) and the combat was still a bit wonky.

And I have to admit, even when I pick my favourite of the 3 based on character development, I still pick 2. I can barely remember anything that anyone said to each other in 1 and I can remember the child sequences in 3 (which were okay), but in 2 I can remember the touching little jokes Nathan made with Elena right at the end of the game, the tumultuous ride with Zoe. Nathan and Elena bickering but falling instantly into protecting each other as soon as the danger got bad. Sully springing Nathan out of prison and some of the sadness when he realises he's too old for these adventures.

And the walking round the village high-fiving cows seen in Uncharted 2 is something I really enjoy.

Outside of the big memories, there are also little things in two that I can remember at a stretch, like I really liked what was going on with Nathan's rival and what he does in the end and the seen where you carry Joe the camera man through the city and what happens with that.


Whereas I think Uncharted 3 actually went back on a lot of people's development. We've already seen Nathan and Elena break up on-screen once and then get back together. Having it happen a second time is lazy writing and should really make you question the viability of their relationship.

 

[Zhukov]

Worse than the first one?

Wow.

I found the first game so bad I'm amazed they managed to launch a series off it.

Utterly pedestrian third person shooting with utterly linear platforming in between. And I'm struggling to even remember the story stuff beyond the broad plot. Boat, leaving Elena, shooting brown people, finding Elena, QTE, zombies, shooting head brown person in a QTE, sail off into sunset.

The second and third games added a bit of flair to the combat and platforming and managed to combine them in set pieces rather than keeping them rigidly separate. Put together the two sets of mechanics actually made for some decent gameplay.

The third game came dangerously close to making Nathen Drake interesting. Sadly they never went anywhere with it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Uncharted 2 gets well regarded because it had terrific pacing on top of the great character interactions. Whereas Uncharted 1 was a bit spotty gameplay wise, but it was their first one so it's no real surprise. And Uncharted 3 was just plain bad.

Not only did it rehash a lot of the second game, Naughty Dog admitted they made the setpieces first and wrote the story second. Which is what all that 'Drake on a cruise ship' nonsense was all about. It's a moment that comes and goes and is never mentioned again. And the way they wrap that section up with Drake conveniently washing up on shore was fucking ridiculous.

And then we have Sully who gets exposed to be a sick manipulative asshole, taking a young boy and turning him into a killer. And we have villains who want magic water that turns people crazy, eventhough they already possess that very power.

Yeah, Uncharted 3 was shit.

 

[odinzeus]

Worse than the first one?

Wow.

I found the first game so bad I'm amazed they managed to launch a series off it.

I played Uncharted 1 two months ago.I was bored out of my mind.I get to 50 % ,because there has to be something about it,right,this game is the pinnacle of PS3 after all. nope.
But many people say that Uncharted 2 is vast improvement.
So can you like the second one,even if you find the first one,not just mediocre game,but really bad linear cover-based shooter with boring characters and story?I can tolerate the gameplay if the story is better.

 

[Doopliss64]

I just got a PS3 and decide to play the entire trilogy back-to-back (to sort of see what I'd been missing all these years in Xbox Land).

In my humble 'pinion:

The original was a decent action-adventure game, nothing more, nothing less. Though by design a cliché-fest, it managed to throw in some likeable characters and clever scenarios, making for a fun but ultimately forgettable experience.

The second doubled down on the spectacle, making for a more memorable experience through what I can only describe as "brute force" game design: it's very much an "everything and the kitchen sink" kind of game, but it manages to make it work. What makes me appreciate the second one as the high point in the series, however, is the way it handles its characters. The relationship between Drake and Elena (which I think we can all agree is the series' primary emotional conflict) is presented in its strongest form here: whereas the original presents a sweet but unimaginative love story, the second takes a surprisingly subtle approach and examines their relationship in a much more significant and realistic way. Little personality details gleaned simply from leafing through Drake's journal provide more depth into his character than anything I can think of in either of the other games.

The third one, to me, was a massive disappointment. Not only highly anticlimactic as a series finale, it feels very much like a rehash of the second game, but without the drive or passion. The cruise liner in particular stands out as being utterly pointless in context. I believe that spectacle is a legitimate storytelling tool, but only when used intelligently: moments of visual spectacle should correlate directly with moments of peak emotional intensity so as to reinforce those strong emotions, not simply be wasted on a throwaway plot contrivance. Even worse, the continuing instability of Drake's relationship with Elena recontextualizes that entire subplot in my mind: if Drake and Elena keep hooking up while high on adrenaline only to brake up when forced to maintain a stable relationship while not in danger of their lives, how am I supposed to keep rooting for them?

But honestly, while I enjoyed the series greatly, I have to say that the whole thing is quite a bit overrated. The 10 out of 10 scores are just absurd. It's fun, disposable pulp entertainment, people need to stop acting like it's the be-all end-all of video games as a medium. Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably the height of this particular genre, and even that isn't exactly high art.

