Drake survives torture, sinking ships, castles falling down on his head and a whole host of other hardships that would kill or seriously maim anyone but Superman. The team wants us to believe that Nate is the “everyman” because he stumbles when he runs over uneven ground and tumbles when leaping across huge chasms. But he lives through certain-death moments about once every fifteen minutes and miraculously fights off scores of armed baddies when he’s on his deathbed during the aforementioned sequence. Sorry Naughty Dog, but I’m not buying it.
Still, Drake’s Deception is meant to be a playable action movie and it absolutely is. Those missteps aren’t problematic enough to drag down the stellar story. If a certain Nazi-fighting archeologist had gotten a recent sequel of this caliber we would all have been praising George Lucas. Nate’s adventure is so obviously inspired by that saga (in a good way) that a scene near the end is almost literally ripped right out of The Last Crusade and it’s still pretty great.
Sadly the entire thing falls apart the second you pull out a gun and hop into combat. This has never been a franchise that was known for its great shooting mechanics, but Drake’s Deception is the worst offender yet. The simple process of aiming a gun is downright dreadful. Good luck shooting foes; you’ll need it.
The problem is compounded by the fact that environments are often vertical and are sometimes unsteady due to environmental factors. In a more accomplished shooting game, this would make for thrilling gun battles. Here it makes you want to throw your controller at the wall. The devs have made statements since the game’s release claiming that the controls have technically been tightened up since the last game. Whether or not that’s true is completely irrelevant. All that matters is that players will constantly struggle to hit their marks and that is utterly unacceptable in a release of this magnitude.
It gets worse. Many of the enemies rock riot shields and/or full body armor. They are bullet sponges in a game in which shooting somebody once causes headaches and unloading numerous clips into them leads to migraines – not a good combination. After getting a few hours into the title, the odds are always ridiculously stacked against the player in combat.
The developers fall back repeatedly on the first game’s misguided technique involving streams of enemies flowing in from all directions at seemingly endless clips. Trying to gun them down is unbelievably frustrating, especially when some of them survive a full round followed by a grenade tossed right at their feet. That’s not challenging; that’s just annoying. It’s so bad that running through the crossfire and engaging in melee is almost always a more effective approach than pulling out an assault rifle and getting your Rambo on.
Melee combat fares far better, but it’s still not up to snuff with recent top action games. At least it’s fun, though. Platforming suffers a similar fate. It’s tighter than the aiming controls, but it falls short of the silky smooth responsiveness of modern day platforming games. It’s particularly bad in an early stretch of the game in which you have to evade pursuers across rooftops. This segment makes players fight both spotty controls and a camera that is more concerned with making things look good than letting the player see what direction to move in. Cheap deaths abound.
These frustrations carry over into the multiplayer modes of Uncharted 3. The competitive mainstays of shooters such as deathmatch, king of the hill, capture the doohickey, and kill the VIP are all here. You’ll find character customization, leveling up, ability and weapon unlocks as well. It feels like playing it should be a lot more fun than it is, and that’s because of the poor aiming, controls that aren’t particularly responsive (“No, don’t roll out into the open, pivot behind that other piece of cover!”) and poor collision detection all drag down what could have been a decent experience. On top of all that, the rumbling-bumbling-stumbling nature of player movement does not lend itself well to competitive play.
Co-op, meanwhile, is a watered down version of the single player that gives little inspiration for anyone to keep playing. With the story, set pieces and character development stripped away, you’re just left with a subpar shooting, platforming and brawling experience. Even the actors seem to be phoning in their performances in cooperative play.
For every moment of cinematic wonder and joy present in Uncharted 3, there is a maddeningly aggravating gameplay sequence. Yet, this is an experience that no PS3 owner should miss. Deal with its missteps and you’ll be rewarded by its many strokes of brilliance.
