i really enjoyed this iteration of uncharted however i would say it's my least favorite of the 3. really nice and fun game however it just didnt take the series further. graphics arent that much better than uc2, it feels a lot shorter, there is basically no final boss fight, they never show u whats in that big thing marlowe is trying to get out of the water, the wrecked pirate ship chapters are sooooo boring, idk there is a lot more but the game just lacked the wwwwwwoooooooooooooowww. with all that being said i still really really enjoyed the game and had a great time playing it.

That it's a shame that there are no cheats/weapons/costumes to unlock and use for a second playthrough.

Amazing game, my game of the year and my favorite Uncharted. : )

I need to go back and play Uncharted 2 to make sure, but my initial reaction after finishing 3 is that 2 was a more fun experience. I really believe that Naughty Dog is doing some next level shit in Uncharted 3 and their tech is the best in the business, but I think that the storytelling and the great pacing of 2 got lost in 3.

Gameplay was weak, story and characters were enjoyable as ever and... I'll just leave this here.

It surpassed Uncharted 3 in terms of action setpieces, I feel, however it's not as good as its predecessor in most other areas. I still really enjoyed it overall, though.

It's a one trick pony trying to learn new tricks but failing.

I feel the overall package is the best in the series, but the campaign isn't as good as 2 (and I haven't played 1).

@Abyssfull: I read your review and I really agree with what you said about Uncharted 3 falling back on some of the mistakes made in the first game. The combat in 3 did that stupid trick of spawning a bunch of enemies from the area where you entered, which was one of the biggest problems with the first game and was hugely improved in 2. I just feel like Naughty Dog thought that they needed more combat when really I just wanted to quickly dispatch the enemies present and then move on to the better parts of the game.

It was great. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but that's fine.

I know that it's an amazing game, one of the best this year, but I can't help feeling that I enjoyed Uncharted 2 more. I wish that I had stayed away from coverage of the game, or that Naughty Dog had showed less huge moments. In the big set pieces that had been shown off, I couldn't help thinking "This would be way cooler if I didn't know about it already" In Uncharted 2, I barely knew what was coming.

I feel like I could happily play Uncharted 4 right now.

@RadJoshCon said:

@Abyssfull: I read your review and I really agree with what you said about Uncharted 3 falling back on some of the mistakes made in the first game. The combat in 3 did that stupid trick of spawning a bunch of enemies from the area where you entered, which was one of the biggest problems with the first game and was hugely improved in 2. I just feel like Naughty Dog thought that they needed more combat when really I just wanted to quickly dispatch the enemies present and then move on to the better parts of the game.

Cheers for that! And yeah, it's weird, because during the first half I was thinking to myself how so fewer combat scenarios there were over Uncharted 2. Then as soon as you hit Yemen to join Elena it all goes ape shit, completely overwhelming you with a stupidly huge amount of enemies in every turn. Playing the campaign on hard mode from the outset was the worst mistake I made, too... it completely spoiled my first ever playthrough, and so many set-pieces were ruined because of me dying over and over. But I had no reason to expect such looming frustration, though, because Uncharted 2, while not exactly easy, was very doable and I had loads of fun starting straight from hard mode.

I didn't use that frustrating to tamper with my review, though, because with whatever difficulty you're playing on, a lot of the later combat encounter designs were still outright lazy.

Look, I was a huge fan of Uncharted 2. It was my favorite game of 2009, in fact. No one was looking forward to UC3 more than I was, but I'm not going to deceive myself into thinking I liked Uncharted 3 better. It's a far lesser game in many respects. I know the gun-play argument is very subjective, but when UC2 came out, it became my go-to standard for third-person cover-based shooters, easily unseating Gears of War 2.

But with UC3, the gun-play just isn't as much fun. When I died, I didn't feel as though I was out-fought, but that the controls were simply being unwieldy. After finishing UC3, I hopped right back into UC2, and I immediately noticed just how much better the shooting was in the previous game. It's strange, but Gears of War 3 brought the gun-play of that franchise to the best-of-class status, but I fully expected Uncharted 3 to further improve it's gun-play and reclaim its throne. Unfortunately, UC3 not only did not improve on its predecessor, it actually diminished in quality and fun.

