[HEAVY SPOILERS] A Second Look: Uncharted 3's 'Last' Level

It was just earlier this week that I was drinking down a glass of water, eyes drifting to my computer screen, watching a review on Max Payne 3 when, all of a sudden, it hit me -- Uncharted 3's last level was brilliant.

[Section below explains my foundational opinion behind the Uncharted games in general. Quite a long read, but probably more than necessary in order to fully absorb the next lines of text that follow, and construct a wholly genuine stance on the matter along the way.]

_______________________________________

Now, to put it in perspective, Uncharted 3 was, to me, exactly what I expected it to be; moderately disappointing. So when numerous critics began flooding Metacritic and Gamerankings with reviews and several gamers started getting their hands on it and playing it for themselves, I was inevitably unsurprised by the general reaction (that is, excluding what...Greg Miller had to say, anyway). On the other hand, whatever it lacked in pristine level design and polish (that, when ignored, can actually make the game become quite the thrill) it definitely made up for in its writing and character development; and by character development, I'm referring to one: Nathan Drake.

I've been praising the Uncharted series' execution of storytelling for a frequent amount of time now, and if there was any one person who'd tracked my activity in Uncharted-related discussions for the past year, he or she would probably be mildly irritated by now, simply because of how repetitive and monotonic they all sound in relativity to each other. But to be honest, I just can't exactly state it in any other way; the Uncharted series showcases one of the finest examples of storytelling in current-generation gaming that I've ever seen.

To start off, Drake's Fortune almost flawlessly captured the essence of the pulp-action genre and masculine, snarky hero archetype that seemed to always have a way out of nearly every kind of predicament; on the other hand, Among Thieves raised that bar, creating a practically seamless gameplay experience with a story and script that wasn't just convincing, but immersive and settling; however, in Drake's Deception, the once straight, predictable formula of storytelling that Naughty Dog has shown in the past (with impressive delivery, nevertheless) is subtly twisted, and riddled with so much more symbolic metaphors and contemplative (almost philosophical [but thankfully not]) depth that I myself had to shake away a smile or two after thinking of the sheer level of skill that Amy Hennig (the writer) has ingrained into that profound lil' mind of hers to be capable of making such a patient, reflective tale. And what a tale it is.

_______________________________________

Once again, in Uncharted 3, the last level pits Drake against "demons born of smokeless fire"; so far, all of the games in the Uncharted series has had a finalé composed of supernatural enemies that, in one way or another, reflect the themes of the story -- (the Descendants in Drake's Fortune representing recklessness and mystery, the Guardians in Among Thieves representing the scale in which his adventures measure up to, etc.) however, in the third installment, the story takes a much more personal turn, focusing on the struggle that Drake has within himself in regard to just how far he's willing to go to understand the true meaning of 'greatness', and whether or not deceiving himself into believing that expending the lives of thousands of men (and possibly even his own friends) is worth it along the way; as expected, at the end of the game, after Sully is 'shot by Talbot', Nate enters into a fierce, distorted battle with "demons born of smokeless fire", just as Salim had told him earlier in the game. Later, we find out that this was all a hallucination and was triggered solely by the water that he had drunk from the fountain earlier in the level, causing him to go berserk and confront his deepest fears, or "demons"; thus, the whole point of the last level was to display a symbolic representation of Nathan Drake's most challenging, crushing struggle within his own mind, in which the life of adventure and life of killing was, really, simply a facade to bury what he really was: a "scared, filthy little runaway" (as Marlowe had previously said) from Cartagena, merely trying to create an identity that made him invulnerable to pain, fear, and demoralization, when in reality, it only buried him under more psychological insecurity and disarray. In spite of all of this self-deception, however, once the last level is confronted, Drake metaphorically finds the courage to find and take down all of his demons and finally, finally emerge as the man that he truly is -- not Nathan Drake, or a mass murderer, or even a treasure hunter -- but simply, a man with struggles just like all the rest of us. Which is why, in Uncharted 3, the final, supernatural enemy represents the theme of overcoming and self-deception. After all, it wasn't until he was inflicted with that hallucinogenic nightmare did Drake finally realize that, out of all of the enemies that he's faced, and all of the predicaments he was capable of rolling out of just in the nick of time, the single one that was capable of standing in his way and taking the lives of those he loved and, most prominently, Sully, wasn't just a bullet, or a falling building, but himself, and the demons that resided within him.

Putting it that way, though, I honestly thought that that was pretty damn smart, and, once again, very well-executed by Naughty Dog, in terms of an elegant blend of raw, introspective depth with gameplay. Although, I'm still completely amazed that I hadn't noticed the connection sooner. (But then again, perhaps I was somewhat..."distracted" by the slight disappointments I had running through my mind by the time I had reached that point, lol. Overall, though, it was still a good game, imo. Just not at the same level as UC2 was.)

