Why Uncharted's Greatness is a Mirage (GameXplain)

GameXplain.com writes, "Ever since the Uncharted series debuted in 2007, the franchise has gone on to receive numerous accolades. Back in 2009, many websites proclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as the Game of the Year. With the recent release of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception garnering similar praise, it is sure to be nominated for similar awards. With all of this praise, you may think the Uncharted series is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, videogame series of all time. Due to its lack of originality and limited scope, however, I can not say I subscribe to this notion."

[Chuk5]

Some decent points, but overall, like music, games take inspiration from each other. It would be like saying Iron Maiden is a rip-off of Judas Priest. It's called precedent. Uncharted doesn't hide the fact that it was hugely inspired by Tomb Raider, some of the fans do. As for the gears comparison, it only makes sense to borrow from a game that redefined third person action games like RE4 influenced gears. The Uncharted series is great and all great series take inspiration from other great games.

[Megaman_nerd]

what inspiration from Tomb Raider? Can you even mention a single element from the Tomb Raider series that is present in the Uncharted series? Because the way I see it the shooting is all Gears of Wars, the story and characters are from Indiana Jones and the platforming is the same as the Prince of Persia Series. There is no Tomb Raider here... You can even say that some animations and artistic elements like the jungles are really similar to the Crash Bandicoot series but Tomb Raider? Where?

[GribbleGrunger]

what? i love the Uncharted series and completely disagree with this article, but to say it doesn't take elements of TR is daft. have you actually played TR? swinging sideways (check), climbing and swinging (check), finding hidden treasures (check), adventure/shooter (check), compulsive treasure hunter (check), puzzles (check), jungles and tombs (check). ND refined the genre, they didn't invent it... and Gears? are you kidding me? what, because it has a cover system? that's a flimsy argument to say the least. Crash?! OK, you've lost all credibility.

[BryanBegins]

For me, Uncharted is like Tomb Raider, but fun! Meaning less annoying puzzles and more gunfights and action sequences. I always wanted to love the TR series but always got bored when playing.

As for this article, I see his points but I'm sure I can write an article showing how Skyrim didn't reinvent everything... It doesn't change the fact that to me, Uncharted 2 is one of the greatest game ever made. Uncharted 3 is great too, but you don't have this wow factor anymore.

[rezzah]

Shame on you GribbleGrunger for adding understandable reasons of connection between the two.

Only those who never played or understood Tomb Raider will disagree with your comment.

Let their emotions blind them, makes it funny because it shows how pathetic they are.

[christian hour]

To those who say it doesnt borrow from crash, Actually it does borrow from crash, they even mention it during their making of vids for the new uncharted, something along the lines of "The boulder chase scenes in crash that the original naughty dog came up with have become a staple of our games somewhat, so we had to fit them into uncharted somehow" and there are quite a few running towards camera from impending doom moments across the uncharted series ;)

[Oner]

I would go as far to say they all get it from Pitfall/Indiana Jones (and not just the movie but the game as well)...

[WhiteLightning]

The thing is though people keep forgetting about Gears is that Uncharted started development just a little while after Gears started development so NaughtyDog wouldn't of known about the third person cover system it uses would it......fair enough if gameplay was shown and THEN they started development but they didn't.......there was only a year between the two games. ND had no idea what Epic were up to...none of us did but people just judge it on the whole "what came first" thing.

People always miss this when pointing out the two cover systems.

Hell you never know Uncharted might of been in development longer....

[rezzah]

The games are what they are, enjoy them.

There is a expectation of characters to run backwards or else the game is a copy.

Nothing is ever truly original as the idea for the story and gameplay created must come from somewhere.

Basically it is a mash-up of what we already know put together.

Many games will be SIMILAR but are not the exact same.

[humbleopinion]

Get your facts straight: Gears cover mechanics was already revealed in E3 2005 - a good ~2.5 years before Uncharted came out.
And since uncharted 3 was in full production for about 2 years (as ND themselves mentioned), they had plenty of time to "be inspired from (AKA copy) that mechanic.

