Uncharted 3: Drake’s
Deception is a third-person shooter and adventure game for the PlayStation
3. It was developed by Naughty Dog Inc.
Nathan Drake and his friend Walter Sullivan finally have a
lead on the location of the lost city of Ubar, once discovered by Drake’s
ancestor Sir Francis Drake, and rumored to contain a vast treasure. They are
not the only ones though who know the location; Katherine Marlowe, the head of
a vaguely defined shadowy organization, is also searching for Ubar and its
treasure. It is a race to see who will reach Ubar first, Drake and his allies,
or Marlowe and her small army of mercenaries.
The game is divided between shooting segments and climbing
among ruins, with the combat segments making up the majority. In the shooting
parts you take cover and pick off bad guys, who are also hiding behind
something. Nate can hold one small gun, one heavy gun, and five grenades.
Weapons and ammo are found in the levels, usually on dead bodies.
Enemy AI puts up a decent challenge. Enemies know to duck
behind cover and only pop up to shoot. They also know to fight Drake hand-to-hand
if Drake gets close to them. The main danger Marlowe’s men present to the
player though, is that they outnumber Drake and tend to flank him, so it is
important to keep moving while before he gets overwhelmed with gunfire and
grenades. The enemies do have a problem of not moving out of the way when their
hiding spot is not providing cover, but this does not make them much easier to
kill.
Drake can also take out Marlowe’s men with stealth kills and
hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand is mashing the square button when you are too
close to pull your gun, and sometimes countering with the triangle button. Stealth
kills happen when you press the square button behind an unaware guard. These
attacks are not as fun as shooting from a distance, but it is nice that the
developers have you covered for all combat situations, so you are not stuck
always looking for something to hide behind and can be a lot more creative in
your kills.
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| A good way to take out lone guards. |
The other part of Drake’s
Deception is all about climbing over ruins, swinging from ledge to ledge,
going up ladders, walking along cliff sides, and solving puzzles. These parts
are really easy because cliffs stick out making it easy to figure out where to
go, Drake tends to automatically grab any ledge he roughly jumps toward so you
do not have to worry about being precise with your jumps, and Drake reaches out
towards the next ledge you need to reach when hanging from something so you
will not confused about where to go. You might miss a couple of jumps because
the camera is at a funny angle or the next ledge is not immediately apparent,
but that will not happen often.
The levels, which are mostly ruins, were not that exciting
to me. I believe Naughty Dog was trying to keep the scale realistic, but most
of the time I was not really wowed by any of the designs. There are only so
many things you can do with stone tunnels. Not that they all play out the same
way, the developers put a lot of thought into making each level unique to play
through, I just do not remember what a lot of them looked like. My favorite
levels was not even a ruin, they took place in an abandoned shipyard and on a
cruise ship.
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| The Chateau level is also pretty cool, when it stays in the chateau. |
The story has problems. Most of it is Drake and co. going to
another location to find the next clue that will get them closer to Ubar, and
Marlowe always catching up to them somehow. Along the way Drake’s friends, who
in the past have gone along with his dangerous treasure hunts, insist that this
one is too dangerous for some reason. There is a part in the middle, the
aforementioned boat levels, which do not progress the story at all. The end is
terribly cliché; just once I would like to see one of these action-adventure
stories where the heroes are looking for a lost civilization not end the exact
same way every time.
The plot is made tolerable by the terrific characters and
voice acting. Nate and Sully especially are funny to watch and listen to, and
provide some of the game’s best emotional moments.
There is a multiplayer mode, standard stuff like team
deathmatch and capture the flag. Doing well gets you experience points and
money, which you can use to improve your weapons and abilities. When I tried it
the only people who were still playing were people with really high levels that
had already unlocked everything already and knew where everything was, and
enjoyed going to where I was respawning and one-shotting me with their
shotguns.
While the story, some of the levels, and the multiplayer
have problems, Uncharted 3: Drake’s
Deception is a very entertaining game. I do not see why anybody would not enjoy
playing through it.
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