Visually, the game is also noticeably sloppier than Uncharted 2. Spin the camera around Drake in UC2, and you'll see some of the absolute best motion-blur in any game, it gave a 30 fps game a much smoother look. But in UC3 it's completely absent, really making the framerate drops (which are surprisingly frequent) immediately and drastically apparent. If I had to guess, I would say the implementation of 3D functionality might be to blame. I don't know for certain, obviously, but I'm eager to hear more knowledgeable people speak on that.

The story, while having some great ideas such as revealing Nate's past with Sully, is an absolute train wreck. Chloe and Cutter just drop out of the story never to be heard from again, and Salim (?) just appears as a plot device. Talbot is a total enigma without even the pretense of development, as is Marlowe. I know suspension of disbelief is necessary in action adventure, but one absurd event after another slaps you in the face, not even giving you the opportunity to find the story's grounding. The very ending was well done, but it works because it is completely unrelated to the main plot. I could have watched that scene between Drake and Elena on youtube without any knowledge of what happened during the game, and it would have worked just as well. The dramatic payoff is due to the actor's performances and my emotional investment in the characters during the previous two games.

I'm not going to say any one else is "wrong" to really like the game, but looking at Brad's 5-star review does make me just scratch my head and wonder if he liked Uncharted 2 for the same reasons I did, since I would hardly say Naughty Dog "did it again".

I wish they had.

@Abyssfull said:

@RadJoshCon said:

@Abyssfull: I read your review and I really agree with what you said about Uncharted 3 falling back on some of the mistakes made in the first game. The combat in 3 did that stupid trick of spawning a bunch of enemies from the area where you entered, which was one of the biggest problems with the first game and was hugely improved in 2. I just feel like Naughty Dog thought that they needed more combat when really I just wanted to quickly dispatch the enemies present and then move on to the better parts of the game.

Cheers for that! And yeah, it's weird, because during the first half I was thinking to myself how so fewer combat scenarios there were over Uncharted 2. Then as soon as you hit Yemen to join Elena it all goes ape shit, completely overwhelming you with a stupidly huge amount of enemies in every turn. Playing the campaign on hard mode from the outset was the worst mistake I made, too... it completely spoiled my first ever playthrough, and so many set-pieces were ruined because of me dying over and over. But I had no reason to expect such looming frustration, though, because Uncharted 2, while not exactly easy, was very doable and I had loads of fun starting straight from hard mode.

I didn't use that frustrating to tamper with my review, though, because with whatever difficulty you're playing on, a lot of the later combat encounter designs were still outright lazy.

Yeah. I had the same experience cause I played 2 from the start on hard and I did the same with 3, which caused a lot of frustration. I would say that I would play it again on Normal to see if that is more fun, but unlike 2 I don't really feel like the story beats and character interactions are good enough to get me to do that.

Like @Hashbrowns said, the story just didn't come together. They tried to play Salim off like a Tenzen from 2 but the character interaction is almost completely non-existent. And, I don't know about you guys but I get a fuzzy feeling inside whenever I see Drake and Elena interact and, despite the implied developments, I felt like the most interesting couple of characters didn't get enough of the snappy interaction that was present in 1 and 2. Honestly, thinking back, Uncharted 1 may have had better moment to moment dialogue than 3.

Ultimately, like I said in my first post, I think that Uncharted 3 is a technical marvel, but it takes so many steps backwards in terms of its storytelling and combat scenarios.

Confusion and bad combat still, but I enjoyed the game nonetheless, just sad to see combat has stayed the same for 4 years now

Loved the hell out of it, but overall less memorable than 2. Like many are saying, how can you get any better that what they did in two? I love the whole series, but you could tell in the first that their potential wasn't quite all there. They had the premise down well, but the gameplay and storytelling definately felt all wrong. Then 2 took that premise and added perfect 3rd person gameplay, and superb storytelling. It definately deserved all of the GOTY awards. I in no way saw how they could possibly improve on 2 in any significant way other than just doing another one.

I don't feel dissapointed in the least. All in all, it's another Uncharted game. It is just tarnished a bit by the fact that it's predecessor was pretty much the perfect game in the series in everyway. The only thing I could have honestly wished for was maybe an extra 2-3 more hours, because frankly I didn't want it to end.

It truly is a superb game in every way, it's just overshadowed too much by how its predecessor blew everyone out of the water. I cannot wait to get a try at some MP and CO-OP and a second playthrough on a harder difficulty. Most definately near the top of my favorites of the year!

Really good game, almost great. Great story was held back by clumsy gameplay. It has some great setpieces and legit wow moments for me (I mean, who's too jaded to admit that?). Overall, not as good as the second game which is one of my favorites. I feel the shooting got a little worse this time around. Crushing mode felt much more cheap and out of my hands. Also, the platforming didn't really improve at all.

Underwhelming. Everything in the game was either spoiled in trailers and/or done better in U2.

Still fun though. Especially when I finally decided to just play on Easy.

I enjoyed it but there were parts where I wanted it to hurry up and get to the end. The shooting grew tedious, especially the parts with the pirates.

It's a great game that just happens to be hampered by its reliance on excessive action-sequences. 

WTF guys? Uncharted 3 was great! Gameplay is the same as it ever was : great!

Ugh... Haters gotta hate I guess....

So far Uncharted 3 is the most disappointing game this year for me. Don‘t get me wrong it‘s still a good or at least okay-ish game, but after part 2 I was expecting a little bit more...

The gunplay was a step back from part 2, [insert the already stated complaints like bullet sponges, swarming AI etc here], and there were scenes, especially the ship graveyard or the part in the desert with the 2 vehicular turrets and a lot of snipers and RPG guys in the sand storm where I was close to break the pad and never touch the game again. (I still finished the game though, maybe this also led to my disappointment as there was no real „ gratification“ for me after I forced myself through this stages...)

Also it didn‘t helped that the showed nearly all of the „better“ set pieces in their trailers, and yes I know it‘s my own fault if I watch those trailers beforehand and I usually have no problem with seeing stuff like this before I play the games, but in the case of Uncharted where the set pieces are a vital point of the game I considered this as a problem.

Another problem were that there were recycled sequences from part 2 like the the ambush on the caravan and jumping from one car to the other, or the final stage is collapsing and you have to run to the exit, including jumping into your death due to unfortunate camera angles.

At least there was no stupid final boss fight in part 3, but this might be the only thing which was superior to part 2.

Storywise I would say the stuff about the past of Drake and Sully was interesting but the main story line with Marlow and her secret society was kind of meh and not very well, or at least interestingly told.

I had moments of amazement - The Burning Chateau, The Shipyard and Sinking Ship and on the whole I thought the gameplay and the action were up to par with the first game. The only thing was that it wasn't better than the first game so it didn't feel particulaly new - it was still lots of fun though.

The let down was the story and interaction between the characters which was so good in the second game. Maybe I missed a lot of things, but it never seemed to explain why Elaina and Drake where no longer together, or why Talbot never got injured when he was shot - or why all his cronies looked exactly the same (although maybe that was just stylistic choice). As some others have pointed out it was also poor the way Chole and Cutter just vanished part way through the game. They don't seem to have a use for Chole now she is not Drake's love interest and I felt her character was wasted a bit. She is a really cool personality and she felt a little neutered.

To me it just felt like they wanted to go for a story where Drake's obsession was becoming out of control and he was leading them down to destruction but they knew this would be too dark for the general audience so they only hinted at it - and maybe changed his real madness to the madness inspired by the water in the lost city (but that's just my theory)

In anycase the story to me felt like Drake dragging all the others on an unwilling killing spree in the desert and as a result didn't have the charm and lightness of the second game. I don't think they knew where to take the characters and so it felt like a bit of a mess.

TLDR: This sounds like I am criticsing the game overly but I did really enjoy it, however this time the enjoyment came from the gameplay rather than the gameplay and the story.

@Sezzilla:

I love advertising the hub... join the Giantbomb Uncharted 3 hub! Game Nights are on Saturday 2 pm PST

Anyways, I for one loved it better than Uncharted 2! The sensitivity of the game might throw you off at first, but I just set the sensitivity to max and it felt normal. One of my favorite things about the game is the improved melee. You can now use your gun and your environment for melee combat, and it made combat even more enjoyable than it already is. Also, Nate and Sully are explored better,which made them more interesting than they already were. Another thing is the new character Charlie Cutter, who adds more wise-ass cracks to the game, making the game funnier. Oh and of course the set-pieces! For me, the set pieces here are better executed and just overall more amazing than the previous games. The moving train of Uncharted 2 felt very less in comparison to the Airplane scene, and the Boat level was great as well. As for after the Boat sinking and Drake ends up in the same city he was in before, he was probably near there anyways. Although, I have to say one of my least favorite parts is the multitude of spider problems. Why the hell were those from anyways?!

It's one of those games that suffers from being the sequel to a game that's pretty much flawless. No matter what they would have done with UC3 on the current generation of consoles it would have felt a bit underwhelming. Still one of the best games, if not the best(?), this year. They did some very interesting things with the characters which I really enjoyed. Also did they change the aiming or something because I remember the shooting in UC2 being really responsive but now it felt a bit sluggish?

Everything but the part where I had to shoot guys was great, seriously I was frustrated constantly during combat, died so much from such random bullshit I felt I had no or little control over. Story was a bit slow in the first half but really picked up in the 2nd. Highlights probably being getting to play as young drake and wandering in the desert. Set piece wise I would say the plane bit was the most impressive but I died like 10 times so it was super frustrating for me so I ended up enjoying the truck jumping off horse thing more.

Also is it me or did the game just kinda... end once you got to the underground hidden city, like yeah I figured it would end there but like all of a sudden sullys dead, then hes not dead, then the old chick is sinking in sand, then your having a knife fight and doing one of the most frustrating platforming sequences in history, then its over. I dunno overall I definitely liked 2 alot more.

I loved the rollercoaster ride of set pieces and meeting up with Nathamn, Sully and the rest of the crew again. It was a step down from Uncharted 2, but that may be just cause that game was such a revelation and they couldn't top that wow factor.

I never had a problem with the shooting and combat and this is coming off of Gears Of War 3 and Batman: Arkham City, games which are superior in those areas.

My main criticism aside from the lack of innovation or upping the ante was how the game seemed to skim over a little too much. I wouldn't mind some more of Nathan, Sully, Chloe and Cutter going over what they're doing than just being thrown around. They really botched delving deeper into what had happened to Nate and Elena since the last game (They were married?!). And some more young Nate and young Sully would be tremendous. A lot of the game felt rushed.

Then again, I played through it now during a break from Dark Souls, so I guess anything would feel rushed in comparison. Speaking of which, that probably upped the entertainment value of Uncharted 3 a lot more for me. After being beaten into submission by Dark Souls for well over 50 hours, it was nice to have a thrill ride that put up a passable challenge and had some amazing set pieces.

I loved it all the way through, but I really disliked the fighting parts. The fist fighting really isn't good at all and it sucked during the parts when they forced you to fight a bunch of guys. It really isn't Uncharted 3's strength, yet they decided to have THREE sections like this. Other than that I loved it. It did feel a bit short as I finished it in 8 hours but it was a great hours. The horse chase sequence was probably my favorite part of the game. Overall I think I like Uncharted 2 better because it had some really way more memorable parts like the train, Tenzen, and the helicopter fights. Again, I liked 3 a lot, but 2 was just so much more memorable.

Having just finished it, the ending was abrupt, but thankfully there was no end boss, as boss fights suck pretty much now. The combat was indeed "off", perhaps because the game is harder (more enemies who are aggressive). The brawling was an interesting idea but doesn't quire work when being shot at. The stealth part never worked for me, especially since the sniper weapon seemed to notify everyone that I was there. The "supernatural"element was well used though.

Graphics are much improved, especially around lighting and shadows. The sand/water tech was great, but underused. I died so often at the end just gaping at the destruction effects.

But in the end, the controls do hamper the fun and make this seem slightly rushed. The story felt weak and didn't delve much into the new characters or expand on existing ones. Great set pieces, but missing the emotional punch Uncharted 2 had.

Hopefully for PS4 they rework the mechanics. I want huge puzzle rooms, inventive platforming, more stealth/brawling (batman like) and less cover-based shooting. More open worldy too perhaps.

