Article about Uncharted 2

[Michaël Samyn]

I've published another article in my "Treasures" series, where I dive into AAA games to find one interesting feature to elaborate upon. In Uncharted 2, that feature was linearity!

[WarHampster]

I was very excited to see a new blog post! At first I thought you were being sarcastic (Michaël Samyn congratulating linearity?), but I totally agree with the idea. I think that if a game chooses to be linear then it should devote itself entirely to that path, taking advantage of the devices that a linear narrative offers (emotion through character and irony are good examples, as you pointed out). I agree with the nongamist consensus that the interactive medium is suited better to other forms of storytelling, but it is important to recognize that with some care evocative linear games are possible. The best examples of this in my opinion are games such as Heavy Rain and Snatcher.

[Thomas]

I really liked this too. Perhaps this is most positive yet? I read as if you almost liked it!

I find your theory very interesting; that Linearity is okay if the player is not control of any "strategic planning" and just follows along doing the lowest of tactics only. Did you feel that because if this, the cut-scenes did not feel like dragging you out of the experience? What I mean, is that you thought of your role in the game in such a way that letting the ingame character taking care of talking, etc game natural? And if so, did you still find the game as immersive as something more non-linear?

And now I have yet another reason to get hold of a ps3...

[Michaël Samyn]

I actually didn't like the game all that much. But this is mostly because I didn't like the story much, or the characters. They're all a bit trite to my taste. But I found the radical linear format quite an inspiring and absolutely legitimate use of the medium.

Likewise, the cut scenes bother me more because of their narrative content than their form. As you suspect, the cut scenes and interactive scenes fit together quite seamlessly. In fact, it was the "actual" gaming sequences (shooting and puzzles) that stood out for me as not fitting in the experience.