Obviously, though, I knew that this would happen, and I only intentionally brought four games back with me: Mass Effect 3, Saints Row: The Third, Street Fighter x Tekken, and, last but not least, Uncharted 3. Honestly, even though I'm kind of a Mass Effect junkie, and fighting games have some kind of ethereal handle on my nervous system that doesn't let go until I can beat hard mode arcade with my hands tied behind a bucket full of sea urchins, crabs and lobsters, I was most excited to boot up Uncharted. Why you might ask? Well, let's just take a look at why Uncharted just makes people giddy in the first place, versus what Uncharted 3 actually did.
The Graphics
Let's not lie to ourselves. If Uncharted was made by any other company than Naughty Dog, it wouldn't be nearly as good-looking. It's a very pretty game! One of the first things people notice about the Uncharted games is that every piece of the levels is just plain gorgeous. It's amazing to me that a single studio can create huge, sweeping landscapes and realistic looking ancient ruins! I mean, you really do feel like a thief-archaeologist in these games just exploring shit.
Look at those rocks! This horse! The sun!
Okay, ow. Don't look at the sun. Might have to turn down the gamma.
Everything in Uncharted just looks and feels real. These games could be ripping right off the market and placed into a movie and pass off as an excellent animated film (albeit a mildly predictable movie, but that's neither here nor there). However, if we're going to get all sober for a minute here, then we ought to compare the games good-looks to it's predecessors. How does Uncharted 3 stand up to its legacy?
Meh.
And by "meh", I mean my eyes just had an orgasm.
Yeah, it hardly needs to be said that Uncharted 3 still has the excellent graphics and features of its predecessors. The only gripe about this end of the series is that there just isn't enough variety of colors in this game. I mean, greens, oranges and browns dominate the game's landscape, and even though it's a modern game and this is the norm for color variety now, I still can't help but remember how Uncharted 2 did it.
Uncharted 2 had color. It had more than green and orange and brown. It had blue, white, lots of gold--do you see where I'm going with this? As much as I hate to say it, Uncharted 3's levels had a lot of the same colors in them, and in an attempt to cover that up, they made the levels look massive. And even though that's really cool and all, it only made me want to play Uncharted 2 more, only because of the sheer variety of design that Uncharted 2 had.
Y'know, there's just something about fighting tanks in the snow that just screams color.
Pacing
The Uncharted series is well known for being excellently paced. Everything just feels like it's going in the right place, every cutscene should feel like you wanted to take a break from shooting and it came at the perfect time. In Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog perfected it. They made it so that when every action scene came up, you didn't say, "Well shit, I don't want to have to run-n'-gun my way through thousands of nameless baddies." Instead, the first thing out of my mouth was, "I wonder what the hell this game is going to pull over my eyes this time. Dazzle me, Drake. Dazzle me.
In Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog certainly tried to do the same thing. The intent was definitely still there, and there were many moments where I felt like I just *couldn't* put the controller down because I had to just get through one more chapter. And, of course, there were one or two points where I just felt like the game wasn't letting me progress. For those of you who have played the game, anyone remember that part with the sandstorm? Yeah, of course you do. That's because it was actually really annoying, and almost felt like the game developers just put it in there because it wasn't hard enough yet. Honestly, it wasn't, but it didn't belong at that moment.
BACK, HEINOUS SANDSTORM DEMON!
BACK I SAY!
However, among the parts that felt mildly out of place, there are so many redeeming parts to that to make up for it. The Airport was probably the most exciting section of the game, and I'm not gonna lie, the Chateau was pretty fucking chaotic and fun too. So with the aggravating, frustrating parts, there also came a good deal of very smooth, hard parts that you still died in a lot, but it was fun to die. Oh, and the Ship? I'll say this much. Extremely out of place, but gods dammit did it make me want to play that game so much more...
Anyway, the only gripe I had was that the game wasn't quite as long as the second iteration. Whereas Uncharted 2 had 26 chapters, Uncharted 3 harkened back to the first Uncharted by only having 22 chapters, and that was something that I was a little less than excited about. As much as I would have loved a longer Uncharted, Uncharted 3 felt like it had run its course, and by the end, it didn't have much steam left to go that extra mile. However, there is one reason why I wish they did keep on going...
Plot
Now, I hate to say this, but Uncharted 3 probably has the weakest plot in the series. No, I don't mean it was terrible, I mean it was mediocre for an Uncharted game. It was like the developers took the first two games, stripped down the basic formula, added two new antagonists and said, "Yup, uh-huh, now onto level design." Not to say that they didn't have the usual fucking amazing characters and characterization going on in this one, but it felt like we had all been down this road before, and that none of the characters had much new to say.
No compelling love triangle this time around, boys?
Ah well, I guess you can have Elena or whatever-her-name-is.
Well, okay, perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh on Uncharted 3's plot. To be fair, they managed to make one of the nameless baddies that you happen to beat down in the beginning become a mainstay character, which is a very ballsy plot choice, and one that managed to work perfectly in the game. And, as it's hard to talk about plot without spoiling a thing or two, I'll just say that the Antagonists in this game were a bit better thought out than previous installments (Uncharted 2's villain was the obligatory power-hungry meathead, and Uncharted's was the obligatory "I'm gonna rule the world, guys!" villain). However, I felt that their inevitable downfall was a bit...rushed. Not to get all spoiler-y on you guys, but in Uncharted 2, you had to fight the main antagonist head-to-head; in Uncharted 3, you don't really get a chance to go toe-to-toe with the villains until the very end, and even then it just feels like a mad dash to finish the game, rather than finish the boss. Granted, there is a hefty battle at the end, but it feels lackluster, almost like the climax came at some other point in the story, but you just can't seem to recall where it was.
"Now, where the hell did I put that climax?
I should just keep a GPS on that damn thing..."
However, all nitpicking aside, there's nothing wrong with Uncharted 3's storyline. It's just bland, it feels like you've seen it all before except done better. Maybe it's just because this game came after Uncharted 2, which, admittedly, is a pretty difficult game to live up to in terms of expectation. But the plot was very thin, go from point A to point B, kill this person, get shipwrecked/airplanewrecked, repeat steps 1-3. It's good, but if you aren't eager to hear more interactions between Nate and his crew (one of the reasons I got the game), you won't be missing anything plot-wise if you skip this game.
Multiplayer
Here's where things get a bit better. The Multiplayer is just as good as last time, and with a little bit of DLC, I'm sure it can be an even bigger experience than last time.
...What? It's Uncharted Multiplayer. Play it. It's loads of fun, no matter which game you play it on.
The Soundtrack
HHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG-
Sorry. I get a little carried away when it comes to music. Once again, Uncharted 3 does little to improve what was already there in Uncharted 2. It's good, sure, maybe even a little bit better. But you certainly won't hear the soundtrack outshining anything that was previously already done. It's great, don't get me wrong, just not quite as good as last time around.
~The Verdict~
Is it hard to figure out? Uncharted 3 is a great game. It's got flair, style, fully-acted out cutscenes that startle you with their incomparable voice acting work and their impeccable timing, and lots of nice artwork and sounds. It's a great game.
But seriously, if you've already played Uncharted 2, you actually don't need to play Uncharted 3. Honestly, if a friend has it, play a couple of his/her favorite chapters, and forget about it. It's cool to have, sure, but I think when it comes time to finally trade in some heavy hitting titles back to gamestop, Uncharted 3 might not be very high on the "For-keeps" list.
Cheer up, dude. There's always next gen.
Chloe needs to stop being so DAMN SEXY,
~CascadaKatana
Preview- Mass Effect 3 is *drumroll*
...
Not as bad as everyone says it is.
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