Way back in 2009, when I recently entered High School, developer Naughty Dog released a game that would go on to become so iconic, its influence can still be felt in media today. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was what brought the series from good to spectacular. The first Uncharted game, Drake’s Fortune was a success, but still considered by many to be a sleeper-hit. The series Uncharted is critically acclaimed for its polish, characters, bombastic set-pieces and soundtrack. It is one of my personal favorite game franchises of all time as I’ve always had that call for globetrotting adventures and historical research. Fortunately (teehee), the Uncharted series has been decisively concluded with Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and received, in my opinion, a perfect sendoff to our loveable treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Props to Naughty Dog for deciding to end it when it was on top. With how exceptionally well-done Uncharted 2 was, the follow-up had colossal shoes to fill.
After the major success of Uncharted 2, the employees of Naughty Dog would split into two teams to focus on different upcoming projects. One of the teams would create what would eventually become the gigantic hit The Last of Us, while the other would carry on with a much anticipated third installment in the Uncharted series. When Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception released in 2011 it received universal critical-praise. As expected, Naughty Dog delivered another instant classic to their already impressive lineup. Despite the success, the game seemed to have fallen a tad short of the immense impact of Among Thieves. All of the ingredients were there to make the game a near perfect masterpiece like its predecessor, so where exactly did it misstep?
The reason Uncharted 2 did so well and is such a joy to revisit is because of its tight story, groundbreaking visuals/gameplay and large scope of action set-pieces. The pacing in Uncharted 2 is perfect. This brings us to the first issue with Uncharted 3… I once saw a documentary behind-the-scenes at Naughty Dog where one of the developers admitted that Uncharted 3 was created with the idea of locations and set-pieces in mind first, and then crafting the story around that; and boy does it show. I won’t go too into spoilers but, there is an entire ship-graveyard section that goes on for four chapters that is completely superfluous to the plot. While it contains lots of adrenaline-fueled, action-packed badassary, including one of the set-piece highlights of the whole series, it definitely feels very shoe-horned in. You can tell the developers just wanted to have a big sinking ship section without giving much thought to how it would fit narratively. It adds zilch to the story, but I would never wish for it to be cut either because of how exciting it is to play through. I just wish there was maybe a more meaningful reason to bring us to that setting. Parts of these chapters, on the hardest difficulty ‘Crushing’, are a complete fucking nightmare.
Uncharted 3 dives more into Nathan Drake and his mentor Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan’s background. There’s a very endearing couple of chapters in Cartagena, Colombia showing how they first met and formed their bond. Through a quick series of escalations we end up in a rooftop chase scene playing as a teenaged Drake. The Spanish-guitar track during this scene is FIRE. The first half of the game seems to have a tighter narrative overall than the second. A new cockney accented bloke named Cutter is introduced early on and we also see the return of capable and sexy treasure-hunter Chloe Frazer. Unfortunately, these two likable allies are arbitrarily shafted around the half-way point and don’t show up again for the rest of the game. According to a few articles online, this was due to actor Graham McTavish, who played Cutter, having scheduling conflicts and needing to be in New Zealand to play a dwarf in one of the Hobbit movies. Initially, Cutter was supposed to be with you for the whole ride but they had to make story alterations due to this inconvenience. I understand contractual obligations but still, I would’ve hoped they could’ve figured this out sooner as the sudden dismissal of these two from the plot felt very abrupt. Just when I was beginning to really like the guy, away he goes. Chloe at least gets a nice nod in Uncharted 4 and even eventually her own game Lost Legacy, but with Cutter, we get fuck-all. Just a brief mention of him by name in U4.
Uncharted 3 does a decent amount of jumping around from location-to-location, especially in the first half. I enjoy all of the intriguing settings and exploring the different ruins but you can certainly tell that the storyboarding consisted of the team going “You know what else would be super rad?….”, and then proceeded to stitch together some sort of loose plot out of that. I mean, like I said before, they even confessed this. It makes the game’s narrative feel somewhat disjointed at times. Despite bouncing around from one country to the next, this game still contains some of the most iconic and visually stunning moments in the entire series. The Cargo Plane sequence alone is one of the most unforgettable and jaw-dropping levels in a video game ever. It’s a masterclass; perfectly paced, heart-pounding, visually timeless, graphically impressive, chaotic and with cinematic flair. Even though it takes place, I believe, within the same day after Nathan Drake narrowly escapes death on that sinking ocean liner. The only break he takes between these two implausible scenarios is grabbing a quick nap and hopefully an Aspirin. For God’s sake Nate, maybe take a day off? Call in sick? I think you’ve earned it man.
