Nate Drake vs Lara Croft

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pm in General Gaming · Comments

As opposed to reviewing Uncharted, I decided to put both Nate Drake and Lara Croft head to head, only because reviewing Uncharted without referencing to Tomb Raider was seemingly an impossible task. On the one hand we have a new, albeit immediately popular game by the name of Uncharted, and on the other we have a well established franchise that’s had over a decade to hone its formula. I wish I could sit on the fence with this one, but what fun would that be? Here goes…

Puzzles

I’ve been an avid fan of the Tomb Raider series since it first surfaced in the 90’s. Having stuck with Lara throughout her many iterations - both good and bad - there’s no doubt I’ve familiarised myself with the developer’s method in regards to puzzles. Having said that, after 9 releases there’s still a scale of intimidation that accompanies every Tomb Raider puzzle, big or small. Yes, it can be seemingly insurmountable to the extent genuine frustration sets in. But the sense of satisfaction upon cracking a puzzle is what makes Tomb Raider so rewarding, and in essence a great game.

Uncharted, on the other hand, is close, but puts itself at an immediate disadvantage by dumbing things down for the player. When faced with a puzzle, you’re presented with the option of triggering a hint by pressing one of the bumpers. This isn’t an ambiguous sense of direction either, but a concise description of what you’ve got to do. It strips away any sense of achievement.

There’s no competition here. Lara 1 - Nate 0

Ninjabatics

It baffles me how a game can nail acrobatics on its first go, yet a franchise that’s been around for 10+ years still has trouble getting it right. As much as Crystal Dynamics want to push Lara to the forefront of the Tomb Raider brand, close-ups of her arse while you’re scanning the room to plan your next move do not help.

Directing Nate Drake around the environment is flawless and fluid; you never have to worry about conflicting camera angles, and hopping from one platform to the other is seamless. In fact, it very much reminds me of how beautifully Assassin’s Creed’s Altair moves.

This easily goes to Nate. Lara 1 - Nate 1

Graphics

Uncharted is beautiful to look at - words don’t justify it. It’s the Scarlet Johanson and Daniel Craig of video games; physical perfection. At no point does the quality slip and the visuals get lazy. Naughty Dog did a fantastic job and have set the standard high. So much so that Lara just can’t keep up.

Lara 1 - Nate 2

Eye Candy

Lara has two big things going for her. Wait… No, not those things. Attitude and beauty is the order of the day. Yeah, she has big tits, a tight ass and the ability to bend like a pretzel, but she’s also feisty, independent, and tough as nails. I have to say, though, that I do have a bit of a crush on Nate Drake. He’s charismatic, ambitious, and he’s fucking sexy. Being a woman, though, I can’t judge fairly enough, so I’m going to give the two protagonists a draw on this one.

Lara 1 - Nate 2

Atmosphere

Tomb Raider is renown for its stunning environments. Over the 10 years Tomb Raider has spanned, we’ve seen the game branch from tombs to urban spots, a move I feel deprives the game of the atmosphere we’re so accustomed to. With recent releases, however, we’ve seen Lara go back to her roots, which is where Tomb Raider really shines.

Despite Uncharted looking gorgeous, it just can’t match Tomb Raider for atmosphere. That’s not to say the game isn’t immersive, but with Tomb Raider’s environments being so massive in scale, there’s a real sense of solitary that haunts you throughout your adventure. The same can’t be said for Uncharted.

Lara 2 - Nate 2

Combat

Both Croft and Drake are equipped with firearms and enemies aren’t scarce in either games. However, there’s undoubtedly a bigger emphasis on combat in Uncharted - Tomb Raider has never been about that. In fact, to quote an old post of mine: “Yes, Lara has a pair of duel-wielding pistols, but this is not a shooter. Even cranked up to the highest difficulty boss battles aren’t necessarily challenging, and encountering the occasional rat doesn’t provoke an intense gun fight. This is an adventure game people, but a damn good one at that!”.

Combat is one of the things Uncharted does best. Enemies drop a range of weapons, which means your character is never limited to the default gun. Bullets are also unforgiving (as they should be), so you’re forced to take cover and scope out your enemies, unlike Tomb Raider which never proves to be much of a challenge in that department.

Lara 2 - Nate 3

Verdict

As much as I love Uncharted, it actually pains me to have it pip Tomb Raider. Of course, this has just been a bit of fun taking a handful of categories into consideration, not to mention it being a personal take on two different games. Not all factors have been considered, but what do you think when it comes to Uncharted and Tomb Raider? Who takes the crown?

Tags: Tomb Raider, Uncharted - Drake's Fortune, Versus

7 Responses to “Nate Drake vs Lara Croft”

Chris Radsby

# September 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

Wait wait, so you actually compare the whole tomb-raider series with one game? It’s not really a fair contest =), the Tomb Raider-games have had many chances to improve and refine their core-gameplay and environments, but I agree with you, I feel like Uncharted is better than Tomb Raider.

