Current Events > If Tomb Raider was basically Uncharted first, why isn't it nearly as fun?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Uncharted games were alright. I liked solving puzzles, and I liked the quips of Nathan. Uncharted 4 was even unironically good, I was actually invested in the story and relationship between the brothers.

Tried Shadow of The Tomb Raider. It basically looks and feels like it would play exactly like Uncharted, with shooting segments and semi-exploration/puzzle solving segments. Yet the game just comes across boring and tiresome instantly. I don't know what it is.
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To each their own but i prefer tr.

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It tried to balance the gameplay and fight segments but went way too far in the former direction. I still had fun with it though.

Also the forced outfit requirements were a pain in the fucking ass.

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The first tr is a better video game than any of the uncharted games. But. Uncharted 2 is a better experience than tr

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Lukey_Bug posted...

It tried to balance the gameplay and fight segments but went way too far in the former direction. I still had fun with it though.

Also the forced outfit requirements were a pain in the fucking ass.

I didn't make it that far, forced outfits? What? Is it like AC Liberation where she uses high society dresses to sneak into locations and blend into the crowd?
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saspa posted...

I didn't make it that far, forced outfits? What? Is it like AC Liberation where she uses high society dresses to sneak into locations and blend into the crowd?

Once you get to a certain area in the story, you can only do certain things while wearing a certain outfit. And you have to manually change it every time you want to do a sidequest involving said outfit. Also, when you don't have it on and have your preferred skin, any story quest you do will automatically force you into the required outfit. Edit: negating any bonuses from the outfit you wanted.

And it's a major part of the game this happens.

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it is

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Lukey_Bug posted...

Once you get to a certain area in the story, you can only do certain things while wearing a certain outfit. And you have to manually change it every time you want to do a sidequest involving said outfit. Also, when you don't have it on and have your preferred skin, any story quest you do will automatically force you into the required outfit. Edit: negating any bonuses from the outfit you wanted.

And it's a major part of the game this happens.

Seems like... a weirdly inconvenient mechanic in the modern age.
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They lacked any originality or creativity, no dinosaurs, boring annoying characters. The games were just being pumped out for sake of keeping the franchise alive.

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The chemistry between the characters in uncharted are so good. I find Nathan drake charming and im a straight guy. The dialogues between him and sully and elena are all great.

The reboot Lara Croft has non of that, in the 2013, its her grunting and yelling in pain. I don't remember much of Rise but in Shadow is just her yelling Jonah Johan annoyingly.

Tomb Raider used to make you be scared of encountering all kinds of enemies, humans in particular. Now they are just there for Lara to kill for fun.
How many person has reboot lara killed? 300? 400? 500?


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Shadow is the worst of the reboot series imo, and most of the good content is in the dlc missions.

2013 (I think this was the year) and Rise are much better paced with stories and characters that kind of make sense.

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Who says it isnt?

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Uncharted seemed like the natural progression of Tomb Raider and just got there first. But that's a viable strategy. Look at your competitor and evolve what they started if they're not getting there fast enough. I like Tomb Raiders gameplay more. But I played them less, so maybe I don't? It's not like I care for eithers story.

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Never played an Uncharted game I liked more than TR, whether it's old-school PS1 action or rebooted stuff.

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I prefer Tomb Raiders gameplay, but as others have also mentioned Uncharted massively beats it in its charm with the characters (and also set pieces).

It's a shame that (outside of a couple of moments) most of the character development with Lara happens in the comics instead of the games

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old school Tomb Raider was fun as heck. except Angel of Darkness.
the reboot and re-reboot was great too.

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They cut down the combat portions in Shadow quite a lot compared to the previous 2 which main reason why it's my least favorite in the reboot series. The other 2 games had enough combat to be compared to Uncharted. Uncharted overall is better. Mostly with its characters and writing.

Tank controls were fucking ass.

Oh wait, I guess this is about the reboots >___>

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Lost_All_Senses posted...

Uncharted seemed like the natural progression of Tomb Raider and just got there first. But that's a viable strategy. Look at your competitor and evolve what they started if they're not getting there fast enough. I like Tomb Raiders gameplay more. But I played them less, so maybe I don't? It's not like I care for eithers story.

When TR was popular, did the games have anywhere near the charm or humor that the Uncharted games have? I'm trying to piece together how that series was ever popular to begin with
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tr went through three phases. original, remake, and reboot. you're talking about a franchise that started in the ps1 era with a hot girl and new game mechanics that didn't exist anywhere else.

uncharted came many years later, when games were cinematic and created by a team of writers instead of game designers. gameplay took a backseat to humor.

the reboot tried to mimic that while adding elements of gameplay featured in other similar games, like assassin's creed and such. it's an entirely different identity than the original games, in every way.

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I'm guessing because Uncharted has a bigger budget and is a more focused cinematic linear game. Uncharted also has the Druck being a big part of them.

Uncharted has good characters, dopr setpieces and usually keeps you engaged in whats happening all the way through. The first 2 Tomb Raider reboot games were fun but those games felt kind of generic overall. Theres was nothing reason to get invested in the story or the characters and the gameplay was just a mix of things from a lot of other better games. And Shadow of The Tomb Raider was awful because they decided to make things much more linear than the previous two games while doing pretty much nothing to change up the gameplay or make things feel fresh. Plus I feel like that Trilogy tried way too hard to be dark and edgy for the sake of being dark and edgy. It didnt have any heart
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saspa posted...

