Just beat Uncharted 2 for the first time in one sitting. While it did move away from the first game’s more puzzle based sections, I personally preferred it. They really went full on with the blockbuster angle and despite the gunplay being truly mediocre even by 2009 standards, the story and spectacle of it elevated it beyond the sum of its parts. Genuinely, that gunplay is rubbish, I absolutely hated the whole attacked village section because I just died over and over again. Still, a great game overall.
@KratosMD I’m guessing that’s just a plain run through? The game can take almost as long again to do everything for the “true” ending. Plus, the Inferno challenges are pretty tough too.
The only trophy I missed out on was for completing the game on hard mode as it really ramps the difficulty up and I couldn’t face doing it all again.
Definitely have a break before the second game as it is great fun but pretty much just more of the same.
@KratosMD Congrats, I’ve also played the same ones you have, except I haven’t touched Seven yet. It’s a great wee series, one of the true granddaddies of RPGs. It’s good to see Ys getting some love!
@KratosMD I have Ys VIII sitting on my Vita along with Seven just waiting to start but I’m gonna make myself finish Trails in the Sky FC before I start another game on the Vita. My backlog’s piling up which is probably why I’m feeling ok about all those delays this week 😅
So I finished The Outer Worlds two days ago. I’d started playing somewhere in December, but thanks to a busy holiday season I wasn’t able to finish it earlier. I ended up clocking out with about 45 hours on the in-game clock, which in my eyes is an incredibly long playtime. I don’t quite understand the early complaints about how the game was too short, since I’d be very surprised if anyone properly playing and exploring could get under 30 hours.
I can admit that the larger narrative in this game does feel rather short. I went to basically every location in the game, but if my memory serves me right you’d have to only maybe visit half of them to finish the main story if you were ignoring side content. There’s not a lot of main missions, and they often intertwine with what’s considered to be side content by the game. I can understand if people who avoid side content like the plague would be disappointed by its length, but it’s a true disservice to the game and the way it’s built to play. A lot of the side content can heavily affect the main storyline, and influence your eventual ending. I found it to be very well written as well and handle choice excellently. I haven’t played a game before that so constantly uses speech checks, but I love the system. I’d probably love it less if I wasn’t putting all my skill points in the places necessary to pass them however!
The storyline is quite good. It slowly reveals more and more about the world in a very satisfying manner. You’ll slowly figure out the story of everything that’s happening yourself, rather than it feeling like a huge info dump when you’re eventually told the complexities. All the computer logs truly were of importance as well, which I appreciate since many other games might use them just to fill players’ time with nothing of interest. I won’t spoil the location or anything, but there is a time in the story where you will head to a place where there are many computer logs to read about what happened to the people in that location. It’s probably the first time ever I’ve been really invested in something that would be considered lore, and it haunted me throughout the level. The writing and humor in this game are certainly very well done.
There was definitely a sense of ludonarrative dissonance to the finale of the game however. I felt like I was cheesing the big final climax, but I only ever used methods the developers intended. It created a sense of dissatisfaction, but getting the perfect ending was a good way to eventually balance that out. I'm pretty sure that had I gone about it any other way it would've resulted in many, many deaths too. There was quite a difficulty spike for me in the final stretch, which I can only assume was a result of my lack of spending skill points in combat abilities as well as the pistol remaining my default gun for the entire game. Up until that point I was easily able to manage with my loadout however, but at the start of the final stretch I out of nowhere doubled my death count from 2 to 4 while being attacked by ridiculously strong enemies. I was max level too. I guess that teaches me not to always go exclusively for speech check skills!
The combat was generally very basic. It’s not very in-depth of an RPG if we look outside of the narrative aspects. This personally doesn’t bother me really, as amazing combat mechanics are the very last thing I’d look for in a game. The companion abilities are quite cool even if they eventually become a chore to watch. The game gives you plenty of opportunities to forgo combat situations entirely though, which is my preferred method of playing. Maybe it was made a bit too easy in that way. A lot of the situations the game will present you with are quite easily resolved in a peaceful manner that will be more satisfying than any other. There’s not many moments of morally gray, and the hardest time I’ve had picking a choice has to be the very first big one. At the end, where you have to choose between different sides, there’s a very obvious choice that the developers want you to make. One is very vilified whereas the other is quite clean of any reasonable accusations. It did cheapen the feeling of choice a bit, but passing speech checks will never not be satisfying.