Have you checked out the latest in-game stuff from Uncharted 2? I wrote some about it: http://christofferradsby.com/blog/gaming-weekly-w38-uncharted-2/

Arnold Sideways

# September 15th, 2009 at 5:42 pm

I don’t know what it is about Tomb Raider (it’s not her breasts), but I still keep playing them regardless of how immensely annoyed I get when I do. There’s a lot of places where one slight mistake can result in death, or even worse, *not* dying, but having to repeat about ten minutes worth of gameplay just to get back to the exact same position you just fell off. Combine that with incredibly clumsy controls that leave you shouting “that’s not what I asked you to bloody do!” at the screen, and a camera system that does its best to sabotage everything you do, and you’ve got some severely frustrating moments. But somehow I still keep going back.

Saying that, I don’t think the controls in Uncharted are perfect either. I still get moments where he decides to throw himself off a cliff for no good reason, and a camera system that fights against you when you’re trying to control it manually, occasionally making it difficult to so much as run in a straight line, since controls are camera relative and it keeps bloody moving it.

As for the gameplay, I really liked Uncharted when I first started playing. But it started to feel like it didn’t know what kind of game it wanted to be. As a shooter, I don’t think it’s very good… It’s just passable. Enemies take ludicrous amounts of shots to kill despite not wearing any armour, the guns don’t feel particularly satisfying, the cover system feels a bit clunky and it just feels a bit “meh”, when you compare it to the likes of Gears of War. That’d be fine if the game was more of an adventure with the odd bit of shooting, but they start throwing endless amounts of generic identical enemies at you and it seems like they’ve tried to make a shooter with the odd bit of climbing.

I know this all sounds a bit negative, but that’s because I really wanted Uncharted to be excellent, whereas it merely turned out to be good. It may have suffered in this case from me hearing too much hype about it and having unreasonable expectations, but I was a bit underwhelmed and still haven’t found the enthusiasm to complete it - and now it crashes thanks to 3.0 :(.

Los Havros

# September 15th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

Ash, I think you have a pretty good idea of where I stand in this debate! I was a big fan of the Tomb Raider series on the PSone, but what can I say? Uncharted simply outclasses the old gal. Whatever deficiencies (if any) are in the original- Uncharted 2 is supposed to more than make up for it. And then some.

@ Arnold Sideways: I have to totally disagree with you- the duck and cover system works ‘almost’ 100%, I’ve jsut had a couple of occasions where Nate has decided to cover behind the wrong wall *sigh*. Yet the control system is spot on. Once you master the controls, you can unless serious carnage on those pirates.

@ Everyone: Using Firmware 3.0 I went back to Uncharted where it had previously frozen, and experienced no problems, progressing quite a bit further with no issues. Whatever has been going on must be intermittent. Anyhow, Firmware 3.1 is out, and fixes any problems for those that had them.

Arnold Sideways

# September 16th, 2009 at 1:10 am

@Los Havros: Well, control systems hold up differently for different players. Coming straight from playing Gears of War, the cover system felt much less fluid to me. To be fair, I guess part of my discomfort with the controls is simply because of the PS3 control pad, which is the worst pad I’ve ever used. I really need to find some kind of third party controller for the PS3.

Rockers Delight

# September 16th, 2009 at 10:41 am

@Chris: Absolutely, it isn’t fair - but there are a whole host of factors I didn’t take into consideration simply because it’s a bit of fun Yeah, I’m subscribed to your blog and am catching bits of Uncharted 2 around the net. It won’t be an immediate purchase for me, but I will get my hands on it eventually.

@Arnold: We’re in the same camp. Regardless of how downhill Lara goes, I will always defend her and buy the games. It’s the setting and puzzles I love, and I think Lara beats the competition in that respect. By the way, I’ve been one of the lucky ones and had no problems with Uncharted running with the 3.0 firmware. Also, in regards to your latest comment, I have trouble growing accustomed to the PS3 controller as well. It’s teeny tiny and I have girly hands! What must you men think?

@Los Havros: Absolutely, Uncharted was fantastic for an original IP. Naughty Dog should be very proud, and surely things can only go up from here as they get to build on the original’s flaws (not that many spring to mind).

Arnold Sideways

# September 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am

@Rockers Delight: It amazes me that anyone could like the PS3 controllers. Like you say they’re small, and even though I haven’t got big hands, it still feels like it would only suit yet smaller hands. I think that seeing as though it’s more or less the same as the PS2 controller that people have just got used to it by now, but I never had a PS2 so it’s new to me, and every aspect of the pad seems wrong. If I grip it “properly”, i.e. with the whole of my hands gripping it, the ends of my thumbs overshoot the buttons and the dpad. If I put my thumbs on the analogue sticks they push my hands away from the rest of the pad forcing me to hold it just with the ends of my fingers. And finally, the triggers curve the wrong way meaning my fingers constantly slip off the end, and I find it hard to tell when I’ve got it pressed all the way down. I’ve actually managed to fix the last problem by buying these trigger extender things that fit on top and curve outwards, making them feel more like real triggers. It makes a huge difference actually, but it’s a bit pathetic that Sony need third parties to come in with their own products to “fix” design flaws in the pads.

Daniel

# September 17th, 2009 at 11:01 pm

I love Uncharted. Tomb Raider was good in the day but it’s slowly dying. Underworld was a good game but it was very flawed and brought the experience as a whole down while Uncharted was a joy to play from start to finish. Even compared to the old games I think I prefer Uncharted. Even though Uncharted wouldn’t be the same without Tomb Raider for inspiration but I think Drake has taken the crown for Lara now.

Rockers Delight