My thoughts on Uncharted 3

So after years of starting, forgetting about it, and restarting, decided to finally finish playing Uncharted 3, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. The game itself was great, don't get me wrong, but it just seems that it was lacking that same quality that was present in Uncharted 1 and 2.

The game starts out with Nathan and Sully on their way to make a deal in a sleazy looking bar in London to sell Drake's ring, which, to no one's surprise, goes south. After an epic cinematic sequence that seamlessly transitions to a tavern-wide all out brawl, Nathan and Sully end up getting "shot" and left for dead in dreary back-alley.

Obviously, the game can't end here, but it was quite a surprise, I couldn't wait to see how Nathan and Sully were going to get out of this dire situation.

Riding on the coattails of such a great opening sequence, the game drops us in Cartagena, Colombia where we get to play as Drake as a child. We finally get to see where Nate finds Sir Francis Drake's ring, the item that was just stolen from him in the back-alley. I really loved this entire section of the game as it really gave us good insight on Drake's upbringing as well as the origin point of Nathan and Sully's father-son relationship, providing players with much needed information on how the two even met.

The story itself was intriguing, and I was immediately hooked on finding out what was the big secret that Sir Francis Drake covered up, however I feel that Naughty Dog really dropped the ball on taking advantage of the story they had written and expressing it through gameplay. Often times when I was playing it felt more like a chore to get through a certain level, or section of a game; the entire "Abducted" section of the game where Drake is captured by pirates comes to mind. There were a few instances of originality and interesting gameplay, especially when Drake is with a syringe containing a hallucinogen, but overall it was more of the same. You were just plopped in a certain area and told to go find some clue and figure out what T.E. Lawrence and Sir Francis Drake left behind. There were some interesting interactions between the cast though, especially when Talbot uses a hallucinogenic dart on Cutter, causing him to almost choke Drake to death.

The turning point of the game for me was when Nathan and Sully travel to Yemen, the next location on the quest to find the lost city of Ubar. The setting seemed more realistic, and immersive now that you were in a large city surrounded by locals, completely unaware of the secret hidden right next to them. The quality of the character interactions were much greater than before with the introduction of Elena Fisher, Nathan's estranged wife. One of the coolest moments in the game for me was when Nathan was shot by a hallucinogenic dart, causing him to run amok in the street markets. After hearing the voices of Talbot and Marlowe "guiding" him through the market, Nathan ends up getting captured and is forced to give up his ring, as well as the secret to finding the lost city of Ubar.

After doing such a great job of enthralling the player I could not help but feel so disappointed with the next major section of the game, the “Abducted” level. I felt that they had lost all momentum they had been building from the previous levels. In my opinion, this level was the most boring, and tedious level to play in all of the Uncharted games (I have yet to play Uncharted 4). However, the developers did redeem themselves towards the end of this section of the game when you find out that Sully is being held on the nearby cruise ship.

After making your way into the hold in order to rescue Sully, you find out it was all a trap. Thanks to his quick thinking, Drake shoots the leader of the pirates,and tosses a grenade, inadvertently breaching the hull of the ship. Now with the ship taking on water, you really felt like you were in a do or die situation. With enemies all around and a rising water line, you had to act quick or end up drowning. This was my favorite level in the entire game due to the shifting and tilting of the cruise ship as it started to capsize, allowing Drake to get creative while he tries to climb out of the sinking ship.

Drake escaping the sinking cruise ship, which at this point is completely sideways.

After escaping the sinking ship, you meet up again with Elena back in the city and work together to find and rescue Sully. You find out the only way to get to Sully is to board a cargo plane headed to a convoy out in the desert on its way to Ubar.

With the help of Elena, Nathan successfully sneaks onto the plane via the landing gear. Unfortunately Nathan's first encounter is with a brute right next to the cargo bay door controls and attempts to throw him out of the plane onto the desert below him. Using the environment to his advantage, Nathan loosens some of the cargo, hitting the brute and knocking him out of the plane and down into the desert below. This was the starting point for the most iconic scene of the game, and what my friend likes to call a "bombastic set-piece", the thing that separates Uncharted from any other action-adventure game.

