Zero Punctuation: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

[KILGAZOR]

"Uncharted 4: Drake's On A Plain"? Oh Yahtzee, you brighten up my day so much.

 

[drummond13]

Harsh but fair, I guess. Even though I enjoyed the game immensely I too did start seeing the cracks in the game - most notably the recurring plot themes from Uncharted 2 and the lack of significant character development in this particular outing.

It was way too tacit and 'alluded to' rather than clearly touched upon... prime offender being the relationship between Drake and Elena. I mean, all this talk of a ring and wearing the ring, and not wearing the ring... yet no mention of the significance of it! So are they married or what?! Way too vague for me.

I disagree that the series is past it;s sell by date though, I finished the game desperate for Uncharted 4 so bring it on Naughty Dog... Bring it on!

Far preferable to having Sully say some forced expository line like "hey, didn't you and Elena get married last year? And then break up shortly after that?" Spoon feeding character relationships is something way too many games do.

Yes, that would quite obviously be shit. Is that what you imagine I was hoping for? lol Thankfully there's some scope between being tickled with a feather and smacked with a sledgehammer.

Heh, true. I guess I felt this game achieved that balance. You complained that it was unclear if they had been married; I thought it was very clear, just not explicitely stated. Almost every other game these days prefers the sledgehammer route, so if a game leans more towards the feather I guess I consider this a plus, not a minus.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

I played Uncharted 1 which was a fine game, but I couldn't see myself playing #2 and #3 due to the same plot given. Don't get me wrong, the game does sound fun but if I don't get into it enough then I stop after the first game.

I always felt that Uncharted 2 made the same mistake that Pirates of the Caribbean 2 did, take a fun cast and story, and suddenly make it grittier, sexier, and have people become chronic backstabbers and pretend backstabbers! And all in the meanwhile ripping off other things! (Monkey Island in case of Pirates, and Indiana Jones and various other things in case of Uncharted)

 

[SiskoBlue]

No it's like an Indiana Jones movie, and nothing like a point and click game which itself was nothing like the movie it was based on. So yes, if you want to play games that look almost real and feel like your in a movie then you need a PS3, PC or an Xbox360. If you want to play terribly dumbed down games incapable of replicating anything but videogames circa 1984, then yes they could have done it on a DS.

It wasn't based off any of the movies.

So why didn't they just use Indiana Jones instead of what appears to be a cheap knockoff?

Alright pedant "nothing like a point and click game which itself was nothing like the it was based on".

Why did they make an original IP instead of using Indiana Jones? Probably the 20% of the profits that would be siphoned off for the licensing fee to use Indiana Jones? Plus we all saw how successful bringing Indiana Jones back was right? If they made Indiana Jones Uncharted it may have distracted from the brilliance of Indiana Jones and the kingdom of bad plots and direction...err I mean skulls.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Now now, we also had Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which was a nifty action adventure game that had an original story, good gameplay, and puzzles that made sense.

 

[ada.lawenda]

what happened to zero punctuation RSS feed?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/rss/articles/editorials/zeropunctuation

It's full of junk for some reason...

 

[Little Duck]

If naughty dog now follow their routine, the next game should be uncharted kart racing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naughty_Dog

 

[historybuff]

I agree because I tried to start this game. Got about an hour in and wanted to punch Drake in the face. He is completely obnoxious, not funny and just makes excuses for everything. The section where he was a kid made me want to curb stomp him. I gave up instantly. I cant stand a game where I have to play as a completely obnoxious, unlikable douchbag.

 

[theriddlen]

I guess next week is MW3, because it's short and Yahtzee needs some more time to play Skyrim.

I cant stand a game where I have to play as a completely obnoxious, unlikable douchbag.

And I absolutely love playing as a obnoxious douchebag. I find obnoxious douchebags easy to identify with, unlike those righteous, nice guy robots, like Cpt. America.

 

[The Crazy Legs]

Well, in that case, I'm an American who loves shooting bread out of a tommy gun. Because I'm American, and that's what Americans do. And I'm proud of the fact.

 

[Photocopier]

They really had a red telephone booth?

That's nothing. Let's play count-the-'Hey kids! You're in London!'-stereotype game with this one MW3 cutscene.

So far I'm up to ten:

1) Football (Soccer ball)
2) Black Cab
3) Big Ben (well..pedantically the Clock Tower)
4) Post box
5) Pigeons
6) Union Flag
7) Union Flag (again!!!)
8) Red Telephone Box
9) Double-decker bus
10) OTT Mockney accent

Using one or two is good scene-setting, but there's such a thing as overkill. You might as well have a Beefeater walking down the road...

To be fair black cabs are everywhere in London, double decker buses are common all over UK and if you ever go into town without seeing shitloads of pidgeons I'd be surprised. If you mean the red postbox then they are quite regular aswell. Your other stuff is about right though, especially the cockney accent - in london you're more likely to hear foreign accents.

 

[Fusioncode9]

I haven't picked this one up yet since I'm waiting for a price drop. I don't want to pay 60$ for an 8 hour campaign, not really interested in the multiplayer.

 

[DanielBrown]

Late for this party, but I wanted to wait with this review until after I had played the game to avoid spoilers.

