Gaming Uncharted 4

Got to Madagascar now (chapter 11 I think). I really like
being able to drive the jeep around and completing areas with pure stealth
 
I'm on a crushing run, just finished the chase chapter. Stealth is all but impossible with the guards seeing you instantly with no warning
 
Now up to chapter 16 on my Crushing run & I'm enjoying it quite a lot. I really get into the trial & error method of finding out how to stealth my way through encounters without being seen, though having said that I think I've only been able to do one or two encounters without being seen at all, usually I'll get down to the last 2-3 enemies and make some daft mistake or get careless. Chapter 13 & 14 had the hardest encounters so far, the first one in chapter 13 in particular. Here's my successful go at it after many, many deaths if anyone cares, or has the time to watch:



(Note: the actual encounter ends on 15 mins there's just a bit of exploration and the cut scene after that so if you've played this bit you don't really need to watch that). It's also quite funny that after so many goes I had a well planned route of stealth killing I could usually easily get to the sniper part without being seen once but on my actual successful run I actually manage to feck it up more times than I did when I got killed in my previous 10 unsuccessful attempts which were 1 feck up = certain death :D

Also, here's an interesting read on how the games difficulty scales depending on how much you die and the differences between the different settings

Difficulty Settings
Published: 10 May 2016 | Category: Uncharted 4
You can access the game options and change the difficulty anytime you wish. The difficulty modes are Explorer, Light, Moderate, Hard, and Crushing.

To understand Uncharted 4’s difficulty settings, you should first understand that the game is designed in such a way that the more you struggle through an area (resulting in multiple deaths), the more the game implements incremental stages of assistance to make the challenge a little easier. This assistance complements the game’s difficulty setting. For example, the stages of assistance could be triggered after 6, 9, and 12 deaths, and possibly after 4, 6, and 8 deaths on an easy difficulty setting.

Each stage of assistance tweaks certain aspects of combat to make the task progressively easier. These include changes such as reducing enemy accuracy and enemy rate-of-fire, or increasing ally rate-of-fire, etc. Here is an overview of what is adjusted in gameplay, depending on what stage of assistance is implemented.

Details of Auto Assistance Stage 1
After struggling through an area and dying multiple times, the first stage of assistance will activate. These are the slight changes you can observe:

  • Enemy Accuracy slightly reduced
  • Time between enemy grenade throws slightly increased
  • Time until enemies attempt to flank increased
  • Enemy shotgun damage reduced
  • Enemy shotgun delay between shots increased
  • Enemy sniper target acquisition time increased
  • Enemy sniper fire time once locked on increased
  • Enemy grenade launcher delay between shots increased
  • Enemy RPG delay between shots increased
  • Time before ally can apply lethal force reduced
  • Time before ally can melee lethally reduced
  • Ally melee damage increased
  • Time between Checkpoints reduced (45 seconds)
Details of Auto Assistance Stage 2
A second stage of assistance activates if you still continue to struggle through an area (that is, die a few more times). This stage further increases those features that were increased in Stage 1 and further decreases those that were decreased. These are the additional changes you can observe in Stage 2 of game assistance:

  • All of Stage 1 assistance features slightly increased or decreased (accordingly)
  • Ammo drops increased
  • Enemy allies can no longer interrupt player melee to save each other
  • Enemies can only land two combo melee hits and enemy melee damage is reduced
  • Enemies can no longer melee you when grappled and your melee damage is increased
  • Minimum stomps to kick you off a ledge increased to 3
  • Enemies can no longer execute a double armbar (holding Drake by both arms and allowing other enemies to melee you from the front)
  • Time between Checkpoints further reduced (30 seconds)
Details of Auto Assistance Stage 3
A third and final stage of assistance activates if you still continue to struggle through an area. This stage further increases and decreases (accordingly) the features from Stages 1 and 2. The additional changes applied in Stage 3 are as follows:

  • Enemies can no longer shoot bursts while suffering hit reactions
  • Allies can no longer be grappled
  • Enemies can no longer execute melee combos or counter your melee
  • Time between Checkpoints further reduced (15 seconds)
  • Combat Checkpoints can now trigger after you kill any six enemies
Difficulty Setting Differences
Now that you have a grasp of how the game adjusts to help you through difficult areas (by implementing stages of assistance), the following section lists the differences you can experience by changing the difficulty settings. Although the guide is written for Moderate game players, the list of features that are increased or decreased are based on the default values of Hard mode—that is, everything is tuned relative to how it compares to Hard.

