Uncharted 3 Drake’s Deception had a huge impact on me as a gamer. This comes as no surprise to anyone that knows me. Essentially, the game is known for its insane production values and the interaction between the characters of the franchise (notably Drake, Sully, Elena and Chloe).

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It’s time to let it rip!

The story:

The story line in UC3 is by far a story that I personally, as a cinematic experience junkie, can relate insanely much to. Cinematic experience basically means games where the developer holds your hand (which does vary from game to game within how hard that hand is actually held) but nonetheless, these games offer and present a story with a movie-like feel and blends it with gameplay in such a way that you feel that you are actually playing while watching and experiencing something incredible. Obviously these “moments” have to be out of the top or have an important role in moving the story forward. Some, arguably all of these, can be explained as “set pieces” which are scripted events that have been pre-made and are set to start once you reach a certain point. What makes this so intriguing is that you get to see and experience some breathtaking moments that most other games don’t accomplish. The problem is that it is very difficult to do something like this and have the player able to have control over the situation, meaning to still hold the controller and actually play. I honestly feel these cinematic experiences are an art form. The developer will try to blend this cinematic feel, mostly by the usage of camera angles and the human survival nature by making you look around the environment and obviously do what they want you to do. Taking this and making it natural is what makes Uncharted 3 so amazing.

The story this time around focuses on Nathan Drake himself and what truly makes it unique is the fact that it doesn’t just apply to Nathan, it applies to you: The player.

Uncharted 3 makes the player question the motives and the reasoning behind the protagonist. It makes you wonder why you keep playing. Too often do gamers play games where they keep progressing for no apparent reason rather than to feel that they accomplished what the game originally wants you to do. This was the case in Uncharted 2, but this is absolutely NOT the case in Uncharted 3.

Nathan has everything he needs in order to stop Marlowe from finding Ubar/Iram of the pillars/City of brass. Yet he is obsessed to continue in the trails of Sir Francis Drake. Why?

As the game progresses, you reach the realization that Nathan Drake is not actually the protagonist’s real name. You get to hear that his mother committed suicide and his father gave his son away to an orphanage. By knowing this, the player can draw the conclusion that Nathan Drake actually came up with his own name due to his obsession over history and forgotten relics. Drake rarely seems to be interested in the actual treasure; it’s the hunt that keeps him going. What separates Nathan Drake from a lot of characters in video games is that he is smart.

The London pub was all a set up in order to backtrack Marlowe & Co to their base and locate the Decipher and prevent them from picking up the trail... or so we thought. Instead Drake uses it to continue the journey, leading the antagonist with him. Over the course of the game, we get to see his friends, which have been behind him in the previous iterations, question his reasoning.

Shortly after Syria, Chloe departs along with Cutter after Cutter loses his leg because of Drakes obsession. Sully however, continues this journey with Drake and we get to see how Sully is a father figure for Drake and have been ever since Drake was 15 years old and Sully started to take care of him back in Cartagena, Colombia where they first met. The player is even able to play this sequence which once again makes the game truly stand out. Unlike games that tell you about the past, you actually get to see this for yourself. Remember all the talk in Metal Gear Solid 3 when speaking about how The Boss was Big Boss’ mentor? Wouldn’t it be awesome if we actually got a sequence of her teaching him a few things?

Moving on, Sully contacts Elena to get into Yemen. We find out that Elena has a ring, and Drake isn’t very subtle in notifying the player that Elena is “still wearing it”. Elena replies “I see you are still wearing yours” while glancing at Drake’s necklace which holds the ring of Sir Francis Drake. The player can then draw the conclusion that at some point, Elena was engaged to Drake but they broke it off because of whatever reason, most notably: Drake’s obsession with Francis Drake. Elena then lets Drake know that his obsession could make him lose his friends, and emphasizes on Sully saying how he would follow Drake to the ends of the world. She tells Drake to not allow Sully to do that.

Once in Yemen, Drake sees Talbot; the henchman of Marlowe. Talbot is a very interesting character as his character is shown in Drakes journal as “The magician”. Cutter told us that Talbot is part of an organization that manipulates people through fear and deception. Anyhow, Drake follows him and is later drugged by Talbot and captured by Marlowe. Before this, Sully manages to memorize the location of Ubar as we learn that Sully was in the Navy and is clever when it comes to navigating the stars. It is then that Marlowe reveals to the player that Drake isn’t his real name and suddenly: The plot becomes so clear. Unfortunately, Marlowe has captured Sully and as Talbot walks away (most probably to bring Sully to Marlowe), Drake runs after him in rage which launches one of the most amazing sequences in gaming that I have experienced. You run through the amazingly detailed and atmospheric Yemen. Talbot throws boxes at you and you jump over them. He glides over a car – you glide over a car. You continue to follow him until you lose him in a crowd. Nonetheless, this sequence is so impressively done and so cinematic that it feels like it is taken right out of a movie but with the exception that your pulse was beating and you were actually controlling Drake. Fast forwarding to the actual point of this whole “analysis”…

  Uncharted 3 makes you feel that you are playing a movie and a good one I might add. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is a movie, it simply means it is THAT good that for anyone that actually looks at it, people will be baffled and have a hard time moving their eyes away from the screen.

