PS3 King: Heavenly Sword vs Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

[masteratt]

Nope, no copy and paste from anywhere in this thread, this is original! =-o

Looks long to read but it's because I use lots of paragraphs, it's only 3-4 lines at a time.
I would love to hear in defence of Uncharted in a calm and non-emotional manner

So the title might make you think "lol this man is crazy" but just for discussions sake I would like to bring forth to you why Heavenly Sword is the best game I've played on the PS3.

Uncharted did nothing new and what's worse, it built the game around cliché forms of gaming genres such as shooting and platforming and let's be honest, the platforming was way too simple.
I could close my eyes and just press X while randomly pointing in directions and I could get past a platforming section in Uncharted.

Some of you might know I never liked Gears Of War, the gameplay for me was too simple and the setting of "lolz we are tough man in huge fucking gears! we say FUCK a lot!" is really REALLY stupid and just makes me want to stop playing and go punch Epix in the face and while Uncharted takes care of the setting, characters and story and gets them to a good and in some places very good level, unfortunately the game play is still too similar to Gears Of War.

I simply don't see the appeal in hiding, popping out, shooting, hiding and repeat for 20 million times.....This is exactly the reason I despised Gears Of War and Uncharted does the same thing, even the "NO! I DONT WANT TO HIDE! ROLL! NO DONT ROLL AND STICK TO A WALL! JUST ROLL!" problem from Gears Of War is there.

The presentation.
Okay Uncharted got great production values but the dialogue.......Urgh, that dialogue.
Did anyone actually laugh at the jokes?

They just went through me, I had to kind of give it a pity laugh.
I think it was written by a 60 year old woman trying to be "hip".
It really didn't appeal to me and took away from the immersion.

Add to that a very VERY stupid and "errr......" boss battle and short gameplay hour and I'm left wondering what did people get so much out of that I've missed.


On to Heavenly Sword.
You know how people say God Of War is great but it's combat is too limited?
Well Heavenly Sword is great and has awesome combos and combat system.

They should have just gone a bit 80s and sold this game as "Heavenly Sword....Heavenly Gameplay" because it really is.
So smooth, Nariko responds to every nudge of the analogue stick, every push of every button and this, unlike Uncharted's roll/ cover system gives you a very smooth, non frustrating experience.
Leaving you to battle the enemy instead of the controls.

Speaking of enemies....Wow.
Okay in Uncharted enemies grenade's were spot on every time (wtf to that btw) and they had the brains to flank you but in Heavenly Sword, the AI is another level.
One gives you a blockable attack while the other strikes you with a fast one, they circle you until one man is brave enough to strike and quickly one or three try to react to your open spaces......and so on.
It just feels like fighting.
It doesn't feel tacked on, it doesn't feel stupidly done so that the game is challenging, it's just natural and works superb.

The boss battles are great, just what you expect from a game.
They take more out of you than others and that really adds to them feeling like a boss.
Every time there is a boss battle I've found myself sitting up and saying to myself "okay! let's do this!".
It's just super immersion all the way through.

Heavenly Sword presentation.
First of all, unlike Uncharted...Excellent, excellent script.
Every character I immediately found myself caring in one way or another about (and this was 30mins in) and when the game tried to be moody, it succeeded, when the game tried to be funny in succeeded (ahem, Uncharted).
The facial animations in Uncharted were great but here they are movie-like.

This is the first game since MGS where I didn't want the cut scenes to end, they were just so beautifully written and acted.

So I think Heavenly Sword is a much better package and I didn't touch on all points, these were just the ones I felt were the more important ones to point out.

I have to say the hype and reviews Uncharted got should have gone to Heavenly Sword.

Heavenly Sword is my favourite PS3 game by far and I feel it does more towards what Sony is trying to do with the PS3 than Uncharted does and therefore just defines PS3.

[gibmonster]

I love both these games. Both are totally different experiences. Not only for PS3 but for videogames in general in my opinion.

[Cyrus]

I'm glad at least someone gets HS. :) Although, I dont agree with your view on Uncharted, I LOVE the game. Both are among my favourite games of all time but HS>Uncharted to me.

The game has a lot of the most memorable scenes ever in a game or a movie or anything. Just AMAZING scenes, both in-game and in cut-scenes. Basically almost the entire game is an amazing scene after another to the very end. Moving, funny, epic etc.