Haven't really spoiled anything, but if you're touchy you should probably ignore this post.


My biggest gripe with Uncharted 3 was, apart from what's already been mentioned, the difficulty and the damn moving envieroments. I played on easy(because I'm a pussy) and I still died all the time. Recently started over with the first game and in comparison it seems like a game for kids. Not that I hate challenges, but it was kind of like;
Uncharted: A few enemies show up, get to cover and shoot at Drake. A few more show up when they died. Toss a grenade once in a while.
Uncharted 3: Throw in a fuckload of enemies who all charge towards Drake guns blazing. Trying to hide? Nothing their bags full of grenades can't handle along with the snipers and RPGs!

The main issue however falls back on those damn moving envieroments. An airplane in constant motion, boats that splashes back and forth and then you even get drugged out of your mind and are expected to handle the hardest enemies in the game. I realise that it's exciting how the envieroment moves as it should, but the short airplane sequence was enough.
With the aim-assist and shoulder swapping feautres removed(iirc ._o) I had a hit ratio of 26-35%. I thought it was because of my new TV and that I'm not sitting right in front of it while playing, but considering how awesome I'm doing in the first game it seems doubtful.

Still, in spite of this I had a great time with the game. Definetly not as good as the first two, but I'm still itching to play it again.
Sucks that they removed the bonus features as well...

 

[wills_b]

SPOILERS

Harsh but fair, I guess. Even though I enjoyed the game immensely I too did start seeing the cracks in the game - most notably the recurring plot themes from Uncharted 2 and the lack of significant character development in this particular outing.

It was way too tacit and 'alluded to' rather than clearly touched upon... prime offender being the relationship between Drake and Elena. I mean, all this talk of a ring and wearing the ring, and not wearing the ring... yet no mention of the significance of it! So are they married or what?! Way too vague for me.

I disagree that the series is past it;s sell by date though, I finished the game desperate for Uncharted 4 so bring it on Naughty Dog... Bring it on!

I actually really like that method of story telling.

Basically, Elena asked Drake to marry her between games. Drake freaked out and left her, but kept the engagement ring because he still loved her.

At the end of the game, he put it on. So basically, he was saying 'Yes, I'll marry you now.'

It has additional symbolism! Drake was trading in Drake's Ring (Adventure and fortune) for Elena's Ring (Setting down)

Where has this info come from?

Spoiler

You have to actually figure it out by using the context clues and what you know of the characters. Like how Cutter was a friend of Elena's that Drake roped into helping him with his scheme and that Talbot is an Alchemist. (Actually, the game basically tells you Talbot is an Alchemist if you search around the library some, so it isn't really something you have to figure out so much as pay attention.)

Why does everything have to spelled out for people nowadays? One of the developers even had to go and explain how Talbot did all of the things he did (Vanishing suddenly, surviving getting shot, etc) because of how many people complained about it.

Well thank you for spelling it out for us morons that don't have your high and mighty intellect, but if you can bear to step off your high horse for a moment, that wasn't what I was asking.

That is your interpretation, I was asking if you'd gotten this info from another source, which you haven't.

Thanks to sazzrah for a more reasoned response. Appreciated.

 

[wills_b]

SPOILERS

Harsh but fair, I guess. Even though I enjoyed the game immensely I too did start seeing the cracks in the game - most notably the recurring plot themes from Uncharted 2 and the lack of significant character development in this particular outing.

It was way too tacit and 'alluded to' rather than clearly touched upon... prime offender being the relationship between Drake and Elena. I mean, all this talk of a ring and wearing the ring, and not wearing the ring... yet no mention of the significance of it! So are they married or what?! Way too vague for me.

I disagree that the series is past it;s sell by date though, I finished the game desperate for Uncharted 4 so bring it on Naughty Dog... Bring it on!

I actually really like that method of story telling.

Basically, Elena asked Drake to marry her between games. Drake freaked out and left her, but kept the engagement ring because he still loved her.

At the end of the game, he put it on. So basically, he was saying 'Yes, I'll marry you now.'

It has additional symbolism! Drake was trading in Drake's Ring (Adventure and fortune) for Elena's Ring (Setting down)

Where has this info come from?

Spoiler

You have to actually figure it out by using the context clues and what you know of the characters. Like how Cutter was a friend of Elena's that Drake roped into helping him with his scheme and that Talbot is an Alchemist. (Actually, the game basically tells you Talbot is an Alchemist if you search around the library some, so it isn't really something you have to figure out so much as pay attention.)

Why does everything have to spelled out for people nowadays? One of the developers even had to go and explain how Talbot did all of the things he did (Vanishing suddenly, surviving getting shot, etc) because of how many people complained about it.

Well thank you for spelling it out for us morons that don't have your high and mighty intellect, but if you can bear to step off your high horse for a moment, that wasn't what I was asking.

That is your interpretation, I was asking if you'd gotten this info from another source, which you haven't.

Thanks to sazzrah for a more reasoned response. Appreciated.

 

[wills_b]

Edit: double post

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

The next Uncharted will involve fighting oil-rich, cowboy Americans and Steve Irwin Australians.
Oh, and maybe Bob and Doug McKenzie.