Even with all of this, sharp writing, lovable companions, a plentiful of interesting content, beautiful graphics and whatnot, the game still feels like it’s missing something. I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Everything it does it does well, maybe even great, but as a full product it just doesn’t quite hold up to that bar for me. It was never not entertaining, but it was never truly exciting. I don’t think it does enough differently to really differentiate itself from other, similar story-driven games. It feels like a very safe game, which in all fairness resulted in a very good product, but it does miss that thing to make it just that little bit better. I had a good time with this game and I don’t regret playing it or any of the hours I put in. It’s certainly recommended to anyone interested as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t think it’s likely to surprise anyone who might be on the fence or convert anyone to a new genre of games. It’s a very solid 8/10 experience, but I’m not sure if I’ll remember it for years and years to come. All that said, I’ll definitely be returning for the DLC!
@KratosMD That reminds me that I should also do a second playthrough of Oxenfree at some point! I've only ever done one and got a good, but not perfect ending. Do you think the changes to the ending stretch of the game justify another 4 hours of gameplay? I'm always hesitant about starting second playthrough in games since I'm not the person to enjoy playing the same thing again, but since it's the intention I might make an exception. I suppose I'll also have to try and play all four hours in a reasonable timeframe if I do!
@Tjuz Thanks for review! I agree most of your points and also enjoyed my time with the game.
For the last level in the prison you can bypass a lot of the combat by using your speech. There is a lady engineer you speak to and if you have a high enough level, she will give you a password to a nearby terminal. You can also bypass the last boss fight depending on your answers when you speak to the person before facing it. But you can also lock pick the nearby door and hack into the terminal to bypass the fight too. So there is never just one way to tackle stuff in the game, there will always be another way if you have the right skills unlocked. You can always respec your character on your ship too.
As for the length of the game, people are comparing it to the recent fallout games. I sunk easily 100 hours into the main game (not including DLC), which I think which why some complained about the length. It didn't bother me however.
@JohnnyShoulder i don't think I did any dialogue in the final prison level except for the necessary ones near the end. I had a cartridge that let me disguise myself, and I basically walked my way through the entire prison just looking at everyone else fight. That's why it felt incredibly cheesy to play it that way, but I had no choice but to avoid combat! I did bypass the last boss, as I luckily had enough skill points to pass the speech checks before it. Gave me a great ending slide too!
@Tjuz With the disguises don't you have to walk so very slowly when using them, otherwise they wear off in no time at all? Unless there is some sort of skill that makes them more effective that I wasn't aware, which is entirely possible!
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder I played on PC, so I didn't have the joysticks to walk slower or faster. I just did a normal paced walk, no sprinting. I did have the 25% faster walking perk. I just made a B-line for the objective, and it'd wear out just before I got there usually. At that point any enemies would be distracted or killed by the revering factions however, so I never had to get my hands dirty. Whenever you got a new objective of where to go the disguise would recharge. It made it very easy to just walk through the level without any resistance, which felt very off considering it was built up as this insane suicide mission!
@KALofKRYPTON Sounds like you're making solid progress. Even though it's my favourite, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is where I start to flag on replays. Best of luck sticking with it; I'm sure, as a new experience, it'll carry you through a little better.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger I've played a small chunk of 3. The opening with Drake as a kid and the rooftop/city escape. Really not an enjoyable thing I thought at the time.
If I can get past that without chucking it in - I should be OK
I'm keeping a keen eye out bargain-bin prices for 4 and LL, but I'm tempted to do release order and play GA after 3. Possibly 'wow' myself back in to it with the Vita to PS4 jump.
@KALofKRYPTON I reckon you'd enjoy Golden Abyss. Those expecting a like-for-like Uncharted experience on handheld are bound to be disappointed, but as a novelty puzzle-shooter story game, it's very engaging and a beautiful tech demo for the PS Vita. I place it above Among Thieves (and possibly A Thief's End, if I'm really honest) in my series rankings, so would highly recommend it.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Wonder if you'll get the same percentage for Drake's Deception, then? The formats of the trophy lists are identical across the trilogy, so it's possible!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Forums
Topic: Games you've recently beat
Posts 1,761 to 1,780 of 5,530
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic