It's more of the same, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
I haven't got a lot to say about Uncharted 3 that I didn't say about Uncharted 2, if anything.
Uncharted 2 was a fantastic game with fantastic set pieces, adequate shooting mechanics and enjoyable platforming.
This is more of that - but with sand instead of snow!
I don't mean to make that sound like a bad thing.
Uncharted 3 is undoubtedly one of my favorite games this year, but of course in being more of the same it doesn't quite have the same impact the last game had. But I guess it doesn't need to.
Shooting feels more or less the same as it did before and that's fine.
My only complaints in this regard stem more from the PS3 controller than the handling of the game itself, not meaning to go on a scarcely related tangent... But... I don't like how the sticks are positioned, I don't like how the tops of the sticks are rounded rather than slightly inverted. Yeah. I guess I'm basically saying I don't like how PS3 controllers aren't 360 controllers. Makes games on the PS3 feel incredibly off, but especially shooters. Don't feel like I get the same degree of accuracy.
Fortunate the game has a certain amount of aim assist so it's never really an issue.
I feel like combat encounters spike in difficulty at times.
One fight you're cruising a long, shooting your foes with little difficulty.
The next enemies are effectively utilizing flanking techniques and wrecking me.
Perfectly willing to admit that I might well just suck at the game and there were a couple of encounters I turned the difficulty down for because it was just becoming frustrating.
I know Uncharted 2 had a melee component but I feel like it's been expanded in this game.
There's countering and grabs which I don't believe were there before.
Also there are context sensitive moves, for instance if you're near a table with a bottle on it Drake will grab the bottle and smash it over an enemies head which is pretty satisfying.
There are a few dedicated melee sections in the game, but you can get up in peoples faces pretty much any time and it's often a pretty effective strategy to do so provided you've taken out enough foes that you're not getting heavily shot up while playing at fisticuffs.
Stealth game play makes a return and that's largely unchanged.
Still sneaking up on dudes, pressing square and snapping necks.
While it's there I don't think it's ever required, failure just results in a big shootout which can be fun too but it's always satisfying to go around picking them off one by one.
When you're not fighting stuff naturally you're solving puzzles and platforming.
Both of which are pretty fun. The notebook makes a return and offers clues about how to solve some of the games more complicated puzzles.
Got to say while the combat is fun enough and the platforming is fine I really enjoy the puzzles in these games. They aren't ever especially complicated but seeing as how a lot of games nowadays don't have puzzles at all it's still a refreshing change of pace.
The campaign as great as it is won't take you all too long to finish, I did so in only a couple of sittings. So I guess it's a good thing multiplayer makes a return with a fleshed out perks system in addition to some character and weapon customization.
So not to sound like a broken record but it's basically more of the same, but when it's more Uncharted it's hard to complain about.
