KidKangaroo
2012
I randomly played this for the first time in like 7+ years, and I just gave each level one try then went up to the next one, and I finally beat it?
Definitely not for epileptics or those prone to motion sickness
Definitely not for epileptics or those prone to motion sickness
2018
I could never settle down with a woman who doesn't eat her crusts, no matter how cute and arts-y she may be
I know nothing about this game, but the dude on the cover alone is iconic
Total kill count: 883 (U1) + 991 (U2) + 804 (U3) = 2678
Nathan Drake has killed more people on his first three adventures than Hurricane Katrina. Let that sink in.
I wish the photo mode was better with freer movement
I want to capture the beautiful vistas, not Nathan's yee yee ass haircut
Nathan Drake has killed more people on his first three adventures than Hurricane Katrina. Let that sink in.
I wish the photo mode was better with freer movement
I want to capture the beautiful vistas, not Nathan's yee yee ass haircut
Generally good and quite enjoyable on the gameplay front, but the story feels amateurish and weirdly cut down.
It starts with the barely characterized villains, who are almost omniscient and always do the exactly correct thing to keep the plot going. Why are they constantly drugging and not just shooting Drake? They were ok with killing him on so many other occasions and sending a small army after him.
Just like 1 and 2, nobody develops as a person, across these harrowing adventures, it's just more of the usual snarky commentary. It would have been nice, if Drake had an epiphany after the desert.
He should be like "Holy shit, I've cheated death so many times, it's only a matter of time before something kills me, I should actually commit to Elena and other people in my life I care about".
The side characters don't play any real significance (What the fuck was the point of Cutter and why does everyone know him?), Salim just becomes Nathan's steadfast ally for basically no reason, and disappears when convenient. There was a chance here for Nathan to reflect on the carnage that grave robbers and ex-colonial powers bring to the Middle East and places of culture and treasure through his interactions with Salim, and yet...nothing. The game genuinely just feels like a butchered cut of a theoretically good story.
Even the AK in the desert sand from the title screen feels cut. Nathan picks it up in a dramatic cut scene, and you can hold it for a few montages of desert walking and then it just... disappears from your back with 0 announcement? What the hell was the point?
They made a mix of Indiana Jones 3 and Lawrence of Arabia, that is worse than either one.
TL;DR Everybody outside of the writers did a great job though (especially the environment designers and the programmers for the hallucinations, holy shit)
P.S. The lamest parts where the ones with the spiders though. Are they even supernatural or related to Ubar? What was going on there?
It starts with the barely characterized villains, who are almost omniscient and always do the exactly correct thing to keep the plot going. Why are they constantly drugging and not just shooting Drake? They were ok with killing him on so many other occasions and sending a small army after him.
Just like 1 and 2, nobody develops as a person, across these harrowing adventures, it's just more of the usual snarky commentary. It would have been nice, if Drake had an epiphany after the desert.
He should be like "Holy shit, I've cheated death so many times, it's only a matter of time before something kills me, I should actually commit to Elena and other people in my life I care about".
The side characters don't play any real significance (What the fuck was the point of Cutter and why does everyone know him?), Salim just becomes Nathan's steadfast ally for basically no reason, and disappears when convenient. There was a chance here for Nathan to reflect on the carnage that grave robbers and ex-colonial powers bring to the Middle East and places of culture and treasure through his interactions with Salim, and yet...nothing. The game genuinely just feels like a butchered cut of a theoretically good story.
Even the AK in the desert sand from the title screen feels cut. Nathan picks it up in a dramatic cut scene, and you can hold it for a few montages of desert walking and then it just... disappears from your back with 0 announcement? What the hell was the point?
They made a mix of Indiana Jones 3 and Lawrence of Arabia, that is worse than either one.
TL;DR Everybody outside of the writers did a great job though (especially the environment designers and the programmers for the hallucinations, holy shit)
P.S. The lamest parts where the ones with the spiders though. Are they even supernatural or related to Ubar? What was going on there?
2018
A step up aesthetically from the first one, but still just as simple and unengaging as the first one.
2015
Prettier, but more boring Subway Surfers.
All you can do is jump, no ducking down to accelerate or grabbing onto ropes or anything, just jump.
All you can do is jump, no ducking down to accelerate or grabbing onto ropes or anything, just jump.
Day and night difference to the first one, one of the best video game sequels I know of (only other big contender is MGS2).
Obviously starting the game with dangling out of a train car on a cliff edge, will get you interested in what happened.
But directly after the museum heist grabs you. Everything plays smoother, it's more colourful, the music grounds you in the setting and the new stealth mechanics give you a reason to be creative with your movement in a level.
Then boom, Borneo, a little bit of a throwback, which makes you notice how much better the gunplay feels and that you have room to experiment with how you want to take on enemies (played on Hard).
Then crazy street and rooftop fights in Nepal.
Then climbing on beautiful Buddhist sculptures.
Then the incredible train level.
After we reach the point in the story where we began in medias res, I did lose engagement somewhat, although the convoy and parts of the monastery chapters did get me back in, I sort of got exhausted by the pacing of the game and the introduction of the supernatural dudes.
I do think that I wouldn't like this game as much, if they weren't riffing on Buddhist art and concepts, but even then, they should have gone further with it.
The phurba is supposed to help overcome spiritual challenges like delusion, desire and hate, and a lot of the "puzzles" seem to necessitate two people cooperating or are made of statues reaching their hands out to each other.