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

@humbleopinion

Is this the part where i say Gears borrowed (aka copied) from Kill.Switch? Please, that argument saying that Gears invented the cover system is getting really old.

[WhiteLightning]

@humbleopinion....

and

How long do you think Uncharted was in development, last year in 2010 Nolan said he had been playing the character for five years so if it was 2010, then you take five away it would be 2005, so ND could of started Uncharted before Gears footage was shown......

Please get your facts straight.

[humbleopinion]

@Iroquois_Pliskin
Yeah, and Splinter Cell and Rainbow 6 and Winback... they all had cover mechanics. Even 2d games had duck mechanics

Big difference is - Gears cover mechanics made a major change on the simple cover mechanics: It's not just the ability to choose between aiming or blindfire ,but most importantly how one can dynamically run & dive to cover (be it a waist level cover or a wall), how the character remains sticky to the cover while moving, and also switch from cover to cover with a click of a button.
This became the de-facto standard for cover mechanics this generation with almost any game copying this implementation to the last bulletpoint. Try going back to Killswitch after playing a modern cover based shooter and you'll see the difference.

@WhiteLightning:
Didn't you read my comment? I quoted naughty dog themselves: Uncharted 2 was in full production for about 2 years - that's AFTER Gears was revealed to public (not to mention that inside the industry it was revealed even earlier). It WASN'T in development before Gears.

Even if Uncharted development would have started half a year before the reveal and not half a year after, how much effort do you think it takes to copy and implement an *identical* cover mechanic after you see it in another game? They still had a good 2.5 years to do that. After all, when was Uncharted cover mechanic itself revealed?

[Dee_91]

Article summary
Uncharted copied other games it suck because its not a open world rpg.

I dont understand why he think the influences from tomb raider indiana jones and prince of persia is a bad thing.
I can see if those games just came out or if that movie wasnt a decade or how ever old.Or if they just completely ripped them off.. But they didnt ..

Also .. Max payne,hit man,socom .. all ps2 games with similar cover systems and thats just off top of my head . If I remember correctly splinter cell on OG xbox had similar cover system.. ..

[Man In Black]

Max Payne never had a cover system.

[Dee_91]

Yea it was so long ago its all a blur but you get my point.
But i remember playing max payne on pc and it had a cover system :/ mustve been a different game.

[Micro_Sony]

I am looking forward TLOU but I think Ucharted's greatness will put too much pressure on this game and if it does not live up to UC standard reviewers will shred it to bits.

Uncharted has set the bar high for other develoeprs and even higher for its own developers to deliver more greatness.

[Chuk5]

Gears was in development around unreal tournament 2004. Or so I heard on the bombcast.

[newsguy]

Gears has been in development for a long time. 2004/05 sounds about right. Probably even before the PS3 dev kits existed. Furthermore, you don't think the success of gears influenced the gameplay mechanics of Uncharted 1 a year out in any way? Developers are always tweaking gameplay mechanics.

[firelogic]

Gears did not invent the cover based shooting genre. Kill Switch did it first. Gears refined it. If you're going to knock Uncharted, the same argument should apply to gears. And every Mario game after the first one. Hell every freaking game out there isn't original.

[Eternalb]

As long as a game is fun, I don't care where its inspirations come from.

[bearsfaan]

It kills me that people can't see the HEAVY Tomb Raider influence in this series.

[rezzah]

Heavy or not UC is what it is, what ideas added in its creation does not matter. The influence of one game to another does not make the younger game an exact copy of the older.

The reasons for why you consider the relations to be heavy is based on your perspective. Though that will not make the UC series become TR no matter your reasons or their relations.

[videoxgamexfanboy]

The only ppl who dont see it are ppl who were prolly born after 1995. Its clear that TR has had a heavy impact on the Uncharted series. These younger kids dont or wont accept the fact that uncharted is not revolutionary. Its a great series but not original.

