Monday, November 7, 2011

Uncharted 3


Drakes Deception, one of the most anticipated titles of the year hit the shelves November 1st. Naughty Dog has spent the last two years working on this title, but should they of spent more time? Published by Sony Computer Entertainment, this sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year, scratches that itch for more Drake perfectly. This game feels like Uncharted 2, which is not a bad thing but can leave you only half full. This game has even more locations you visit and more near death situations. Will that be enough for it to win 2011 Game of the Year? Lets find out.



The story in Uncharted 3 is the strongest point in this game. With the opening scene extremely powerful in setting the tone for the rest of the campaign. In order to keep away from spoilers I won't cover to much of what happens in the story. What I will say is that the character development in this game is the weakest of the three. With some returning characters they feel kind of left out. Then the end of the game does leave me asking more questions as to why there is tension between some of the characters. Though this does not take away from the overall plot it does leave me wanting more at the end of the game. For example this game does focus on the relationship between Drake and Sully, but the end result is just me asking more questions about there relationship. What the story does well is explain why you are where you are and doing what your doing. The story does manage to capture emotions very well and keeps the tension up. What can break the immersion though is the gameplay.


The Gameplay in this game is one of the weakest parts in Uncharted 3. The aiming takes a very long time to get used to and feels weaker then Uncharted 2. With ammo a constant issue and enemies charging you more often this can lead to very quick and frustrating deaths. When there are snipers looking for you and a walking tank with a shotgun driving you out of cover, this leads to you pretty much dying every time. This is a scenario that happens way to often, you can spend twenty minutes just trying to get past one section. What makes this more reasonable is the checkpoint system keeps you from losing too much progress. Even with the checkpoint system, it can still take an entire clip of ammo on one enemy when there are five more shooting at you and more on the way. This is the most anger inducing part of the game, if it weren't for the well thought out puzzles and some strong platforming to calm things down it would be hard to justify playing more then a couple hours. The puzzles in this game are enjoyable and do require you to think and offer hints if you get stuck, this keeps the pacing of the game steady. There is one puzzle that took me a while but after I got it made me feel pretty good about solving it.


The multiplayer mode in this game is a huge improvement over the multiplayer in Uncharted 2, with all new weapons, tactics, and more vertical gameplay, leaves room for many hours to be spent playing this improvement. With the all new kickback system, similar to kill streaks but instead of kills you get medals. These medals help you progress your character for more unlocks and skins for your character. This mode helps add more life to this game and overall this is worth spending some time in. The weakest part of the multiplayer is again the aiming takes a while to get used to.


The story in this game flows nicely with never a dull moment, from leaping across rooftops to navigating a wrecked shipyard. This game takes what worked in Uncharted 2 and builds on that but leaves some of the flaws unattended, left to keep this game from complete greatness. This is still a solid game and deserves all the hype it has been getting but it does have some issues that can take away from the overall experience. There are the moments that make this a great contender for Game of the Year. In conclusion this is a solid game that is worth every bit of your money but there are some things that keep it from reaching higher. I am going to give this game an 8/10, with some flaws taking away from the experience, the story and multiplayer are both strengths.




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