There is great thematic subtext here, that is left mostly untouched. Nathan doesn't save the day, because he became a better person through his travels or knows when to put his trust in others, but because he shoots guns the bestest and is basically a living monkey god, with his invincible hands and infinite stamina.
Nobody meaningfully grows or changes, the closest is probably Drake "believing" in the power of the Cintamani Stone because of Schäfer, but he saw with his own two eyes in the first game, that the seemingly supernatural exists, so even that feels undercut, and also just not that interesting for a character.
A must-play for action game fans
Obviously starting the game with dangling out of a train car on a cliff edge, will get you interested in what happened.
But directly after the museum heist grabs you. Everything plays smoother, it's more colourful, the music grounds you in the setting and the new stealth mechanics give you a reason to be creative with your movement in a level.
Then boom, Borneo, a little bit of a throwback, which makes you notice how much better the gunplay feels and that you have room to experiment with how you want to take on enemies (played on Hard).
Then crazy street and rooftop fights in Nepal.
Then climbing on beautiful Buddhist sculptures.
Then the incredible train level.
After we reach the point in the story where we began in medias res, I did lose engagement somewhat, although the convoy and parts of the monastery chapters did get me back in, I sort of got exhausted by the pacing of the game and the introduction of the supernatural dudes.
I do think that I wouldn't like this game as much, if they weren't riffing on Buddhist art and concepts, but even then, they should have gone further with it.
The phurba is supposed to help overcome spiritual challenges like delusion, desire and hate, and a lot of the "puzzles" seem to necessitate two people cooperating or are made of statues reaching their hands out to each other.
There is great thematic subtext here, that is left mostly untouched. Nathan doesn't save the day, because he became a better person through his travels or knows when to put his trust in others, but because he shoots guns the bestest and is basically a living monkey god, with his invincible hands and infinite stamina.
Nobody meaningfully grows or changes, the closest is probably Drake "believing" in the power of the Cintamani Stone because of Schäfer, but he saw with his own two eyes in the first game, that the seemingly supernatural exists, so even that feels undercut, and also just not that interesting for a character.
A must-play for action game fans
Not worth revisiting, tbh.
Story feels like a forgettable B-Movie that has aspirations of being the next Indiana Jones. Resident Evil 4 continues to be the best and most amusing B-Movie equivalent in video games, and I think that's because it is aware of what it is.
I think I knew this game wasn't gonna blow me away, the moment the game wanted me to blow up an "ancient" (?) red exploding barrel next to a big pillar which of course magically pushes it into the needed position. My "immersion" never recovered, and that was about 30 minutes in.
Gunplay is just parely passable (I had it on Hard, fyi).
The impact of the bullets on enemies is really unsatisfying and they move too much around for precise aiming to be rewarded. And don't even get me started on the jet ski passages.
Some of the scenery does give the happenings the needed gravitas and some of the set-pieces were entertaining (like the creatures and the mercs fighting each other), but nothing that will really stick with me.
As of writing I'm now 25% into Uncharted 3, and you really don't need to know the story of the first one to understand the stories or characters of the other ones. Just skip it, and get to Uncharted 2.
Story feels like a forgettable B-Movie that has aspirations of being the next Indiana Jones. Resident Evil 4 continues to be the best and most amusing B-Movie equivalent in video games, and I think that's because it is aware of what it is.
I think I knew this game wasn't gonna blow me away, the moment the game wanted me to blow up an "ancient" (?) red exploding barrel next to a big pillar which of course magically pushes it into the needed position. My "immersion" never recovered, and that was about 30 minutes in.
Gunplay is just parely passable (I had it on Hard, fyi).
The impact of the bullets on enemies is really unsatisfying and they move too much around for precise aiming to be rewarded. And don't even get me started on the jet ski passages.
Some of the scenery does give the happenings the needed gravitas and some of the set-pieces were entertaining (like the creatures and the mercs fighting each other), but nothing that will really stick with me.
As of writing I'm now 25% into Uncharted 3, and you really don't need to know the story of the first one to understand the stories or characters of the other ones. Just skip it, and get to Uncharted 2.
1999
Man, Half-Life even with friends just isn't that fun to me anymore
It's crazy how big this game seemed to me as a kid when I watched people play it (I was definitely less than 11 years old then, way too young for this game's subject matter)
It's sleazy and pretty varied fun, but I don't really see any big reason to play it. Saints Row 4 is bigger, funnier (I think I laughed twice from the written jokes in the 3rd) and probably plays better. Go play that.
It's sleazy and pretty varied fun, but I don't really see any big reason to play it. Saints Row 4 is bigger, funnier (I think I laughed twice from the written jokes in the 3rd) and probably plays better. Go play that.
2018
Hype as fuck, but also easy to understand!
I bought the soundtrack years before I bought the game.
I bought the soundtrack years before I bought the game.
2016
Incredibly visually polished with great feedback for landing a hit. Soundtrack is also great. Haven't played it for long yet, though.
2013
The only value it could possibly hold is as a learning tool for people who have never played games before, but all the shoe-horned references will go right over their head.
For anybody else, it's a substandard RPG with a gimmick that loses its impact 1 1/2 hours in.
The characters don't matter, the story doesn't matter, the world doesn't matter. The combat in the 3D sections is atrocious.
For anybody else, it's a substandard RPG with a gimmick that loses its impact 1 1/2 hours in.
The characters don't matter, the story doesn't matter, the world doesn't matter. The combat in the 3D sections is atrocious.
2019
Cool presentation, but the gameplay's too same-y. Dropped it after 8 hours.