The Ellen Page Escort Simulator by Uncharted devs

[Volrath]

Looks boring as fuck

At least the Uncharted games have a somewhat interesting setting.

 

[Horus]

At least the Uncharted games have a somewhat interesting setting.

Could you tell me what was somewhat interesting to me? I'm really wondering about it.

 

[dunno lah]

Yeah, I'd rather play Indy and the Emperor's Tomb than the Uncharted games if given the choice...

 

[someone else]

Haters gonna hate.


Fanbois gonna fanbois.

 

[DeepOcean]

A few questions from a storyfag perspective (I guess it is a waste of time talking about gameplay that don't exist):
Do Ellen Page die/ is captured/run away for no reason? Because that teenager scream I'm gonna die/be captured/force you to chase her for no real reason.
Are They nice with each other all the time as the good guys tend to be or it is a more conflicted relationship?
Is Ellie the guy with a dark past but in reality have a heart of gold cliche?
There is any lighthearted moments or it only depressive all the time?
There are any secondary characters that are worth a damn or the game is full of machete rape gangs and secondary characters that are there just to be zombie food for emotional engagement?
There is any scene where you can see akward Bioware style emotional manipulation?Like: A KID JUST DIED, YOU SHOULD CRY NOW! OMG! A GUY THAT I DON'T KNOW JUST DIED, BE SAD NOW!
Are the characters remotely intelligent and mature or it is Bioware retarded adults with the mental age of 12 years old children?
There are plot holes the size of black holes like ME 3 plot?

 

[Gozma]

This is pretty much peak cinematic/writing/acting competence for this kind of expensive moviegame where the gameplay is the gum-chewing you do between cutscenes.

Edit - Hollywood moviegame anyway

 

[Nryn]

A few questions from a storyfag perspective (I guess it is a waste of time talking about gameplay that don't exist):
Do Ellen Page die/ is captured/run away for no reason? Because that teenager scream I'm gonna die/be captured/force you to chase her for no real reason.
Are They nice with each other all the time as the good guys tend to be or it is a more conflicted relationship?
Is Ellie the guy with a dark past but in reality have a heart of gold cliche?
There is any lighthearted moments or it only depressive all the time?
There are any secondary characters that are worth a damn or the game is full of machete rape gangs and secondary characters that are there just to be zombie food for emotional engagement?
There is any scene where you can see akward Bioware style emotional manipulation?Like: A KID JUST DIED, YOU SHOULD CRY NOW! OMG! A GUY THAT I DON'T KNOW JUST DIED, BE SAD NOW!
Are the characters remotely intelligent and mature or it is Bioware retarded adults with the mental age of 12 years old children?
There are plot holes the size of black holes like ME 3 plot?

Spoiler

1. She runs away once around the middle of the game. There is a reason for it, and it does not feel all that forced. It is the turning point in the game and the way it is resolved is actually the cause for the irony in the ending.
2. Conflicted, very much so from the guy's side. Given his circumstances, he is reluctant. Even the intimacy that eventually develops happens in a very muted manner -- surprisingly good writing.
3. Ellie is Ellen Page. Joel is the guy. Joel is not Shepard Jesus if you are wondering -- morally ambiguous, and selfish.
4. Game is melancholic rather than outright depressive. Light hearted moments are pretty rare, but they don't last.
5. There are about 4-5 other characters who get significant screen time, but the game revolves around the main two.
6. The beginning has an event that you describe. Not done in the awkward "kid in the vent" style though. Sets up the entire game actually.
7. It's one of the better written games I've played, and it's mostly because characters know when to shut up. The script uses what is left unsaid to great effect.
8. No plot holes like ME3 because the main plot is non-convoluted and quite simple. It's very much a character driven story and the character arcs reach a believable conclusion by the end.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Is Ellie the guy with a dark past but in reality have a heart of gold cliche?

Ellie isn't the guy.

 

[DeepOcean]

Is Ellie the guy with a dark past but in reality have a heart of gold cliche?