I think the 1100 words I put on retelling the actual plot (and only made it halfway) is enough. Yeah… no! Regardless, Drakes worst fear comes true. Sully is kidnapped by Marlowe and Drake embarks on a journey that I will never ******* forget. He jumps from boat to boat; he enters a cruise ship that is so technically impressive that your eyes will reach the point of no return, also known as orgasm. Regardless, Drake is able to continue the orgasm journey until the point where he realizes that Sully isn’t on the boat and that he embarked on a journey without actually thinking first. Sully means that much to him.

Drake ends up at Elena, where they share a very intimate moment. He had not one but several near death experiences, yet he makes it very clear that he wants to head after Sully just immediately after returning. Elena lets him in on her plan and so Drake boards a cargoplane. Before doing so Drake stops Elena from coming with him in an quite emotional scene between the two where Drake for the first time displays an understanding in what he’s been doing all these years: Putting the people he love in danger. Fast-forwarding: Drake literarily flies out of a plane, manages to land in middle of the Rub al Khali desert and by some divine miracle: He survives.

And you thought the boat gave you an orgasm. Prepare to experience my greatest moment in video game history. Yes even the microwave chamber or the appearance of Big Boss can’t measure up to the feeling I had of walking through the Rub al Khali. This experience is so powerful that I actually have to quote the poem used in the game.

“What are the roots that clutch,
what branches grow: Out of this stony rubbish?
Son of man, You cannot say, or guess,
for you know only  A heap of broken images,
where the sun beats,  And the dead tree gives no shelter,
the cricket no relief,  And the dry stone no sound of water.

…Only There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
and I will show you something different from either your shadow at morning striding behind you or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
… I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

Did I ******* mention how I feel this is art? The truth is: Naughty Dog combined an emotional journey, with an amazing plot and story, with characters anyone with a heart would care for, with the usage of insane production values including graphics/visuals, SOUNDTRACK and even a poem to show and reflect on how Drake has one very noticeable flaw: Victor “god ****” Sullivan.

By the time the awesome character of Salim, Sheikh of his tribe, saves you from dehydration. It is safe to assume that the organization that controls their enemy through fear, just might take Sully away from Drake. As soon as you reach this thought, you are officially screwed. You are not able to put down the controller until you finish this amazing game.

You mount your horse, you jump onto trucks, you ride through canyons and you finally rescue Sully. What appears to have been a nightmare seems to have ended. As soon as you got Sully, you feel a relief as if everything is going to be alright. Obviously this is a game and just like a movie, it needs its climax. Drake, reflecting the player this time around, says how he doesn’t know if they should continue. Sully and Salim make it very clear and state how Marlowe is looking for something more than treasure and that it’s their obligation to stop them. Drake probably feels guilt in leading them this far and goes along with Salim and Sully. It is now the game blew my mind. You enter Ubar, and the worst possible scenario happens. You hear a gunshot and Sully itches. Drake lets go off a “No…” and there it is: Blood from Victor Sullivan’s shirt. Drake quickly grabs a hold of him and slowly puts him down in shock. His amazing facial animations show the ultimate fear that Drake has now gotten to experience, just in the same way the player got to experience. Ultimately that is what makes the game truly amazing. Not only is the player reflecting on Drake in almost insane ways, Drake is actually reflecting the player in an insanely accurate way. Obviously if you don’t care much for the characters, you can laugh Sullivan’s death away and the game will not give you that feeling. But going into it after playing the previous ones, having established the characters already and having you gained love towards them: This is truly a horrible realization.

And so Sully is dead and so begins what feels like a very long moment where you feel completely alone and frightened. Suddenly, there are creatures which Drake and the player quickly assume are the Djinns, demons: born of smokeless fire that destroyed the city. As you move on, you encounter Talbot, the ***** that shot Sully, and he throws a smoke grenade of some kind towards you. You chase him, only to reach a dead end and have the whole background change to Cartagena.

