I love the video
game character Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series. I know a lot of critics
like to bash him for being “bland”, but like Kratos from God of War, I don’t
really see what the heck they are criticizing. I find Nathan Drake to be an
extremely likeable and memorable character. He is smart, but cocky. I find his
reaction to certain events real. For example, early in Uncharted 2, Drake gets
chased down an alleyway by a truck and he has to keep shooting it until it
explodes. After that little chase, he is happy he got out of there alive, but
he is still a little rattled and out of breath since he almost died, and that
thought just caught up with him. He is a guy you would like to have a beer
with. Sure, he might look and act like the everyday guy, but he is more than
that. That is what makes this third person shooter franchise so fun. I mean,
other third person shooter series like Gears of War are good, but in that
series, they just make the scale of the game epic. The characters however, are
not that interesting, nor memorable. They are just muscle-bound men with
steroid rage. I am getting a bit off-track, so how about we take a look at
Uncharted 3 for the PS3? This has to be yet again one of my favorite games of
all time. I mean, besides a couple of little flaws that add up, I might love
this game more than Uncharted 2 and that game was amazing. Just put in your
Indiana Jones theme music and let’s get started.
Before I get even
more biased and over my head, let’s get into the story. Nolan North reprises
his role as Nathan Drake. He and his friend Victor Sullivan, once again voiced
by Richard McGonagle, search for some more clues and treasures that were left
behind by Drake’s famous ancestor. They of course, run into trouble from an old
female acquaintance by the name of Katherine Marlowe, voiced by Rosalind Ayres,
who wants the ring that Nathan Drake wears around his neck, because it is a key
to find what Drake’s ancestor left behind. What happens is mostly what you
expect. You get Indiana Jones-style action scenes, a mystical culture, a
mystical artifact, gunfights, some kind of demonic being, and many summer
blockbuster movie-style scenes that are all combined to make a really amazing
story. I think what makes the story so good is how it dives into Nathan Drake’s
past, how he met Victor Sullivan, why Nathan Drake wants to find what his
ancestor left behind all those centuries ago. I felt more involved in this
story since, on top of the great characters, you got a more in-depth story
about the characters and their relations. Don’t get me wrong, I love the
stories of the last two games, but they always felt like popcorn summer
blockbusters with over-the-top and 2-dimensional villains, while this film has
a more 3-dimensional cast of characters, both good and bad. It is definitely
the best story in any third-person-shooter besides Mass Effect.
The gameplay is
still the stuff you love. You have third-person-shooting, platforming, climbing
everywhere like Spiderman, hand-to-hand combat, some minor stealth mechanics,
treasures hidden around the game, over-the-top cinematic-like sections that
would be perfect in a summer blockbuster, and some huge puzzles to solve. The
third-person mechanics work like you would expect. You can take cover and hold
up to two guns and about 4 grenades. You can take aim, and fire upon the
enemies. New to the formula is the more streamlined hand-to-hand combat to
where you can actually get close to the enemy and serve him a couple of knuckle
sandwiches. The previous games had combat, but the first game’s combat was not
very polished, and while the second game’s melee combat was improved, it is
perfected here. You can punch and beat the tar out of your opponent,
counterattack, grab, and sometimes grab something like a fish and slap them
with it. The platforming is just like the last game. You will be climbing and
jumping your way through areas, like a couple of desert towns, underground
taverns, a cargo plane, a hidden city in the sand, a castle, and a few other areas.
The puzzles are complex and can make you scratch your head, but are not too
hard to where it becomes tedious, since if you wait awhile you will get the
answer to solve the puzzle. Multiplayer has been enhanced with the return of
co-op missions for offline and online play, a character creation for online
multiplayer, new perks, an equalizer to losing teams, and multiple maps to play
on and other things carried over from Uncharted 2. I know I just skimmed
through this part, but for me anyway, I play Uncharted for the story and not
the multiplayer, unlike most shooters that have issues with having an endearing
single player. Overall, besides Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 3 is a
third-person-shooter that I can recommend that has a huge amount of content
that will keep you busy for quite some time.
The Uncharted
series has always had amazing graphics and this game is really no different.
The detail on everything is amazing. Sure, it might not be as amazing as L.A.
Noir’s facial animation capturing, but Uncharted 3 has amazing detail to
everything from the wind hitting the sand to the boats floating in the ocean.
The music, once again provided by Greg Edmonson has the same incredible music
that you can expect with help from Clint Bajakian and a female Iranian American
musician named Azam Ali. Overall, you can expect another great package
music-wise from Uncharted 3. The voice acting is also top-notch, which again is
an issue with a lot of shooters. You really believe that the characters are
real and not hearing a voice actor or celebrity just doing the voice.
However, I do have
some gripes, but not many. The AI is still terrible. A sign of this is when you
see an enemy toss a grenade at a wall in front of him and it bounces off the
wall and lands right next to him and someone else. It was hilarious to see, but
sometimes it made me nod my head that everything else is so polished until you
see the enemy AI. It is definitely better than the last game’s AI, but I still
saw some areas where the enemies did some incredibly stupid things. The
controls also still felt stiff, and it is one of those games that forces you to
do what it wants and you can’t really do much about it. I mean, it plays more
like a movie so you can’t just do whatever you want without some consequence.
The third game in
the series in my opinion, has the biggest hurdle to go over. Usually the third
game is the best, but someone ALWAYS complains that it doesn’t have the wow
factor the second game had and it is played on the safe side. Well, I think
this game is the best out of the three and has some of the best moments in any
third-person-shooter. While I enjoy shooters like Vanquish, I can easily and
fully recommend Uncharted 3 to anyone who is looking for an incredible PS3
third-person-shooter experience. The game is still relatively new so you might
want to wait a bit for it to get cheaper. The collector’s edition while not
worth it in my eyes is just 100 dollars, and it might go down in price in the
future. This is one of the best experiences I have ever had with a video game
and you all should play it or at least watch a walkthrough of how amazing this
game can be. Just check it out. SERIOUSLY! Stop reading this and go!
This
game gets a solid 9 out of 10
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