Previews// Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

‘More of the same.’ It sounds really quite derogatory, doesn’t it? And yet, this isn’t always the case - dramatic change can sometimes be a colossally bad thing. Look at Transformers and Shia LeBeouf’s vacant dribbling drawl for a classic example.

So, when I was asked the other day about my thoughts on Uncharted 3, I said ‘more of the same,’ with the biggest grin on my face.

Naughty Dog has proved time and again that they are technical perfectionists, you see. Rather than radically alter a game’s premise or mechanics throughout a series to keep it fresh, it looks to evolve and grow what it has already established. With Uncharted 2 still being the game of choice for most PS3 owners, the Californian studio is starting Nathan Drake’s third adventure on a pretty high note.

This time around, Nate is going to explore his own family tree whilst traveling across the Rub’al Khali Desert to find the remains of a lost city in the sand. The big connection? An alleged family link between the Elizabethan explorer Sir Francis Drake and T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia). Along the way, a tonne of conspiracies will be uncovered, and Nathan will be on the run once more from a ‘long-time adversary’ that is said to be incredibly sinister.

Crap!
In gameplay terms, it means more dramatic, action-packed adventuring, with a heavy dose of third-person run-and-gunning to boot. I was given the chance to see an area of the game at length, which featured plenty of witty Drake-isms and running through gunfire whilst shouting ‘Crap!’ a lot. This area was an extended version of the Chateau segment that has already been passed around on Youtube, but seeing it on a high-def TV from a gaming distance makes for a much more immersive experience.

Nate’s sidekick, fan favourite Sully, tags along for the majority of Uncharted 3 - Naughty Dog explained that the studio wanted to explore the relationship between these longtime friends here as well - and in this part of the game helps Drake explore this old abandoned building to look for clues to the lost Arabian city. Unfortunately, as is always the case, a group of mysterious enemies have learned of the treasure hunters’ location and proceed to burn the chateau down with them still inside it.

A few tweaks here and there have been made to allow for a more fluid control of Nate - he’s now nimble enough to perform backwards climbing, and can travel across gaps from balance beams. At the start of the demo session - before enemies burned the place down - I was shown a section where the plucky adventurer threw himself from a second-floor wall onto a chandelier, only for the thing to fall a few inches under his weight before leaping onto a rotten beam on the ceiling.

These kinds of action movie-style elements are more prominent than ever, and really take you by surprise - those of you that remember the intro sequence to Uncharted 2 will know what I’m talking about here.

Leg-Ups
Nate’s melee combat has been strengthened in Uncharted 3 as well. Now, you can take on multiple enemies at once with your bare hands and have a lot more options available to you when fighting at close range. I wasn’t able to see how these additional options will control - perhaps they are context-sensitive - but an example of this in action involved Drake getting grabbed by one enemy but being able to kick another approaching bad guy in the chest with both feet before flipping around and wrestling out of the lock.

With Sully on your side, you’ll get a few leg-ups to higher areas and some support in crucial shootout moments. But you will have to look after him as well - after setting down a beam for Sully to cross, Nate spots a trio of enemies about to shoot him off. You’ve got to protect your friend and gun these guys down in these sections.

The surroundings change the more Drake stays in this burning building, and there are some brilliant hallmarks of game design - after running into a room and spying an obvious doorway out, when Nate staggers towards it more debris falls and blocks the way, forcing him to find another exit. Towards the end of the demo session I had seen Nate crawl along beams, climb up walls, avoiding collapsing floors and even hoisting himself up a stairwell using nothing but the remains of a 90-degree banister.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Uncharted 3 will be an absolutely stonking rollercoaster ride of a game, and even this supposedly small segment of the game is packed with more action scenes than you could shake an Arnold Schwarzenegger at. It’ll hit stores later this year - we’ll have more on it in the coming months.