A Marvel to Behold
Going into Uncharted 3 one could say I was more than a little bit excited. After Uncharted 2 I was more than ready for more globe trotting, train hopping, ass kicking action than ever. Among Thieves set such a high precedent for what could follow that I honestly wondered if they could live up to their own standards. I loved Uncharted 2 so much, and played the hell out of the multiplayer that I enjoyed so much, that every other video game that year fell to the waste side. Uncharted 3 was an instant buy for me, no matter if it lived up to the expectations or not, and I am pleased to report it just about did.
First off Uncharted 3 is an amazing game, and it is easily my choice for game of the year, and the one I hope wins in deliberations this year, but it is a game that is also flawed. I wanted to fly through the game just like a movie, so much so that I wound up moving the difficulty level down. I am not inherently bad at video games, but I would rather enjoy the story than face a serious challenge. I would say it helped the experience a little being able to gun down enemies a little easier and not failing as frequently.
There were a few moments sparatclly through the game where I found myself up against a wall and unable to pass it. I would do what the game wanted me to do, but I would just fall. This happened specifically in the Syria level while I was climbing a tower. I was swinging a chain to and from and jumped the way they wanted me to but it took me a good ten tries to finally get to that spot they wanted me to. It was quite fist shankingly frustrating but once I got past it and moved on I got distracted by the awesome the game was.
Other than that the only other things I had difficulty with were after the large battle among the wreckage of the boats I was unsure where to go and had to look around for a good ten minutes and the shadow puzzle. These three flaws that may have only appeared in my game put a damper on the experience a little but did not stop me from having a great time at all.
Now I mentioned earlier that it "just about" reached my expectations. Much like Uncharted 2, Drake's Deception had its set pieces and crazy moments, but I remember being much more "wowed" while playing Among Thieves. Whether it was riding a train for multiple levels, or jumping through a falling building, or climbing up a train that is falling over the side of a cliff, Uncharted 2 was simply amazing, and while some of those "wow"s are in U3 as well, U2 just did them better.
But Uncharted 3 shines in a different light and what I believe makes it the game of the year is the story, and how well it is integrated into a video game. This game's story is something to behold, with character development, and heart renching moments, and a flash back to boot, I enjoyed it and was on edge the entire time. A moment within one of the final chapters of the game had me yelling at my television and got my roommate quite concerned. I could sit here and type about the gunplay, or the AI, or the traversal, and animations, but the shining light of this game is really the story. It really feels like you are reading a page turner, or watching a relentless movie.
Uncharted 3 has its flaws, if you diverge from what they want you to do you will break the flow of action, or if you die the same will happen. But falling out of a f-ing airplane, hallucinating, and the sheer level of detail and graphical design easily outweigh any negatives that could come out of this game. Uncharted 3 was an amazing experience, and I will be diving into this multiplayer more so than any other game I have bought this year.
