Uncharted 3 Review
Developer Naughty Dog
Publisher Sony
Platform PS3
Release Date 2nd Nov 2011 (Ireland)
Writing this review is one of the more difficult ones I’ve approached in recent months, I’m torn between going off the deep end and telling you about all the awesome sections that play out in Uncharted 3 simply because I’m still buzzing about it (reminiscent of a hyper 4 year old on Christmas morning. With plenty of “and then this happens….you have to see this bit… and the guy nearly gets him but then” …..) and holding back so you can enjoy every second of it all unfold in front of you totally unspoilt, I think I will choose the latter but purely for your sake.
Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception. Nathan Drake is off on another one of his hair brained adventures, by now you will know (as it’s written on the back of the box), he starts out in London and his ultimate goal is to find the lost city deemed the “Atlantis of the Sands” by finding clues, solving puzzles, climbing walls and kicking ass. A few old faces are back along with some new faces too, Sully of course and the two female love interests from the series but also you are joined by a new friend and some new enemies too.
The scripting is brilliant, it’s warm it’s funny, it’s moving. The cut scenes are so good and interact with the game so well you are instantly drawn right into the story and with each and every new scene that plays out you get further and further immersed. The opening 4 or so hours do fall into a disappointingly similar pattern in terms of gameplay though, you find a treasure/clue, then go to leave and the goons turn up, you fight them and escape then rinse and repeat. There is a lot more action than adventure here and as the gunplay is bar far the weakest part of the game it can get a tiny bit frustrating, I’ll explain more about that later.
The opening though is purely a ploy to lead you into that false sense of security, as if Naughty Dog were only toying with you letting you develop this impression to smack you in the face with whats in store. The game really bursts into a whole new life from roughly around the four hour mark. I won’t explain any further but there are a few scenes one involving a fire and one in a ship dock that will blow you away, especially the ship dock section I’ve never seen anything like it before.
So that’s it for the story as I run the risk of letting too much out. It’s down to the how the game plays, by now you understand how the series works, you climb up walls, solve puzzles and fight bad guys in between amazing looking cut scenes that drive the story forward.
The climbing controls are much more natural, but the puzzles are a bit of a let-down. U2 had me stumped for hours on some of the puzzles, even requiring me to cheat on one particular head scratcher but in U3 you have a number of helpful character that come along with you for the ride, and they really are “too” helpful, as within the first few minutes of trying to figure out a puzzle someone pipes up and says “hey look at this over here I bet that does something”.
The best improvement throughout the whole game is the Hand to hand combat. Naughty dog have taken a leaf out of Rocksteady’s book and implemented a similar style as seen in Batman, press triangle to counter then square to punch. You can also grab and throw enemies, if near the edge of a platform you can throw them off. These fights are brilliant and with the gun play so frustratingly loose I often found myself getting down and dirty rather than sitting back with a gun.
To the frustrating parts so, the cover mechanism and the shooting are a nightmare in panic situations. Getting in and out of cover can be quite fiddly at the best of time, and I lost count of the number of times I wanted to just enter cover and Drake rolls. This is made all the more annoying as so much of the rest of the game flows so naturally, as Drake passes a wall he will place his hand on it, jumping obstacles is a delight, climbing is perfect. It all flows so naturally that it just serves to highlight the problems with the cover system.
Shooting can be quite a struggle at times too, there is no auto aim and the camera is quite sensitive and often pointing the wrong way. If you are aiming the camera moves nice and slowly but if you try to reload and you are still trying to move the cross hair up, the camera zooms out and moves way too quickly resulting in you waving your gun around like a mad man.
U2 was action packed but it always felt like Drake was an accidental hero rather than an all-out action hero, more Indiana Jones than Die Hard if you like. Unlike U3 which has way too many gun battles for my liking, as the gunfights are the weakest part its disappointing that they play such a huge roll.
Unfortunately for Naughty dog they are a victim of their own success, and as such U3 doesn’t have that same wow factor that you got when seeing U2 for the first time. It will still blow you away and is the best looking game this year but the leap from U1 to U2 isn’t quite matched in the leap from U2 to U3. But as I say that’s only because U2 was so bloody good but don’t be disappointed you still have some glorious sections, fire, water and sand all play huge rolls and look amazing.
There are some welcome advances, the levels are much more open giving you a choice of paths to go, the liner feel is removed and it really does feel like you have a far greater degree of control over your chosen path than ever before, but It also appears the gameplay is running low on fresh concepts. Early on it falls into a very familiar pattern of climb up a wall, find something, thugs show up and you escape and really there is only so many times you can do that without it getting stale, couple that with the old favourite of falling off a collapsing bridge, stair, drainpipe, airplane, train etc before its novelty wears off and they do seem to rely on it far too heavily.
Multiplayer is still the same tried and trusted formula bringing back the team death matches and capture the flag modes which are online stables at this stage but also bringing back the Uncharted favourites. The Kickbacks, the boosters and the new Buddy system, Kickbacks give you a bonus prize perhaps an RPG or bonus ammo when you need it. Boosters give character boosts such as reduced spawn time or a boost in character speed. The buddy system allows you to team with a friend, a kind of squad mode but by far the best introduction is the power play this gives the loosing team a fighting chance so no matter how bad you are doing there is always something to hold on for. Multiplayer as I’m sure you know from the generous beta and access code giveaway prelaunch is a lot of fun. Co-op is a variation on the multiplayer experience rather than the story mode and is the perfect opportunity to perfect your shooting skills with a buddy in toe before unleashing on the public. But the most important thing is the work Naughty dog do with the community, they really listen and they really do keep updating the game which is very commendable.
To close : Uncharted 3 is one of the best games I’ve played since… well Uncharted 2 to be honest. Visually it is a work of art, the level of detail in the game puts everything else to shame. The story is excellent and the characters are a good as you have come to expect from Naughty dog. For the full 12+ hours it takes to complete the game you will be in gaming heaven. Except for some brief moments of controller smashing frustration especially if you are playing tired! But the whole experience is an absolute must for any gamer.
I do worry that the formula is getting slightly stale, as much as I love the Uncharted series I would nearly prefer Naughty dog to bow out on top rather than risk ruining the franchise. It needs a major refresh for U4 to avoid disappointing but even this holds its own risks purely because they have set the bar so high. Perhaps a new thinking on the gameplay because in fairness, climbing, shooting and solving puzzles is good fun it’s just after nearly 40 hours of it, it is about the right time to stop. I just worry that Naughty Dog could end up doing a Simpsons on it If they keep running game after game. Perhaps one more to top out the PS3 then a new IP for the PS4.
Score 9.5/10
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