So, I went into UC3 thinking I should start it on the hard difficulty since I had already beaten UC2 on hard. Biggest fucking mistake.

There have been a multiple times where I've died over and over and over (I think my death count is almost at 200, and I haven't finished yet).

The worst part was the big room at the beginning of the ship level when you're supposed to sneak past, but I couldn't, so I activated the 20 waves of enemies. Then there is the part with the fire guys that teleport, the sandstorm part, and many horde-like areas in between. If I knew this game would be this unfair on hard, then I would've switched to normal a long time ago, but now I'm on chapter 22 and I've gone that far, so I've got to finish.

So, am I the only person who has a frustrating time with UC3 on hard difficulty, or do I just suck?

I wouldn't necessarily say it's the difficulty that makes it frustrating, it's the bullshit CoDification. The "oh, suddenly there was a guy behind me, so I died" shit. What's ironic is that even CoD doesn't do this in singleplayer. I mean wtf is the point of a cover-based shooter if the scenarios and AI are designed to exploit it?

Not at all. I just finished it on hard and the only times I died were when I was trying something stupid for a trophy. That and falling off cliffs. That alone, happened way more than enemies killing me when I was legitimately fighting them.

I was very frustrated at times, and I played it on normal.

I did my first play-through on Hard because I was doing fine on Hard in Uncharted 2 the night before, I died about 150 times apparently - and felt this was fair enough.

I played it on normal and didn't really die unless I tried something stupid.

They don't spawn behind you very often. They flank the hell out of you though. The AI is so good it is a little too hard.

That one room on the cruise ship is a pain, Even on normal, just really dickish enemy placement. I don't think the game is overly hard or anything, but there are maybe three areas where I feel the difficulty spikes and it really hurts the pacing. Areas full of rushdown enemies and rocket/grenade/sniper enemies are just not fun.. move and open yourself up to a ton of gunfire or stay in one place and get spammed. The game really wants you to take out the enemies in a specific order and that takes a lot of the fun out of those areas.

i've been playing on hard and i'm up to chapter 12 and i've only died twice?   but that was during chase scenes where i mistimed a jump :(

Yeah, there are some moments in the campaign where the battles are frustrating. Also, I think the enemies soak up too many bullets like in Uncharted Drake's Fortune. Lastly, the non-armored shotgun carry jerk just runs across the level to shoot you point blank range, so what I hate people doing in multiplayer ended up in the campaign.

It's not that they spawn behind you, they do run right past you for some reason and are then behind you. I played it my first time on Hard and although I died quite a bit I didn't think it was too difficult. I'm almost done on Crushing mode and that's like a two shot death.

The difficulty spikes, so it can be pretty hard at times. Also, it doesn't help with the stupid bullet sponge enemies and the amount of normal enemies they throw at you. Seems like a poor way to try and make the game more difficult.

I'm someone who said Dark Souls isn't a hard game, and I had to put this game down to the easiest setting to bypass a certain section. The part where you have to climb up a mast while constantly spawning pirates are shooting you, spawning behind you, guys with shotguns bumrushing you.. I mean seriously it was the most frustrating moment I've had in a video game in years. I was cussing Naughty Dog, questioning reviewer scores, things I usually never ever do. Some moments of this game are just not enjoyable at all which is such a shame because everything else is so good. Maybe just not enough testing, I dunno.

I was playing this on hard right until the end then I decided to put it on normal as I realised I wasn't really having fun in the combat. Too much cheap shot 'spawn behind you' bullshit. And the new focus on hand to hand is very annoying when attackers go out of their way to run up to you and while you're engaging him some other guy just comes behind you and one shots you. They made the hand to hand too drawn out, if it was quicker like in UC2 it would be beneficial but in this one I always think "Oh no..." when I start trading blows with someone.

It's started to get a little tricky (on hard mode, too, here) after reaching the ship yard, but nothing too frustrating.

@Marz said:

i've been playing on hard and i'm up to chapter 12 and i've only died twice? but that was during chase scenes where i mistimed a jump :(

Yeah, I also hadn't died too much before then, but then some of the parts in the middle and closer to the end are total bitches.

So, I went into UC3 thinking I should start it on the hard difficulty since I had already beaten UC2 on hard. Biggest fucking mistake.

There have been a multiple times where I've died over and over and over (I think my death count is almost at 200, and I haven't finished yet).

The worst part was the big room at the beginning of the ship level when you're supposed to sneak past, but I couldn't, so I activated the 20 waves of enemies. Then there is the part with the fire guys that teleport, the sandstorm part, and many horde-like areas in between. If I knew this game would be this unfair on hard, then I would've switched to normal a long time ago, but now I'm on chapter 22 and I've gone that far, so I've got to finish.

So, am I the only person who has a frustrating time with UC3 on hard difficulty, or do I just suck?

Yeah. The whole ship chapter was a bit frustrating.Especially the part where you had to sneak behind dudes and I even started it over and over again on purpose because I thought I could sneak past everyone(played on hard).

You really need to keep moving and switching your weapon types is my recommendation. There's usually a couple of ways "you can go" in each encounter, so try not to get stuck in the same pattern. You will find heavier weapons as you move around the levels, so don't be afraid to grab everything - and use hand to hand combat everywhere possible, as it's seems much more effective than in UC2 (but be sure to isolate yourself somewhat or you will get shot while fist fighting.) Especially being able to counter multiple enemies during combat, makes it easy to just run right at 2 guys and bring them down.

I really didn't love the game honestly, I agree with much of Tom Chick's review if you can find that online. But I did enjoy some of those big encounter arenas - I'm about to attempt my second playthough on Insane or whatever is after Hard.. I've had it all week from Redbox and I'm only in the hole $6. Redbox!