I still don't think that that completely makes up for the infuriating difficulty spike, but I guess, in a metaphorical way, it would make sense if Naughty Dog had truly wanted to convey just how formidable and almost undefeatable such 'enemies' really were. So, in that sense, I guess it at least slightly lightens the grudge, lol.

Regardless, what do you guys think? Thinkin’ that you had known that all along and hadn’t realized that nobody else didn’t? Or that, as profound as it was, it was still rather off-beat of ND to make us “think” that Sully was dead (or even further, fails to make any difference to the quality of the game itself)?

[NOTE: Of course, one can argue, "Who gives a sh*t anymore, the game's already been out for half a year, anyway.", but for the sake of a lack of any other mention of this, why not discuss it now, lol? Either way, it might bring up some other interesting ideas to the table that some here might've missed, 'ey. So what the hell. Besides, it took forever to type up that whole thing, lmao.]

Tl;dr, there's more than meets the eye with UC3's last level.

[HEAVY SPOILERS] A Second Look: Uncharted 3's 'Last' Level

It was just earlier this week that I was drinking down a glass of water, eyes drifting to my computer screen, watching a review on Max Payne 3 when, all of a sudden, it hit me -- Uncharted 3's last level was brilliant.

[Section below explains my foundational opinion behind the Uncharted games in general. Quite a long read, but probably more than necessary in order to fully absorb the next lines of text that follow, and construct a wholly genuine stance on the matter along the way.]

_______________________________________

Now, to put it in perspective, Uncharted 3 was, to me, exactly what I expected it to be; moderately disappointing. So when numerous critics began flooding Metacritic and Gamerankings with reviews and several gamers started getting their hands on it and playing it for themselves, I was inevitably unsurprised by the general reaction (that is, excluding what...Greg Miller had to say, anyway). On the other hand, whatever it lacked in pristine level design and polish (that, when ignored, can actually make the game become quite the thrill) it definitely made up for in its writing and character development; and by character development, I'm referring to one: Nathan Drake.

I've been praising the Uncharted series' execution of storytelling for a frequent amount of time now, and if there was any one person who'd tracked my activity in Uncharted-related discussions for the past year, he or she would probably be mildly irritated by now, simply because of how repetitive and monotonic they all sound in relativity to each other. But to be honest, I just can't exactly state it in any other way; the Uncharted series showcases one of the finest examples of storytelling in current-generation gaming that I've ever seen.

To start off, Drake's Fortune almost flawlessly captured the essence of the pulp-action genre and masculine, snarky hero archetype that seemed to always have a way out of nearly every kind of predicament; on the other hand, Among Thieves raised that bar, creating a practically seamless gameplay experience with a story and script that wasn't just convincing, but immersive and settling; however, in Drake's Deception, the once straight, predictable formula of storytelling that Naughty Dog has shown in the past (with impressive delivery, nevertheless) is subtly twisted, and riddled with so much more symbolic metaphors and contemplative (almost philosophical [but thankfully not]) depth that I myself had to shake away a smile or two after thinking of the sheer level of skill that Amy Hennig (the writer) has ingrained into that profound lil' mind of hers to be capable of making such a patient, reflective tale. And what a tale it is.

_______________________________________

Once again, in Uncharted 3, the last level pits Drake against "demons born of smokeless fire"; so far, all of the games in the Uncharted series has had a finalé composed of supernatural enemies that, in one way or another, reflect the themes of the story -- (the Descendants in Drake's Fortune representing recklessness and mystery, the Guardians in Among Thieves representing the scale in which his adventures measure up to, etc.) however, in the third installment, the story takes a much more personal turn, focusing on the struggle that Drake has within himself in regard to just how far he's willing to go to understand the true meaning of 'greatness', and whether or not deceiving himself into believing that expending the lives of thousands of men (and possibly even his own friends) is worth it along the way; as expected, at the end of the game, after Sully is 'shot by Talbot', Nate enters into a fierce, distorted battle with "demons born of smokeless fire", just as Salim had told him earlier in the game. Later, we find out that this was all a hallucination and was triggered solely by the water that he had drunk from the fountain earlier in the level, causing him to go berserk and confront his deepest fears, or "demons"; thus, the whole point of the last level was to display a symbolic representation of Nathan Drake's most challenging, crushing struggle within his own mind, in which the life of adventure and life of killing was, really, simply a facade to bury what he really was: a "scared, filthy little runaway" (as Marlowe had previously said) from Cartagena, merely trying to create an identity that made him invulnerable to pain, fear, and demoralization, when in reality, it only buried him under more psychological insecurity and disarray. In spite of all of this self-deception, however, once the last level is confronted, Drake metaphorically finds the courage to find and take down all of his demons and finally, finally emerge as the man that he truly is -- not Nathan Drake, or a mass murderer, or even a treasure hunter -- but simply, a man with struggles just like all the rest of us. Which is why, in Uncharted 3, the final, supernatural enemy represents the theme of overcoming and self-deception. After all, it wasn't until he was inflicted with that hallucinogenic nightmare did Drake finally realize that, out of all of the enemies that he's faced, and all of the predicaments he was capable of rolling out of just in the nick of time, the single one that was capable of standing in his way and taking the lives of those he loved and, most prominently, Sully, wasn't just a bullet, or a falling building, but himself, and the demons that resided within him.