Ellie isn't the guy.

Fuck, my mistake, it is the boy with long hair.

 

[J_C]

Is Ellie the girl with a dark past but in reality have a heart of gold cliche?

Nryn missed this one:

Spoiler

No, she doesn't have a dark past. She had it tough, like everybody in this world, losing friends and relatives, but nothing special.

Also:

A few questions from a storyfag perspective (I guess it is a waste of time talking about gameplay, because we don't care about it, we just make shit up that it doesn't exist.):

Fixed.

 

[DeepOcean]

A few questions from a storyfag perspective (I guess it is a waste of time talking about gameplay, because we don't care about it, we just make shit up that it doesn't exist.):

Fixed.

J_C, I don't hate the game, I'm just bored by it. I know there is some gameplay in it, I just fail to see what are the differences between this game and other cinematic shooters in terms of gameplay. Nryn confirmed that the at least the writing is decent but I don't see any compeling reason to play this game and a non-interactive story is not enough. Okay... on the trailers they make the scavenging and limited ammo a big thing, this is real or in reality you have more resources than you want? If there is no ammo around, how easy is the melee combat, it envolves QTEs? You can easily hack dudes with impunity? You have awesome, intantaneous takedowns on unalerted enemies? How it is the level design, linear, constantly interrupted by cutscenes or there are multiple paths in the levels? There puzzles? If there are puzzles, they are of the kind that auto resolve in your front by how easy they are or have a big yellow arrow pointing to the solution? How the AI is in terms of stealth, how easy to be alerted enemies are and how easy they forget about you? There are enemies that conveniently expose their backs to you while guarding walls?

 

[MoLAoS]

Nyrn registered here friday and has 4 posts here and one about the witcher. he has been overwhelmingly positive about this game. I would not be suspicious if someone came on like gamespot or something to do that but who would come to the codex just to talk up a game that has almost unanimous 10s? That just seems suspicious. Especially since the story is so totally average.

 

[J_C]

A few questions from a storyfag perspective (I guess it is a waste of time talking about gameplay, because we don't care about it, we just make shit up that it doesn't exist.):

Fixed.

J_C, I don't hate the game, I'm just bored by it. I know there is some gameplay in it, I just fail to see what are the differences between this game and other cinematic shooters in terms of gameplay. Nryn confirmed that the at least the writing is decent but I don't see any compeling reason to play this game and a non-interactive story is not enough. Okay... on the trailers they make the scavenging and limited ammo a big thing, this is real or in reality you have more resources than you want?

Well I played it as a stealth game, only using guns when I messed up. This way I had 7-8 bullets/weapons with me on average. If I take the all action style, I believe I would ran out of bullets very fast. And weapons can be very clunky at times (I guess mimicing that your hero is not a gunmaster). You also have to be careful when getting in gunfight, because if they hit you, your character is lurched, sometimes they are losing ballance and falling on their back.

If there is no ammo around, how easy is the melee combat, it envolves QTEs?

Melee combat is pretty simple. Smash button a few times to punch the guy. After 4-5 hit, he is down. You can gather melee weapons like pipes or wood planks. You can finish the enemies faster with them, but after a few attacks, they are destroyed. If you play stealthily, you can strangle the enemies from behind. Or you can stab them, but that destroyes your shitty knife. QTEs: Sometimes the zombies/humans grab you, you have to smash button there to make yourself free. Other than that, no QTEs.

You can easily hack dudes with impunity?

I don't really get what does this mean. (fuck my english) Do you mean how easy is to beat everyone up? Well you can't just run around brawling everyone up, because they hit you hard, and just like you, they use melee weapons.

You have awesome, intantaneous takedowns on unalerted enemies?

There are two ways of takedowns. One is strangleing, which takes about 5 seconds. Than you can stab someone, which is instanteious, but this way you lose your knife (because these are shitty made up knives).

How it is the level design, linear, constantly interrupted by cutscenes or there are multiple paths in the levels?

