Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011)

I guess I could say that I finished the Uncharted games, but I haven't beaten Uncharted 4 because it's not on PSNow anymore and I also don't have a PS4 so that is a bummer. Uncharted 3 is right down the middle between 1 & 2. Well since I considered Uncharted 1 to be a bad game and Uncharted 2 to be amazing, how does 3 do?Well...

Uncharted 3 is a good game. I could say that it is almost great. But I do have some issues here and there. There are moments where the story beats were very forced. Like why did Nathan give the 2nd half of the amulet to Cutter moments after Cutter was about to choke Nate to death? There are also moments of plot armor to keep the story going. How did Talbot survive Cutter's gunshot? That was never explained. At least in Uncharted 1 when Sulley was shot, it's because the journal was in his shirt pocket and he was shot there(still a forced plot point for Nate to give it to Sulley). I wasn't a fan of playing as Nathan after the plane crashed. I feel like it could've been better as a cutscene as walking around just wasn't really that interesting. How the game ends is very anticlimatic. Marlow was a bad witch and also a bad bitch, but how she died was very disappointing. Talbot is "the final boss', but he was just treated as anyone that you fight in a melee battle with. These villains were built up so much, but the payoff for them was so little. During the ending cutscene, I was wondering if there was more, but when the achievement for beating the game came up, I was disappointed. The aim assist is really slow. And I feel like it's more Uncharted 2. It's more of the same. It might just be me playing these games back-to-back-to-back.

As for the good, it's more of Uncharted 2, so of course it's good. The puzzles are the best of the 3 games. They're not the best ever but they actually require you to look around your environments and are less simplistic. I liked the idea of a silenced pistol, though I would've liked for it to appear more frequently. An idea would be like in Counter-Strike where you can attach or detach the silencer on the fly. Stealth and melee combat is more accessible now. I remember using more melee attacks that I did in Uncharted 2. The setpieces are still batshit crazy, though not as much as 2. I liked the relationship with Nathan and Sulley. The game still looks incredible, even on the PS3. I was surprised with what the game offered visally. Uncharted 3 is when Naughty Dog started to peak in animation and they still look incredible and badass. U3 used 100% of the Cell's power this time around. The ship levels were some of the best levels in the series despite being plot filler. They were still a ton of fun and reminded me of A Hat in Time's Seal the Deal DLC.

I wish that I could finish this series. I don't think I've played a series back to back since the Batman Arkham games. It was interesting to see how far Naughty Dog has come during the late 2000's to now. It sucks that Last of Us 2 is delayed. I have yet to beat TLOU1. But for half the development team, Uncharted 3 is a great game.

FINAL RATING: 7.5/10