The combat system is so entertaining I can't believe they made it. Against tens and hundreds of enemies and still it doesnt feel like Dyn Warr at all. It feels like I'm playing Crouching tiger not watching it. The camera, the counter system, not having jump button, after touch, sixaxis for aerials, the combos, it works perfectly and it actually INNOVATES even. It's NOT God of War, the fact that people call it a weak GoW clone relly just tells you how little people understand about game mechanics.

The OST is the best ever, the graphics are so beautiful etc. Most "misunderstood" game ever.

[Bsack]

I thought the story to HS was a bit too wierd. The gameplay was extremely fun and the graphics were superb, but the story was just a little off the wall. That one cat girl was just insane and a lot of the bosses were a bit unique themselves. It was a great game with a pretty lame story in my opinion.

I have yet to play Uncharted, so my views on that is limited to the Demo.

[woundingchaney]

I dont really know. If anything I think I enjoyed HS a bit more.

[TEEDA]

Agree, I voted Heavenly Sword.
Naught Dog And ninja Theory have put an huge effort working on the story graphics, animations and lots of things crunchy elements of the two games.
But I found HS in terms of design more appealing to me as well as the battle system, the action, cinematics etc...

[Coded-Dude]

Boss battles.......

Okay, Heavenly sword has a bit of a fantasy side to it so the bosses should very well be super-human and a lot tougher than your standard soldier, and while I will myself admit that the final boss battle in Uncharted was a bit surprising; Naughty Dog pulled off exactly what they were aiming for - REALISM. I can't tell you how many times I have thought to myself(when fighting human bosses) there is no way this mother fucker could take all these bullets and still be alive. So while the final battle in Uncharted was a bit short and on the easy side(getting to him was harder), I give props to the team who actually made a human "boss" fight "real." Bravo Naughty Dog....Bra-Fucking-Oh.

Whether one is better than the other is all opinion - I LOVED them both for what they offered. I think the puzzles in Uncharted were more challenging plus it has some platforming(however challenging you think it was/wasn't) - but I would argue that Heavenly Sword is a bit more repetitive - as all you really do is kill an ungodly amount of enemies. Either way you make some decent points. OF course......My vote is for Ratchet and Clank :wave:

[Chrome]

I voted for Uncharted : Drake's Fortune because its one of the most enthralling games I have ever played. Roll on part 2.

[Smokey]

ive only played demo's of both

[VG Aficionado]

I don't want to make a thread for this and LaLi locked the official HS thread, so...

http://blog.deanoc.com/?p=107

Times they are a changing…

So I haven’t posted much for the last few months because I’ve been a bit busy. Just over 2 months ago I decided to leave Ninja Theory and move onto something different.

I worked at Ninja Theory for close to 4 years and decided it was a time to do something different. Was quite sad but also the right thing to do and differently the right time. I had quite a few choices but ended up going for what my heart wanted to do and moving into a more design oriented role.

So for the last month or so, I’ve been a Senior Programmer/Designer at Frontier working on a game called Outsider.

Sure I’ll have lots to say in future, but for now that will do…

[BruceWayneIII]

Some of you might know I never liked Gears Of War, the gameplay for me was too simple and the setting of "lolz we are tough man in huge fucking gears! we say FUCK a lot!" is really REALLY stupid and just makes me want to stop playing and go punch Epix in the face and while Uncharted takes care of the setting, characters and story and gets them to a good and in some places very good level, unfortunately the game play is still too similar to Gears Of War.

Come on, Epix is a good forum poster around here. He has nothing to do with this. Let's all get along now, shall we?

j/k

[VG Aficionado]

:lol:

[Sephiroth_VII]

Sad to hear Deano is leaving NT, as I was hoping to press him for details on HS2 :)

Anyway, my vote goes to Uncharted.

[the boney king of nowhere.]

i voted uncharted because i hink i'm still lost in the hype, but heavenly sword is a better game, i think.

[err_ok]

Heavenly sword was a bit too repetative in my opinion, although i haven't actually finished it yet. I prefered Uncharted, the puzzles could have been harder.. cause to be honest they were pretty basic.

[masteratt]

I think that's why Heavenly Sword was short.

To NOT get repetitive.
As Cyrus rightly said, every little section of Heavenly Sword was different and it felt like you were playing a masterpiece.