Explorer (Very Easy)
It is almost impossible to die when the game is set to Explorer mode. Health regeneration is set to 1000% and enemy accuracy is at 5%. However, explosions and melee can still hurt you. Camera and Aim assistance settings are enabled by default.

Speedrun
If you want to get through the game in less than 6 hours to get the Charted!-Speedrun trophy, we highly suggest you do this with the difficulty set to Explorer. For more tips on the Speedrun, see the Extras chapter.

Light (Easy)
Gameplay features that are tweaked depending on the selected difficulty level are listed here. These features are either increased or decreased accordingly as the game difficulty progresses:

  • Gameplay Assistance triggers after 4, 6, and 8 deaths
  • Enemies take longer to acquire you as a target
  • Successfully “sneak away” from enemies more easily
  • Ammo drops increased
  • You regenerate health faster
  • Enemies are significantly less accurate
  • Enemies can no longer shoot bursts while suffering hit reactions
  • Enemies wait much longer before attempting to flank
  • Enemy shotgun damage reduced, and shotgun delay between shots is increased
  • Enemy sniper: damage reduced (no longer one-shot kills); target acquisition time increased; sniper fire time (once locked on) is increased
  • Enemy grenade launcher and RPG delay between shots increased
  • Enemy movement speed reduced
  • Time before allies can apply lethal force reduced; allies can no longer be grappled; ally melee damage increased
  • Minimum enemy stomps to kick you off a ledge increased to 3
  • Enemies cannot counter melee (Heavies and Brutes are the exceptions); enemy support can no longer interrupt your melee to save each other
  • Stealth Checkpoints can now trigger after any 2 stealth takedowns
  • Breakable edges take much longer to crumble (3x)
Moderate (Normal)
This is the mode used to write this guide. The list of gameplay features that are tweaked depending on the Moderate difficulty setting is the same as those features listed in Light mode. However, if something was made easy in Light mode, it will be more difficult in Moderate mode and so on. We have listed the unique Moderate mode differences here:

  • Enemies can shoot bursts while suffering hit reactions (allows fire back hit reactions)
  • Enemy sniper can achieve one-shot kills
  • Enemy movement speed is the same as on Hard mode
  • Enemies can grapple your allies
  • Stealth checkpoints can now trigger after any 3 stealth takedowns
Hard
Hard mode is the baseline where all other modes’ features are made easier or more difficult. The list of gameplay features that are tweaked depending on the Hard difficulty setting is the same as those features listed in Moderate mode. However, if something was made easy in Moderate mode, it will be more difficult in Hard mode and so on. We have listed the unique Hard mode differences here:

  • Successfully “sneak away” from enemies less easily
  • Slightly higher enemy accuracy, target acquisition, and aggressiveness
Crushing
In Crushing mode, the hardest of difficulty settings, there are no automatic gameplay assistance features. Here is what else to expect in Crushing mode:

  • Your slide speed is increased (3x)
  • Enemy target acquisition time is heavily reduced
  • Enemy vision distance is increased
  • You no longer have a grace period to land a stealth kill when an enemy first sees you
  • You no longer see enemy Threat Indicators
  • You can no longer mark enemies
  • Successfully “sneak away” from enemies is less easy
  • Ammo drops reduced
  • Your health regeneration rate is slower
  • Enemy accuracy increased
  • Minimum accuracy required for enemies to hit you is heavily reduced
  • Time between enemy grenade throws is heavily reduced
  • Time until the enemy attempts to flank is heavily reduced
  • Enemies no longer stagger from explosions
  • Enemy shotgun damage increased to the max
  • Enemy sniper target acquisition time reduced
  • Enemy sniper fire time once locked on is reduced
  • Enemy movement speed increased to max
  • Time before an ally can apply lethal force is heavily increased
  • Enemies can now perform up to 15 hit melee combos and their melee damage is increased to maximum
  • Checkpoints no longer occur during encounters
  • Time before breakable handholds crumble is reduced to the minimum
http://megapanda.net/14-uncharted-4/778-difficulty-settings
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Really enjoyable so far.

