Son Of General Retro Discussion

Games are constantly insisting - to their own downfall - on trying to recreate Hollywood spectacle. An awful lot of big budget gaming is guilty of this. However, Uncharted - especially Amongst Thieves - was one of the few that did it spectacularly. If you're going to steer the player through the game, you can at least reward them with thrills that are genuinely thrilling. And, even though there's about as much interaction as teletext, the writing, presentation, characters and voice acting are completely and utterly unequaled in gaming.

Uncharted 3 was a step back, though. It really shows itself up as a barely interactive series of setpieces with some unconvincing combat sections interrupting the pace every few minutes. Sure, the spectacle and production values are still there, but it's missing something Uncharted 2 had in wonderful excess, and the rollercoaster tracks make themselves obvious all too often.

Still, I'd consider Uncharted an exception in the school of 'cinematic' gaming - of which I'd consider single-player Call of Duty a particularly bad contender (at least the MP makes up for it there). I much rather games that are based on genuine skill and player authorship - whether it be Street Fighter, Bayonetta or DoDonPachi. Or a game where the player has significant control over the narrative flow within predetermined confines - Persona or Mass Effect. But the best of all, and disturbingly rare, are the games that use interactivity (or thoughtfully considered lack thereof) to elicit a real emotional response. I can only think of a handful - Flower, Half-Life Ep. 2 and Braid are the three I'd always hold up as stellar, forward-thinking narrative games - and we sure as hell need more of them. We have far too many expensive rollercoaster games. We need some that actually bring gaming and storytelling forward without trying to copy Hollywood.