Honestly I expected Uncharted to take the lead but not by THIS much.
Shame really, I don't think Uncharted was a fresh wave to the gaming industry as much as Heavenly Sword was but I'm not stating that as a fact of course and my first post explains the reasons pretty well (of the two people who skimmed through it :P)

[Sephiroth_VII]

Hey, I read it too :(

[Overload]

You cant jump in Heavenly Sword so it sux. but seriously, there is very little to the game. There is only two cores to its gameplay, sword fighting[weak] and gunplay[sad], im not even going to add that bull shield to gong shit. The actuall game is repetitve in the least appelling manner, all that other shit is just video. So dont bring in that the characters move so lifelike(of course they do its mo-cap of real people). I swear the game is a GOW lite.

I know this is gonna get locked, these games are not even in the same genre but lets see where this goes.

[Sephiroth_VII]

...That's your reason?

[Overload]

Should there be any other? I like this game, others like that. There is little to no point in arguing unless someone plans on changing their oppinion. Or would you like more?

[Sephiroth_VII]

Well, no, it just sounds a little weak that the only reason you posted was the lack of a jump button, lol!

[cliffbo]

i'd be really interested to find out who voted for HS and why

[VG Aficionado]

The poll says who voted which.

[Overload]

Its not only the jump button. The game provides little challenge, the variety is lean, the characters are bland(not so much the performances but the actual characters), the game has practicly no replay value, the fighting system although expansive is not utilized in the game, the enemy list is small, no exploration.

I cant even settle on 1 or 2 little things, its just the whole that pisses me off. The game was marketed as an epic game but I see nothing but the garden variety, its like that conan game just with different characters. Wake me up when this game gets a sequal.

[Sephiroth_VII]

That's better, though I disagree.

[cliffbo]

The poll says who voted which.

i didn't know you could do that! cheers... i'm shocked at who voted!!!!

[Sephiroth_VII]

It's an option you can choose when creating a poll. Not many use it.

[cliffbo]

It's an option you can choose when creating a poll. Not many use it.

i'll remember that next time a make a useless poll... :look:

[ddaryl]

Warhawk is King

[B Dizzle]

Nathan and Nariko would have beautifully dangerous children together.

[Sephiroth_VII]

How about Nariko and Kratos?

[Jay Gee]

I don't think Nariko could survive all the kicking Kratos' baby would be doing inside of her womb. And he WILL be kicking.

[LiquidEagle]

:lol:

Uncharted for sure. Heavenly Sword was really good, I enjoyed it, and it looks great, but Uncharted looks AMAZING, I liked the story more, I actually did laugh at some of the jokes and comments, it scared the hell out of me, and it just left a much better impression on me overall. That said, I also think Ratchet deserves a nod because I enjoyed the living hell outta that game! :-D

[hevymac]

I voted H.S.
Naughty dog have had a bad habit of copying the current "hip" games like GTA3 with J&D2 (what a load of rancid dog sausages {I loved J&D1, tis on my top five games of all time list} ) and now with Gears of over hyped repetitiveness. I DO like Uncharted D.F. though but not as much as H.S. ....... mmmmmn. Let me rephrase that.
I don't loathe H.S. as much as D.F.

[Zer0-Sum]

Well, no, it just sounds a little weak that the only reason you posted was the lack of a jump button, lol!

I have only played the demo of Heavenly Sword so I cannot comment on the entire game, but WHY IN GOD'S GREEN EARTH IS THERE NO JUMP BUTTON?! WTF are they thinking? No jump button is a game that is so heavily combat oriented? It is just RETARDED. Try to imagine God of War or Devil mat Cry with no jump button. SUPA LAME.

Otherwise the game is pretty damn kool. But why compare Uncharted and Heavenly Sword? They are too different to compare effectively. It is beyond comparing apples to oranges.

[hevymac]

I suppose I'm happy that I hate both God of War and Devil may cry. Sorry if I'm alone on this.

[cliffbo]

I suppose I'm happy that I hate both God of War and Devil may cry. Sorry if I'm alone on this.

seriously!? do you like FPS?

[Zer0-Sum]

seriously!? do you like FPS?

It is crazy talk to me too, but different strokes for different folks....

[AC!D]

Personally i enjoyed both games but honestly how you can even compare the two i dont know. I would rather compare each game with its own genre.