Now, in my book, cutscenes are videos, which abrubt the videos. I'm saying this because for many people here, the dialogues in Half Life 2 are cutscenes. So, videos, which abrubt the gameplay are spaced out in ....lets say 20-30 minutes in average. They are 2-3 minutes long. Areas are a mix of linear parts and more open parts. You can't go out of your way and explore streets in the cities, but if there is combat, you can sneak around in the different houses on the streets. But there are parts, which are linear, no denying that.

There puzzles? If there are puzzles, they are of the kind that auto resolve in your front by how easy they are or have a big yellow arrow pointing to the solution?

No puzzles in the game. The only "puzzle" I can say is sometimes you have to find some stuff, which can help Ellie to cross a place which is full of water (she can't swim).

How the AI is in terms of stealth, how easy to be alerted enemies are and how easy they forget about you?

AI companion's stealth is connected to your main character stealth. If you are not seen, your partner is never seen, whatever they do. They might look shitty, but at least the game is not annoying you by your incompetent AI behavior. As for alerts, if you are moving around crouching, you basicly cannot be heard. Few exceptions: if you step on broken glass, or dry wood, they might hear you if they are close. And there is a special mutant, who cannot see, but has very good hearings. You have to crouch and walk in a very slow pace, because simple crouching and moving in a default speed will alert them. When enemies are alerted, I don't recall that they are forgetting about you. Although I never tested this much, because I either reloaded when I messed up stealth, or went into Rambo mode and killed everybody. :D

There are enemies that conveniently expose their backs to you while guarding walls?

Usually enemies are moving. There are instances, when they just stand in one place and guard a place, but I don't think they "guarded a wall or other useless place".

What else can I say? If someone hates cinematic games by default, this game won't convince him/her. Because yes, there are cutscenes, yes, there is linearity, and no, the combat system is not too comlex.

 

[DeepOcean]

Nyrn registered here friday and has 4 posts here and one about the witcher. he has been overwhelmingly positive about this game. I would not be suspicious if someone came on like gamespot or something to do that but who would come to the codex just to talk up a game that has almost unanimous 10s? That just seems suspicious. Especially since the story is so totally average.

I'm aware that story quality is something subjective and the guy can be just someone easy to be pleased. So... Why the story of this game is shit?

 

[anus_pounder]

Played a lot of the game at my friend's house, watched the rest of the game with him playing. I think its decent. The 'story' was average, I would say it was the way they present it and the writing thats decent. This certainly isn't Planescape by any means, but I think its quite good as far as modern gaming stories go. 7/10

Will pick it up at a discount some months down the line, just so I can have the trophies on my own account.

 

[Menckenstein]

The Stalkers are the cheapest fucking enemy ever.

I think their AI is broken or I just don't understand how they work.

 

[Nryn]

How the AI is in terms of stealth

The way I see it, the stealth has 3 fundamental problems:
1. AI can get alerted on seeing dead bodies, yet you cannot move the bodies manually to a hiding place.
2. The AI does not immediately go into an alerted phase on spotting you. It gives you almost a second or more before it gets alerted, making it relatively easy to break line of sight.
3. The sound your footsteps make while walking on metal ramps, snow, wood, etc. is quite loud, but the AI does not react to it. This makes the encounters against the acute hearing enemies a lot less tense than it could have been.

It's a pity that stealth has these issues since the game is not a shooter, though you can shoot up a lot of enemies. Your luck might not typically last in prolonged firefights since ammo is scarce, the Combat AI flanks effectively (except for getting easily murdered around chokepoints such as doorways and blind corners) and the protagonist cannot shrug off bullets to the body (he gets knocked onto his back).

And MoLAoS, I understand your concern. You thought that the story and writing was nothing special, from your experience. I too would have been suspicious if someone new came to the Codex and started singing praises that Skyrim's C&C is great, or that the Mass Effect series has brilliant plotting. But the difference is I expected another trite AAA story and writing effort here but was genuinely surprised that the game defied my expectations. And I thought that the Codex might be interested in hearing of good writing and characterization in the wasteland that is the AAA game genre.

