What a phenomenal game. I went into this one thinking it was going to be kind of middle of the road, seeing as I haven't heard much about this one, but I was very very impressed.

The graphics, story, locations, and characters have all been levelled up since the last one, I was staring in awe at many of the incredible locations in this game. The fucking overgrown mansion in the beginning, the ship during the storm, riding on horseback through the desert, holy hell this shit was awesome.

I really enjoyed the locations in this one more than the last two, since both of those kind of took place in more or less similar locations, this one being mostly in the desert (with some parts in the forest and at sea,) I really enjoyed the variety.

The story was also VASTLY improved over the last one, I really care more about the characters in this more than ever, and I think they started really writing a story that makes me want to keep playing, that isn't just "we need to go here to stop the bad guys blah blah blah."
I loved Sully and Nate's relationship development in this one, I love these characters and I think they did a really good job of straining their relationship and strengthening it. When I thought Sully died I was so pissed, and so relieved when he was alright. It was great to see their backstory, and it is just great to see how good of friends they are.

The villain in this was pretty much just as generic as the other ones, I don't think I cared for her in the slightest, but I hated that slimy fucking henchman MF.

I feel like the difficulty was spiked in this one compared to the other ones, a lot of times I thought I made a direct headshot didn't land on the enemies, and I was dying wayyyy more to the gunfire than in the other ones.

Overall I had a blast, and I am happy my expectations were exceeded!! I am very excited to play the final game in the series, I've only heard good things!!

the design document was a napkin that simply read 'how about balls to the wall hollywood set-piece after set-piece?'

the escalation seen between drake's fortune and among thieves is quadrupled, and then doubled once or twice more for good measure here, until drake's deception finally winds up making among thieves look like a ken burns documentary in comparison.

the bond and indy jones influences are heavy. i think i called uncharted 2 the best james bond anything for reasons i can't quite remember. i think uncharted 3 excels so well at taking those influences and using them in ways that feel as fresh as the kind of big, expensive spectacle action you can only find in movies like fury road or the mcquarrie mission impossible movies (and to an extent the john wick sequels). to me uncharted 3 is a game that belongs in the same modern pantheon as those movies. i got just as much of a thrill from the convoy sequence as i did from fury road. just as excited to play the final confrontation between drake and talbot as i was to watch cruise and cavill square off on the cliff in mi fallout. i think it really is superb hollywood action all the way through. just fantastic work.

Drake’s Fortune created the cinematic action genre we know today, Among Thieves refined it, but Drake’s Deception is the first sideways step of the franchise. In some ways, it genuinely is better than its legendary predecessor, with more impressive technology, a smoother pace, and the advantage of a more developed cast of characters. On the other hand, some of the plot points and twists are questionable at best, utterly nonsensical at worst. The character of Talbot, for example, is one of the biggest question marks in the entire series. He randomly appears and disappears, is seemingly immune to gunshots, and has mystical powers that go entirely unexplained. The setup seems to be that he’s a supernatural entity misleading the main villain, but that doesn’t actually happen, and fans have endlessly debated what the original plan for his character was. The setpieces are some of the best in the series, but the narrative justification for experiencing them is equally muddled. The best example is a ship graveyard section, which is a fun location for shootouts and has a lot of unique moments, but the only reason Drake ends up there is because he gets randomly captured by pirates you’ve hardly seen before. He escapes, and they have no bearing on the plot from that point forward. It’s still an enjoyable ride from front to back, but Drake’s Deception has a general sloppiness to it that prevented it from raising the bar in the way its predecessors were celebrated for.

Honestly, I could go for either Uncharted 2 or 3 as my favourite, they’re both excellent.
Finished with the trilogy! I’ll review it more as a whole in my other review, but this review will focus more on 3. Overall, I enjoyed a more personal story and development of Nate, even though that plot line felt a bit unresolved at the end. Improvements to the combat engine like melee and stealth keep the play engaging, and the amount of large set pieces keeps the parkour fresh. The only complaints for me are the shipwreck and dessert hallucination sections goes on for way too long.
Uncharted 3 is a must play for anyone who’s a fan of this genre or series.