[Megaman_nerd]

I have a PS1 and I own Tomb Raider 1 and 2 and they are nothing like Uncharted. Not the gameplay, not the characters nor the story or pace. Tomb Raider was about exploration and you getting lost looking for stuff around, the environments were more open and the platforming was entirely based on acrobatics. Uncharted is linear and pure action with some Zelda kind of puzzles, a cover system that is extremely similar to GeoW and if you ever played a Prince of Persia game then you know how similar the platforming is to that series.

Then we take into account the heavy movie like presentation ala Indiana Jones with seamless cinematics and where are the Tomb Raider inspirations? Nowhere to be seen.

[jspencep]

I will take refined and improved gameplay that came from various inspirations over sloppy and broken "innovation" any day...

[floetry101]

This article is obviously going to stir up a heap of people, but the guy makes his case. I don't agree with him entirely, but at least it isn't a single paragraph rant on the series.

I think Uncharted 2 is the best game they've ever done as a team, and will be remembered as a milestone work for them. The Crash series as well as Jak & Daxter are both memorably solid and fun titles, but aren't massive, genre defining place-holders for their respective systems.

Naughty Dog have always broken technical grounds, but I'd like to see them experiment with something even more ambitious. Maybe The Last of Us is that title? Who knows.

[cobblestone19]

I disagree with you. I think Uncharted 3 is the better game in every way. I love all Uncharted games. But I think Drakes Deception is the best.

[kneon]

Actually he doesn't make his case. You can go through a similar list of game mechanics issues for just about every game of the last decade, there are few that are truly original and don't borrow from previous games.

His criticism of the openness is silly, UC is about story and making the game too open interferes with the pacing of the story. There are times where you can wander around but there are times when you just have to push forward. I don't recall people complaining that mass effect is too linear despite the fact that it is. Sure you can choose which mission to do next but every mission is very linear.

The only issue I can partially agree with is with is the puzzles. But they can't make the puzzle too difficult as again it interferes with the story if you have people stuck at a puzzle for too long. What I would like though is for the puzzles to be more difficult for the harder settings. It's more work for the developers of course and I can't recall any other game doing something like that.

[floetry101]

Fair enough. I think the "openness" argument is a little off target as well, but I could use a Final Fantasy XIII analogy that no one would agree with. I think the linearity of that game is inherent to the overall design and pace it, others would have preferred a more "open" Final Fantasy title, but they don't realise that it wouldn't have worked. It's the same thing. Uncharted banks on tight story-telling and pace, so yes, I do think it requires a linear progression.

I agree with the puzzles, but I think they were the least inspiring puzzles out of any Uncharted game. I wouldn't say they bogged down gameplay too much, but two of them were definitely tedious enough to notice.

I'm not willing to go deeper into this right now, but I think in a number of ways, Naughty Dog took a step back from what worked in UC2 and brought back problems I associated with Drake's Fortune. It has less to do with originality and more to do with a lack of proper refinement and accessibility in favour of mind-boggling visuals. I don't discount your thoughts, and I especially don't agree with everything in the article, but there is more than enough there to suggest that the guy has a fair opinion.

[Tommy334]

Gears of war stole gameplay from killswitch!

[xXxSeTTriPxXx]

yeah and gears ripped of killswitch, and batman ripped of assassin creed, and sotn ripped of metroid, full 3d controls and environments on consoles was ripped from mario64.every game derives from another.inspiration comes from many places, but me (the end user) only cares about the execution of said mechanics.not where they're derive from.

[Janitor]

Well said, have some bubble.

[milohighclub]

i agree....bubs up.

[Papertiger]

Almost everything is derived from something else. The whole "originality" thing is absolute bullshit if the quality isn't there. The author seemed to piece apart every little area that Uncharted performs well in and rebuts it with something that's done the same thing. That's no excuse for you to say that it doesn't deserve its accolades just because its been done. Name any other game that's created an amalgam of such elements and delivered on such a quality that Naughty Dog have.

