As my first (official) post, I thought I'd give you guys a taste of one of the last games I played: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. With the (awesome!) reveal at E3 and the sneak peak of the fourth installment from this series, I'm hoping some people have decided to hop on the Naughty Dog train and give Uncharted a try.
Why am I starting from the 3rd game?
Because it's the only one I've played. Oops.
It's a classic gamer mistake, because now instead of the franchise getting better it's (probably) going to get worse as I move backwards through time and character development. So if this review sparks your fancy, I encourage you to actually start from the beginning. To help, you can buy all three games in a handy dandy bundle from Amazon.
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| Cool guys don't look at explosions |
Overview
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is an action/adventure game told through a 3rd person limited POV, focusing on the dashing Nathan Drake. It's a fairly fast moving game, it only took me a weekend to finish, but the pacing is excellent. There's just enough brief pauses between the action to let the story sink in before you're thrust quickly back into the thick of things. I will say that if you're a collector you might need to play this game twice, once for the story and once for the trophies, because on my first run through I was so focused on going that I didn't really stop to smell the daisies, or pick up some ancient artifacts that count towards your collectors bonus.
Gameplay
Imagine Assassin's Creed meets a 3rd person shooter. That's what Uncharted is. Though technically you can finish this game using guns (and there's a wide variety; everything from silenced pistols to SMGs to shotguns) there's something very 'assasin-y' about the way you can creep around bushes and quietly take people out to fulfill your mission. This is one of those games where the obvious route of shooting the bad guys in the head might not be the best way to do things. My favorite is to climb high and snipe the living hell out of everyone.
Speaking of bad guys, these one's are fairly sophisticated. I start all of my games on Normal difficulty, but this one had me tempted to change it down a notch at some points.The henchman are quick on their feet, and if you turn your back for a second they'll climb up a ladder behind you and take you out. The challenge of it all really ignited my inner gamer.
I think Naughty Dog was aware of this when they designed the game, however, as they added in so many auto-saves and checkpoints that dying seemed like an every day occurrence. Especially with all the parkour elements of this game. The layout of the maps weren't always easy to decipher, and so my play-through had a lot of guesswork and falling to my death. All in a day's work for adventurer Nathan Drake.
Finally, this game had puzzles. I can hear the groans already. But fear not! These puzzles weren't that bad, and actually had a realistic tie-in to the game itself. I only cheated and used Google once, and that was because I was too stupid to realize where I was supposed to go.
8/10
Character
Nathan Drake has officially made my top 10 favorite video game leads.And not just because he's handsome (although that helps). His snarky, sarcastic, but always optimistic quips sprinkle the game heavily, so much so that you should always have your subtitles on so that you don't miss anything. He has a dry humor that really sticks with you, and makes Nathan a refreshingly different protagonist. All of this great character work is punctuated by the fabulous Nolan North, who actually ad-libbed much of the dialogue to really flesh out the character.
Your partner in crime, Sully, wasn't as big of a hit for me, but that might have to do with the fact that I skipped games 1 and 2. The relationship between Nathan and Sully is one that was lost on me. Still, the voice acting was unique and even though I didn't really care whether Sully lived or died, Nathan did, and that's enough of a boost to get you in gear.
9/10
Multiplayer
Uncharted 3 comes with a multiplayer function. If you're anything like me (and hate multiplayer) then this won't be too excited for you. BUT WAIT. Because it has a local option, which means I get to force my younger sister to play with me to validate how awesome I am at video games.
Just kidding.
I loved how they added the feature for local, even though the missions were lackluster and the initial customization controls confusing. All hard-core multiplayer fans out there should give this one a pass for now, and stick to the campaign.
4/10
Story
Story is hands down the most important factor of a video game to me. It's why games like Destiny, though amazing in their action and so modern, don't reach the gold standard. Uncharted, however, was so story heavy you felt like you were watching a mini-movie. It had backstory, it had intrigue, it had romance, it had humor; but most of all it was unique. Sometimes the plot seemed far-fetched, but hey, it's a video game!
8/10
Replay-ability
I think I'll probably be paying Nathan Drake a visit soon, although I'll be tackling it on Hard. This time around I'll be taking my time, trying to get any (read: all) collectibles that I missed the first time around. There aren't any decisions to be made during the game, it's not a roleplayer at all, but the action was fun and not boring or overused and thus warrants a second play.
6.5/10
Extras
Romance: It's there, it's cute, it's confusing if you skipped games 1 and 2. I actually thought my love interest was my sister for the first few scenes. But since well designed relationships are a bit of a passion for me, this was a definite plus
Glitches: There are a few, though from the other reviews I've read these seem like nothing compared to the ones in the other two games. Be warned though: these glitches made me want to tear my eyes out. They were almost game breaking, as they'd stop me from completing a jump to safety. But after about 25 attempts at the same jump you'll eventually get it.
Animation Quality: Fairly good. Nothing world-shaking, but it never striked me as bad or sloppy,
Time it Took to Play: About 8 hours
Overall Score: 8/10
I'd say if you like good stories, and love parkour, this game is a must.
-Jules
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