Although haven't they changed Elena a bit too much? She had more of a "regular" face earlier if I remember correctly.
 
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Earthquake said:
I liked the stealth combined with chucking grenades all over the place.
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I do enjoy trolling the Shoreline guys with grenades, makes me feel like:

517332.gif
 
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amolbhatia50k said:
Really enjoyable so far.

Although haven't they changed Elena a bit too much? She had more of a "regular" face earlier if I remember correctly.
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That's true for all of them, they've made them far more lifelike. Just look at this comparison:

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That shot of Nate is ridiculous, he's a real person! It makes Uncharted 3 look like a PS2 game, and that was a beautiful game.
 
Yeah, I saw that yesterday. It's pretty amazing how mentally I felt Nate looked the same as Uncharted 3 until I saw the pics.
 
I finally managed to get time to get into this properly, 6 hours and I'm at chapter 11. Lovely game, first half is the best in the series. What I love even more is that once I complete this, I am going to replay the entire series too - 4 games in a row :drool:

It's good that literally nothing good comes out until September, I will have time to catch up on the back log. Between this and Witcher 3 Blood and Wine I am probably going to need at least 35 more hours.
 
Got the platinum. It was a good game, but not the groundbreaking 10/10 everybody was giving it. Too much sections walking around for me, which isn't fun.

UC2 was comfortably the best Uncharted for me.
 
Really excited to play this. Silly question perhaps but am I right in assuming it's similar in structure to the other 3? Crushing difficulty, 60~ treasures to find, kill challenges etc etc..
 
Vidic_In_Moscow said:
Really excited to play this. Silly question perhaps but am I right in assuming it's similar in structure to the other 3? Crushing difficulty, 60~ treasures to find, kill challenges etc etc..
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No, it's primarily based around trivia regarding 19th century Russian literature. If you haven't read up on Dostoyevsky you're fecked.
 
Is it just me or does the game get worse looking at the last few chapters? I'm at 18 and it's much less impressive than anything between 5 and 15. Probably just my feeling. Brilliant game nonetheless.
 
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So having finally managed to tear myself away from Witcher for a bit, I bought this yesterday along with the first 3 in a bundle. Do the first ones stand up a decade later or is it worth just going for number 4?
 
gormless said:
So having finally managed to tear myself away from Witcher for a bit, I bought this yesterday along with the first 3 in a bundle. Do the first ones stand up a decade later or is it worth just going for number 4?
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Have you never played any of them?

If not I envy you. Play 1-4 in order
 
4 loses its impact if you don't start from the beginning, at a stretch I'd say you could skip 1 but 2 is a must play.
 
Any one seen the upcoming Survival Co-op footage?Sick stuff, will be the first thing I get when I can finally affford a PS4
 
Ok finally got round to playing the first one, planning on going through them in order. I know its an old game, but I don't understand why Uncharted was so exceptional at the time. It's just a decent third person shooter.
 
gormless said:
Ok finally got round to playing the first one, planning on going through them in order. I know its an old game, but I don't understand why Uncharted was so exceptional at the time. It's just a decent third person shooter.
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Graphically beautiful, a new series when everything else was remasters or a continuation of a series, decent storyline iirc.

I've actually got to play through them all again, bought 4 the other month but don't want to play it till I've done the others again to refresh my memory.
 
gormless said:
Ok finally got round to playing the first one, planning on going through them in order. I know its an old game, but I don't understand why Uncharted was so exceptional at the time. It's just a decent third person shooter.
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I don't think many people thought the first one was exceptional. The second is far better
 
Didn't enjoy the first one but love the rest, also looking forward to the DLC that'll be coming out this year.
 
gormless said:
Ok finally got round to playing the first one, planning on going through them in order. I know its an old game, but I don't understand why Uncharted was so exceptional at the time. It's just a decent third person shooter.
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The story and characters are brilliant in all the games

The 1st is the weakest but I still think a very good game
 
gormless said:
Ok finally got round to playing the first one, planning on going through them in order. I know its an old game, but I don't understand why Uncharted was so exceptional at the time. It's just a decent third person shooter.
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Its strength were cinematic storytelling, believable characters and great animations, all of which were pretty great back then. Even so it wasn't considered exceptional, just very good. It was the second one that really blew people away and cemented Uncharted's status. If you just reduce it to its gameplay, none of the games really stand out though.
 
