You are comparing apples to oranges. Compare Uncharted 2 to the last GTA game which took much much longer to complete. By that standard Uncharted 2 is way short. COD MW2 is also very short in my opinion. Seems that lately video game producers are putting out visually stunning games that get shorted and shorter and just last a weekend for $60 and trying to sell you on the idea that "you have to draw the line somewhere" and "compare it to a 2 hour movie." Makes me less inclined to spend my hard earned money on games that are half as long as games were a year or two ago. I loved both CODMW2 and Uncharted 2 and all just my opinion but at the end of the day I feel like both games were way too short for a campaign player like myself.
You are not comparing similar games at all. GTA is a sandbox game, whereas Uncharted is an adventure game. In GTA, you can create a small city which feels huge and contain the entire game in that city...whereas Uncharted has to create MULTIPLE environments and is actually artistically much more challenging. One is a story based adventure game, the other is a sandbox game...not at all the same. And GTA is a great game, but to do a game like Uncharted in a GTA style format would take YEARS to do......unless you did it in one city......I guess you could do something like that.....and call it...Assasins Creed. DD
It took me at least 10 hrs to beat uncharted 2 and that was spread out over about 3 weeks when I had the time to play. I didn't feel cheated at all when it was done and that's before diving in to multiplayer. Few if any first person/adventure games are as long as that. COD's single player campaign is more along the lines of too short, though the online makes it more than worth it.
I just finished it...thought it was the first true interactive movie I have ever played. And this is coming from a guy who worked on Wing Commander and Starlancer..... Well done Naughty Dog. DD
That was possibly my favorite part from the game. Well, there's just too many to just pick one. I really enjoyed the platforming part after meeting Tenzin in the Tibetan village as well. That whole scene in the snow capped mountains to find the lost expedition was amazing! As for the game being short... It's about the experience that you're paying $60 for. Extending the game longer than it needs to be can hurt the story in many ways, and overall decrease the appreciation of it. The length of Uncharted 2 was great, although I guess the Shambala sequence could have been a little longer. GTA is a whole different type of game which doesn't lend itself to being like Uncharted 2. In Uncharted 2, the developers can carefully script events to give the player a more movie like experience. There is no way to get that kind of effect from a sandbox game where you are free to do what you want for the most part. Assassin's Creed 2 was a hybrid of GTA and Uncharted 2 and it was an awesome game (my 2nd favorite of the year actually), but it didn't feel like playing a movie where as Uncharted 2 did. They are just totally different styles. For my money's worth, I like that developers make a more cohesive experience like Uncharted 2 even if it takes me less hours to finish. The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
I think it does do a great job of seeming like some major, summer blockbuster film. There have been other games that you could describe as interactive movies (MGS, Heavenly Sword, probably Heavy Rain, etc.), but Uncharted is a different kind of experience. As you said, kind of like playing Indiana Jones. As for game length, I understand what VooDooPope is saying. Generally, if a game offers less than 10 hours of gameplay, I won't buy it at full price (this includes God of War, Uncharted 1, and a few others...games which I loved, but I wouldn't pay $50+ for). I do like developers that make games like this since, as mentioned, they can make for some amazing experiences. But I'll just wait for some price drop before paying that much for a "short" game. FWIW though, I don't classify U2 in that category. Probably right outside it. 10+ hours for me IIRC, and I played it some more due its replayability. And that was with putting no time into the multiplayer. I don't really like it personally, but it is probably OK for developers to put out 6-8 hour games, just as long as they add some multiplayer component that can help the player get much more gameplay from the game.
It took me about two weeks to finish the game, but I don't usually play more than 3 hours a day if that much.
You know, what puzzled me about Uncharted 2 was that it got all this critical acclaim that the first one didn't get. I just straight don't understand it. My best guess is that maybe critics weren't sure the first would be so great, and since it ended up being a "sleeper," critics then hyped up the release of the 2nd one more...? But seriously... I've been declaring Uncharted 1's place in the annals of all-time great games on this very board since it came out. It baffles me that more people didn't play this gem at the time. Having played them both, I can't honestly say 2 is better than 1. In fact, if I had to choose one of them, I prefer 1, though they are both great games. ...as far as the question of length goes: irrelevant, IMO. And the reason is that both these games are so good, they're more fun to play three times than almost any other game is to play once. Replay value is important. If the game takes 10 hours to beat once... calculate in how many more times you're going to play through it!
I seem to recall a lot of "sure, it is a great game, but does it offer anything new?" criticisms about U1. Which was just stupid of course. Even if you ignore what ND did with the gameplay and narrative (which were pretty "new" and "innovative" IMO), that's not really something to critique a game on. Especially when so many games don't do anything new at all, yet they still receive a lot of praise. I actually still saw a few reviews use this same criticism for U2, although it seemed to be a bit more rare than it was for U1. I was more bothered by sales. Even if U1 was just a well-polished game that didn't offer anything new, it didn't really get the sales it deserved. U2 is probably selling 2-3 times as well as U1 (IIRC), and even that is a bit low IMO.
I am sure U2 is generating sales of U1 now too....I bought a new copy for $30..... It is a great game, don't know how I missed it....well, actually sure I do...it was PS3 only. DD
So is uncharted 2 a game that you would complete once then never play again? I'm really interested in buying it.
I played both almost back to back last year, and I think 2 was a bit better. Graphically, jumping through the rooftops in Nepal and then the snow village part were simply amazing.
Uncharted 2 was a lot better than the first, which was outstanding in its own right. The gunplay was much improved with blind fire, a lot more cover, and a usable grenade mechanic. The sequel also incorporated stealth, which didn't really exist at all in the original. The graphics were better, but the first was so amazing that's it a wash. The two main features for me were the interactive cinematic chapters in the sequel. The train sequence, the chapter where you're jumping from car to car, the museum heist, running from a helicopter, fighting through a collapsing building, and taking out tanks were some truly memorable gameplay moments. The first game was fun, but it got kind of routine after a while: pick a cover spot, fight waves of stock enemies again and again. I though the co-op moments were greatly improved. Yes, you fought with Elena and Sully a few times in the first game, but you had helpful partners in the sequel. Also, I found the in-game banter between Drake and his help to be spot on and made you truly feel like you were working with someone else even though they were just AI. I felt like I was in the middle of a movie instead of having cheesy lines repeated over and over.
I haven't played the first one, but I thought the co-op characters were useless except for the scenes where you boost them up to kick down a ladder. The Sully guy hides during any action sequences and Elena and Chloe just seem to fire blindly at a rock or something when enemies appear but never actually hit anything.
How "alive" is the online community right now for Uncharted 2 anyway. Do you have problem finding multiplayer/co-op games or is it pretty much always instant
