finished Batman: AA last week and am playing Uncharted 2 now.
Loved batman and was actually annoyed that it was over. I'll be keeping that one to play through again on a harder setting. I got all the riddles first time through so next time it'll be a much shorter play time. Really really looking forward to Batman: AC.
I loved Uncharted 1 and so obviously i had to play Uncharted 2. Coming directly from Batman though left me kind of annoyed with some of the gameplay elements.
Don't get me wrong, the game looks stunning, the story is great, and the voice acting is perfect (<3 Claudia Black).
But in Batman I always knew hat ledges i could hang from, I always knew what ledges would support me. I don't remember once dying in batman because i was't sure if a certain tactic or gameplay mechanic was going to work or not. It seemed to be constant and defined which I liked.
Uncharted 2 (and honestly I think most games) kind of makes a few bits up as it goes along. Sometimes you can hang from a ledge or jump off a building but sometimes you just fall to your death like a plonker. Sometimes you cant jump onto a rock that quite clearly you should be able to because that's not how they want you to get somewhere.
Another thing that is a little frustrating is the sometimes odd things you need to do to advance the story. EG you need to cross a body of water and you can't work out how you are supposed to get over. There is no ledge or handy lampost to leap from. Up comes the hint that you need to do what you need to do. No way would I have figured that out without the hint, how am I supposed to know what things are and aren't going to affect the environment like that? And why once i've killed 20 bad guys do more suddenly rock up? by the time the bad guy has sorted out payroll for this lot finding the stone is going to be just about breaking even.
Maybe its just me, but I like the clearly defined rules of the Batman: AA universe. I know that I can rip that vent off as its glowing orange. I know I can batclaw my way up onto that ledge etc etc.
It probably doesn't help that I'm crap at shooters on consoles. I possess an almost unique lack of thumb co-ordination to allow me to turn and aim accurately. Again with batmans lack of shooting that was never an issue.
I'm enjoying the game a lot, the story is engaging, the animation and acting is smooth, and it does of course look great. I just don't think I'm enjoying actually playing the thing as much as I did with Batman.
I think this would all have been less pronounced had I just finished another game.
Once I've finished Uncharted 2 I have to work my way through
- Heavy Rain
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Assassins creed 1 & 2
- Mass Effect 2 (PC)
- GTA4 - though I've played this for 20 minutes and was not impressed with the control mechanic which is really preventing me from jumping on it whole hog
- Homeworld (PC)
I wont be buying myself anything new (apart from possibly Cities in Motion - PC) until I have worked my way through these. My 26th birthday is in April though so i'll probably ask for others bits i want then so i don't need to buy anything at all!
