After the launch of 'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves', Naughty Dog started noticing they had more people in the company's employ than ever before, and realized that all could be put to good use, so the decision was made to split the team into two so that each side could work on their own game.
One team was working on 'Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception', and it was riding on the hype of 'Uncharted 2's success instead of standing on it's own...
This time, Nathan Drake is thwarting off an old foe from his youth named Katherine Marlowe, alongside her assistant, Talbot, and the pirate, Rameses, to uncover Sir Francis Drake's secret knowledge about the lost city of Ubar, A.K.A. Iram of the Pillars (A.K.A. The City of Brass, A.K.A. The Atlantis of the Sands). Aided once again by the usual suspects apart from Tenzin from 'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves', Drake recieves additional assistance to series newcomers, Charlie Cutter and Salim, the leader of his local tribe at the Rub' al Khali desert. Study up on your T.E. Lawrence, kids, it's about to get sandy.
This installment allows for a miniscule raise in difficulty compared to the last game with more aggressive enemies who are more willing to confront you head-on for some all-out brawling. The mellee combat, though being the biggest improvement, also turns out to be the biggest focus in fighting enemies. You're now able to throw opponents and grab them against walls and object and even use environmental weapons against them in some cases (one fight in France, I knocked out a guy so hard that his head rocked back at the rear door of an armored HUMMER-like SUV good enough to pop the door off, allowing me to see all the details in the vehicle, that was awesome). Platforming is also less hand-holding in this game, as you make more mistakes and need more precision in certain areas to get through (or in other cases, more erraticism). The shooting went through a mysterious phenomenon at the game's launch that caused fan reaction to demand the aiming to be more like 'Uncharted 2', and thus a patch allowed an alternate aim method to please fans. SPEAKING OF WHICH, the initial launch of'Uncharted 3 had plenty of glitches such as game-breakers and missing animations and per-object motion blur, this was all fixed and restored in the same patch. The REAL downer is the removal of unlockable in-game goodies such as skins and weapons, which is really missed in this game.
The graphics had some interesting improvements and experimentation, the lighting was upgraded using volumetric light shafts, and while Havok was still utilized for ragdolls, Naughty Dog turned to HOUDINI for procedural water physics in realtime and fractured geometry for destruction. Naughty Dog also began experimenting with a new ZLib technique of spooling animations directly from the disc in the retail version, to save processor resources, this would be the cause of the game's initial launch problems as the method wasn't perfected and caused communication with the HDD to stress out and cause severe fragmentation with older PS3 HDD's. This was also fixed in recent patches and by building the database of the HDD at the PS3's system recovery menu (it's also vastly improved in the digital version by relying solely on the HDD). Character models had nice improvements as well, especially as clothes were changed from country to country. And environments are their most beautiful here in the entire series, especially with certain areas bristling with people, it's surely splendid.
The story, while still great for the game that it is, was raising more questions than answers, Naughty Dog explained that the story process was mired by time constraints and an unfortunate circumstance involving Charlie Cutter actor Graham McTavish (whom also did Lazarević in 'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves'), who had obligations to Warner Bros. to do the 'Hobbit' trilogy and began to depart halfway through production. This forced the U3 team to change the entire second half of the story hastily as they also had to deal with the rest of the game development simultaneously.
Greg Edmonson's seemingly last hurrah on the 'Uncharted' series is a real blast perfectly worthy of his repertoire with the franchise. The Arabian tones could ideally be utilized in a 'Lawrence of Arabia' film reboot if ever granted, it's just majestic. Also, voice acting is is top notch as always, just like the first two 'Uncharted's.
The online is not so favorable here, as the competitive segments take too many pages from the 'Call of Duty' series to truly stand on it's own, despite the signature Uncharted gameplay. Co-op is harder than before and more elseworlds story scenarios, such as old foes returning from past games, keep interest at the possibilities of the 'Uncharted' universe. The cinema mode now includes the ability to record matches in-game and convert the clips to video so you can save to your HDD or upload directly to YouTube.
While some gamers may hate it for being more cinematic, they DO overlook the enhancements that HAVE been made, 'Uncharted 3:Drake's Deception IS the the best in the series to me, but still playable and tolerable to anyone else expecting a repeat of 'Uncharted 2's lightning-in-a-bottle. "YALLAH!!!"
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception has a lot to live up to as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an incredible and near-perfect game.
