Uncharted 3 Review: Oh Drake No!

Nathan Drake and friends are back in Uncharted 3 though this time with some new arch enemies and a few new tricks. The thing about Uncharted games are that you almost have to compare them against each other because they are better than most other games in the action adventure genre.

While playing Uncharted 3 I found myself comparing my interest levels in and for the game to my recollections of playing through Uncharted 2. Overall I think Uncharted 2 is the better game though Uncharted 3 is no slouch.

With that said lets get the bad out the way first. Unfortunately a few mechanics were added to Uncharted 3 that were not refined enough. Even more unfortunate is that these were made to be key aspects of the game. These happen to be the main reasons why I found the second game better than this third installment. (Queue Sully’s “Drake Noooo!” player death voice track) It was pretty obvious that more development time was needed with the game overall to refine it. A few patches have been released since launch that has resolved some issues though not all of them.

The biggest annoyance I have with the game are the overdone Drake character movement animations. In Uncharted 3 any and all things you brush up on as you walk thorugh the environments trigger a weird side object or wall touching animation. Between Drake’s constant touching and pushing his self off of things and the overdone stumbling forward animations its just all just a bit much. Especially the 100th time you see them over your 12 or so hours playing through the single player campeign. The animations are overdone and distracting. I would have to note this as my primary grievance with this game.

Melee combat is ratcheted up in Uncharted 3 both in terms of frequency throughout the game and in terms of melee combat options and necessity of needing to be sucessful at it to progress. I would applaud this because its a brilliant idea though the execution is lackluster. Its practically impossible for anyone who has played Batman Arkham Asylum not to compare it to the hand to hand combat in Batman. Any one who has played it knows the implementation in Uncharted 3 is nowhere close to being as fluid, intuitive, or as fun as it is in the Batman game. Simply put I didnt find it a fun addition to the game. I get that they were trying to provide a reflief from constant shooting action but if its just all that fun then who cares? There are points in the game where you have to melee/fist-fight to proceed and I slogged thought those moments.

Ugh.

Anyone who bought the game at launch experienced less than ideal gun aiming controls. Oddly enough the aiming controls were worse than the previous Uncharted game. I actually put the game down for a few weeks once they announced an update that would fix the issues with diagonal aiming that I experienced. Many players played though the issues though I could not. The patch pretty much fixed the aiming and a few other issues I had. The enemy reactions to being shot are really weird in the game. Oddly enough enemy stun animations and reactions seemed better in the prior games. Also I have never had any prior Uncharted game freeze up or have I ever had as many bouts of getting stuck in game geometry or falling through the environment to my death as with Uncharted 3. I counted as many as 5 times I had to reset the game from bugs during my first playthrough.

I guess off from the two prior games I had come to expect a certain level of refinement and polish in games from the Naughty Dog studio so it was offputting to experience Uncharted 3 as presented at release.

On to the good…

Despite what I have already said the game manages to entertain. Great set pieces, stunning locales, detailed environments and some of the best graphics and lighting effects of any game to date. Especially after the patch that added in motion blur (essentially smoothing jaggies) the game looks great. Uncharted games tend to make you look at other studios sideways like they are a bunch of slackers and this game is no exception. This game proves that console games can look phenominal with the current console tech.

The story is quite good and the use of the playable past to provide insight into and to develop the characters is a nice touch. The locales are fresh and new to the series and the treasure hunting is as interesting as it has ever been in the series. The platforming and puzzles are also damn good as well. No complaints in terms of puzzles they were just difficult enough and there were just the right amount of them. A few new mechanics such as shooting upwards is a good additon to add to the mix of the platforming elements and overall the Uncharted formula of shooting, playforming and puzzles still works.

So you like Multiplayer?

The good news is that post launch the multiplayer is as good as it was at its peak in Uncharted 2. At launch there were issues though patches and live updates have addressed just about all of them. The shooting feels accurate and seldom cheap. There are tons of modes and character customization options that have been added to keep veteran players interested. My only qualm with the multiplayer is that so much has been added that at times the game screen just has a bunch of HUD type indicators on it which can be distracting. Now you have symbols over some characters heads, kickback indicators and all sorts of other doo-dads to keep up with. A necesssary evil I guess though it does detract from the beauty of the levels themselves.

In addition I guess I should mention there are co-op levels you can play with friends or strangers online and modes that send waves of computer controlled enemies at you and your friends locally or online.

The verdict…

It would be hard not to reccomend Uncharted 3. You would be hard pressed to find a game as worth its weight. Its worth every penny at full price and theres tens of hours of content there to keep you entertained. For those who have not played multiplayer since launch give it another try though be sure to go into the game options and update your settings to the new aiming controls. You may be pleasantly surprised. For everyone else Uncharted 3 is a great game. Have at it.

• Graphics
• Sound
• Funfactor