A good story told very poorly, especially at the end. Everything about the last two chapters was rushed.

I'm mostly satisfied but I think its their most unpolished one yet. Got lost alot & ran into some annoying bugs. Enemies seem to be dumber also.

i understand what you all mean by the janky shooting, but i noticed its only in the campaign? i felt the controls to be very unresponsive and not precise enough. But hopping into MP and it all seemed fine? Either way yeah i enjoyed this game. i felt the story was the biggest issue with this game. The action and the set pieces were amazing, arguably the best were the chateau and the sinking ship (which was all shown already). The melee combat really amazed me, it was very fluid and made combat more enjoyable.

@juice8367 said:

I'm mostly satisfied but I think its their most unpolished one yet. Got lost alot & ran into some annoying bugs. Enemies seem to be dumber also.

Definitely. Even if they are much more aggressive this time around and still retain their God-like accuracy, even under the most ridiculous hazards, there's been plenty of times where I've seen them throw grenades at each other or at walls resulting in them killing themselves.

Underwhelming. Everything in the game was either spoiled in trailers and/or done better in U2. Still fun though. Especially when I finally decided to just play on Easy.

@juice8367 said:

I'm mostly satisfied but I think its their most unpolished one yet. Got lost alot & ran into some annoying bugs. Enemies seem to be dumber also.

Definitely. Even if they are much more aggressive this time around and still retain their God-like accuracy, even under the most ridiculous hazards, there's been plenty of times where I've seen them throw grenades at each other or at walls resulting in them killing themselves.

As many have said before me I enjoyed my time with it, but I think its my least favorite in the series so far.

It had amazing set pieces and the game was stunning graphically from start to finish, but it made fatal flaws along the way that dimished the overall experience.

The pacing was completely off. The first half of the game was loaded with puzzles, while the second half had almost none. Uncharted 2 had a perfect balance of shooting, puzzles, set pieces, and cut scenes. It seemed like naughty dog was just mashing everything they had into certain parts and it felt bad.

Like so many have said before the combat in this game was just unfair. There were multiple times in both 1 and 2 where I lost in a certain spot a lot, but I never felt as cheated as I did in this game. The enemy placement and the sheer amount of guys that were thrown at me were just unfair and not fun. By the end of the game I just wanted to be done, and that is not what you want. When I finished both uncharted 1 and 2 I hopped right back in and started a new game. Right now, I dont know when I will play through it again.

Finally this is a minor complaint, but they really brought out Drakes dark side in this game. I always thought he was an extremely likable and relatable character, but in this they portrayed him as an extremely selfish person and honestly took away a lot of his light hearted nature and it honestly just made me not enjoy the game as much. It just seemed like they lost touch of what makes Drake a great character.

I will leave this saying that I love the Uncharted series, it is easily the best console series to come out of this generation, but I hope naughty dog stops. They need to move on to a new IP and just forget about uncharted for awhile. If they were to come to back to uncharted this gen I really hope they do something like some downloadable games or some other small projects just to get refreshed.

I enjoyed the Gunplay it isn't as extremely precise as Gears but it has its own feel to it and I never had a problem with it. I overall liked the story better than UC2 because I never really hated Laszarevic so seeing him die wasn't as satisfying as seeing Marlowe die. UC2 had better moments than UC3. Overall UC3 is better in some ways but Naughty Dog shouldn't have given away a lot of the big moments in the game. The parts that weren't shown during the end weren't as Holy Shit as the chateu burning or falling out of the airplane.

@HarlechQuinn: agree with you that boss fight in 2 was the worst part of the game

I just finished 2 minutes ago, credits are playing, Great Game! great game great game great game! I got to accept the mechanics and how the combat was designed. The only real problem was that my use of Triangle was hit or miss. I would get it, then lose it. It was hitting it exactly when the game wanted you to. I'm going back to the last fight just because of that, not because I really want to go through again. After the fact, I want to learn what the game had taught me, and got the majority of time.

I'm really happy to have this game in my collection, and will play it again in a year. As good as 2 was, I never had that impulse...

