Reviews// Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Not only did they continue to follow him, but they continued to "Stay close" and to "Be careful". The game had wrested control from me for no apparent reason, and without giving me any notice or indication that it had done so. This was just confusing, and annoying.

The Clothes of the Emperor
The chaps at Naughty dog have told us that they are unable to make the graphical leap to the next level on PlayStation 3. And I can see what they mean. The game is as lovely looking as any PS3 game ever.

But this does not excuse their seeming inability to make the gameplay leap. Uncharted 3 simply fails to introduce anything worthwhile to surpass or even add to the previous games. More importantly, certain parts of the tinkering have not improved things. In fact, they have made them worse. But being worse than the PS3 exclusive high point that was Uncharted 2 leaves a lot of headroom, and I must say that Drake's Deception is far from a bad game. Very far indeed.

Multiplayer
The co-operative and competitive multiplayer features of the game that were introduced last time around return without any major modification. Though all of the DLC planned for post-release is aimed at the multiplayer game. With the single-player game coming in at around 11 hours if you do not bother to scour every level for treasure, the longevity in this game is in the multi-player aspects (previewed here by Mark).

Although Uncharted 3 was the largest ever multiplayer beta on PlayStation network, it still cannot compare with the popularity of multi-player games like CoD, but the Three Team Deathmatch, and the three player co-operative features make for a departure from the norm.

Third of Three
All in all, Uncharted 3 is an enjoyable game, with some major annoyances: as they did in the previous games, NPCs still block Drake's way when he is trying to get places. This can be particularly annoying when you are under fire, or against the clock. The QTE slugfests are simply dull, and the running out of the screen (towards the player) parts always piss me off.

However, on the ‘If it isn’t broken, why fix it?’ front, Uncharted 3 remains a thoroughly entertaining game. This time it falls short of the heights that Uncharted 2 achieved.

In any other franchise, Drake's Decption would be a high point… in the Uncharted series, however, it's a possible third of three. Quite simply, it lacks the novelty of the first game and the greatness of the second.

Conclusion
This is the same rip-roaring Boy’s Own adventure story-driven romp that the first two games were. It's just as beautiful, just as fun, just as immersive, just as cinematic. Precisely as beautiful. Exactly as fun. Precisely as immersive. Exactly as cinematic. It's a game trapped in amber.

It's a groundhog game. And for that, the law of diminishing returns applies. What was incredible last year is merely excellent this year. Had Naughty Dog managed to find any new twists, this game would have been another PS3 Killer App. As it is, if you have the other Uncharted games, you don't NEED this... but if you loved them, it's highly likely that you'll WANT it.

SPOnG Score: 89%