Drake as he hangs on to the cargo streaming out of the plane.

Seeing Nathan thrown out of the plane as he clings for dear life onto the cargo streaming out of the bay door made for one of the most jaw-dropping moments in the game. And to top it all off, the plane catches fire and explodes, causing Nathan to be ejected out of the plane and sent into free fall. The image of the plane crashing down out of the sky and the multitudes of cargo and debris falling all around him, juxtaposed by the clear blue sky and the desert below made for an incredible cinematic scene that looks straight out of an action movie. Nathan quickly latches onto a falling crate and opens the parachute falling safely down to the desert below, letting Nathan, and the player have time to bask in sight of the endless desert before them. As amazing as this level was, my only problem was that it was just way too short. For being the most iconic scene of the game, it only lasted about 5-10 minutes, a glaring mistake that I believe the developers failed to address.

Pictures can't really capture the essence of this scene, 

so if you have not seen it, I highly recommend looking up a video

Now faced with the dire situation of escaping the desert, Nathan walks aimlessly for days, encountering mirages and finding empty water wells until eventually stumbling upon an abandoned city. After making his way inside, Nathan finds himself outnumbered by Marlowe's men. Thankfully he is saved by a Bedouin tribe, who are also trying to stop Marlowe from reaching the lost city of Ubar and unleashing its devastating secret.

Salim, the head of the tribe, invites Nathan to chase down the convoy on horseback through the desert and rescue Sully, providing us with another great scene. Nathan finally finds Sully near the front of the convoy who rightfully ejects an enemy out of the jeep, and rescues him from the clutches of Marlowe's goons.

Sully and Nathan find themselves outside a complex half buried in the sand, only to find out it is the entrance to Ubar. After opening the doors, the player is given the wondrous scene of an ancient city seemingly untouched by the ages. Walking down the steps of the entrance the player is able to see the vastness and grandiosity of the city complete with towers topped with domes and intricate architecture, all surrounded by whirling sands. It is easy to see that the developers really wanted to make the players feel like they had discovered a magical, ancient city lost to time. I can recall myself sitting for a few minutes looking all around at the detail and applauding the amount of time that must have gone into creating such an incredible scene.

Discovering Ubar

After finding and drinking water from a still running fountain, Sully is then shot by Talbot from a nearby platform, and disappears into the city. I was shocked. I couldn't believe the developers decided to kill off Sully in such an anti-climactic way. In his revenge, Nathan sets out on a tear killing countless enemies, some of which seemed to have magical fire-like abilities (which were hard as hell to fight), and hunts down Talbot and Marlowe. While under the effect of yet another hallucinogenic substance thanks to Talbot, Nathan is transformed into a child and seems to have been "teleported" back to Cartagena. 

After being chased by those pesky spiders again, Nathan is cornered at the edge of a building by none other than Sully who looks like his about to shoot and finish him off. The player here is given a pistol and is seemingly given the option to shoot Sully first (I however did not attempt to fire). It is then revealed by the real Sully that Nathan had been hallucinating since drinking the water from the fountain. The water had been tainted by hallucinogenic minerals inside the brass vessel that was cast into the depths of the city, the cause of Ubar's demise. Making it known that there is indeed a logical explanation to the destruction of city, and not the wrath of the Djinn.

Sully and Nathan make their way down into the vast underbelly of the city cluttered with mechanical gears and equipment hoisting water out from the aquifer and into the city above. They then confront Marlowe and Talbot attempting to retrieve the vessel from the pool of water below them. Everything in the game had been building up until this point and like any good story, I was ready to experience the climactic ending, however, that was not the case. 

