Uncharted: Stand Alone Complex?
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Warning: This post is the result of prolonged boredom.
Okay, first of all, I love Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the PS3. It’s a gorgeous game, has amazing visuals and it tells a damn good story. I also love Bandai’s adaptation of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for the PS2. Visuals and gameplay are pretty solid and I also liked how the game played out like an episode in the series. Good Stuff!
Anyway, on to the main reason behind this post. Having played both games quite a bit, I can’t help but notice a few similarities, particularly on the gameplay side of things. I’ll start with the obvious, both are third person shooters! Haha.
Okay, with that out of the way, I’ll be focusing on 2 of the biggest similarities between the games. Both Uncharted and Stand Alone Complex have quite a bit of platforming involved, jumping, climbing, scaling over obstacles, etc. to get to your objective. Surprisingly, I found SAC’s platforming to be quite in-depth, not only could Motoko jump and grab onto ledges one wouldn’t think possible in a PS2 game, she could perform some pretty nice acrobatic maneuvers such as jumping off a wall and grabbing onto a ledge before pulling herself up.
Now, obviously, Drake’s platforming is far more polished, but not dissimilar to SAC’s, and it also helps that the animation system in the game is simply amazing. Not only is Drake able to climb, and scale, but little things like vaulting himself over an obstacle really makes the game that much more immersive; moreover, he can shoot or huck a grenade while hanging over a waterfall at the same time, brilliant, if you ask me.
Let’s not forget that Drake can also perform an action roll, while Motoko does some crazy acrobatic flips. Batou also performs simple action rolls like Drake, but one can’t expect a guy of his mass to pull off a backflip.
The other big similarity is the combat system. Both games feature an in-depth close quarters melee system. Uncharted’s is definitely far more polished and in-depth with Drake being able to pull off several different combos on the fly, depending on the timing and buttons that the player pushes, not to mention he screams some of the best lines in a video game ever: “I kick you to sleep!”
SAC’s is a bit less complicated as the player only has to mash one button to pull off a combo. The combos also depend on which way the player has the left analog stick facing. So if, say, I have the analog stick in it’s normal position, or pushed forward, Motoko will perform a couple of knee attacks and then a kick. However, if I have the stick pulled back, Motoko will, instead, perform a backflip kick, a face palm and then a roundhouse kick, sending the enemy flying off into the distance—her face palms are kickass, by the way. Another thing I noticed is that distance sometimes plays a role in the melee combat, if Motoko is further away than normal when pulling off a melee attack, she’ll jump into the air, kicking at the enemy several times before finishing off with a roundhouse kick, while still in midair, mind you.
Another feature in the game that makes the melee combat great is Motoko’s electric charged boots. With these boots equipped, Motoko will attack with a lot more kicks and her attacks become far more agile and fluid. Not to mention that blue electricity is discharged every time she hits her enemy.
While Batou’s attacks aren’t as fancy and acrobatic as Motoko’s, they still look pretty powerful. I like how a punch to the face can send his enemies into a backflip. Unfortunately, I could not find a screenshot of Batou pulling off his badass dropkick, so Drake will have to make up for it.
The camera angles in both games also switch around in order to show off the melee attacks. Both have some form of depth of field blurring going on in the background in order to bring focus onto the fight. Also, the player can still control the camera in Uncharted, but not so in SAC.
Another big similarity that I noticed is that, in both games, it takes an entire magazine round to down a foe…sometimes 2. Haha. The few things that Uncharted has over SAC is the over-the-shoulder aiming and a cover system often compared to that of Epic’s Gears of War.
And there we have it! I’m done for now, gonna go grab some lunch. Remember, I’m not saying either game is bad for being similar. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed SAC’s familiarity in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, it made the game a lot more enjoyable for me, whether or not the game had inspiration from SAC, I don’t know. Plus, it only served to further fuel my ridiculous desire for a Ghost in the Shell game for the PS3.
