No sooner had I completed Uncharted 3 on Normal I was back into it again, tackling the toughest difficulty of Crushing. I rather fancied my chances of success. Whilst I was playing through the game for the first time I was taking mental note of the trickier sections that I figured would be challenging at the hardest level and, whilst I figured there would be some tough times, I didn’t see anything that I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle.
Truth of the matter was I sailed through the game on Crushing far easier than I thought I would. There were one or two sticking points but, really, the parts I envisaged would be total nightmares actually weren’t that bad.
Trickiest part? For me it was in the cargo hold of the ship, just after I discovered the fake Sully. (An utterly nonsense thing for the bad guys to have put there, to be honest.) There was just a really hard moment where a guy was on a balcony, another two guys were walking towards where I was taking cover in the corner, and an enemy with a shield was lurking in the background. I died over and over, refining my actions down to taking out balcony guy, man on crate, then making a run for it to pick off the shield guy and, hopefully, still have a grenade, bullets and health to bring down the armoured guy as the next wave of attack came in.
The ship level also contained a pretty tough situation in a stage room that I knew would be tough, but mostly it was challenging due to a lack of ammo. That aside, the start of the very final level had a tough part with grenade launching guys and snipers to tackle alongside approaching enemies that basically required some fast, accurate takedowns, but it was easily manageable.
The part I thought would be hardest was the part with the flamehead enemies, particularly at the fountain area with about five or six of them to deal with. That had been horrendous on Normal, and I was dreading it on Crushing. However, first time around I hadn’t been aware of the RPG over to the left, or the Grenade Launcher, and with a TAU and T-Bolt sniper combo taking potshots I handled it like a pro!
I found the fight sections annoying on Crushing mode, since it generally didn’t show button prompts to display what you should be pressing. (OK, it basically boiled down to hitting Triangle or Circle, but still!) The last fight became a bit irritating in that regard, when I’d get hurt and then killed off in two moves despite feeling like I had countered correctly. Glad to see the back of it.
The physical fights never really did grow on me, but they were the worst part. Otherwise I actually really enjoyed playing in Crushing mode! Far from being a soul-destroying slog it just made the game more exciting, and made the shootouts more intense, tactical affairs where you felt like picking the right spot for cover was important and every shot had to count.
My impression of the game changed during this second playthrough. Things that had blown me away first time didn’t quite amaze (like the walk through Yemen market town) and parts that hadn’t initially dazzled this time had a better effect (in particular the entire ship sequence which, end to end, is a remarkable technical feat and probably the game’s tentpole highpoint, as well as the astounding-looking part hanging out the back of the plane).
I still can’t really call it on which one is best, Uncharted 2 or Uncharted 3. I’d say the third one is the most impressive, and more like the interactive blockbuster the game strives to be. It’s also the most enjoyable and exciting due to the higher frequency of set piece moments. However, it’s because of all those set-piece moments I think the gameplay doesn’t feel quite as meaty as the second one, which was more of a shootout blast and felt like a bigger game (even though they both have the same number of levels).
In short, Uncharted 3 was the more spectacular, set piece action game, whereas Uncharted 2 probably had a higher body count and is slightly more hardcore. (Neither of them are as hardcore as the first one, though, but that’s also the weakest of the series.)
The Platinum trophy was soon awarded. Once the Crushing game was done I could go back, pick a chapter, and collect missing trophies or pick the best parts to, say, throw back grenades at enemies or kill enough of them with a handgun or alternate shooting and fighting. . . Pretty easy with a bit of concerted effort. I rather wish it had more online-based trophies to encourage me on there. One for completing all of the co-op missions would have been a good one. Oh well. No doubt I’ll play them anyway - Uncharted’s online game has for a long time been my favourite multiplayer so I won’t be missing out just because there isn’t a trophy in it.
Truth of the matter was I sailed through the game on Crushing far easier than I thought I would. There were one or two sticking points but, really, the parts I envisaged would be total nightmares actually weren’t that bad.
Trickiest part? For me it was in the cargo hold of the ship, just after I discovered the fake Sully. (An utterly nonsense thing for the bad guys to have put there, to be honest.) There was just a really hard moment where a guy was on a balcony, another two guys were walking towards where I was taking cover in the corner, and an enemy with a shield was lurking in the background. I died over and over, refining my actions down to taking out balcony guy, man on crate, then making a run for it to pick off the shield guy and, hopefully, still have a grenade, bullets and health to bring down the armoured guy as the next wave of attack came in.
The ship level also contained a pretty tough situation in a stage room that I knew would be tough, but mostly it was challenging due to a lack of ammo. That aside, the start of the very final level had a tough part with grenade launching guys and snipers to tackle alongside approaching enemies that basically required some fast, accurate takedowns, but it was easily manageable.
The part I thought would be hardest was the part with the flamehead enemies, particularly at the fountain area with about five or six of them to deal with. That had been horrendous on Normal, and I was dreading it on Crushing. However, first time around I hadn’t been aware of the RPG over to the left, or the Grenade Launcher, and with a TAU and T-Bolt sniper combo taking potshots I handled it like a pro!
I found the fight sections annoying on Crushing mode, since it generally didn’t show button prompts to display what you should be pressing. (OK, it basically boiled down to hitting Triangle or Circle, but still!) The last fight became a bit irritating in that regard, when I’d get hurt and then killed off in two moves despite feeling like I had countered correctly. Glad to see the back of it.
The physical fights never really did grow on me, but they were the worst part. Otherwise I actually really enjoyed playing in Crushing mode! Far from being a soul-destroying slog it just made the game more exciting, and made the shootouts more intense, tactical affairs where you felt like picking the right spot for cover was important and every shot had to count.
My impression of the game changed during this second playthrough. Things that had blown me away first time didn’t quite amaze (like the walk through Yemen market town) and parts that hadn’t initially dazzled this time had a better effect (in particular the entire ship sequence which, end to end, is a remarkable technical feat and probably the game’s tentpole highpoint, as well as the astounding-looking part hanging out the back of the plane).
I still can’t really call it on which one is best, Uncharted 2 or Uncharted 3. I’d say the third one is the most impressive, and more like the interactive blockbuster the game strives to be. It’s also the most enjoyable and exciting due to the higher frequency of set piece moments. However, it’s because of all those set-piece moments I think the gameplay doesn’t feel quite as meaty as the second one, which was more of a shootout blast and felt like a bigger game (even though they both have the same number of levels).
In short, Uncharted 3 was the more spectacular, set piece action game, whereas Uncharted 2 probably had a higher body count and is slightly more hardcore. (Neither of them are as hardcore as the first one, though, but that’s also the weakest of the series.)
The Platinum trophy was soon awarded. Once the Crushing game was done I could go back, pick a chapter, and collect missing trophies or pick the best parts to, say, throw back grenades at enemies or kill enough of them with a handgun or alternate shooting and fighting. . . Pretty easy with a bit of concerted effort. I rather wish it had more online-based trophies to encourage me on there. One for completing all of the co-op missions would have been a good one. Oh well. No doubt I’ll play them anyway - Uncharted’s online game has for a long time been my favourite multiplayer so I won’t be missing out just because there isn’t a trophy in it.
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