After saving Sully from drowning in the pool, Nathan uses a fancy gun while in the pool to shoot the crane hoisting the vessel out of the water as well as a nearby support pillar crushing their chance of retrieving the hallucinogenic minerals. After the scene finished I couldn't help but feel disappointed, I remember saying to myself "That's it?! It's over just like that?!". I really feel like the developers should have done a much better job of building up suspense towards the "final confrontation", the point that Nathan, Sully, Marlowe and Talbot had been working towards since the first scene of the game. Perhaps if Sully did  happen to have been killed by Talbot it would've made for an entirely different ending showing Nathan's anger and need to seek revenge for killing his best friend, and father figure in life. Perhaps the developers could have allowed for Marlowe to retrieve the vessel and unleash the powers of the minerals causing their goons or Nathan and Sully to hallucinate leading towards some sort of trippy boss fight, action sequence. 

After pulling Sully out of the water, the ceiling and rest of the city starts to crumble from the destruction of the supporting pillar, calling for yet another hasty escape from the under-city. Faced with the staircase to the surface, Nathan is faced with the dilemma of rescuing Marlowe who has fallen into quicksand. Urged by Sully to move on, Nathan decides to attempt to rescue Marlowe, who goads him with Francis Drake's ring. Unable to save her from the grasp of the pit, Nathan watches on as his ancestors ring is sucked into pit along with her. 

Making it above ground, Nathan and Sully observe as the entire city crumbles as it is sucked down into one giant sinkhole, another amazing scene that I wish I could have had more time to digest. While jumping from platform to platform with the sight of the crumbling city behind them, Nathan and Sully run into Talbot, still distraught on the loss of his partner, and attempts to kill them, ensuing for a slightly more interactive sequence of quick-time events.

Ubar crumbling into the giant sinkhole

Nathan, who is knocked off the platform, clings to side of the platform, and thanks to his inhuman ability of rock climbing (like seriously its just ridiculous at times) is able to shoot Talbot before killing Sully. The two narrowly escape the crumbling city with the help of Sailm, who shows up seemingly out of nowhere, and watch on as the exterior ruins of the city sink down, forever lost into the desert. 

Sully and Nathan return to the airport in Yemen in which we see a touching scene in which Sully confesses his affection for Nathan as a father and returns Nathan's wedding ring he "lost" when he broke up with Elena. As usual, Nathan sarcastically interjects asking if Sully is proposing to him, but is cut short by the seriousness of Sully's reply. Nathan accepts and dons on the ring when, right on cue, Elena appears. Noticing that Drake's ring is missing, Nathan smoothly replies that he has "traded it for a better one". The two embrace, and promise to start over again, as Sully looks onward. Walking towards the plane, Sully informs the two that they will be taking a different plane than the one right in front of them. The camera pans over to show a seaplane strikingly similar to Sully's seaplane from the first game.

As the credits roll, I couldn't help but feel pleased from such a succinct ending. However, I couldn't help but feel like the game could have been so much more. The game overall felt bipolar; certain levels and sections felt like a drag to get through, especially the beginning, and other times it was nearly impossible to put the controller down. There were too many alternating levels of "oh wow that was awesome" to "oh god not this again". This was especially prevalent during the "Abducted" level where the game felt like it was going at full speed, when suddenly the handbrake had been pulled and jerked us off course and losing all momentum. Playing through that area took me several days, where as I finished entire cruise ship and following levels all in one sitting sheerly because I was so drawn into the story. 

I'm not saying it was a bad game, I had a great time overall and would recommend it to anyone who was a fan of action-adventure games. I just felt that the bar was set so high from the success of Uncharted 2 that Naughty Dog failed to deliver an equally as great sequel. Since Naughty Dog was working on Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us at the same time, it only makes sense that they could not commit all the personnel they could to making Uncharted 3 the best game it possibly could have been. It is just a bit disappointing that we missed out possibly some great scenes, better character interactions, or more engaging level design.