Is heavenly sword the best in its genre? Just an opinion but i would have to say no cause there are three better in my book i.e Ninja Gaiden, God of War and Devil May Cry

Is Uncharted the best in its genre and for me the answer is with no doubt in my mind yes.

The comments on the AI are also weird for me cause at one point in Uncharted if i stuck my head out long enough a sniper could kill me with one shot, guys with shotguns were charging at me from the front, the standard guys were flanking from right and left, a couple of guys were fragging me from the back, some guys were shooting grenade launchers at me, some of the cover i was behind got destroyed and there was a guy on a turret and this all happened in one set piece whereas in Heavenly sword only one guy would charge at me at a time in a big group with the only change up being the kind of attack either heavy or fast and hardly ever long range.

The contol scheme for uncharted was perfect whereas the control scheme for heavenly sword was just weird even after playing a few hours it was still hard using R1 and L1 to block and why on earth the long range attack was even used is beyond me cause the only time i ever used it in the game was to block against two bosses.

Another point against Heavenly sword was that there were no epic, clever platforming/puzzle elements to change up the game like in God of war. Uncharted went from vehicle to jet ski to fighting to puzzle to platforming to scary at one point.

The only thing in my book that Heavenly sword did better was the use of siaxis in the cannon ball and arrow sections as opposed to Uncharted's week use of sixaxis but then suprise suprise the sixaxis control was utterly crap for the shield throwing sections in Heavenly sword so go figure.

Then we get to the length of the game which is strange cause when you break it down the 6 hours you got to play in HS was cut even further because you spent about 2 hours playing with Kai. What kind of game only lets you play with the Heroine/Hero for only four hours considering the price of games these days? Uncharted was the perfect length ranging between 8 hours according to reviews and 9 hours if you were me stopping to see the amazing little touches Naughty Dog put into the game that most casual gamers will never notice e.g walking through the swaying shrubs that react to Nathan as he walks through them, the sheer beauty of every level in Uncharted, the way Nathans shirt gets wet in the game when he rolls in water, Nathans shirt mechanics reacting to his body, the thousands of animations you See Nathan performing in fidfferent situations like flinching differently when bullets approach from different directions at him and also his fallable human side.

Finally the ultimate question for me would be which game is more fun? Uncharted wins hands down yet again. I must admit though the final chapter in Heavenly sword was utterly incredible and Epic beyond belief.

I think some of you really need to play Uncharted again :)

[hevymac]

Yep, I love 'em (fps's that is) . I'm a good old fashioned PC gamer, tis my bro who's the big console gamer. This is one of the reasons I hate these games like Gears of War which people call fps's for some reason when they are clearly third person perspective. I also HATE-LOATHE-DESPISE this over the right shoulder camera view!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!
I made the mistake of buying Devil may cry for the MGS2 demo.

[err_ok]

The ONLY thing I disliked about Uncharted was the lack of truly challenging puzzles, they were all really quite basic... they should have removed the journal/map and made the clues harder to find. I don't really like the genre heavenly sword sits in, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison.

[cliffbo]

It is crazy talk to me too, but different strokes for different folks....

i'm interested in finding out whether the FPS is actually brainwashing people into a single-minded approach to game purchase. Cliffbo's brother used to play a myriad of games in every conceivable genre, but he's totally hooked on Unreal now on his PC... that, and a few comments by others on other forums, leads me to believe that the mindsets of gamers are being skewed towards violence and the FPS. 'headshots' are received with laughter from a watching crowd and punters constantly ask but one question when it comes to FPS: 'what are the weapons like?'

[Zer0-Sum]

i'm interested in finding out whether the FPS is actually brainwashing people into a single-minded approach to game purchase. Cliffbo's brother used to play a myriad of games in every conceivable genre, but he's totally hooked on Unreal now on his PC... that, and a few comments by others on other forums, leads me to believe that the mindsets of gamers are being skewed towards violence and the FPS. 'headshots' are received with laughter from a watching crowd and punters constantly ask but one question when it comes to FPS: 'what are the weapons like?'

I play A LOT of FPS. I love Crysis, Half-Life 2, and just bought UnReal3 on my rippin PC. I also play a lot of others too like FEAR, all on my PC. But that being said I love just about every other form of video game as well. Am I just weird for that? I don't know, but I love just about all video games except for sports games.