Putting it that way, though, I honestly thought that that was pretty damn smart, and, once again, very well-executed by Naughty Dog, in terms of an elegant blend of raw, introspective depth with gameplay. Although, I'm still completely amazed that I hadn't noticed the connection sooner. (But then again, perhaps I was somewhat..."distracted" by the slight disappointments I had running through my mind by the time I had reached that point, lol. Overall, though, it was still a good game, imo. Just not at the same level as UC2 was.)

I still don't think that that completely makes up for the infuriating difficulty spike, but I guess, in a metaphorical way, it would make sense if Naughty Dog had truly wanted to convey just how formidable and almost undefeatable such 'enemies' really were. So, in that sense, I guess it at least slightly lightens the grudge, lol.

Regardless, what do you guys think? Thinkin’ that you had known that all along and hadn’t realized that nobody else didn’t? Or that, as profound as it was, it was still rather off-beat of ND to make us “think” that Sully was dead (or even further, fails to make any difference to the quality of the game itself)?

[NOTE: Of course, one can argue, "Who gives a sh*t anymore, the game's already been out for half a year, anyway.", but for the sake of a lack of any other mention of this, why not discuss it now, lol? Either way, it might bring up some other interesting ideas to the table that some here might've missed, 'ey. So what the hell. Besides, it took forever to type up that whole thing, lmao.]

Tl;dr, there's more than meets the eye with UC3's last level.

I enjoyed the very end, when everything was toppling.

The game ramped up pretty consistently. Kept things interesting.

Funny you'd mention that, because I was actually referring to the level before that, rofl.

I know the title makes it sorta misleading, then, since it explicitly calls it Uncharted 3's "Last Level", but I don't know -- I just thought it sounded somewhat awkward calling it the 'second-to-last level' throughout the whole piece, so I changed it to what it is now. Technically, Uncharted is split up into chapters, instead of levels, anyway, so I thought it would be slightly passable; but hey, I guess if it causes too much misunderstanding, I'll probably just change it back, we shall see.

I absolutely love all the Uncharted games as they are tied as my favorite games ever with the Mass Effect games. The only thing that disappointed me with Uncharted 3 was it's length. I feel it should have been the 26 chapters that Uncharted 2 was, and in those scenes it should have been more akin to the walking through Tenzin's village then of action. A solution could have been a more prolonged desert scene.

I enjoyed your article seeing as I just got back to finishing the game the past few days. I didn't appreciate a few of the minor plot holes in the story and the difficulty of the game was probably what kept me from enjoying the sequence of levels on the cruise ship. I get the need for ND to attempt to raise the stakes of Drake's quest by putting him in constant peril, but did anyone else just not get the point of that 2 hour sequence? All I felt it did was allow me to play a 3rd person shooter, which honestly doesn't have the best shooting mechanics, with one of my favourite video game characters. Honestly, I could have easily skipped that entire sequence and not really noticed. It felt to me as if they needed to showcase how amazing their graphic designers and animators were rather then just cutting it out of the story.

That doesn't change the fact that this is one of the few modern action game that tells a story that everyone can actually follow and enjoy the narrative in the process. It is truly a testament that this game didn't fall as far as I thought it should have from Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 was perfectly paced in terms of difficulty, story telling, action sequences and fewer buggy platformer sequences. The very last cut scene of the Uncharted 3 was too familiar after the first two games and I was hoping for a more decisive conclusion to Drake's time as an adventurer of the modern age. That way if Sony ever hires another studio to revive the franchise, and we all know its coming at some point, they would have to create original material outside of this trilogy, rather then direct sequels. I wouldn't have any particular problem with gap fillers or prequels for the series, but there shouldn't ever be a sequel considering the ending sequence for Uncharted 3.

Thanks again for the enjoyable read!