Ainu said:
Its strength were cinematic storytelling, believable characters and great animations, all of which were pretty great back then. Even so it wasn't considered exceptional, just very good. It was the second one that really blew people away and cemented Uncharted's status. If you just reduce it to its gameplay, none of the games really stand out though.
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Agreed, the graphics were also exceptional for its time as well.
 
Started this tonight, cba playing through the first 3 again afterall, just done the beginning part and :drool: This is lovely, not keen on the fighting mechanics though, constantly get grabbed ffs and mashing triangle isn't fun.
 
bit late to the party on this, good to see some others still playing
Have to say the crushing mode on this is by far the most difficult of the series, some of the set pieces toward the end border on being just unfair for the sake of it
just at the pirateship graveyard now and it's ridiculous the complete lack of safe spots, the speed at which you get surrounded and the almost instant death from any hit you take. Wish i'd done an easy run through to start with now as its somewhat tainted my enjoyment of the game
 
Red_Aaron said:
bit late to the party on this, good to see some others still playing
Have to say the crushing mode on this is by far the most difficult of the series, some of the set pieces toward the end border on being just unfair for the sake of it
just at the pirateship graveyard now and it's ridiculous the complete lack of safe spots, the speed at which you get surrounded and the almost instant death from any hit you take. Wish i'd done an easy run through to start with now as its somewhat tainted my enjoyment of the game
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Haha you went crushing first go? Kudos! Yeah that pirate ship graveyard was tough going, though there's something I find extremely satisfying about going through the slog of trial & error, figuring out the optimum route and timing of kills and then having to execute it to near perfection to get through an area.
 
ArmandTamzarian said:
Haha you went crushing first go? Kudos! Yeah that pirate ship graveyard was tough going, though there's something I find extremely satisfying about going through the slog of trial & error, figuring out the optimum route and timing of kills and then having to execute it to near perfection to get through an area.
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go hard or go home brother - that's my motto
oh it can definitely be satisfying i was jumping around the living room like a madman when i finally did the elevator section
i think its the lack of checkpoints that's the biggest issue, like you say working things out is great but when you spend 45mins carefully plotting your way through only to die at the last its disheartening to go back to the very start. Sections of this were tougher than the average Dark Souls area
 
Played 3 through again the other week and enjoyed it a lot more than I remembered. It gets a bad rap because the story is a bit of a mess and unravels kinda tamely at the end, but I'd forgotten just how good some of the set piece levels were. The ship one in particular is epic.

The story and character work on 4 blows all the others out of the water, but the epic, squeeky bum gameplay is weighted towards the latter half of the game (IIRC - and there's a lot of climbing and exploring inbetween) whereas in 3 there's one pretty much every other level*..It's more a collection of them than a coherent story but it's just as fun to play as a game.

* though none of them quite match up to the Madagascar level in 4 of course, which is quite simply the best Uncharted level period IMO.
 
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Red_Aaron said:
go hard or go home brother - that's my motto
oh it can definitely be satisfying i was jumping around the living room like a madman when i finally did the elevator section
i think its the lack of checkpoints that's the biggest issue, like you say working things out is great but when you spend 45mins carefully plotting your way through only to die at the last its disheartening to go back to the very start. Sections of this were tougher than the average Dark Souls area
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I usually just go normal difficulty 1st time out so the flow/pacing of the story isn't affected too much then try out hardest difficulties if the game is good enough to play through multiple times. Naughty Dog games on hardest difficulty just seem to click with me where its punishing but enjoyable I enjoyed doing the Last of Us so much on Grounded I did it another 2 times. I'm still gonna do another playthrough of Uncharted 4 and TLOU on easy just to get a speed run done and pick up the few trophies I've left to get in those two. Not usually a trophy hunter but when you get within touching distance of a platinum its hard to ignore :D
 
I'm actually now at the point beating it on the hardest difficulty doesn't seem that big of an achievement.

I'm now getting more into stories and just enjoying an easy play through. Hard play throughs end up getting me pissed off and end up finding the game a chore. I'm considering doing the witcher on just the story mode basically.

I think tomb raider was perfect on normal difficulty.
 
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