[cliffbo]

I play A LOT of FPS. I love Crysis, Half-Life 2, and just bought UnReal3 on my rippin PC. I also play a lot of others too like FEAR, all on my PC. But that being said I love just about every other form of video game as well. Am I just weird for that? I don't know, but I love just about all video games except for sports games.

well of course it's not going to effect 100% of all FPS fans, i was talking generally. if you look at the 360, the majority of titles that do well are FPS. i'm also wondering whether that has something to do with the fact that Americans have a gun culture.

[GTShotoKen]

well of course it's not going to effect 100% of all FPS fans, i was talking generally. if you look at the 360, the majority of titles that do well are FPS. i'm also wondering whether that has something to do with the fact that Americans have a gun culture.

Well look at this way, Microsoft is a primarily PC oriented company so the biggest genre that they have influence with is the FPS genre. Now the xbox360 comes out one year ahead, has more games, and is cheaper. Now the PC gaming industry has a really good connection with the console industry, so FPS titles penetrate the market more through the xbox360.

Don't kid yourself though, Halo can't be the biggest selling franchise of all time just from American dollars alone. The FPS genre is fun just like any other. They sell all over the world, it's just that only few franchises at a time get popular world wide out of the genre because people seems to have a problem with motion sickness.


The whole gun culture thing I can't really comment on as I can't relate to that "fact" in the first place.

[GTAce]

I loved Heavenly Sword but Uncharted is so refreshing and you have more from the game, so Uncharted is the winner for me in this battle.

[Hisham]

The following is my opinion and I do not care if you agree or disagree with me, so save your comments about my OPINION.

HS = a game that didn't deserve over a 6.5 for me. It was the worst of all the action games that I have played recently, and for all its production values, the story sucked, and the gameplay was pretty shitty. It doesn't matter if you have an oustanding voice acting cast if the story isn't worth 2 shits. And even if the story was decent, it still wouldn't excuse all the annoyinces, and it seems to me that Ninja Theory just put gameplay on the back burners while trying to give it better production values. And that to me is backwards thinking because gameplay is the biggest reason I play games. Also, beating a game in six hours is pathetic. There isn't even a big enough incentive to reply it IMO.

Uncharted = My PS3 GOTY. It also is probably the only PS3 game (I haven't played Warhawk, so I don't know about it) that I truly have enjoyed so far. I really liked the story, I liked the stop and pop shooting elements (loved GOW so w/e) and it was just a better polished game. And it also gave you a reason to replay it more than once. I loved all the little easter eggs you could get, and all the cheats you could activate if you played it through more than once and on the various difficulties. That negates the short 8-9 hour campaign if I play through it like 3-4 times.

That is my opinion if you care for it.

[Zer0-Sum]

well of course it's not going to effect 100% of all FPS fans, i was talking generally. if you look at the 360, the majority of titles that do well are FPS. i'm also wondering whether that has something to do with the fact that Americans have a gun culture.

Yah, your right. FPS people DO tend to be snobs. And yes, your theory about FPS and American Gun Culture makes a bit of sense.

[hevymac]

ohohoooo, wounder if he thinks I'M an American? I also like the "snobs" comment really shows how classy HE is

[LaLiLuLeLo]

How's a man to choose between fresh and fly???

[OmniCloud]

Uncharted hands down....

HS for me really got better and better leading up to the conclusion. but compared to other action games, the combat is not up-to-par. and for gameplay enthusiast (like my nigga Hisham) you can see what that is a problem. They needed to flesh out the gameplay a bit more, more variety and a solid 60fps would have made the game a LOT more enjoyable with the implemented countering system. Overall tho, it's one of my favorite PS3 games.

That being said, Uncharted is probably the best game I've played all year. There is no bigger complement to the game than "it's like playing a movie". Like Metal Gear, it really gets that close to where it feels like you aren't just playing a video game anymore. The only game I've yet to experience that is heavily praised is Mario Galaxy. But for PS3's second year out, not a damn bad job with Uncharted.

btw-Hisham--Warhawk is aweosme..pure, simple, pick up and play fraggin...on ground/foot/vehicles...

def--worth a purchase;)

[Shadow Voa]

Heavenly Sword animation I saw in behind the scenes documentary at school was amazing, it wins on that.