Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception has the difficulty of following up Uncharted 2: Among Thieves that I had, to my own surprise, a lot of fun with. Sadly, Uncharted 3 doesn’t reach the same levels of quality of Uncharted 2.
The levels, while diverse with the different locations they take place in, didn’t feel as fun to roam around or fight in. For every Chateau level, that gave me the feeling of a classic Uncharted level, there’s a level like Syria where it fails to leave much of an impression on me.
That’s not to stay that effort hasn’t been put into the design of the levels. It’s clear that Naughty Dog are consciously thinking about how they can mix up the levels to keep things from getting boring. One level has gunfights take place in a burning building that limits what cover you can use, as any cover that’s on fire is unusable. Another level has you trying to outrun rising water in a capsized yacht that makes you disorientated as your try to figure out where to go to escape.
I was surprised how short the level that featured the plane was. For a set-piece that was shown regularly in the marketing, I was expecting something on a similar scale to the chapters that featured the train in Uncharted 2. However, the entire plane set-piece only lasts for a few minutes. It left me feeling underwhelmed.
The story comes across as disjointed and all over the place. You’ll have moments where Drake and the gang will witness and acknowledge that the villain Talbot seems to be able to appear and disappear into thin air. They’ll even comment that Talbot was fatally shot but appeared minutes later without injury. Nothing is revealed in the story to explain these occurrences.
Even the subtitle of the game “Drake’s Deception” doesn’t really play much into the story as a theme. I got the impression that Uncharted 3 will provide a character study of Nathan Drake. There’s a couple of moments in the story where characters will question Drake on whether it’s worth continuing the pursuit of Sir Francis Drake’s secret, but then it’s dropped and never brought up again.
The gameplay is the standard over-the-shoulder shooter affair that you’ll be familiar with if you played the previous games. The newest addition is the dynamic melee combat. Putting it simply, Nathan Drake will automatically grab items in the environment to attack enemies with for extra damage. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over what or when Drake will pick up an item to fight with. You have to hope that Drake and the enemy are standing in the right place for Drake to understand that you want him to use the big, giant wrench to slap the enemy with.
It’s likely that my issues with Uncharted 3 is down to Naughty Dog putting a lot of their focus into the development of The Last of Us. There are a few elements of what made Uncharted 2 a favourite of mine in this game, but there isn’t enough to make it standout. The story feels like it’s still in the drafting phase. Levels lack polish. Even the fun side characters are underutilised throughout the story. In conclusion, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is an entertaining game, but I think many will find it forgettable compared to the other games in the series.
The levels, while diverse with the different locations they take place in, didn’t feel as fun to roam around or fight in. For every Chateau level, that gave me the feeling of a classic Uncharted level, there’s a level like Syria where it fails to leave much of an impression on me.
That’s not to stay that effort hasn’t been put into the design of the levels. It’s clear that Naughty Dog are consciously thinking about how they can mix up the levels to keep things from getting boring. One level has gunfights take place in a burning building that limits what cover you can use, as any cover that’s on fire is unusable. Another level has you trying to outrun rising water in a capsized yacht that makes you disorientated as your try to figure out where to go to escape.
I was surprised how short the level that featured the plane was. For a set-piece that was shown regularly in the marketing, I was expecting something on a similar scale to the chapters that featured the train in Uncharted 2. However, the entire plane set-piece only lasts for a few minutes. It left me feeling underwhelmed.
The story comes across as disjointed and all over the place. You’ll have moments where Drake and the gang will witness and acknowledge that the villain Talbot seems to be able to appear and disappear into thin air. They’ll even comment that Talbot was fatally shot but appeared minutes later without injury. Nothing is revealed in the story to explain these occurrences.
Even the subtitle of the game “Drake’s Deception” doesn’t really play much into the story as a theme. I got the impression that Uncharted 3 will provide a character study of Nathan Drake. There’s a couple of moments in the story where characters will question Drake on whether it’s worth continuing the pursuit of Sir Francis Drake’s secret, but then it’s dropped and never brought up again.
The gameplay is the standard over-the-shoulder shooter affair that you’ll be familiar with if you played the previous games. The newest addition is the dynamic melee combat. Putting it simply, Nathan Drake will automatically grab items in the environment to attack enemies with for extra damage. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over what or when Drake will pick up an item to fight with. You have to hope that Drake and the enemy are standing in the right place for Drake to understand that you want him to use the big, giant wrench to slap the enemy with.
It’s likely that my issues with Uncharted 3 is down to Naughty Dog putting a lot of their focus into the development of The Last of Us. There are a few elements of what made Uncharted 2 a favourite of mine in this game, but there isn’t enough to make it standout. The story feels like it’s still in the drafting phase. Levels lack polish. Even the fun side characters are underutilised throughout the story. In conclusion, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is an entertaining game, but I think many will find it forgettable compared to the other games in the series.
troosh
7 months ago
Syria was definitely a low point of the game, and the structure of the levels feels disjointed, but overall the quality of the mechanics and small improvements from two, along with the graphical polish from being the third entry, makes 3 stand out for its own accomplishments. Even if it's not as good as 2.