Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception-review

I am sort of a “Johnny Come-Lately” to this series.  For a long time I avoided it because at first glance it comes off as a male version of a “Tomb Raider” game. For a game heralding itself as a star series for the Playstation 3 game console, I’m getting a better understanding why the hype is so big for the “Uncharted” series.

In “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” you play as Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter who goes around the world seeking objects of mystery.  In this chapter he is looking into a ring that belonged to Sir Francis Drake and legend tells it might lead to a fabled lost Arabian City.  With the help of his friends, he must get there before a gang of nefarious criminals and unravel the mystery.

Elements of this game share a lot of “Tomb Raider’s” style of game play.  The major difference is that there is less emphasis on the puzzles and more on the shooter action. The biggest downside to this game is that it becomes repetitive quickly.  The game can be broken into sections that all flow like this:

-Cut scene

-Jump around high areas.

-Solve a puzzle.

-Shoot the villains

-Run from something.

-Repeat.

It is only on rare occasion there is a slight variant on the flow, but for the most part all 22 chapters of this game were comprised of these elements. 

I might give this game a bad time for being repetitive, but there is one element that this game does really well and that’s its story.  The story is solid and the characters and really well defined and it feels at time like you are playing a well crafted movie.  Even the voice actors seem to be doing a good job giving the characters an element of life that seldom seen in games lately.

“Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” also has the option to play in multiplayer and co-op mode which I haven’t given much of a try to as of yet.  I would say the game is worth looking into if you like shooter or action games that are on sale.  Normally I wouldn’t have gotten it at all, but it came with the new PS3 which makes it a pretty smooth bit of marketing on Sony’s part.  If you are considering purchasing a PS3 and are thinking about getting one with this game, I’d recommend it.