The only real negatives it that I think they could have thrown Drake a water bottle at one point just to keep it more realistic,(Drake is a friggen Tank!) And the bit with Sully towards the 2 last chapters was a bit, well I guess it made sense. I would have said Deliriant (short acting one though) instead of Hallucinogenic, myself...don't know why I nitpick that except it would have probably more correct. WUZ that-that LSD Ah hears about in San Fran sis co? craaaazzzy..heh. Really......no wonder GB is so whacked.

Great game.

@Milkman said:

It was great. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but that's fine.

This^^^

and I'm still not sure where in the story 'Drakes Deception' occurred....

@Lazyaza said:

Everything but the part where I had to shoot guys was great, seriously I was frustrated constantly during combat, died so much from such random bullshit I felt I had no or little control over. Story was a bit slow in the first half but really picked up in the 2nd. Highlights probably being getting to play as young drake and wandering in the desert. Set piece wise I would say the plane bit was the most impressive but I died like 10 times so it was super frustrating for me so I ended up enjoying the truck jumping off horse thing more.

Also is it me or did the game just kinda... end once you got to the underground hidden city, like yeah I figured it would end there but like all of a sudden sullys dead, then hes not dead, then the old chick is sinking in sand, then your having a knife fight and doing one of the most frustrating platforming sequences in history, then its over. I dunno overall I definitely liked 2 alot more.

I should've waited an just quoted you. You said everything that I felt exactly. Its still a great game and Uncharted remains one of my favorite franchises, but i was def a little disappointed i guess because i had such high hoped. Also I thought the increased difficulty or cheapness on Normal, mind you, was pure ridiculous and unnecessary. I died more times on Normal in Uncharted 3 than I did the whole run-through on Crushing on Uncharted 1

I think as far as games go it is a pretty fantastic piece of entertainment, but i do feel that it could of been a little better. I personally would of liked to spend more time exploring the sand Atlantis place. Really did not enjoy the whole drugged sequences and some of the shootouts were just brutally hard which kind of broke the momentum, and momentum is very important in uncharted. I also wish there was a bit more interaction with the characters. So basically i really enjoyed my time with it, and i like the multiplayer and i will most definitely go through the campaign a few more times, but it did lack one or two things.

@ozzdog12 said:

@Milkman said:

It was great. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but that's fine.

This^^^

and I'm still not sure where in the story 'Drakes Deception' occurred....

Drake deceived a whole bunch of people throughout the entire game actually. The game opens with a great deceptions, it's revealed that his name isn't even Nathan Drake and no one else knows except Marlowe who investigated him, so he probably isn't even related to Sir Francis at all. Because of that, no one actually understands why he was so obsessed with Drake's findings, the ring, or any of that stuff. That was the best part about the story for me.

What I'm more interested in is what the hell that stuff with Talbot was about? They keep alluding that he's immortal and can teleport. Everyone I've asked so far has said either "Yeah, that's weird" or "It's the drugs. You're drugged when he does that stuff", but that isn't even true. When Talbot appeared before Charlie, took the book, then vanished, only Charlie was drugged. Same for when Charlie shot him and he went down. Is the camera supposed to be some kind of omniscient entity that shows everyone's vision at once?

Also, combat suffered the same problem that Uncharted 1 had and Uncharted 2 FIXED: too many dudes. Why are there so many dudes? I kill like 12 dudes, wait a few seconds, get from behind cover, MORE DUDES. I got the "Kill 100 people with the ________" trophies for weapons I barely even used just because I ran out of ammo for the weapons I actually liked and had to kill more dudes.

I don't want to troll here but man I hate this game IMO this game was rushed n it turned out to be garbage. The story makes no sense y am I here or there n the shooting wow man that shooting haha n it's combat is boring very repetitive. Its like they wanted to make gears of war 3 shooting n cover but without the smoothness of gears n they tried to do batman's combat but boring. This game had a lot of potential the visuals are awesome n the characters were already there they build them so perfect in the first two but here in this game it's like u put Robert de Niro, al pacino, jack nickolson n give them a funny script but the movie makes no sense n what do u got...a movie with great actors but with no purpose. It's exactly the same here drake sully are awesome even here but again their awesome but it's cause the first two were classic games build them into the characters we love.

Great game but not as good as Uncharted 2 I think.

