Cert: 16
Platform: PS3
Genre: Action Adventure, Puzzle
The third in the Uncharted series for PlayStation, featuring treasure hunter Nathan Drake.
This time Drake is after Irem, aka the Atlantis Of The Sands, an ancient lost city full of treasure. Opposing him are a shadowy cult lead hell bent on getting there first and stealing the fabulous wealth or whatever it is secretive conspiracies do with ancient junk. Drake is following clues and artefacts left down by his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake, and a few other real historical figures that are shoehorned in for some good old fashioned speculative history fun.
Drake, much like his spiritual precursor Indiana Jones, is a know-it-all everyman. For every time he has a little speech about some obscure historical fact, you get to see him fall through a rotten floor or get hit in the face by a goon. He’s far from the angry marines common in most games, and his combination of cockiness and vulnerability leads the player to empathise with Drake reasonably quickly. Also, Sully his mentor/sidekick has a nice way of being appropriately ill-informed and potty-mouthed, so that no scene is ever too serious. The plot focuses a lot on their relationship, especially its beginning, and Sully manages to be a useful member of the cast rather than following you blindly and looking confused.
From the get go, the cinematic feel / homage is there. There’s early cliff hangers, flashbacks, even a non-too-subtle but oddly part of the plot reference to 007. All this, while it looks great and is fun to watch, is actually a weakness. The problem is that it’s very linear, and often, rather than let the player do something, you trigger a cut scene and sit and watch it out. The cut scenes are great and thankfully if you do need to replay a section, skippeable. But when you get your hands on a cypher device, rather than make it a puzzle to beat, you press a button, go to a cut scene, and then move swiftly on. The plot is good and the characters likeable, but there’s almost a sense that the game doesn’t trust the player to not muck up the plot, keeping the training wheels on at all times.
Gameplay wise, it isn’t too difficult. You can leap to your doom if you’re not careful, but the game won’t punish you if you’re on roughly the right direction. Some puzzles can be a little hard to get due to the level of graphic detail, but there’s the standard difficulty settings and hint options, and an autosave, so you’ll never be stuck for long. Combat actually favours melee over firearms, which is something I like and keeps the 80s movie feel – the brawling engine varies enough and is environment adaptive (the opening fight in a London pub toilet provides you with that rarely used weapon, the cistern lid). There’s also a running claustrophobic theme through some of the tunnel crawl, made doubly so when they’re full of spiders...
Downloadable content is purely for Multiplayer, which is fun but with the plot stripped out, is nothing special. There’s numerous levels of team or buddy based PVP, but unless you’re solely interested in combat, not a lot else. It favours aggressive melee and a lot of running around.
If cut scenes and plot focus are the bane of your gaming existence, then Uncharted 3 is probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a game that lets you be a square jawed, two-fisted action hero, has a plot full of historical mumbo-jumbo, and that you can play at your leisure, then Uncharted 3 will suit you fine.
Rent or Buy: Buy
Graphics: 5/5
Game Play: 4/5
Replay Value: 3/5
Overall: 4/5
Reviewed by: Baz Nugent