 

[DeepOcean]

This certainly isn't Planescape by any means, but I think its quite good as far as modern gaming stories go. 7/10

This is in Doritos score or real score?

 

[anus_pounder]

This certainly isn't Planescape by any means, but I think its quite good as far as modern gaming stories go. 7/10

This is in Doritos score or real score?

Real score. I've never made secret of the fact that I liek .

 

[MoLAoS]

How the AI is in terms of stealth

The way I see it, the stealth has 3 fundamental problems:
1. AI can get alerted on seeing dead bodies, yet you cannot move the bodies manually to a hiding place.
2. The AI does not immediately go into an alerted phase on spotting you. It gives you almost a second or more before it gets alerted, making it relatively easy to break line of sight.
3. The sound your footsteps make while walking on metal ramps, snow, wood, etc. is quite loud, but the AI does not react to it. This makes the encounters against the acute hearing enemies a lot less tense than it could have been.

It's a pity that stealth has these issues since the game is not a shooter, though you can shoot up a lot of enemies. Your luck might not typically last in prolonged firefights since ammo is scarce, the Combat AI flanks effectively (except for getting easily murdered around chokepoints such as doorways and blind corners) and the protagonist cannot shrug off bullets to the body (he gets knocked onto his back).

And MoLAoS, I understand your concern. You thought that the story and writing was nothing special, from your experience. I too would have been suspicious if someone new came to the Codex and started singing praises that Skyrim's C&C is great, or that the Mass Effect series has brilliant plotting. But the difference is I expected another trite AAA story and writing effort here but was genuinely surprised that the game defied my expectations. And I thought that the Codex might be interested in hearing of good writing and characterization in the wasteland that is the AAA game genre.

I'm not saying the story was average for a game per say, its just that being good for a game story is such a low bar. Having a guy whose daughter died bond with a girl under the circumstances of protecting/escorting/bodyguarding is just not all that clever or original. Nothing in the story stood out from the hundreds of survival or post apocalyptic or escort based books I have read.

Perhaps someone could explain in concrete terms why this story was so outstanding. Most people just assert its quality without explaining it. Especially those industry schill game reviewers. Even the moral dilemma at the end was not clever. Saving the individual at the expense of the group is an extremely common trope.

 

[J_C]

Nyrn registered here friday and has 4 posts here and one about the witcher. he has been overwhelmingly positive about this game. I would not be suspicious if someone came on like gamespot or something to do that but who would come to the codex just to talk up a game that has almost unanimous 10s? That just seems suspicious. Especially since the story is so totally average.

Yeah, you are much more trustworthy, with your 41 posts and 2013 registration. I'm not saying that what you say is wrong, but you are not an oldfag yourself.

Even the moral dilemma at the end was not clever. Saving the individual at the expense of the group is an extremely common trope.

Well maybe you are so literate that you have seen and read a lot of stuff about this, but I don't think it is extremely common. Please list me some material, when it is used.

 

[Gozma]

The writing and acting would be better than solid in any Hollywood-style sci-fi movie. It's not judging it as "good for a game", it's good. They do shit you would find subtle in a movie. The gameplay is Uncharted shit again with some twists - it exists to be the shit you do between cutscenes and characterizing moments, but it's at least a little thematic in this instead of being like the combat in Uncharted or LA Noire where a story breaks into completely genre- and character-inappropriate mass murder.

 

[DeepOcean]

The writing and acting would be better than solid in any Hollywood-style sci-fi movie.

Is it better than Transformers and Battleship?

 

[Nryn]

I'm not saying the story was average for a game per say, its just that being good for a game story is such a low bar. Having a guy whose daughter died bond with a girl under the circumstances of protecting/escorting/bodyguarding is just not all that clever or original. Nothing in the story stood out from the hundreds of survival or post apocalyptic or escort based books I have read.