Uncharted 3 is an odd one. After dropping Drakes Fortune because it was boring and loving Among Thieves, Drakes Deception isn't a bad game per se but has several weird issues that hold it back from being a good game. Main issues I have are some truly trash main villians and some of the worst fights in the series. So much of the second half is a fucking slog because of insane enemy spawns coupled with the general sponginess even in Normal. On the subject of villians I think the idea of Marlowe and Talbot are interesting ideas for villians (being somewhat parallel to Drake and Sully) but at the same time lack real presence and even focus for a majority of the runtime. All that being said Drake's Deception still had the occasional fun setpiece and story beats to make it a somewhat enjoyable ride (finale also went kinda hard). Can't say I disliked it fully but I'll also never come back to it.

6/10

Uncharted 3 is the game that, on the surface, seems to have a lot going for it compared to the previous two, really struggles to put these pieces together as cohesively as I would expect. There was clearly more of a genuine attempt at crafting an engaging yet “real” narrative this time around. Being the only game in this series so far to actually start bothering to ask these inherent questions to create character drama and conflict from it. Like who exactly is Nathan Drake? Why is Sully always tagging around and why should I care? What exactly motivates Nathan Drake to keep going on these life threatening adventures that one way or another, always puts people in great danger, regardless of his headstrong swashbuckling demeanor? However, the actual approach done with this story potential is incredibly uneven, and often, very shoddily written.

Usually it gives us pretty small but stupid moments like Nathan Drake entrusting a valuable macguffn to the guy who literally tried to kill him five minutes ago which somehow always leads to the villain getting what they need to further their own evil plans in the race. Or keep teasing something truly bad is going to happen to Sully because this game is pretty much about Nathan and Sully’s relationship and how far one would truly go for the other. Which… never really gets a proper payoff besides one little scene at the end of the game? Or most importantly the game throwing in the curveball reveals near the midpoint that Nathan Drake might not be the guy we really assumed him to be. That this adventurous persona we’re so used to might actually be this big lie to hide his true history from us. This also never really goes anywhere and the game forgets about it almost entirely which is weird given how dramatic it is. There’s still some pretty fun bits preventing the story from feeling like a weightless journey. Everything to do with Nathan and Elena is great, and I argue should’ve been the real backbone to this game instead of the relationship between Nathan and Sully. The story, like I mentioned, feels more ambitious in trying to take its characters seriously for a more eventful journey. But the result of this muddled attempt came with poor pacing, clumsy writing, and a climax which is just a mashup of the first two games climax except I guess Naughty Dog learned and just stopped having a final boss altogether.

The gameplay isn’t dramatically improved too much from the previous game aside from melee finally not sucking and being almost viable sometimes. It’s really more of the same from all across including the platforming and cover-shooting. But I think, in retrospect, Uncharted 3 was the entry to underline my biggest gripes with these games and what they set out to achieve. And quite simply it’s just that these games lack depth, and I don’t mean just story. The melee is certainly the best of the three games, but even then that’s not saying much because it’s just hitting button prompts for a solid minute. The cover-shooting is mechanically the same across all three with the only addition Uncharted 3 brings to the table is being able to throw back grenades. The platforming is the same ol’, same ol’ climbing walls to ledges shtick without much real variation unless you count a big scripted walk-and-talk action sequence. I guess you could argue that the puzzles are handled much more creatively, but compared to other aspects of the gameplay, it’s very minuscule by comparison. What this all boils down to is that these games, with the case of Uncharted 3 especially, don’t really care about giving you much control over what you do. Rather you’re just a spectator who has to move on from scripted action sequence to the next scripted action sequence with very little room to go off rails for a bit. An example I’ve had playing the game which brings this up is the shipyard level. Which seemed like a more big and open environment to traverse through almost aimlessly, despite how linear your objective is. Imagine my surprise when I thought about circumventing a lot of the floating platforms and enemies by stealthily swimming around them only to find out the game doesn’t really want you to do that so much and you either get roped back into the same cover-shooting action or you just get caught in a massive wave with no way out but reloading a checkpoint. Granted, this is still a very graphically impressive action set piece to play part of, I still enjoy it even, but this begs the question earlier: what agency do you truly have over the game itself that is allowed by the developers?

