kain_kusanagi said:
What you say is very true. Linearity is not necessarily a bad thing. However, Uncharted, while fun, plays out like a movie. What I mean by that is, you can only make Nathan do the very specific things that the developers set up for him to do, much like how a movie's editor shows us the order of the movie. Uncharted isn't the only game like this. I'm not just talking about the QTE or set pieces, although those surely are the most severe cases. And I'm surely not talking about it's cutscenes, which should be cinematic, since they are cinematics. I'm talking about how every problem and obstacle the player faces can really only be handled in one way. This makes it so every play through of the game is practically identical. Like I said Uncharted isn't the only game like this. Enslaved is fun, but has the same issue. I just don't want every game to go for cinematic set pieces and linearity of gameplay. When I said Uncharted gets a pass for this I meant by fans. People complain all day about Modern Warfare's rollercoaster ride, but they praise Uncharted's cinematic style. There's not much of a differences other than the quality of the writing.
On the topic of FF13 I must disagree. I don't think any Final Fantasy game has ever been truely open world, other than the online ones of course. The Final Fantasy formula and to a greater extent Japanese RPGs in general, are very linier compared to western style RPGs. What I find interesting is how long time fans argue that Square dumbed down FF13 to appeal to western gamers. In my opinion FF13 has less western appeal when you compare it to games like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, etc. I think Square just wanted to make a very cinematic Final Fantasy and to do that it always seems to mean taking control away from the player so the developer can craft a better movie instead of making a better game. |
I guess we are gonna have to agree to disagree about uncharted. This is how i see uncharted gameplay, its made up of platforming, puzzles, and combat. Now lets tackle platforming first. Very linear platforming, but in most third person games with a stronger focus on combat, platforming is usually linear but developers usually spice up traversal. Games like God of war, ninja gaiden, enslaved, bayonetta, darksiders, etc. The list goes on and on. Almost all of these games have platforming that is linear, yet we dont critizise these games for having linear platforming...its simply the nature of platforming. So i dont see the issue with linear platforming in uncharted.
The puzzles, again there is only one way of solving these puzzles but that is obvious. Puzzles usually only have one way of solving especially the type of puzzles that should be in an uncharted game. How easy you find these puzzles, is a matter of opinion, but in general i found them to be of average diffuculty (without hints), which is what they should be, this is not tomb raider.
The combat, now here is where i dont see how you can call it linear. Yes you are in a set level with set enemies etc. but how you go about getting rid of them is up to you. Most third person shooters relies on this to change up gameplay, i dont see whats different about uncharted. you choose what weapon you wanna use, you choose what style you want to use. Theres also a stealth element, but that wasnt really good and personally i dont think its needed as a core gameplay element but rather just to set the mood for a specific level or something along those lines. And heres where uncharted 3 did quite better than the previous 2, it had much more bigger open areas to fight enemies in, allowing the player more freedom to go about combat. I played U3 on hard difficulty and i thought levels like this were pretty challenging and allowed for different play styles.
With regards to modern warfare. Modern warfare is a very popular game, and to be honest outside of the internet i dont see it getting much hate, and thats including the single player and the mp. People generally like modern warfare thats why it sells. As for the haters...well given MW's popularity its bound to have a huge amount of vocal haters especially on the internet. Now im not saying mw is perfect but it is what it is and its good and doing what it does. And i fully agree that modern wafare and uncharted are similar in approach. I assure you, if uncharted had worse graphics and was more popular there would be just as much hate for it as there is for mw. Ok maybe thats not true, there a more issues with modern warfare than just gameplay and structure.
I didnt say open world though....just non linear. In ff13 you literally walk down a straight line and bash the x button for hours on end.And i mean literally a straight line. Hands down one of the most linear games ever made. In previous FF's games wernt open world, but you could go off the beated pathway almost whenever you wanted to, and if you did this there was story development, side quests etc. all waiting to be discovered, not to mention exploration in general. FF 13 had none of this. And yes i get why they did it this way, but remember this is a FF its an established franchise, with an established fan base, theres a certain expectation that comes with that. If they wanted to try something different then they should have done a spin off or something like that.