I thought the environments weren't as good as U2 and the story is a bit weaker but the biggest complaint I have is the removal of the "campaign extras" as it were. I loved replaying the games with the options to have any gun and fast/slow mode. It's more than disappointing that it was taken out for technical reasons, had I known they removed it, I probably would have just rented it. If it's the case for U4, I probably will just rent it.

As a whole great, in comparison to U2, I think it falls short.

@Anjon said:

@ozzdog12 said:

@Milkman said:

It was great. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but that's fine.

This^^^

and I'm still not sure where in the story 'Drakes Deception' occurred....

Drake deceived a whole bunch of people throughout the entire game actually. The game opens with a great deceptions, it's revealed that his name isn't even Nathan Drake and no one else knows except Marlowe who investigated him, so he probably isn't even related to Sir Francis at all. Because of that, no one actually understands why he was so obsessed with Drake's findings, the ring, or any of that stuff. That was the best part about the story for me.

What I'm more interested in is what the hell that stuff with Talbot was about? They keep alluding that he's immortal and can teleport. Everyone I've asked so far has said either "Yeah, that's weird" or "It's the drugs. You're drugged when he does that stuff", but that isn't even true. When Talbot appeared before Charlie, took the book, then vanished, only Charlie was drugged. Same for when Charlie shot him and he went down. Is the camera supposed to be some kind of omniscient entity that shows everyone's vision at once?

Also, combat suffered the same problem that Uncharted 1 had and Uncharted 2 FIXED: too many dudes. Why are there so many dudes? I kill like 12 dudes, wait a few seconds, get from behind cover, MORE DUDES. I got the "Kill 100 people with the ________" trophies for weapons I barely even used just because I ran out of ammo for the weapons I actually liked and had to kill more dudes.

I realize that, but to me the title implies(or least in my head) that sometime throughout this story Drake was going to 'turn' on Sully in order to get closer Ubar, only to find out he didnt turn on him. But all in all I guess he did 'decieve' people

And on the topic of Talbot, I agree, I dont understand how he teleported, but even when Charlie shot him, he wasnt drugged( or least from what I can remember) But even if he wasn't, they never explain how he survived that shot or like you said teleported. If what everyone is saying is true, that brings up 2 points: 1.If he has that kind of power,why is he working for Marlowe and 2. He probably survived that fall.

And on a 3rd note, As much as they led us to believe, I highly doubt this is the last adventure we see with Drake(from Naughty Dog) It may be until the next system,but I can put money on an Uncharted 4

@ozzdog12 said:

@Anjon said:

@ozzdog12 said:

@Milkman said:

It was great. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but that's fine.

This^^^

and I'm still not sure where in the story 'Drakes Deception' occurred....

Drake deceived a whole bunch of people throughout the entire game actually. The game opens with a great deceptions, it's revealed that his name isn't even Nathan Drake and no one else knows except Marlowe who investigated him, so he probably isn't even related to Sir Francis at all. Because of that, no one actually understands why he was so obsessed with Drake's findings, the ring, or any of that stuff. That was the best part about the story for me.

What I'm more interested in is what the hell that stuff with Talbot was about? They keep alluding that he's immortal and can teleport. Everyone I've asked so far has said either "Yeah, that's weird" or "It's the drugs. You're drugged when he does that stuff", but that isn't even true. When Talbot appeared before Charlie, took the book, then vanished, only Charlie was drugged. Same for when Charlie shot him and he went down. Is the camera supposed to be some kind of omniscient entity that shows everyone's vision at once?

Also, combat suffered the same problem that Uncharted 1 had and Uncharted 2 FIXED: too many dudes. Why are there so many dudes? I kill like 12 dudes, wait a few seconds, get from behind cover, MORE DUDES. I got the "Kill 100 people with the ________" trophies for weapons I barely even used just because I ran out of ammo for the weapons I actually liked and had to kill more dudes.

I realize that, but to me the title implies(or least in my head) that sometime throughout this story Drake was going to 'turn' on Sully in order to get closer Ubar, only to find out he didnt turn on him. But all in all I guess he did 'decieve' people

And on the topic of Talbot, I agree, I dont understand how he teleported, but even when Charlie shot him, he wasnt drugged( or least from what I can remember) But even if he wasn't, they never explain how he survived that shot or like you said teleported. If what everyone is saying is true, that brings up 2 points: 1.If he has that kind of power,why is he working for Marlowe and 2. He probably survived that fall.