From my experience, all I can gather is not too much. I don’t find this to be inherently a problem with a lot of games that do try to do this approach, I only ask that you compromise with the player and still deliver a worthwhile narrative. Uncharted 3 stumbles with the approach though, and I think its something Naughty Dog could learn from for both better and worse.

Random Note: Talbot might be one of the most confusing vidya game characters I've ever encountered so far because I have no idea what ANY of the developers were trying to do with him.

Ok, so this isn't as cohesive as 2, but good lord this game's shootouts are constantly changing it up. It seems that every enemy encounter throws something different at you. That plus the truly spectacular set-pieces make this game feel the most "larger than life" of the trilogy

The soundtrack is also a step up from 2, which was already a huge step up from 1.

The puzzles are also faaar more elaborate and interesting than the previous games, and so is the melee combat system. But this game also has way too many melee encounters, to the point of being kinda silly. Everytime I encountered one of those unarmed big dudes, I sighed a bit.

I don't know if I like Hard mode as much as 2's, they cranked up the damage a bit too much. Or better yet, enemies are too good a shot - you face someone with a machine gun, they're gonna hit every shot at you, and you'll be dead in 4 shots lol

Often seen as the weakest one but honestly still a great game, The hand to hand combat is massively improved. One massive downside though is that the extras have been insanelly scaled back 1 and 2 had skins, weapons, filters, special game tweaks and 3 takes ALLL of that away for seemingly no reason?

Characters are great and its a shame Charlie didn't come back though apparently he was set for 4 but his sctor was too busy, All in all still a great game that holds up today. Now on to Golden Abyss and if I can 4/LL

Though Uncharted 3 didn’t quite reach the same heights as the 2nd game for me, it still managed to pack a sharply developed punch and an effortless amount of charm.

I don’t think the narrative tops that of its predecessor. But when it works, it works. Especially the first half hour of the game. Once it starts, it has your attention. It often seamlessly blended its cutscenes with its gameplay- and man the combat feels good here! Better than ever.

The hand to hand stuff finally feels polished enough to be enjoyable. There’s also a handful of gameplay elements that have been fine tuned to feel more organic. They’ve consistently topped themselves in that department.

The level of detail is also an improvement. From its level design to its character models. For a game that’s roughly 12 years old, it looks great! It really shines throughout certain sequences. Much of the first hour is breathtakingly good to look at. The desert sequence still looks fantastic also. When you enter the lost city for the first time, the scope is truly felt.

The set pieces are as grand as ever. While I don’t think they’re quite as varied as the second game, there’s not a single one that’s less than good. Every set piece was awesome in its own right, and the way they blend together feels organic.

The story is better than that of the first uncharted, but not quite on par with Uncharted 2. Sully and Drake’s relationship to one another is really the thing that shines about the story. I wish they would have even given us a bit more of young Sully and Nathan throughout.

I think the stuff with Elena is always nice. Though they did just rehash the same story-beats for their relationship. Regardless, I think the execution of the storytelling is what really sold the entire thing. The antagonist could have been stronger. At least her motivations. I actually liked her as a character quite a bit.

Overall the game is pretty amazing. I’m really loving this series so far. I hope that the final entry manages to tighten up both the storytelling and gameplay. Not like it’s bad or anything- cause it’s far from it. I just see room for growth, and I know that this series has the potential to have a truly masterful entry. Regardless, it’s a fantastic one as is.