I cant even say what the point was its easily the worst story in the series. The online was a whole lot of fun though but overall doesn't come even close to 2
It was a step back for sure. Personally, I thought even the MP was way better in U2. Solid game, glad I played it. I just think they didn't push as hard as they did with U2.
The "young Drake" portion was pretty top notch, story-wise. But yeah, everything outside of that I felt was inferior.
Villains were all over the place in this… one second they wanted Drake dead, the next they needed him, then they want him dead again, then they coulda killed him, but poisoned his friend instead, then coulda shot him again, but had brunch with him, then needed him alive, then coulda mowed him down, but decided to kill him by fire and let him escape… Uncharted 2 was way better. 😅😅
=D Sounds crazy. I don't remember any of that. Played it on ps3 and I remember thinking that why was this game so bashed compared to second one. I liked it.
Another thing that annoyed me about UC3 events was the agent Talbot teleporting around Turkey. It just felt off to me, and made no sense.
Also, for about one third of the game, you go on a wild goose chase to rescue Sully, who wasn't even there to be rescued, and you end up back where you started again. There was simply no pay off for all the events you go through, so it fell flat in that regard as if they couldn't figure out how to make the game longer, so they decided to side-track you to do something with no pay off, hoping you wouldn't notice due to all the incredible action set pieces they made.
Overall though, even with its flaws, I still enjoy the game.
This was actually my least favorite in the series. Didn't have that same impact that part 2 set.
Uncharted 2 is the pinnacle of the series (to me).
Granted, 4 had the best story in my opinion, but 2 was the overall best game.
A decade after its release, how does Uncharted 3 fare today? Does its story still work? Was its precursor’s legacy a bedrock or quicksand for its own aspirations?
Replies(2)When arguably the weakest game in the series is still awesome and more fun than most games today, you know you're onto a winner!
I'd extend "arguably" before awesome too. Many technically demanding scenes were jaw-dropping for the time, but it's tough to ignore the sub-par context propelling the action forward.
Tough for you, perhaps, and that's fine. I enjoyed it very much. Perhaps a little less than the others in the series, but then the bar is extremely high.
I remember being blown away by the water and sand tech in U3 for the time too. It certainly was a visual treat!
It is very good, but when I originally played Uncharted 3 it was the most disappointed I'd ever been in a video-game because Uncharted 2 was just that good. I enjoyed 3 much more when I replayed it in the Nathan Drake Collection though. I could just enjoy it for what it is and accept that it's not Uncharted 2 - it's not a roller coaster, and it doesn't balance and rotate between action, puzzles, platforming and set-pieces in the same way.
Uncharted 3's gameplay is a bit more compartmentalized and focused on one thing at a time. I'm not surprised the scrapped version of Uncharted 4 was going to have no gunplay for the first half. It's also paced much differently - it takes a long time to get to the notable set-pieces. Uncharted 2 is insane from Nepal onwards which is about an hour into the game. haha.
I did like the introduction of chase sequences, and I love first hour (bar fight, young Drake) and from the airplane sequence onwards but I just think the rest of it just sort of meanders along without as much purpose as 2.
When it comes to the script, you can feel the absence of Neil Druckmann and Josh Scherr (writer on every other console Uncharted game). Drake gets hit in the face, and the game goes on a random side plot for an hour to give you some boat set-pieces. He then washes up on a beach close to where Elena is staying to get you back to the real plot. Drake just says "How convenient" to try make you laugh off how sloppy the plot got.
In retrospect, I'm not sure if Naughty Dog were ready to work on 2 different games at once. 3 clearly had production issues that 1 and 2 didn't have, and Hennig's version of 4 didn't work out. They had to crunch so hard to get the rebooted version done on time that Bruce Straley gave up making video-games.
I'll give you some props for the extra analysis. I remember Druckmann climbing his way to a writer spot in UC2, but wasn't aware of Josh Scherr. I didn't know that was the reason for Straley's departure either. That's pretty damn rough.
They had to make some weird choices as far as story went because the actor for Cutter had to bail which left a few holes in the story.
Uncharted is one of my favourite series and while the leap from 2 to 3 was not nearly as big as the leap from 1 to 2, I think it was an amazing experience none the less.
Graham McTavish's departure wasn't easy, but I don't think that would fix many holes tbh. Because the main issue to consider is the precarious mindset Naughty Dog was operating on: an increased emphasis in set pieces that HAD to go in and worrying about the context later.
I really liked part 3 ( Among Thieves is still the best in my opinion) My only complaint was the interactions with the villains and how they were a missed opportunity, Linda MacMahon (Marlowe) was an interesting antagonist due to the history with Sully and Nate but it fails basically flat especially with her ending. And I couldn't care about Navaro 2.0.