Naughty dog have worked hard to deliver quality shit for their fanbase and that's something that they continue to do. and I am STOKED for their exclusive The Last Of Us.

I don't know how many "uncharted overrated" articles continue to pop up out the heap, hoping to be seen and to cause a stir.

[wages of sin]

It's amazing how many of you just parrot eachother, each one missing the point. You sound like a bunch of Twilight fans.

Uncharted 1 and 2 in particular I found to be gaming masterpieces. I didn't like 3 at all. Gears 3 too me, was a much better game. Epic got screwed at the VGA's. A game that released broken gets GOTY and UC3 gets picked but Gears didn't.

I don't see how anyone is going nuts over the Last of Us. The only thing it has going for it is that it's ND so we know it'll at least be solid. But another third person shooter with the UC engine featuring corny looking fungus head humanoid monsters? It's Sony's version of the flood.

I'll save my judgement until I actually play it before I declare it the second coming.

p.s. Great article. I pretty much agree, except for the end. I didn't like the game.

[Klipz-Wish]

"each one missing the point"

After this ^ I was expecting "the point" to be told to everyone who was missing it but instead got "gears 3 is better than uncharted 3" and some comments trying to discourage people from The Last of Us.

Also you cant say you agree with the article if u say that you think uncharted 1 and 2 are "gaming masterpieces" seeing as he is challenging the notion of the series being called that.

[Bathyj]

You'll save you judgement to til you play it bfore showering praise, but you'll go ahead a decry it right now?

Nice.

[milohighclub]

gears 3 was shit.

[Chuk5]

What makes Gears 3 shit? Seriously, valid reasons would be nice.

[A-Glorious-Dawn]

I really can't see how one can like the 1st and 2nd but dislike the 3rd.

[KingPin]

so i guess the matrix movies sucked balls because it ripped off ghosts in the shell?

i dont care if uncharted is a direct rip off of any game out there. thing is if its done better and is more fun and even scored a 2/1000 on review scores id still play the hell out of it.

people talk highly of half-life, oblivion and skyrim, i disliked those games. i played half life and found it boring <personal opinion> i played oblivion for 2 hours and never touched that game again <again, personal opinion> so yeah, to each his own. not ALL games out there have to be open world. not EVERYONE likes open world games. i like games like uncharted, linear, it has a point to it and gets there. <no side mission <unless you a treasure hunter>. i feel open world games give unnecessary tasks which are boring. <still personal opinion>

[DasTier]

Well I disagree <personal opinion>

[KingPin]

LMAO :P u couldnt help yourself could you lol

Bubbles for a good sense of humor.

[milohighclub]

even though MY opinion is different to yours i agree with what your saying 100%.

bubs up for daring to have an opinion.

[christian hour]

And some people prefer using "<>" instead of "()" :P But I totally agree with you, not everyone can commit the time that an open world game asks of you, people get older and take on more responsibilities, their gaming time declines but their love for gaming still remains, the solution is short to the point linear games and I think its great that people have that option, my brother used to be a crazy gamer, I dont think hes finished a game in the last two years now between work/part-time college/apprenticeship/girlfri end, so he loves sports games he can just pick up and play a few matches, or war shooters where he can clear the campaign in two hours and then maybe unwind with a game or two online now and then.

[Bathyj]

Who cares? Everythings a ripoff now days.

Why the fax machine is nothing more than a waffle iron with a phone attached.

[madjedi]

Yeah an opinion piece and it sucks at that, the cruise ship level alone is far above the countless other average lvls that most games have, and likely will ever try.

Lack of originality(seriously dumbass), not one game you mentioned is truly original they all had previous games they borrowed ideas, characters and storylines from. I am waiting for your opinion piece on why gears or halo greatness is a mirage.

Shit i wish more games had uncharted's ambitious set pieces, beautiful art style and incredible locations. Why isn't there ever any articles talking about how plain and unimpressive most multiplatform games are.

