Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review

Uncharted is a series that is known for it's immense story and beautiful surroundings and places you visit as Nathan Drake throughout his journey; if it weren't for those two factors, then I wouldn't be playing Uncharted at all, but luckily I am and luckily I have enjoyed every single moment from all three games.

Uncharted 3 puts Drake and Sully on another adventure searching for the lost city of Iram, also known as Iram of the Pillars or Ubar. Drake and Sully follows clues left by Sir Francis Drake and T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, with Drake's ring being the key to solve the clues. Drake and Sully of course aren't the only ones who are after what lays in the city of Iram. Katherine Marlow, leader of an occult that dates back 400 years ago, is also seeking the city Drake is after.

New characters are introduced and old ones are back in order to help Drake find the right path to Iram. Of course Drake's father figure and trusted friend, Victor "Sully" Sullivan makes an appearance as he aids Drake throughout the whole game. Along with Sully, Chloe Frazer and Elena Fisher returns to help Drake. Another ally of team Drake is Charlie Cutter who secretly works with Drake and Sully. Drake and his team is pitted up against Talbot and Katherine Marlowe, who are part of some secret society that is after the secrets that lay in Iram.

Uncharted 3 was a great game, it wasn't the best, but it was still one hell of a game. It was definitely the weakest game of the series so far; the best would have to be Among Thieves. Let me first tell you what I liked about the game, it was the sense of adventure along with all the different places that Drake and his pals went to. You first start the game with a flash back of young Drake in Colombia, after the flash back you walk the streets of England, you then move your way to a jungle in France which then leads you to a museum in Syria which then takes you to Yemen. From Yemen, you find yourself captured and wake up surrounded by pirates in a shipyard in the middle of the ocean. From the grave of ships, you make your way to a cruise ship owned by the pirates, which sinks, and you drift your way back to Yemen where you catch a plane that crashes in the Rub 'al Khali desert. After wondering around the desert, you then stumble upon the lost city of Ubar. All the locations and details put into the surroundings are incredible, I spend most of my time just looking around the surroundings and enjoying the graphics. My favorite place in the game was Rameses' cruise ship; the ship looked exactly what it would look like it it was overrun by pirates, I spent most of the time looking out in the distance and just watching the storm along with the harsh ocean knocking the boat around.

The story of course was a great thing, there really was no dull moment throughout Uncharted 3. Everything written was just so great, from the actual story itself to the dialogue between characters during gameplay. Naughty Dog made Uncharted 3 feel like it could actually be real (I'll explain more on how Uncharted felt real later on). During gameplay, the characters would interact with each other, for example Cutter, Sully and Drake would be making fun of one another or talking about things that built some character development, so you didn't have to watch the cut scenes or read character bios in order to know something about one person. Speaking of character development, Sully's and Drake's relationship was explored more in this game. The flashback told the story of how Drake and Sully first met and how Sully took Drake under his wing. At the end of the game, Sully apologizes to Drake about not being the best dad; I loved how Sully acknowledges that he is Drake's father, he might not be his biological dad but he is the closest thing Drake has to one. Another good relationship redeveloped was Drake's in Elena's. Between the events of Among Thieves and Drake's Deception, Drake and Elena either got married or were engaged but eventually split up, the game made it seem like it was Drake's fault. I won't spoil the end for anyone, but I will say that the way Naughty Dog went about their relationship was pretty good, it wasn't cheesy or anything.

Drake's Deception also brought new things to the table that the other games within the series didn't have. One major improvement was the hand-to-hand combat system, Naughty Dog gave drake the ability to counter attacks and use the environment to defeat your enemies. For instance, you can grab someone and if you're close enough to let's say a table, Drake will push him up against the table and grab whatever is on it and smack the bad guy with whatever was on the table; you can also throw someone out a window if you are close enough. Drake has different ways to fight, he can slide in between someone's legs and punch them right in the crotch or simple just kick them there; there are other things Drake can do also that doesn't involve crotch kicking or punching. 

New weapons were put into Uncharted 3 also, the guns included an M9, G-Mal, Sawed Off Shotgun, Raffica Pistol, PAK-80, T-Bolt Sniper, Tau Sniper, and Para 9. Whenever I came across the Tau Sniper or T-Bolt Sniper, I would drop whatever gun I have for it. I also used the M9 and G-Mal as backups. The new weapons are pretty cool, I really dig each one but I wish that Naughty Dog would've brought back the Crossbows, those things were fun in Among Thieves.

The difficulty of the game was spot on; there were parts where I got frustrated and raged, but I eventually figured out a way to get past a group of what seemed like to be hundreds of bad guys. The puzzles in Drake's Deception weren't too hard either, I had a problem with a couple of them but after some hard thinking I eventually nailed those suckers.

Every great game is going to have it's downfall of course, and unfortunately Uncharted 3 has a few. One problem I had more often than others was the fact that the hit registry was pretty bad. I don't have the best aim when it comes to shooters and a controller, but I know when I should have gotten so many hits on the bad guys when I shot them; either my headshot wouldn't register or a regular bodyshot wouldn't kill them with three shots from the Tau Pistol. Another registry problem I had was when I shot someone with the T-Bolt Sniper and somehow killed the guy standing to the right of him with the same shot, I'm not complaining on that one but I still want to know how that happened.

Another problem that arose was the sound would cut off, it happened twice throughout the game. I have no idea what happened, but I know that it wasn't my speakers. Another problem I had with the sound was that sometimes when Drake was talking either Sully, or whoever else was with me, they would talk over Drake, thus making me miss what was trying to be said.

The last problem I had with Drake's Deception was the ending, it wasn't bad, it just was something I was not expecting. This is where I'm going to be giving spoilers, so if you haven't gotten to the ending then I wouldn't advise going on. When I first started the game, I was thinking to myself about what Naughty Dog would have in store for us in terms of creatures that Drake will have to fight. In the end all they gave us were overgrown spiders and bad guys with flaming heads that were just from Drake hallucinating. Before Drake found Ubar, he was told by Salim, the shiekh of the Bedouins who helps Drake find Sully after he was kidnapped by Marlowe, that King Solomon imprisoned an evil Jinn in a brass vessel and casts it into the heard of Ubar. which is what Marlowe is after. Due to that piece of info, you think that you're going to have to fight some evil genies or something, but that doesn't happen at all. You don't even get to see what's in the brass vessel, Drake shoots Marlowe's crane that's bringing it up from a deep water pit.

The ending to Uncharted 3 isn't bad, it can be seen as a good ending because the game gives us a sense of a realistic adventure. The only thing that came close to unbelievable were the spiders that were bigger than your hand or the things that Drake saw while he was hallucinating that was brought on by Ubar's poisonous water. It can be argued that Uncharted 3 could be the best game in the series just because of it's realistic approach, for me on the other hand, I didn't like it just because I was expecting more. We never even found out if there was really an evil Jinn in the brass vessel or not.

All in all though, it was a great game; the character development, the surroundings and the detailed put in it and the story was phenomenal. There really isn't much replay value, but that doesn't mean I don't want to play the whole series over again, plus it also gives me a chance to find all the treasures hidden within the game, which is the only thing Uncharted has for replay value. This review doesn't cover the multiplayer, I only played it for a few days during the Subway promotional codes. I wish I could give it a full 10/10, but unfortunately hit registry and sound problems were enough to bring down the value of the game a bit.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - 9.25/10