 

[Dalisclock]

It's interesting this should come up because I'm currently playing the series for the first time and I'm still on the first game. Really, the only think keeping me engaged right now is the fact I like the platforming sections. The shooting sections feel functional and that's about it, though the sheer amount of bad guys that seem to show up in every single firefight makes me wonder if there's a military amphibous ship sitting off the coast somewhere that all these guys came in.

But that aside, the thing that stands out the most right now is how Drake just annnoys me. I can see they were trying to for the swashbuckling hero character who does witty banter and such, but it felt like they didn't pull it off, so instead of a likable action hero, he comes across as a smug asshole. Though this does explain why all these guys are trying to kill him, because he just has a tendency to rub everyone the wrong way.

I'm curious if other people see him the same way.

 

[Robot Number V]

Eh, to me, the second one is the best. I mean, the first one is just boring as dicks, so it's out of the running without a second thought from me. The third one had a good thing going, but the entire "Suddenly, pirates!" section had exactly fuck-all to do with the rest of the plot, and it's always incredibly jarring to me. That, and the ending is such a ridiculously huge anticlimax. [SPOILERS FOR A GAME THAT CAME OUT OVER TWO YEARS AGO]They were building up all this awesome stuff about ancient conspiracies and magic, and demons, and how Drake is clearly in over his head and is probably going to be killed or get his friends killed....And then literally none of that pays off. Drake stops the whole "demon" thing dead in it's tracks right as it was getting good. Everyone remembers the Hatch in Lost, right? Imagine if, instead of opening the hatch, the dynamite actually just sealed it forever, and the whole thing was never mentioned again. That's basically what happens at the end of Uncharted 3. There's no demons, there's no magic, and no harm comes to Drake or his friends. This totally invalides all that foreshadowing, and ensures that Drake has learned nothing from this experience.

So...that's by beef with THAT game. So that's why Uncharted 2 was the best one for me. The story felt more cohesive with the gameplay. Even though 3 clearly takes it for visuals and action set pieces, the flaws in the story just kill it for me.

 

[someperson1984]

Two is the only one I liked, but to be fair I didn't finish the first one and I have no idea if it suddenly became a masterpiece after the first few hours.

The character beats in the third one amounted to nothing, the story was cobbled together, the villain was....well it was an Uncharted villain (meaning totally forgettable in every way). And then it has last act which is just awful in every sense of the word. The only good part of 3 was the shipyard/cruiseship section, which was actually thrilling and reminded me of the better set-pieces in the second game.

 

[King Billi]

Really? Every single one of these games is nothing but a retelling of basically the same old pulpy treasure hunting story, I honestly don't see how any one can be set aside as any better or worse than the others as they're all just too similar. You should either just like them all or hate them all.

The things which set them apart in my mind just comes down to the small touches and things that I personally prefer which may have no significance for anyone else.

They're all perfectly fine, fun little adventures. I don't see what else you could expect from them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

snip

I don't see how that makes it shit. So the rehased old shit. Doesn't mean it wasn't bad. Uncharted 3 was fun as fuck to play, especially that entire ship segment of the game.

It being unoriginal or a story that doesn't make total sense doesn't make the game bad if it's fun to play.

It rehashed the second game almost beat for beat, but completely lacking any pacing or consistency. Things just happened because they happened, not because the game naturally led up to it. This is what made it not fun to play, since this series hinges a lot on its character interaction and story progression, and it was a mess.

The secondary villain showing up out of nowhere to poison the British dude and then vanishing again was another eye rolling moment. What was he suddenly doing there? Where was everybody else? Why didn't he just use the oppertunity to kill them all right there?

 

[DanielBrown]

I thought the third one was awful compared to the other two. You just went to random places, had way too much envieroment movement and without much shame I struggled as fuck on easy(though it was my first game on my new, huge TV, so it might've been because of that).

My order would be 2>1>3. Should replay it some day though. Only played it 1 ½ times, compared to 3+ times with the other two.

 

[BrotherRool]

Eh, to me, the second one is the best. I mean, the first one is just boring as dicks, so it's out of the running without a second thought from me. The third one had a good thing going, but the entire "Suddenly, pirates!" section had exactly fuck-all to do with the rest of the plot, and it's always incredibly jarring to me. That, and the ending is such a ridiculously huge anticlimax. [SPOILERS FOR A GAME THAT CAME OUT OVER TWO YEARS AGO]They were building up all this awesome stuff about ancient conspiracies and magic, and demons, and how Drake is clearly in over his head and is probably going to be killed or get his friends killed....And then literally none of that pays off. Drake stops the whole "demon" thing dead in it's tracks right as it was getting good. Everyone remembers the Hatch in Lost, right? Imagine if, instead of opening the hatch, the dynamite actually just sealed it forever, and the whole thing was never mentioned again. That's basically what happens at the end of Uncharted 3. There's no demons, there's no magic, and no harm comes to Drake or his friends. This totally invalides all that foreshadowing, and ensures that Drake has learned nothing from this experience.

So...that's by beef with THAT game. So that's why Uncharted 2 was the best one for me. The story felt more cohesive with the gameplay. Even though 3 clearly takes it for visuals and action set pieces, the flaws in the story just kill it for me.

