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Arts & Entertainment

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Nathan Drake is as smooth as he's ever been.

So Release Season 2011 is in full swing, and we’re having quite a harvest this year. So far we've had Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, as well as Goldeneye and Rage. Still to come we have Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Skyrim. 

I was planning to do Modern Warfare 3 this week, but I decided not to for two reasons: first, I just did a frantic, explody bullet-frenzy game last week, and two, there’s not a in the tri-state area that still has a copy. I could have done Goldeneye, but I deduced that it wouldn’t be much different from the other 50,000 shooters that have or will have been released by the end of this year.

Some might think that last statement a bit hypocritical, though, because the game I did settle on for this week’s review does involve a healthy dose of third-person shootouts, but it’s mainly a platformer, so shut up.

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So, let’s talk about Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. 

Plot and Characters

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For those of you unfamiliar with the series, you play the role of Nathan Drake, direct descendant of the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake. Nathan has chosen the life of a treasure hunter as well, traveling the world with his life-long friend and mentor, Victor Sullivan. 

UNCHARTED 2 SPOILER ALERT

In Uncharted 3, we rejoin Drake and Sully, fresh from destroying the fabled Shangri-La (well done, guys), in a London pub, where they’re trading a stolen ancient ring for a large sum of money. 

Big surprise, the deal goes sour and Drake and Sully are forced to fight their way out of the pub, provoking the attention of a old woman who is so absurdly sinister that I can only describe her as the Wicked Witch of the West with normal pigmentation and an English accent. Thus begins an epic tale of pride, redemption, and danger that will take you from the streets of Siberia to the jungles of Southern France (yes, you read that correctly). 

I’ve always liked Nathan Drake. There’s something about his cocky attitude that makes me smile. He’s not the beer-swilling, head-butting, women-are-toys-not-humans, frat-guy kind of cocky, though. No, Drake is actually very intelligent and well-versed in history, particularly that surrounding his ancestor. His attitude gives me the impression that he just realizes how smart and cool he is, and how easily he attracts women. Personally, I appreciate a little self-esteem in this world of self-deprecating depressives we live in today.

Victor Sullivan, or “Sully,” is also very likeable. He’s a dirty old man with an attitude and a love of adventure. He and Drake gel smoothly, although they do have their discrepancies. 

Along the way you’ll also run into Drake’s other pals. I like them, too. They’ve got actual depth and flawed personalities. This is greatly enhanced by the excellent voice acting and face-capture animations. I can actually see emotion on the characters’ faces when they’re yelling at each other or freaking out. It all creates a very immersive experience.

Deserving particular mention are Drake’s love interests. There’s Elena, the girl he was planning to marry in previous games, a conservatively-dressed but still attractive blonde woman, and then there’s Chloe, the English tart in skin-tight clothing who couldn’t seem to go five minutes without making some sort of innuendo back in Uncharted 2. They toned her sex appeal down quite a bit for Uncharted 3, though, so I can respect the developers for that.

Visuals

Normally I don’t devote sections to visuals, mainly because 99 percent of mainstream games are very visually pleasing, but I think Uncharted deserves particular mention. 

I was taken aback by the jungle scenery in one mission. The trees were lush and green, the water flowed smoothly, the dirt conformed to footsteps, and the lighting effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen. 

Another thing: I love that Nathan’s clothes only get partially wet if he’s only partially emerged in water. Other games need to learn from this. It’s a minor detail, but attention to the little things is what makes a great game.

Gameplay

It’s good, though one might say “deceptively” good (ba-dum-tish). 

Just like its predecessors, the main focus of Uncharted 3 is on puzzle-platforming. For those relatively new to gaming, puzzle-platforming means you solve puzzles by leaping and climbing through various obstacles. 

The concept meshes surprising well in the Uncharted series, and the third installment is no exception. It’s a strong test of platforming skill and puzzle-solving competence. I should mention, though, that the intellectual side of it is diminished by the game’s eagerness to tell you the answer, much like a blabber-mouth friend who’s already played and beaten the game and is squirming in his chair while you walk around trying to figure it out. After a few minutes, the game will do a face-palm and then write a game-winning hint in bold white letters across the bottom of the screen.

The platforming is fun in a very Assassin’s Creed kind of way. I found the scenes where pieces of buildings and rock faces break away while Drake is struggling to climb them have particularly strong impact, though there are times where I’m fairly certain even the strongest mountain-climbing hands on Earth couldn’t save a man from some of the dangling scenarios that Drake gets into. 

This is really more of a story comment, but without wishing to spoil too much, I must say that I found the desert sequence enthralling to the point of drooling all over my controller. It’s extremely well-executed, it’s the perfect length to gain the desire effect without becoming boring, and it actually made me go to the kitchen after it was done to get a glass of water. 

All that said, I had to laugh a bit when the game enters a cutscene with Drake staggering to stay on his feet, nearing the point of death from dehydration, only to give me control again, whereupon I began to scale ruins with the agility of a chimpanzee on a caffeine drip.

There’s little to say about the combat. You can hide behind walls, you can fire blindly without poking your head out from cover, and you can engage in hand-to-hand combat. It’s exactly the same as it was in Uncharted 2 with a couple of extra mechanics tossed it. Why fix what isn’t broken, I suppose.

Still, I have to slap Uncharted 3 on the wrist a bit for not fixing what clearly was broken about its predecessor. I was able to handle 90 percent of the game reasonably well, but there were a few occasions where the game decided to throw down the BS card hard enough to embed it into the table. 

It wasn’t a major problem, but I think taking down two RPG operators, four snipers, five or six guys wielding shotguns and sporting impenetrable BS armor, and about twenty minions with AK’s all at once is a lot to ask of even the most outstanding combatants. There were times where I would die about 40 Billion times before I finally managed to take the jerk-brigade down and move on, and I began to wonder if the game was deliberately trying to piss me off.

It also raises the contextual question of how the Wicked Witch is able to fund what is nothing short of a private army. I’m pretty sure Calos Helu would be feeling financial strain from such a massive force. But then considering the aforementioned army is ultimately taken down by a team of two attractive college girls, a grizzle-faced thief, and a sixty-year-old man, it’s quite likely that it was purchased from the mercenary discount bin.   

Multiplayer

I didn’t play it. I didn’t have time this week, and frankly, I didn’t care about taking the shootout sequences online to be stomped into the dirt by other more competent players.

I read the wiki about it. Apparently you can upgrade your character, choose various skins, and compete in multiplayer shootouts, treasure hunts, and cooperative campaign play. Some might call me unprofessional for not exploring the wonderful world of multiplayer, but to those I say this: I fall in line with the thinking of another great games critic out there, that a full-priced game should be able to stand on its single player, especially one whose main focus seems to be in that.

Overall

As I said before, the game gets an “A+” in visuals, plot, and character development. 

The platforming is also very good, but the occasional misstep insta-kills due to poor camera angles and the inability to distinguish what I can hop onto from what I can’t made it frustrating at times. 

The gunplay needs the most work. It’s alright, but it could certainly be better. I think it would be more immersive and ultimately more fun if the enemies were fewer but more competent. As it is, it often gets too frantic to be a reasonable challenge. Don’t get me wrong, it can be done, and you’ll get through it if you stick with it (the checkpoints are fairly kind), but it’s just irritating. 

Still, none of that was a major deal-breaker for me. I still loved the game, and I think you’ll appreciate it for the same things I did. 

Investment suggestion: Unless you’re just really big into multiplayer, I would say rent it. It’ll take you about a week, depending on how many daily hours you devote to it. 

The above is only my opinion. It just happens to be right.

Where to Purchase

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