Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception / 23 Oct 2011 12:06 AM PDT. We've translated the ancient script; read on to learn what we found. Would much rather spend time developing a new game than fresh single-player content for Uncharted 3.
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is the finest, most exciting action-adventure movie in years.
Oh wait, did I just say movie? Sorry. I meant, Uncharted 3 is the finest, most exciting action-adventure video game in years.
The confusion is a compliment. No game has so gloriously melded interactivity with the visual and narrative vernacular of Hollywood. Dangling from a cargo plane high over the Arabian desert, rushing from the collapsing ruins of a medieval French chateau, spelunking Syrian crypts, sprinting over Colombian rooftops, traversing a sinking cruise ship — in each of Uncharted 3’s most spectacular moments I almost felt my fingers leaving the controller in search of some popcorn.
From its engaging, heartfelt script and character performances to its meticulous pacing, dramatic cinematography and lush visual production, Uncharted 3 is mass-market interactive entertainment of the highest order. It’s not gory. It’s not intellectually challenging. It’s not profane. On its easiest settings, it is not difficult. Instead it is a captivating, engaging, grin-inducing adventure. If you have a PlayStation 3 (the only system the game is available for) and don’t buy Uncharted 3, you’re doing it wrong. And if you don’t have a PS3, Uncharted 3 is the best reason to get one.
As in the previous Uncharted games, the basic concept is a modernized Indiana Jones. Your character, Nathan Drake, is a globe-trotting treasure hunter who claims to be a descendant of Francis Drake and is tracing his putative ancestor’s voyages in search of ancient lucre. In the inspiration for its set-pieces the game draws heavily from the action-film repertory, from the James Bond catalog to “The Poseidon Adventure.”
Drake himself, voiced and motion-captured by Nolan North, owes more than a little to Han Solo’s vulnerable pride and heart of gold, but Mr. North makes Drake his own man. Drake’s rapport and relationship with his surrogate father figure, Victor Sullivan (played by Richard McGonagle), is the real narrative axis of the story and provides a fairly nuanced and natural emotional propulsion to the action. Rosalind Ayres is delightfully sinister as the voice of the villainess Katherine Marlowe.
But the real stars of Uncharted 3 are the designers and scripters at Naughty Dog, the Sony-owned studio that made the game. From the beginning of the game to its (relatively subdued) finale 10 to 12 hours later, you are clearly in the hands of bright and sophisticated people who know exactly what they want to do to you.
Continue reading the main story
There are perhaps a half-dozen discrete major elements to the game: climbing, shooting, running, brawling, puzzle-solving and storytelling. Of them all, only some of the shooting combat sequences can be truly challenging (and those can be toned down through the difficulty settings). Yet they are all rewarding in the presentation. You are not going to fall into a chasm 10 times trying to get the timing of your jump just right. You are not going to need the reflexes of a flea to dodge the punch that brute is throwing. Yet the game never makes its hand-holding too obvious.
Perhaps as important, it is paced and spaced with a film director’s touch. The game’s structure can even become a bit formulaic: if you haven’t experienced one of the six major elements in the past 15 or 20 minutes, it is definitely coming up soon. But the system works, providing a pleasantly varied yet comfortable tempo to the overall experience.
It is not a coincidence that Naughty Dog is based in Santa Monica, Calif. The influence of film is just too strong. For instance, almost every other third-person game roots the camera behind and above the character you are controlling so you can see where you’re headed. But at a few crucial chase moments, Uncharted 3 puts the camera below and in front of your character so you can see the wall of fire or rushing water directly behind you. It is a technique common to almost every action movie (the hero running toward the camera) that is rare in games.
The necessary tradeoff to all of this is that in the big ways you are just along for the ride in Uncharted 3. The game does include some interesting multiplayer options, but the heart of Uncharted is its single-player campaign. You, the player, do not make plot decisions. You are not in control of what will happen next. You are not free to go off and explore as you like. These are major elements of modern game design that Uncharted 3 ignores.
And that is fine. Games, like any entertainment product, benefit from a clear purpose. Uncharted 3 is not a sandbox. It is a roller coaster, and one of the most enjoyable the game industry has produced in years. The Uncharted series now becomes Sony’s most important exclusive franchise for the PlayStation (eclipsing the mythological God of War saga).
In the face of popular military shooters like Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Uncharted 3 ought to appeal to an ever broader audience than folks who dream about being commandos.
Even if they occasionally confuse the game for a movie.