Reviews// Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Indeed, I suspect that Naughty Dog just chose the name because it alliterates nicely. Naughty Dog has suggested that Katherine Marlowe's character brings "a brand new dynamic to the franchise" but I'm not sure what that dynamic is meant to be. She seems like the archetypal two-dimensional Bond villainess to me.

So… Drake's Deception has precious little that is new. It does, however, have one or two developments from the previous games. Sadly, what it does not have are improvements.

Quicktime, Quicktime, Slow
The first major and most noticeable addition to the game is enforced melée fighting. At numerous points in Uncharted 3, the action moves to close-up and you are forced into hand-to-hand combat with an antagonist; often a very tough antagonist. Occasionally several of them at one time.

Here you have to use unarmed combat techniques: basically a mixture of button-mashing and QuickTime Event (QTE) responses. It's hardly sophisticated stuff, and I cannot imagine who might actually enjoy these tedious sections. The game could have been so much better if at these points Naughty Dog had implemented a real 3D fighting game engine instead. Sure, it would have cost more… but it would have saved us all from a great deal of tedium.

As with the previous game, you can throw grenades back at assailants - but this time around it seems both easier and trickier. You throw the grenades back by tapping the triangle button while the oscillating indicator is in the white area, this area is bigger the nearer to you that the grenade has landed. So, when a grenade lands nearby, you have the option to dodge - which may put you in the line of fire if you are in cover - or to throw the Grenade back. Otherwise, combat is exactly as it was before.

Aside from its enforcement, melée is largely the same too; traversal also. In fact, this is the same game with a new plot. It's a spanking plot though. Just as good now as it was when the screenwriters of Indiana Jones, James Bond and The Mummy came up with it.

So, maybe "New" is the wrong word… predictable and derivative may be better. It certainly leads to a more cinematic game than the previous two - which one has always suspected is Naughty Dog's prime criterion when creating an Uncharted game. But movies are for watching, not for playing, and one cannot help but suspect that Drake’s Deception is at least better to watch than it is to play.

Bring on the Dancing Horses
The game contains some beautiful scenes, notably when Drake is lost in the desert. But these specific scenes are not terribly playable, and while they move the game's story forward, they do so at the cost of pace and playability.

The other notable novelty is a few sections where Drake is forced to run towards the camera, so that twists and turns in the scenery and obstacles are hidden from your view until the last second. It's a technique used in a few games (think Sonic Adventure and the Whale chase scene), and one that I have never enjoyed. While it adds a new twist to the Uncharted franchise, it's not a welcome one, adding as it does a "trial and error" feeling to certain parts of the game, which is just not good game design.

One other feature of the game that jarred badly was a horse riding section where Drake is mounted on a steed and following a helpful NPC, Salim "Sheik of this tribe", who I would call Salim Sheiky, if I intended to refer to him again.

Salim (OK, I did refer to him again but that's the last time) continually warns you to, "Stay close" and "Be careful" as he guides you along a perilous ledge and through narrow (but beautiful) slot canyons.

I was careful to do as he said, although I must admit that I found the controls to be slightly vague, until one point where my nose really itched. REALLY itched. So, I moved my hand from the joypad - only to find that Drake and his horse continued to follow Salim (honestly, definitely the last time now) without my input.