In some ways, even though I agree it was a massive anti-climax and even more of a sign that they had no idea where they were going with Uncharted 3, just a bunch of half ideas they threw together, in some ways I did like the complete failure of the demon plot. I always find that the third-act magical enemies of the series are incredibly obnoxious to fight (those apes in 2 *shudder*) and so at least this one sort of hamstrung itself in that department

 

[Savagezion]

Am I off-base here? Am I remembering wrong? It has been a while since I played 1 & 2, while 3 is in my very recent memory, so that's possible. Or am I just strange for being comparatively unimpressed with what gaming mags and the internet call "One of the BEST GAMES EVARR"?

Nah just because many people find 2 the best just means you disagree. I see 3 every bit as good as 2. 1 is my least favorite but I don't like character introduction stories on a regular basis. One of my grievances with "reboots" is that I have to sit through the origin story, I already know, again. However, that is usually required of a reboot. I find it fun the first time around and I have beaten Uncharted 1 about 8 times now - twice more than Uncharted 2 and I have only beaten 3 once. I would love to do another playthrough and re-experience 3 again, but my backlog needs serious attention.

Spoiler: Spoilers Inside

What I like about 2 is that it shows that whatever Nate and Elena had in 1 was short lived. It reinforces Nate's lifestyle and attempts to showcase him as an explorer every bit as he is a treasure hunter. I like that Sully was absent so that we could see Nate interact on his own around his old companions giving us a glimpse into another part of his 'story'. In 3, Sully makes a grande return like a pair of comfortable shoes. We also learn that Nate and Elena were quick getting married despite only knowing each other for a short time and it resulted in divorce.

2 and 3 were built on 1's foundation wonderfully. If you didn't dig 2 as much, there are many reasons how that could be. I find it interesting that I see a stronger connection between 1 and 3 than 2. I rank them 2,3,1 though. But 2 only wins out by a little bit. I felt it ended well. It can be revisited, or left alone. I know there is talk of a new Uncharted. I hope they continue to age the characters as the story progresses if they do.

 

[Robot Number V]

Eh, to me, the second one is the best. I mean, the first one is just boring as dicks, so it's out of the running without a second thought from me. The third one had a good thing going, but the entire "Suddenly, pirates!" section had exactly fuck-all to do with the rest of the plot, and it's always incredibly jarring to me. That, and the ending is such a ridiculously huge anticlimax. [SPOILERS FOR A GAME THAT CAME OUT OVER TWO YEARS AGO]They were building up all this awesome stuff about ancient conspiracies and magic, and demons, and how Drake is clearly in over his head and is probably going to be killed or get his friends killed....And then literally none of that pays off. Drake stops the whole "demon" thing dead in it's tracks right as it was getting good. Everyone remembers the Hatch in Lost, right? Imagine if, instead of opening the hatch, the dynamite actually just sealed it forever, and the whole thing was never mentioned again. That's basically what happens at the end of Uncharted 3. There's no demons, there's no magic, and no harm comes to Drake or his friends. This totally invalides all that foreshadowing, and ensures that Drake has learned nothing from this experience.

So...that's by beef with THAT game. So that's why Uncharted 2 was the best one for me. The story felt more cohesive with the gameplay. Even though 3 clearly takes it for visuals and action set pieces, the flaws in the story just kill it for me.

In some ways, even though I agree it was a massive anti-climax and even more of a sign that they had no idea where they were going with Uncharted 3, just a bunch of half ideas they threw together, in some ways I did like the complete failure of the demon plot. I always find that the third-act magical enemies of the series are incredibly obnoxious to fight (those apes in 2 *shudder*) and so at least this one sort of hamstrung itself in that department

But...you still have to fight supernatural enemies, don't you? They just turn out to be hallucinations. Doesn't make the fight any easier, though. Hell, I thought the demon-hallucinations were WAY harder to fight than the blue apes, while at the same time being far less interesting. (Regular enemies, but on fire? Come on, guys. You can do better than that)

 

[BrotherRool]

But...you still have to fight supernatural enemies, don't you? They just turn out to be hallucinations. Doesn't make the fight any easier, though. Hell, I thought the demon-hallucinations were WAY harder to fight than the blue apes, while at the same time being far less interesting. (Regular enemies, but on fire? Come on, guys. You can do better than that)

I thought the fire enemies, because they behaved like normal enemies and only seemed to have a bit more health were a lot easier than the ones that came before it. I remember emptying entire AKs into the blue creatures before they go down

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Uncharted 2 was a big deal when it came out because it was a big leap from part 1. If you look at it now...I'm playing part 3 and I feel like the shooting parts are better in 2. It's way easier to pull off head shots in the 2nd game. Also, Nathan's animations are a bit quirky in part 3.

I really liked the thing between Nate, Elena, and Cloe. I liked the bits with Sully. I loved the abandoned, war torn city areas.

You said that you're just finishing the trilogy now, but if it were a few years ago, part 2 might be looking better to you.