And on a 3rd note, As much as they led us to believe, I highly doubt this is the last adventure we see with Drake(from Naughty Dog) It may be until the next system,but I can put money on an Uncharted 4

I think Talbot was in love with Marlowe going by his behavior at the sandpit, but the surviving the Charlie shot who did so in front of everyone, drugged or faking it, has me stumped. Talbot did deal in hallucination, but it seemed chemically derived rather than supernatural. Like Drake he was a tank, and perhaps with him it is implied that something strange is going on with him. Naughty Dog could not leave such a large plot hole by accident, and there is always a way to work around it..ie, Talbot had body armor and the shot merely caused the skin to rupture underneath...something.

@Hashbrowns said:

Look, I was a huge fan of Uncharted 2. It was my favorite game of 2009, in fact. No one was looking forward to UC3 more than I was, but I'm not going to deceive myself into thinking I liked Uncharted 3 better. It's a far lesser game in many respects. I know the gun-play argument is very subjective, but when UC2 came out, it became my go-to standard for third-person cover-based shooters, easily unseating Gears of War 2.

But with UC3, the gun-play just isn't as much fun. When I died, I didn't feel as though I was out-fought, but that the controls were simply being unwieldy. After finishing UC3, I hopped right back into UC2, and I immediately noticed just how much better the shooting was in the previous game. It's strange, but Gears of War 3 brought the gun-play of that franchise to the best-of-class status, but I fully expected Uncharted 3 to further improve it's gun-play and reclaim its throne. Unfortunately, UC3 not only did not improve on its predecessor, it actually diminished in quality and fun.

Visually, the game is also noticeably sloppier than Uncharted 2. Spin the camera around Drake in UC2, and you'll see some of the absolute best motion-blur in any game, it gave a 30 fps game a much smoother look. But in UC3 it's completely absent, really making the framerate drops (which are surprisingly frequent) immediately and drastically apparent. If I had to guess, I would say the implementation of 3D functionality might be to blame. I don't know for certain, obviously, but I'm eager to hear more knowledgeable people speak on that.

The story, while having some great ideas such as revealing Nate's past with Sully, is an absolute train wreck. Chloe and Cutter just drop out of the story never to be heard from again, and Salim (?) just appears as a plot device. Talbot is a total enigma without even the pretense of development, as is Marlowe. I know suspension of disbelief is necessary in action adventure, but one absurd event after another slaps you in the face, not even giving you the opportunity to find the story's grounding. The very ending was well done, but it works because it is completely unrelated to the main plot. I could have watched that scene between Drake and Elena on youtube without any knowledge of what happened during the game, and it would have worked just as well. The dramatic payoff is due to the actor's performances and my emotional investment in the characters during the previous two games.

I'm not going to say any one else is "wrong" to really like the game, but looking at Brad's 5-star review does make me just scratch my head and wonder if he liked Uncharted 2 for the same reasons I did, since I would hardly say Naughty Dog "did it again".

I wish they had.

Agreed.

I really wished they touched more on the actual characters of Talbot and Marlowe... we barely knew anything about them. Alot of plot devices just shoved in for the sake of "yeah that works" just started ruining the game for me. As you said, i felt good seeing the ending with Elena and Drake but they needed to do more to explain why some characters were doing what they were doing and where some just disappeared to.

The platforming and chase sequences were a bit too trial-and-error. The combat reminded me more of the first Uncharted with it's multiple waves of bad guys; who happened to all take just a few too many bullets to dispatch. I really wanted to enjoy the (pretty fun) melee combat, but it was hard to be in a fight with one bad guy while 3 snipers, 2 armor dudes with shotguns, and 6 other guys were shooting me (and only me, Sully/Elena weren't too useful as distractions or helpers).

The performances were fantastic, the story is compelling with some great emotional beats, and the villains (not the henchmen) are appropriately sinister. However, it's a shame that my after-game thoughts weren't of the story but of the "one (two, three) more wave(s)" that soured every major combat sequence.