Uncharted 3 has a timeline that spans over the course of twenty years, starting with how Drake met Sully. Drake stole a ring from a display case in a museum. A ring that Sully was supposed to procure for a woman named Marlowe. The ring fit into a decoder that would supposedly help them find treasure hidden by Sir Francis Drake. However, Marlowe ended up with the decoder and Drake escaped with the key. Cut to twenty years later and a fake deal with Marlowe so Drake could track her down and find the decoder, and well...You know how these things go.
For once, I enjoyed seeing Sully, Elena and Chloe. I never cared for them in any of the other games. Sully was useless, Elena was self-righteous, Chloe's attitude was atrocious. Uncharted 3 really made me like these characters though. I loved watching the scene where Sully took Drake under his wing. Sure, it was probably a bad idea to teach a child to be a thief, but he's the closest thing Drake ever had to a father and at least you know he would do anything for him.
Speaking of that...Uncharted 3 seems to go out of its way to point out just how selfish Drake is for dragging everyone in his life into dangerous situations with him. Sully, Elena and Chloe all call him out on it. Is it worth it, they ask. Is it worth risking the lives of the people you care about, just to save your pride? Just so Marlowe doesn't win? For as much as I loved the three of them for that, it made me dislike Drake even more. But of course, nothing is ever that simple and Marlowe isn't just after treasure, so even though Drake IS selfish for initially wanting to go after this supposed fortune that he believes Francis Drake hid, he does end up saving the day later on.
As always, the graphics are stunning. The Uncharted series never fails to deliver beautiful visuals. I don't even care about graphics, but I have to say, I was still impressed by them. The voice acting was perfect, superior to any other series I have ever played. I am very particular about voice acting, I feel like it can add so much to a game if it's done well, but it's such a distraction if the quality is awful. Not only are the lines delivered well, but the comedic timing in every one of these games has always been great. Timing is everything, and these actors are able to pull it off, so I commend them for that.
I appreciate that the NPCs seem to be more useful than they were in previous games. I noticed Sully killed several enemies for me. My biggest issue with him before was that he seemed to be so useless. He would shoot at enemies, but not damage them at all, which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't get in the way of my cover. At least if you're going to prevent me from hiding, take a few of the enemies out for me.
There were some not-so-great aspects to Uncharted 3, unfortunately. During the multiplayer beta, I mentioned how excited I was that you no longer had to hit triangle to pick up ammo for a gun you already had equipped. For whatever reason, while playing the campaign you DO have to hit triangle. I still cannot comprehend why this has not been changed yet. It's not a matter of being too lazy to click a button, either. If you're in a huge gun battle and you need more ammo for your M9, you want to be able to pick it up quickly. But let's say there's a pile of guns in front of you. And instead of picking up the M9 ammo, you end up picking up the Arm Micro instead. So not only does your M9 still not have any ammo, you've also switched the side arm you had equipped. And while this was happening, an armored shotgunner came and killed you in one hit. This is a problem.
Aside from that, the beginning of the game was so dark that I couldn't even see what I was doing when the brightness was turned all the way up. The sensitivity cannot be turned up high enough which is unfortunate, because in a game like this, you need to be able to aim quickly. The camera seems to work against you a bit. At some points, you'll have full control of it and at others, it tends to move on its own to a strange angle so you can't really see what you're doing. This is particularly frustrating during certain platforming segments.
You're also supposed to be able to switch shoulder aim, but I was never able to get it to work during the campaign. It worked in the previous two games, and I know it's included in Uncharted 3 because it's listed under Statistics, but I was never able to switch shoulders.
Uncharted 3 does not include unlockables. It's been a while since I've played the first game, but I know for a fact the second game allowed you to unlock character skins, infinite ammo, mirror modes and several other things I can't remember at the moment. It was really disappointing to complete the campaign and realize that none of that was included this time around.
This is probably my biggest complaint with any game...The thing that makes my head feel like it is going to explode. Unskippable cutscenes. There are some that you're able to skip, but then there are others that you have to sit through and watch regardless of how many times you've played through that specific section of the game. I don't want to have to watch cutscenes if I'm doing multiple playthroughs. Yes, Uncharted 3 has a pretty good story, but I don't need to keep watching it. You're just wasting my time.
