Uncharted 3 critiques lure d21lewis in like a fly to shit! I just read that whole essay and I have to say that the writer makes some valid points.
-They should have made some sort of amazing revelation about those bugs that seemed to be getting stronger as the game progressed. Instead, it was just a forgotten element of the story like so many other things. So many other things......
-They should have used those trippy drugs that Talbot and Marlowe had to a greater effect. The boss fights could have been epic. Instead, they felt like glorified mini-games. In fact, I can't seem to recall anything that I would call a boss fight. --definitely not that minigame with Talbot. It was just a missed opportunity. We could have and should have had some amazing and unforgettable moments that rival the Scarecrow/Mad Hatter/Ra's Al Ghul moments in the Batman games. I guess ND either didn't have the time, the ambition, the imagination, or the talent to create a scene like that. I would like to think it was time that limited Naughty Dog.
-Marlowe and Talbot (and that pirate guy) were shitty enemies. One dimensional and forgettable just like all of the other enemies in the Uncharted series. When I saw that the main enemy was an old lady, I thought "Well this might be interesting...". I was wrong. Nothing about Marlowe, Talbot, or Pirate McGee (I don't remember his name!) stood out. When Marlowe was about to set Cutter on fire, I perked up. This was Marlowe's and the Uncharted series' chance to make a HUGE impression--rivaling the epic death scenes of other games. They took the cop-out route. Instead, what we got was another escort mission similar to the Jeff scene in Uncharted 2. Marlowe came THIS close to being on the upper echelon of video game villains and she blew it.
And that all brings me to my biggest gripe about the whole Uncharted series: I just don't feel any attachment to any of the characters or anything that happens. I didn't feel any sense of urgency to beat Marlowe to the underground city. I never felt like the whole world was threatened. When Sully was kidnapped, I didn't feel like he was in any danger and when we "found him", I knew it wasn't him. When he "died" I didn't feel anything when that happened, either--and I really wanted to. In fact, Sully was supposed to be dead and not five seconds later, Drake was cracking jokes while he took on the bad guys! That really stood out to me as something that ruined the moment.
Towards the end of Uncharted 2, I really felt like I knew Drake. I cared about which girl he would go with. I was concerned about Chloe and where her loyalties really lied. I wanted to get revenge on.....err..what's his name (fuck. I just played this game a week ago!) for screwing Drake at the beginning of the game and leaving him in --FLYNN! That's his name! I wanted revenge because Flynn betrayed Drake in the beginning. There was nothing in U3 that conjured up those feelings, for me. It was just Drake dragging Sully on some quest that meant a lot to him (and nothing to me) for reasons unexplained.
There were some great moments. When Drake was laying on Elena's lap, I thought to myself, "This is an awesome moment." Apparently, the writer of this article felt the same (because he posted a pic). When Drake was lost in the desert, I thought "Man, I hope he finds some water. How in the hell is he going to get out of this?" (--just like how I felt in U2 when Nate was wounded and lost in the snow!) The flashback moment was a HUGE surprise and one of my favorite gaming moments of this gen.
On a technical level, my hat's off to Naughty Dog. They made the PS3 sing. The game is beautiful. On an emotional and a storytelling level, this game didn't do what it needed to do. If you're going to make gameplay take a back seat to a movie style approach, you damn well better have an awesome story to tell and you better tell it well--not just amazing set pieces and visuals--you had better bring some fleshed out characters and some plot twists that will grab me when the technical achievements of the graphics wears off.
Final thoughts: I know this post has gone long and nobody will ever read this. I just had to put this out there. Uncharted's cinematic approach is on a whole higher level than its competition in the action genre. Since it seems to be lacking in the gameplay department (where the competition excels) it better had. If the gameplay were a bit better (Like MGS4), I'd LOVE this game. If the story was better (Like MGS3), I'd LOVE this game. But what we have is a culmination of 7/10 gameplay with an 8/10 (I'm being very generous) story and 10/10 presentation. For that, I can't love it. I can just say that I liked it a whole lot.......and I'll probably never play it again.
My thoughts and mine alone.
-d21lewis.