If uncharted/nd is playing it safe, then most of the other 3rd party devs, need to leave the kiddie pool, minus a few diamonds most multiplats aren't anything to brag about.

[joab777]

Sorry but this article is completely pointless to the degree of absurd. Games aren't great because of their similarity to Picasso or michaelangelo and while skyrim is my favorite game this year and maybe ever, it is a terrible example of originality. If he is trying to get hit...congratulations. That's all he will get. All games borrow from other games. Which games graphics did uncharted borrow from? Which games seemlessly blended cutscenes? Which games had sequences like the train, the cruise liner, the trucks, or the horses? There is a reason that the game garners concensus concerning its achievements, from all types of gamers and creators. Naughty dogs ability to craft an adventure is second to none. It may not be this years best game, and it mat not be an open world or a rehashed fps, but it will go down as one of the greatest achievements in gaming history. It doesn't have to be mentioned in a history book next to da vinci to be recognized for what it is. A mirage? This article is a great example of such.

[Jonah_Reese]

*Sigh* Articles like this and comments similar to the ones on here are why, I just have to keep my distance from the gaming community. Such ignorance can spawn from the most trivial of things. Yes, Uncharted is a Treasure Hunter, Action/Adventure game, yes Tomb Raider did all this first (before Uncharted).

That to me does not make Uncharted any less original. Like I have said before it's not about whether it has been done before but how well it's done. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune came around and to many people, myself included squashed anything Tomb Raider had done at that moment. The series was not adding to the richness it once had, Uncharted came around and was familiar but new and different enough to etch out it's own Identity.

For some odd reason people do not want to give it that respect because it did not "innovate" anything ridiculously new. My question why should it? Is i mandatory? No, not at all.

The Uncharted series didn't barrow or steal as some of you would use the train sequence in which you had an actual moving, changing level; it did not "steal" the sinking ship or crashing plane sequence did it? No, it did not.

I understand that not everyone will like Uncharted for whatever reason but don't give me the BS, obligatory and at this point juvenile "it's just a Tomb Raider and Gears of War clone." And that's what this guy in this article was doinf undermining the integrity of the entire series. I mean he makes it his absolute point to undermine EVERY aspect of Unharted as if it's Copy and paste no hard work done on the part the dev team, I just find it to be pathetic and insulting.

I'm going to wrap this up, I apologize for the lengthy opinion piece this is, to clarify; I am not upset that the writer wrote an article that is not in favor of the Uncharted series. I'm upset that he wrote an article that blatantly undermined every good thing about the series and pretended and flipped it to make it seem as if he wasn't. Same song and dance from an obviously biased blogger (not against the PS3 But against Uncharted).

[plmkoh]

Yes, "spin" is really the only way these people can attack what is universally praised as a great series this generation. In fact I wouldn't be suprised if they went into the game with a great deal of bigotry.

To think that Uncharted is only a one big rip-off and not inspiring future games is total naivety in its greatest. Notice that once Uncharted was released we immediately see more games adopt more colourful characters who provide much more realistic voice work with what is happening in game.

In fact I can safely say, Uncharted is the gold standard on how to make a linear game interesting.

[trouble_bubble]

What an odd, odd, odd gen' we game in. Tell me if you've heard this one before. Total stranger, probably writing under a pseudonym, for a site you've never heard of before, suddenly learns to splice pics in MS Paint and decides to edumucate the unwashed masses on what they should and shouldn't think about popular videogames that have nothing to prove. Paste in a pic of a glorified elf riding towards a castle with a "now that's a world I can believe in" tag LMAO, and there ya have it. Merry Nerdmas.

"I've concluded that the most immersive videogame narratives do not rely on third-person cutscenes as they tend to take gamers out of the experience. "

Yeah, because putting pots & pans on Skyrim folk as they talk to you or listening to peoples' lives play out on cassette tapes found in ashtrays and wine crates -BioShock- doesn't remind you you're playing a videogame. At all. Hear that Mass Effect? Screw mo' cap, ya need more upskirts. And cowbell.

