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.