You are back to when Drake was 15 years old. Young and vulnerable.

You know what happens after this, hell you knew everything up until this point but I have to put my sincere opinion about this game here. You have to understand that I never felt this attached to a game since Metal Gear Solid 4 and whilst that game didn’t blend the cinematic as well as this game did, it did go to certain extreme situations to make up for it. A soldier or an orphan?

I got sidetracked enough already but nonetheless, the story makes you question the motives of why YOU are playing the game and why DRAKE is doing what he is doing. **** there’s much more I would want to say about the plot in Uncharted 3…

The visuals:

:} Tehehehehe...
Ocelot: Pretty... good..

The soundtrack & the voice acting:

Noticeably better than its predecessor and right up there with my favorite official soundtracks. Metal Gear Solid offers an almost legendary soundtrack and that cannot be discarded in any way. I am not that blind, but I have to say I was very surprised by Uncharted in this regard.

As for the voice acting, no game does it better. The fact that Naughty Dog is able to introduce characters that are so easy to like or hate depending on what they are going for is incredible. Drake, Sully, Elena, Chloe, Cutter, Marlowe, Lazarevic, Eddy, Talbot have all so well written dialogues and so well performed voices that it is very difficult for me to find any game that topples this. Naughty Dogs approach in the emotional journey of Drake was a very welcoming surprise considering the past games and this one had already introduced us to this amazing character and they finally fleshed him out. About **** time too!

The gameplay

Uncharted keeps things very simple. There is one button for the aiming, one for the shooting. There is one button for jumping and climbing and another for punching and brawling. With the addition of melee fights, something so tiny has made the game reach a certain level of cinematic experience that blends the gameplay so amazingly well with the cutscenes that you are literarily feeling as if YOU are creating the cutscenes. Anyone that knows me know how much I love the gameplay of Uncharted and they know how madly I love brawling so it comes as no surprise that this addition of fist fighting changed the whole game for me. I don’t play it as Uncharted 2 where I was practically a soldier. I play it as a sloppy guy, who fights his way out of the most extreme situations. Think of it as Killzone but reversed. In Killzone 2, you didn’t really feel like a soldier in my opinion. In Killzone 3 however you did. The opposite has been applied here and it works very well with the given formula. The interactions during the set pieces ESPECIALLY the burning Chateau will have you on the edge of your seat. The chase scenes, the brawls, the cargo plane, the cruise ship, the caravan, the drugged scenes. There are so many different mechanics depending on how drake is feeling, not to mention the different set of animations that the character portrays through every drastic level in the game… Few games come this far when speaking about details and practically none reach this level of excellence. It is simple, it is interesting, it offers enough diversity depending on how you play it, but most importantly: it is fun as **** and that reflects on myself as I have never put this much time in a singleplayer experience than I have with Uncharted 3 Drakes Deception.

The lasting appeal:
The singleplayer really deserves more than one playthrough because as you play it, you just seem to love it more and more. The co op is very fun and challenging once you ask it to be and the multiplayer has completely drawn me in. It’s not for everyone, but for those who get into it: prepare to get addicted. It is the only MP game that rivals Killzone 2 on the PS3 for me, personally.

You can relate so well to the character that it stands out more to me than Solid Snakes journey on fulfilling his duty, no matter how amazing the narrative of Kojima is: Naughty Dog has crafted something so subtle yet so powerful that I couldn’t believe what I just experienced by the end of my playthrough. You feel what Drake feels, and Drake feels what you feel. You play Naughty Dogs experience and you create your own experience upon taking on the enemies. As opposed to the previous Uncharted titles, you are even able to have a less linear game in certain aspects where you can stealth past or stealth kill opponents and take different routes, using the amazing water for instance as a way to travel around the given area. Ultimately however, the story and the characters along with the amazing mix of gameplay, set pieces, cut scenes, jaw dropping moments and the amazingly well thought plot: Two months and 15 more playthroughs later: Uncharted 3 still is my favorite game of all time.

I’ve written about 3000 words within 1 hour now. I wish I would put this much thought into my school work. I am shocked myself, indeed.

That's pretty much all I had to say. Basically what ND do, they do it far better than any other developer out there. I felt a huge emotional connection to Drake, moreso than I did to any other gaming character. It is simply a story about a man who has dedicated his whole life to a higher purpose because he grew up alone, with no father, with no mother. He needed something to hold on to. He needed a purpose in life and that became his obsession. The past almost made him lose the present and thus change the future.

We don’t get to choose how we start in this life. Real greatness… comes from the hand that you’re dealt.