It's easily the best of the PS3 Era trilogy based on the premise alone. How can it NOT be when it's basically INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE, THE MUMMY, and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA thrown into a blender? Those things all rule!
And despite it all...the core gameplay and story problems of the Uncharted formula are still present and seemingly unconcerned with evolving. Enemies still take millions of hits to kill (on Normal mode) yet you can die faster than a CALL OF DUTY hard-core match. Combat is so unbalanced at times that you're discouraged from experimenting and forced to just memorize the emergence of enemies and take them out in a dull, surgical manner.
Melee combat and Stealth are VASTLY improved. Fist fights go for an almost Arkham Era rhythm format. Nate handles much better in Stealth mode and the terrain is overall more suited for utilizing cover. There's still too many instances of "Did you hit circle to do a dodge roll? JK, Nate decided you wanted to hug this chest high wall instead. Oops, you died."
The character focus during the narrative is what really drives this one. Nate's relationships with Sully and Elana are truly interesting. The globe trotting locales are the most diverse and interesting they've ever been, and the escape sequences from the Chateau, the Plane, and the Cruise Ship are all stellar. Kind of annoying how the final Maguffin reveal is just the SAME TWIST it was in the first two games. Also strange how Nate heroically tried to save the antagonist from their self-imposed fate, where as in 2 he was cool letting Lazaravich (deservedly) eat shit.
I had the most fun with this one, while also feeling pretty unimpressed in the end. I like the characters of this franchise, but these games don't make say "WOW, I need to buy the console these are on!" the way so many people have told me they needed to get a PS3 to play these. Spectacle's cool, but spectacle built on mid, unsatisfying gameplay isn't worth all the praise this series gets IMO.
And despite it all...the core gameplay and story problems of the Uncharted formula are still present and seemingly unconcerned with evolving. Enemies still take millions of hits to kill (on Normal mode) yet you can die faster than a CALL OF DUTY hard-core match. Combat is so unbalanced at times that you're discouraged from experimenting and forced to just memorize the emergence of enemies and take them out in a dull, surgical manner.
Melee combat and Stealth are VASTLY improved. Fist fights go for an almost Arkham Era rhythm format. Nate handles much better in Stealth mode and the terrain is overall more suited for utilizing cover. There's still too many instances of "Did you hit circle to do a dodge roll? JK, Nate decided you wanted to hug this chest high wall instead. Oops, you died."
The character focus during the narrative is what really drives this one. Nate's relationships with Sully and Elana are truly interesting. The globe trotting locales are the most diverse and interesting they've ever been, and the escape sequences from the Chateau, the Plane, and the Cruise Ship are all stellar. Kind of annoying how the final Maguffin reveal is just the SAME TWIST it was in the first two games. Also strange how Nate heroically tried to save the antagonist from their self-imposed fate, where as in 2 he was cool letting Lazaravich (deservedly) eat shit.
I had the most fun with this one, while also feeling pretty unimpressed in the end. I like the characters of this franchise, but these games don't make say "WOW, I need to buy the console these are on!" the way so many people have told me they needed to get a PS3 to play these. Spectacle's cool, but spectacle built on mid, unsatisfying gameplay isn't worth all the praise this series gets IMO.