When TR was popular, did the games have anywhere near the charm or humor that the Uncharted games have? I'm trying to piece together how that series was ever popular to begin with

No. But keep in mind Lara Croft was really the first protagonist like that for the time. She was sexy, cool and confident and had a cool British accent. But the games didn't have a big story. Basically you'd solve puzzles in tombs and make your way through the levels. Sometimes you'd fight animals and dinosaurs.

The reboot trilogy was following in the steps of Uncharted due to how different the expectations are for mainstream titles.

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the OG tomb raiders had a significant emphasis on puzzle solving, platforming and exploration with some combat sprinkled in. they didnt hold the players hand and were very unforgiving. but because of that there was a satisfaction in their elements.

the newer TR's lost a decent chunk of those elements by trying to go the uncharted route and by trying to cater to a wider audience. that said TR 2013 and Rise has better gameplay than any of the uncharted's with maybe the exception being gunplay, but then thats only really good in Uncharted 4. Uncharted is good at making its systems flow into each other, but individually there isnt much to any of them. their platforming is substantially more automatic, puzzles are basically spelled out for you, nothing really to explore that adds anything to the game. no real customization or upgrading for anything (not a huge deal). the gun play is good and it gives you some options in how to tackle that, but once again that aspect never really got fleshed out until 4.

shadow runs into a problem i had with U4 in that the pacing is kinda fucked. lots of long stretches of certain sequences with not much happening. but atleast with uncharted you had the writing to keep you interesting. TR has always had eithe rmediocre or shit writing, granted that was never what the series was about where as that was always what uncharted was about. Rise is a better personification of current TR. its systems are more fleshed out and its pacing isnt a mess (assuming you dont go nuts with the optional stuff).

Let's be real, the worst Uncharted is a million times better than the best Tomb Raider.

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Sounds to me, based on this topic (haven't played either series), that TR fans enjoy more grounded characters, sound/challenging mechanical design, and believable scenarios (the adult appeal), while Uncharted fans enjoy wacky characters and hilarious scripted events (The Marvel movie appeal)

Does this sound about right

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Giblet_Enjoyer posted...

Sounds to me, based on this topic (haven't played either series), that TR fans enjoy more grounded characters and believable scenarios, while Uncharted fans enjoy wacky characters and hilarious scripted events (The Marvel movie appeal)

Does this sound about right

No. Tomb Raider has gone way more wacky than Uncharted. Although the reboot trilogy attempted to be a more gritty alternative so if people are fans of those specifically I can see that being the case.

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Darmik posted...

Although the reboot trilogy

Yeah that's what I'm talking about.

It's not fair to compare decades-old games to new releases. Everything was wacky and kid-oriented back then because those were the only people playing video games then.

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Giblet_Enjoyer posted...

Yeah that's what I'm talking about.

It's not fair to compare decades-old games to new releases. Everything was wacky and kid-oriented back then because those were the only people playing video games then.

There's still stuff like the Lara Croft games where you can play as Egyptian Gods with magical powers. They aren't that old.

Even in Shadow of the Tomb Raider there are boss fights against giant cougars which I think is potentially more silly than anything in Uncharted.

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Darmik posted...

There's still stuff like the Lara Croft games where you can play as Egyptian Gods with magical powers. They aren't that old.

Even in Shadow of the Tomb Raider there are boss fights against giant cougars which I think is potentially more silly than anything in Uncharted.

Doesn't Uncharted have zombies or yetis or some shit?

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Giblet_Enjoyer posted...

Sounds to me, based on this topic (haven't played either series), that TR fans enjoy more grounded characters, sound/challenging mechanical design, and believable scenarios (the adult appeal), while Uncharted fans enjoy wacky characters and hilarious scripted events (The Marvel movie appeal)

Does this sound about right

No lol
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Uncharted's biggest strengths have never been the Indiana jones plot or the big-ass set pieces, though both are lots of fun. The strengths have always been the characters and dialogue, because they all work together so much so well. The first two uncharted games aren't even trying to have much of a real story to it (3 tries, but doesn't really succeed)

The characters in the Tomb Raider remakes just don't have that kind of chemistry, so its just set-pieces and a bare-bones plot.

Darmik posted...

No. But keep in mind Lara Croft was really the first protagonist like that for the time. She was sexy, cool and confident and had a cool British accent. But the games didn't have a big story. Basically you'd solve puzzles in tombs and make your way through the levels. Sometimes you'd fight animals and dinosaurs.

The reboot trilogy was following in the steps of Uncharted due to how different the expectations are for mainstream titles.

That's the thing, I thought it would be entertaining to play a game with a cool female James Bond/Indiana Jones hybrid, filled with cheesy one liners and whatnot.

Can't comment on the ps1 games but I tried some random ps2 games they were offering in addition to shadow and they weren't great.

I'd recently played Bayonetta for the first time and that was the confident, cheesy one-liner action I was expecting (albeit perhaps less outrageous) out of the series
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I prefer Tomb Raider. Nathan Drake bores me

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Proto_Spark posted...

Uncharted's biggest strengths have never been the Indiana jones plot or the big-ass set pieces, though both are lots of fun. The strengths have always been the characters and dialogue, because they all work together so much so well. The first two uncharted games aren't even trying to have much of a real story to it (3 tries, but doesn't really succeed)

The characters in the Tomb Raider remakes just don't have that kind of chemistry, so its just set-pieces and a bare-bones plot.

Yeah I really think that's what it is. TR is just a completely uninteresting character who's not remotely amusing like Uncharted is. Turns out simply having the set-pieces isn't enough to grasp a person's attention, there has to be some connection for the audience's sake

I mean I'm not crazy about the setpieces in Uncharted either as a matter of fact, most of the time it's just "oh good that's over with" and a sigh of relief to go back to exploring and puzzle solving.
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