There are some new additions to Uncharted 3, some that I liked and some I could have done without.
Brutes are a new type of enemy that require you to melee them and hit certain button prompts to end the fight. I am not a fan of button prompts in most games. They feel tacked on and mostly pointless. However, I loved fighting the brutes in Uncharted 3. It never really FELT like a quicktime event. The best part about this is that the final boss fight is basically an extended brute battle. It was incredibly easy compared to the fight against Lazarevic in Uncharted 2. I was expecting something that would make me want to pull my hair out so this was an amazing surprise.
You can now throw back grenades that enemies have tossed at you. Supposedly. There is a meter on the grenade when it lands. When the meter is red, you're not able to pick it up. As soon as it turns white, that's when you hit triangle and throw it back at the enemies. However, I have not be able to get this to work correctly as my meter is always gray. I don't even know what it means when it's gray. I thought maybe I was too far away to pick it up, but there have been times when I was right on top of it and I still had a gray meter. It's frustrating, especially since you need to master this technique for two of the game's trophies.
If a grenade lands near you and you don't get away from it quickly enough, all you hear for a few seconds is a ringing noise. It's a really small detail, but I LOVE things like that. It's why I was so excited during the multiplayer beta when I realized there was an eye adjustment period when you would go from a bright area to a dark area.
Drake has a tendency to smack into walls. I don't remember this happening in the other games. It was funny, at first. He seemed to stumble around like he was drunk. Then it started to remind me of the frustration I felt playing as Harry in Silent Hill and it wasn't cute anymore.
Uncharted 3 is also the first game in the series to include 3D. I'm not a fan of 3D in general, I feel like it's a useless gimmick, a fad that will die out soon enough, leaving a few gullible people with their overpriced TVs and nothing to do with them. 3D is rarely ever implemented well. I can't comment on how it works in Uncharted 3. The only reason I'm bringing this up at all is because I know how uncomfortable it is to wear 3D glasses during a 90 minute movie. Is it really practical to expect someone to wear them during a nine hour game? Sure, you may not play for nine hours straight, but would you want to wear them during a game regardless?
I have two favorite moments in Uncharted 3 that I would like to mention.
The first is during a spider attack (I hate spiders). They begin rushing into the room and Elena, armed with a shotgun, gets ready to start shooting at them. I laughed. If I had a shotgun in real life, I would probably want to shoot spiders, too. But I don't. However, you are given the opportunity to fight them off with a shotgun in the game, so that's enough for me.
The other moment was during Sink or Swim when the cruise ship you're on flips upside down and you have to climb up (down?) to make your way out. The entire thing was so reminiscent of The Poseidon Adventure that I wish it had lasted longer.
I've gone on long enough, haven't I? So let's get to the point. Is Uncharted 3 worth it?
As a fan of the series, I'm probably biased. But I'm also capable of being objective so here's my honest opinion. I loved the beginning of the game. Seeing flashbacks of Sully and Drake when they were younger and how their friendship began was really nice. I also enjoyed the last half of the game. Chapters like Sink or Swim kept things interesting. The final boss fight was a nice change from the fights in the previous games. Uncharted 3 is a great game, there's no arguing that.
Unfortunately, I constantly found myself thinking, "What's the point of this?" during the middle chapters. You're basically fighting a large group of enemies to get to the next area, where you'll fight another group of enemies. It gets repetitive and somewhat boring. There weren't enough puzzles. There wasn't enough platforming. The shootouts seemed to dominate Uncharted 3. The story wasn't as strong as it was in Uncharted 2 and the ending was anticlimactic. And overall, it just felt like more of the same. I've seen all of this in the previous games. Why should I play Uncharted 3 when I've already played two games exactly like it? I don't really have an answer to that, other than I'm a fan of the series.
If Naughty Dog decides to make Uncharted 4, they'll need to come up with something new to keep this series interesting. Cut down on some of the gun fights. Include more platforming (which I really do feel is Uncharted's strong point, as far as the gameplay goes). Create a story that can outdo Uncharted 2's story. Think of new gameplay elements so that it doesn't get stale. And keep adding in those little touches like going momentarily deaf if a grenade explodes near you. Uncharted 3 was well done and I know they can release an amazing game. I really want to see them push themselves for their next release.
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