[ChronoJoe]

The platforming is nothing like Prince of Persia. The game plays out nothing like Lara Croft, neither does it handle like it.

[Hicken]

I won't go over the reasons- as they've been stated too many times by the more level-headed posters above me- but the story quality of this one is obviously WTF.

[Wintersun616]

I had loads of fun with these games and they look beautiful. Easily in my top 5 game franchises of all time. I don't care if it has taken obvious inspirations from previous franchises, because if we use that as a measure of "greatness", we wouldn't have that many great games, now would we? That faulty logic can be applied to almost any single game today to try and make it look bad. But hey, if you want to nitpick the games apart instead of actually playing them, that's your problem.

[Tenkay23]

Uncharted is Ike the transformers movies; intense action, great entertainment, but will never win any oscars. Same with uncharted. Is it original, innovative (aside from graphics)? No. Is it an entertaining thrill ride? Absolutely. Will it win GOTY awards? It shouldn't because it's more of the same and been done before. I prefer GOTY to be innovative or revolutionary or a masterpiece. For example, this years Skyrim or Arkham City, or Portal 2 (my pick), hell even skyward sword reinvented the Zelda series for the better and I would consider it ahead of Uncharted 3 as GOTY. But Uncharted does what it's supposed to do, entertain gamers and make their $60 investment worthwhile with an entertaining single player and fun multiplayer.

[Hicken]

Video games are different from movies, though. A game SHOULD be worthy of at LEAST GOTY nods if it's great entertainment and lacks major flaws. A great story and believable characters, solid gameplay: all these things exist with the Uncharted franchise.

And all those are things you want in a good or great game.

You're right, though: Uncharted 3 does what it's supposed to do, and it does it damn well. So do Portal 2 and Skyward Sword. So does Arkham City. Skyrim... well, let's just say I'm not too pleased with the bugs in the game at release. Still, even people who don't typically play such games are hooked.

UC3 doesn't just succeed at doing what it's supposed to do, but it also does so with a technical flourish. It's a great game not just for the play, but from a development aspect. Amazing dynamic effects in water, fire, smoke and sand are unmatched, and the little details put into the items you bump into going down a narrow alley in the Middle East relay to you just how dedicated the developers are to the game.

That's not something seen in abundance in most games, and something I think is visible in Uncharted more than its GOTY competitors.

[miyamoto]

Mr. Thang, when were you born? Your nitpicking is really unoriginal and non-creative I see this everyday from common trolls.

Don't you know that every game you just mentioned here is as guilty of the definition of "rip off" you are accusing the Uncharted series of.

Do you really understand how creativity and originality works on any form of art & entertainment?

Talking about movies.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.”
― Jim Jarmusch

George Lucas, James Cameron, Tim Burton & their films are considered to be some of the most original & creative out there yet they tell us where they took their ideas from.Do you honestly think Miyamoto and Suzuki created all their stuff out of thin air?

Are you implying in your tone that Uncharted blatantly ripped off all those games?

Dude, is being out there first and popularizing your meaning of originality and creation?

Dude, originality & creativity are taking existing elements and presenting them in a different form or point of view.

Uncharted may have taken so many elements from previous games but tell me have any of these games you use to point an accusing finger at Uncharted, ever took video gaming to the universally & critically acclaimed cinematic level that rivals even the best of the film industry.

I am fully aware of what these other games you mentioned did for the better of video gaming but please stop your jealous negativity on Uncharted just because it did what they did not do - elevated gaming into new heights of literary & artistic excellence.

Aren't you glad that because of Uncharted franchise critic's perception of video games has been changed for its honor & glory.

Uncharted has put video games in a status that can't be touch or looked down anymore.

Let these games coexist in harmony and don't put them against.
Be positive not negative.