What I did love and made me care was Cutter, in the short time he was in the game you could feel that the guy was a good treasure hunter for example when he pulled his own notebook with the clues he founds so the team can escape a room.
It was a small touch that add a lot to the character.
I have mixed feelings on the series. I still own all of them on the PS3, and the collection for PS4, but I didn't truly "love" any of the games until 4.
They're good games, but they always stumble on some element.
The first is good, but the climbing mechanics weren't exactly fine tuned with the first showing. Not to mention the spongey enemies if you played on anything past normal; but you're then faced with a fairly unchallenging game experience.
The second mostly fixed the climbing, but added in a pretty clumsy stealth mechanic.
Three was just two with a new story.
Four got it right though.
I don't remember once getting annoyed by any mechanic had in the game.
I know that everyone has a soft spot for 2, and 3 is sort of the black sheep of the series; but they did, overall, get progressively better. Which doesn't always happen.
KeenGamer: "Which Uncharted game is the best? Uncharted is widely recognized as one of the most groundbreaking and consistently great franchises in gaming. For both long-time fans and newcomers to this action-adventure classic, here’s a ranking of the franchise’s four main games."
No Golden Abyss -_-, otherwise I agree with the order.
UC2: Best overall
UC4: Best graphics, best gameplay, best locations, best environements
UC3: Best set pieces IMO (the boat and desert fights will always be amazing)
UC1: A rough Draft of what was to come
UCGA: Basically UC1 on Vita
Great list and great article nicely writen and explained. Although for me personaly i would put Drakes Fortune above Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 4 is absolutely my favourite of the franchise and number 1 for me.
U2 is the only game playable on crushing without causing a great amount of frustration. Not to mention just how much influence it had that they redid some of U2s set pieces like the caravan twice, and armored truck chase in U4.
I'd rate it as the following.
1.) Uncharted 2
(Close to perfection of any game I've played in years. Single Player/Multiplayer/Co Op all amazing.)
2.) Uncharted 3
(On par with UC2 multiplayer/co op wise minus the kickbacks [aka killstreaks]. I really liked the Lawrence of Arabia story.)
3.) Uncharted 4
(Single player is amazing. Multiplayer was meh. Co Op had potential. Absolutely hated the health revive system it slowed down the game way too much. Always preferred the fast pace action of UC2/UC3. Made it way more fun that way. Recoil was too ridiculous that most people in lobbies would only do hip firing, using power weapons and using that OP grappling hook to melee people after dropping them. Nobody wanted to revive anyone.)
4.) Uncharted
(It's the first in the series so it's hard to judge. Though I loved the story.)
I agree here but it’s also a series you can play from front to back and truly enjoy. Story-wise, they are all great and flow so well. I wish they threw both Golden Abyss and Lost Legacy on this list. Lost Legacy is the best mechanically in my opinion. You can see it’s stepping stone framework for TLOUS2.
uncharted 2 is one of the few games that actually surpassed its pre-release hype.
I am a single player gamer...I barely ever touch a multiplayer component. The only exceptions over the years have been the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, TLOU factions, and the Uncharted 2 multiplayer. The Uncharted 2 multiplayer saw me spend more time playing it than all my other multiplayer experiences over the years combined. That game really was a masterpiece all around.
I agree completely, those are all stellar MP experiences, coming from another SP gamer who only occasionally gives MP some time.
Come to think of it, the step between Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2 is huge. It goes from the weakest in the series to one of the best games ever made.
I think I'm going to play all of them again soon.
is multiplayer still up for the remastered trilogy? or did it never have UC2 mp?
I thought that Uncharted 2 was a little bit better than Uncharted 3, because the second Uncharted gave a new twist to the Action genre, where the third failed at giving anything new to it, except that it was more spectacular graphically. So for me, Among Thieves stays on top.
Uncharted 3 had some choppy framerate areas, where as 2 was silk smooth the entire game. But yes, Uncharted 3 is just as good and even more ambitious.
UC3 is the worst in the series. Overall, I didn't think it was a good game and a big step backwards for the series.
The Mp for UC3 is still very good! I still liked Uc2's barebones-style mp, especially the coop modes.
I always think of UC2 as a better game than UC3 but then I remember the desert scene, the plane, the cruise, the chateau, the chase...man, the game had flaws but it had some of the most memorable sequences of gaming for sure.