Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review

To any gamer, the name Uncharted is interchangeable with the word awesome. After the super success of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, expectations are sky high for the third installment in the franchise by developer Naughty Dog. Does this PS3 exclusive outshine its predecessor or is it true that brilliance doesn't strike the same series twice?

Story

Once again you don the role of Nathan Drake, a modern day Indiana Jones, out on another treasure hunting adventure. The plot involves the search for the lost city of Ubar, a city destroyed by the Gods for its arrogance. The city is somewhere in the middle of the Rub'al Khali desert. This lost city was sought out before by legendary explorer Sir Francis Drake (also the lead character's ancestor) and later by archeologist T.E Lawrence, more famously known as Lawrence of Arabia. Not surprisingly, the city was said to have immeasurable wealth, but that is not the only reason why our hero is looking for it.

But there's a twist in the tale - and it's a good one. You aren't competing with a psychopath gun-slinging villain who thinks he can rule the world like Genghis Khan. Not at all. You are dealing with a female antagonist this time around.

The villainess is Katherine Marlowe and, boy, is she scary! From the way her character is introduced right up to the end of the game you can't help but hate and fear her.



Without spoiling anything, the story does have its usual twists and turns and the relationship between Nathan Drake and Victor "Sully" Sullivan is explored to greater depths including an interesting story of how the two met. Characters from the previous games such as Elena and Chloe also make cameo appearances.

Overall, the story is interesting and if you have followed the franchise, the ending of the game will undoubtedly surprise you.  

Gameplay

Picking up the best from a variety of genres and improving upon them is what the Uncharted series does best. At its roots, it's a third person cover-based shooter game with platforming, puzzle solving and some hand-to-hand combat thrown into the mix. If you have played any Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia or Gears of War titles, you will feel right at home.



The gameplay may be tried and tested but the manner in which it is executed is phenomenal. At one moment you will be shooting behind cover in a ship only to find that the ship is sinking and in a matter of seconds you will be traversing the ship to save your life wondering which is the right-side up. At another, you will be fist fighting in a cargo plane only to be hanging outside it for sheer survival and the enemies still won't stop shooting at you.

To break it down, the gunplay is the strongest element of the game. You can't prop yourself behind a single object and take on the enemy. You will be constantly forced to move forward and rethink your strategy.

The platforming is very linear and stiff. There are only limited places you can go and the game gives you no choice as to how you tackle a particular situation. This isn't always a bad thing given the cinematic nature of the game. You will be chasing someone or running for dear life in various situations and it all looks and feels better than the scripted moments from a Michael Bay movie.



There are the occasional puzzles thrown into the mix and they really aren't that difficult to solve. Nathan Drake has his trusty journal that gives you clues and if you still fail, the game presents you with the option to see the solution. Some of the puzzles are well executed and better than the previous titles of the series.

The weakest section of the gameplay has to be the hand-to-hand combat. It isn't bad, but it isn't Batman Arkham City either. There are a lot of context sensitive moments in hand-to-hand combat and it is these that are truly fun. You can use the environment while taking on the bad guys. Use a beer bottle to slam someone in the head, open a fridge door to slam an enemy, so on and so forth. It's fun to play out these sequences and you will find yourself cornering enemies near objects just to see how Drake uses them.

In totality, the gameplay is well paced and varied enough to keep you engaged through the 8-hour campaign mode.



Multiplayer

When multiplayer was introduced in Uncharted 2, many thought it was an afterthought and wouldn't be that great. But the critics were proven wrong and the multiplayer in Uncharted 2 was as good as the competition if not better.

The multiplayer in Uncharted 3 has been taken up a notch. There is the usual swarm of death match and capture the treasure along with objective-based modes but there is co-op as well. Not only can you and a friend play the game in split screen, but the online co-op play is just a lot of fun. You can take on missions that are story-driven or just take on hoards of enemies that increase in number and ability just to see how long you can survive.

You can also customize your weapon load out and as you progress in multiplayer, unlock new customization options for your character and weapons. The customization involves faster sprint recovery, larger magazine and a scope for your gun, and so on and so forth.

The multiplayer of the game also gives you special abilities (a bazooka) in the form of kickbacks. Earn enough medals and you will be awarded with a special skill you have pre-selected such as more grenades, a bazooka and more.

Even if the story can be completed in 8 hours, it's the multiplayer that will keep you coming back for more. We reckon, a few hundred hours at least.



Graphics

Uncharted 3 is the best looking console game of the current generation. It's needless to say that the character animations and environments are superb. There are moments when the camera pans out to give you a glimpse of the sheer scale of the environment and zooms back in to portray attention to detail, and if you play this game on a really big screen, you will be blown away. The dynamic lighting and shadow effects border on realism - be it hanging for sheer life from a cargo plane, chasing trucks on a horseback or fighting on a cargo ship on the verge of sinking, the detailing will definitely make your jaw drop.

The character animations look fantastic too with the exception of Elena who looks like she has a hint of Asian in her blood. The cut scenes really bring the characters to life as all of them have been voiced and acted by the actors in real time with motion capture. The in-game animation too borders on flawlessness. You tend to look for loops in certain animations or glitches but these are barely present.

Since this is a cinematic adventure, expect some over the top action at every turn. An entire building crumbles in flames around you, you will nearly be swallowed by the ocean and the never-ending desert sprinkled with mirages will undoubtedly take your breath away. 

There is an impressive variety of locations and environments for you to visit and marvel at - a bar in London, a jungle in France, a local city in Yemen or the lost city itself. Variety in gameplay may be limited but the variety of locations you visit is truly something this game can boast about.



Sound

There is not one sentence of cheesy voice work in the entire game. And that's saying a lot. Even a new character, Charlie, introduced in the game has a cocky British accent and will undoubtedly remind you of Jason Statham from the Italian Job. The voice work is superb and Nolan North takes the honours as Nathan Drake.

There are a lot of natural sounds as well from the flickering of flames to the crawling of spiders in one particular scene. But best of all is the orchestral score that hums at varying beats through various moments in the game.

There is also silence you could cut with a knife when on a stealth mission and this only adds to the tension of the situation. It's just brilliant.



Verdict:

The campaign may be short, at around 8 hours, but the multiplayer has enough content to keep the game disc in your system for days. But that's not why you will play this game. Uncharted 3 is the closes you'll ever come to actually being Indiana Jones and let's be honest, which of us hasn't wanted to be a treasure hunter at some point of time? If a short cinematic thrilling adventure is your calling this weekend, then Uncharted 3 should definitely be on your list.

Score:
Story: 4
Gameplay: 4.5
Graphics: 5
Sound: 5
Overall: 4.5