Perhaps someone could explain in concrete terms why this story was so outstanding. Most people just assert its quality without explaining it. Especially those industry schill game reviewers. Even the moral dilemma at the end was not clever. Saving the individual at the expense of the group is an extremely common trope.

I don’t think it’s “Gaming Citizen Kane” or claims that this is the best games can offer. That’s hyperbole. But I can see where the hyperbole comes from. I mean, if stuff like GTA 4 was praised for its “Oscar Worthy Story”, Mass Effect 3 was hailed as a fitting and satisfying conclusion, and Bioshock Infinite’s disconnect between the narrative and gameplay was pardonable, where does that leave a game that is generally well-written ? How does one call attention to this game’s thematic consistency to differentiate it from the hyperbole-laden games that came before? By adding even more hyperbole, and hence, “Oscar-worthy story” -> “Gaming’s Citizen Kane”. At least that’s my take on it.

What I personally liked about the story and writing was that the game didn’t bite off more than it can chew, as game stories normally do. I kept expecting it to become convoluted over saving humanity and whatnot, but the game stuck to its guns and focused on the character arcs of the two characters. The characterization was a cut above what you normally witness in all but Adventure Games and CRPGs, and the writing made sense in not going down a path that would contradict character motivations. Especially during that moral choice at the end, I feared that the game would offer a choice even when it would have contradicted the character's personality and motivations during the entire game that came before. That the game avoided that trap and stayed consistent in its writing throughout surprised me.

 

[MoLAoS]

I was reading some more articles about this and again they were all tell and no show. They told me the game was gripping but they couldn't explain why.

I hate to be that guy who doesn't understand why you wouldn't just read a book. I mean, I have a lot of smart friends who are half decent writers and are at least capable of reading, yet they all get really pissed about having to read books. They really got into Harry Potter or w/e too, I guess. And they probably love this game. If you had never read very many books and only had action movies and first person shooters to give you any sense of fictional story, I guess I can understand why this story seems like a shining beacon of hope. Hell even most books are bad these days.

One thing I have noticed is that all the popular young adult fiction turned movies these days really focus on the people. The world of Harry Potter and Twilight have little lore or backstory of note. Mostly its piles of cliche. Maybe I'm just one of those loner introvert people for whom its the IDEAS that make a work of creation. The classic hard and/or intellectual sci fi. The complex and intense fantasy worlds where its more than just a bunch of faux feudal nations fighting over standard magic systems.

I read shit like the Prince of Nothing and Malazan and Earthsea and such with complex philosophical ideas or at least unique magic and pantheons. I thought the Hyperion books were good but that their resolution was too easy. The Light of Other Days and The City and The Stars and Rokanon's World and Rama were more interesting than Foundation, and Uplift who had more traditional views of space empires and warfare.

Its not that I don't like Harry Potter. Its just that I don't understand why that PARTICULAR story managed to get high school students into reading for once. A whole bunch of kids who called me a fag and a loser didn't see the irony in dressing up in the most cliche of all wizardy paraphenalia and going to midnight showing's of what is essentially young adult fiction.

I know it upsets people when I assert the superiority of my tastes, even unintentionally, so I guess the real question is am I just so out of step with regular people? Am I weird because I care about ideas more than social relationships? The primacy of ordinary human relationships in most people's lives would seem to explain the gulf between most people's tastes and minds without requiring me to be elitist or them to be pedestrian. Based on what I can recall it seems to be the single most consistent factor of what normal kids ages 11-25 have decided is important in games and books and movies. Basically creative works for which the genre or the setting is merely a backdrop to the interactions of best friends and romantic partners and parents. I'm trying desperately to think of an extremely popular work of fictions, aside from mindless action movies obviously, where this wasn't the case.

It seems like it runs through all the book crazes, anything involving fantasy or science fiction, the coopting of punk rock costumes into pop punk about hating your mom and thinking about your boyfriends/girlfriends and so forth.

Man this is depressing. Knowing that even most people who get into my favorite genres are really doing it for all the wrong reasons.