Of course, one of the biggest jokes fans will make is that, while Nathan Drake is a charming, wise-cracking ‘good guy’, he is also mercilessly slaughtering hundreds of people, leaving mass casualties within every postal code he enters. I know you can argue it’s all in self-defense but how do you sleep at night knowing you’ve caused more deaths than malfunctioning vending machines? He’s a walking, talking clearance sale for bad guys. He’s the wisecracking smartass who shows up and leaves a trail of bodies and destruction wherever he goes. I can excuse that, it is a video game after all. Where my suspension of disbelief comes to a screeching halt are moments where Nate will get briefly separated from Sully and Elena and has to face off against twenty or so Matrix-looking henchmen in suits (in the desert mind you) with just his fists and occasional fish smackdowns. Nathan Drake isn’t IP-Man! This is plain ridiculous, and it doesn’t even stop here! There’s a few other moments like this scattered around the campaign that feel so lazy and unpolished. At least when he has guns as his disposal you can chalk it up to Nathan Drake possessing the gift of being the luckiest man to ever live. But, when he’s just punching his way through waves of bad guys and cartoonishly whacking them over the heads with a wrench or frying pan, it’s pretty fucking stupid. Especially when they top it all off by throwing in a gigantic juiced-up thug that Nate will slowly take down through a series of bitch slaps. Where do they keep finding these guys? There’s even a moment, after traversing the desert alone for days deprived of any food or water to the point that he’s hallucinating, you stumble across an ancient city surrounded by Marlowe and Talbot’s goons. Nate splashes the equivalent of a teaspoon of dirty water in his face and, within minutes, gets ambushed and sprung back into an intense firefight as if nothing happened. I mean, for real? Get the fuck outta here! Are you kidding me?! I like the addition of takedown animations, but the hand-to-hand combat, while okay, feels more padded and repetitive this time around.
Which brings me to my next point- the villains. The antagonists are pretty interestingly set-up in the first few chapters. They’re a part of this mysterious sinister cult that likes to “control their enemies through fear”. They utilize this chemical that behaves like Scarecrow’s fear-gas from Batman and I think this is an enthralling idea of their mischievous deeds. The bad dude, Talbot, has this occasional trick where he’s able to magically disappear into thin air, like an illusionist. The issue however, is that with all of this potential and buildup, the game’s antagonist side of the story sadly doesn’t deliver. The baddies just kind of stay as generic baddies and there isn’t anything groundbreaking or innovative that earns any significant payoff considering how much promise it showed earlier in the game. They had this tarot-card idea containing prophecies foretold that goes absolutely fucking nowhere as well. The cult had a pretty creepy premise that they could’ve flushed out more had the developers just delayed the game and/or been given more time. There’s a very interesting cutscene when Nathan Drake gets captured by Marlowe and her men after being drugged by the fear toxin thing that dives more into Drake’s backstory. Marlowe, whom I thought was Helen Mirren at first, gets us more connected to his story during this. However, as great as her performance is, she just doesn’t have the same lasting impression as the imposing Lazaravich from Uncharted 2 and her motivations aren’t as compelling. The villains aren’t awful, but there is so much more they could’ve done with them to better understand their incentives. The performances are still strong but their characters are never fully realized.
On a totally separate thought; where the hell do all these swarms of killer spiders keep coming from?!
I enjoy nitpicking my favorite games because it shows that I can still love something while also acknowledging all of its shortcomings. I know it sounds like I’m shitting hard on this game but I do love Uncharted 3. I’ve played through it dozens of times. I revisit the whole series every now-and-then and always have a blast playing through them. Despite U3’s flaws, it’s still an incredible game. There’s so much that it does well that I’m willing to overlook the few drawbacks. The action set-pieces like the burning chateau in France, the chase sequence in Yemen, the Cargo Plane, the Colombia rooftop chase, the cruise ship, the sinking lost city and many more; all of it is a technical marvel and a huge thrill to experience. The soundtrack, once again, is amazing. The characters are all very easy to love and the game is still very fun to play. I just wish they had taken more time with the game as it apparently was rushed for release. A tighter story, more consistent pacing and slightly more refined gameplay and this could’ve stood toe-to-toe with Uncharted 2 & 4. Every gamer should experience this first-class series as it continues to inspire games and movies today.
Sic-Parvis-Magna,
Mikhail
(Despite the flaws, it’s still a Must-Play)
https://opencritic.com/game/1543/uncharted-the-nathan-drake-collection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncharted_3:_Drake%27s_Deception
Sacralised
Excellent review Mikhail.