Thursday, November 17, 2011

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Above: Nathan Drake searches for something interesting to say.

My review of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is up at thephoenix.com. I was a little disappointed by it. Maybe it's just a case of expectations: the stuff that was good was not really better or different than what I expected, and the stuff that wasn't good seemed like a regression from Uncharted 2.

Even though Drake's Deception hit a lot of the same notes that I praised so much in Among Thieves, here it felt more obligatory. There were slow parts where you walked through city scenes, and puzzles, and some decent platforming, and a whole bunch of awful interminable shootouts. Worse still, I found myself less drawn to Nathan Drake as a character this time around. He still has some great lines (and some great line deliveries, thanks to Mr. North), but I just wasn't buying what Naughty Dog was selling. And I wasn't really sure why.

At any rate, it's still a decent enough game, but I do hope that if there's a fourth Uncharted, that it brings with it a few more surprises.

2 comments:

Jed A said...

I think you're right on the money here, Mitch. UC2 felt like something totally fresh and a huge step forward from it's predecessor, and I genuinely felt like I'd never played anything quite like it. UC3 feels to me too like it's too carefully performing the same choreography as before, not daring to put a foot out of place, but in so doing has lost all the verve and freshness that it managed to bring to the dance last time.
Gunplay is average at best, and can be immensely frustrating in places. The guys who need 5 headshots because they're wearing a wooly hat stuck out as pretty weird logic. The puzzles are appealing but the game can't wait to blurt out the answers, even with hints turned off, and there aren't any after the halfway mark. Platforming is mostly a case of following a breadcrumb trail, and is never skill based - in fact, there's little consistency to jump distances or fall heights. It's only best-in-breed at the cinematics, but that just means at it's best it's a bloody expensive DVD. And the plot ain't all that great either, y'know?

It dismays me that so many commenters can't wait to fall over themselves gushing over this one, I wondered at times if they were playing the same game. If Richard LeMarchand comes calling after your 3 Star review, like he did with Eurogamer's 8/10 (!), I'm confident you can give him some realistic perspective on a nice looking but massively forgettable, gameplay-light experience. :)

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