I played it through on hard as well, but I didn't find it as difficult as 2 or 1 on the harder difficulties. There are a few difficult parts, but with every combat theater there's usually a spot or two you can find that really allows you to funnel the enemies.

I've just started playing through on Crushing so I'm sure to find out lol.

Yeah I think all three of them have just absurd difficulty spikes for individual shootouts. Especially in Uncharted 3 Naughty Dog doesn't seem to understand that the most exciting and fun encounters are the smaller ones. The hand to hand improvements really make this so. Running into a room with a half dozen guys and mixing light gun combat with mostly melee really gives the game this Die Hard feel or more importantly the fist fights really shine with an Indiana Jones vibe.

Naughty Dog totally ruins the enjoyment of these segments with the ridiculous set pieces where there are thirty baddies spread out over multiple planes with sniper rifles and grenade launchers, and multiple armored bulletproof guys roaming around. You get pinned into a spot and then have to totally game the system to survive and its frustrating because you are dying constantly through trial and error and in the end you have to treat it like a video game and not a block buster movie which is how the remaining 80 or 90% of the game feels like.

That is the most disappointing thing is Naughty Dog after three games still doesn't realize what the strength of the actual game play is and thinks that the near invincible bad guys and swarms of enemies are what makes that fun.

I played through on normal and felt like i was playing on hard. After a few shots my screen would already be B&W and that lil auto pistol well turn you into mince meat in no time at all.
 
I feel like the scripting in this game was either super strict or just completely off. 
 
The sections that give you the impression that you can stealth all the way through, you can't. Really fuckin annoying. What's more annoying than that is that on multiple occasions (syria, cruise ship, airport) i stealth my way through the area with one or two people left and not be able to stealth them for whatever reason and then 25 other guys just practically pour out the walls. If ur gonna give me the option to stealth the whole room but at some point i blow it, i should just be left to face the people who i didn't get to successfully steatlh kill, in this case 1 or 2 people. A ton of new dudes shouldn't just come from nowhere. If i knew that was the case i wouldn't try to stealth at all.

I played it through on hard as well, but I didn't find it as difficult as 2 or 1 on the harder difficulties. There are a few difficult parts, but with every combat theater there's usually a spot or two you can find that really allows you to funnel the enemies.

I played through on normal and felt like i was playing on hard. After a few shots my screen would already be B&W and that lil auto pistol well turn you into mince meat in no time at all.  I feel like the scripting in this game was either super strict or just completely off.   The sections that give you the impression that you can stealth all the way through, you can't. Really fuckin annoying. What's more annoying than that is that on multiple occasions (syria, cruise ship, airport) i stealth my way through the area with one or two people left and not be able to stealth them for whatever reason and then 25 other guys just practically pour out the walls. If ur gonna give me the option to stealth the whole room but at some point i blow it, i should just be left to face the people who i didn't get to successfully steatlh kill, in this case 1 or 2 people. A ton of new dudes shouldn't just come from nowhere. If i knew that was the case i wouldn't try to stealth at all.

All three games have these stupid difficulty spikes, and I wish they didn't. It's not fun and it fucks up the pacing.

I played it on Normal, and a couple of the big, wave-based areas were a little bit frustrating.

@Wraxend said:

I've just started playing through on Crushing so I'm sure to find out lol.

Is that where you don't get to aim at all, you just wave your private parts at them?

@bybeach said:

@Wraxend said:

I've just started playing through on Crushing so I'm sure to find out lol.

Is that where you don't get to aim at all, you just wave your private parts at them?

Didn't notice an aim problem first time through on normal, but now that I need to stay on my toes deffinetly noticing some lag with the aim.

@Wraxend said:

@bybeach said:

@Wraxend said:

I've just started playing through on Crushing so I'm sure to find out lol.

Is that where you don't get to aim at all, you just wave your private parts at them?

Didn't notice an aim problem first time through on normal, but now that I need to stay on my toes deffinetly noticing some lag with the aim.

I find I am finally getting better, have to learn all the moves with grenades and such. I presume thats how this game is designed.

Its nothing compared to Uncharted 1. I started UC3 on Hard and didn't think it was too difficult. The only reason I may have died a lot was because I was set on completing a certain scenario a particular way. I went through Crushing the same way. I think I died more on Hard than I did on Crushing...

But that one scenario in Uncharted1 where you're in a large underground sewer system, and enemies are pouring out from all angles... ughhhhhh! That so far has been my most frustrating Uncharted moment.

Well, I did find that grenade throwback rarely worked for me, and that there were really no stealth sections.

@bybeach said:

@Wraxend said:

@bybeach said:

@Wraxend said:

I've just started playing through on Crushing so I'm sure to find out lol.

Is that where you don't get to aim at all, you just wave your private parts at them?

Didn't notice an aim problem first time through on normal, but now that I need to stay on my toes deffinetly noticing some lag with the aim.

I find I am finally getting better, have to learn all the moves with grenades and such. I presume thats how this game is designed.

Yeah get used to grenadesalso line up your shots from cover before aiming, but you probably knew that already. Also some sections you can just run past the enimies without having to kill them to progress the level.

Play on a lower difficulty setting. Problem Solved.

@JeffGoldblum said:

Play on a lower difficulty setting. Problem Solved.

Trophies man!!!! How can i prove my manhood without trophies!?

I played on normal and after chapter 12, the game ramped up in difficulty for me. Like, it went from me running-and-gunning all over the place to being locked down to cover or I'd die IMMEDIATELY!
 
It got pretty gurdderm hard later on too. Fuck that sandstorm, man.