Marlowe's crew is supposed to be a highly-trained clandestine organization, with roots stretching back to Elizabeth I and earlier.  Sort of like CIA/MI6 secret intelligence service type ops... so the idea is they have lots of means to confound their enemies like a secret arm of the CIA or MI6 might, for example. Like Cutter says, manipulating their enemies through espionage, deception, fear.  

This is based on real-life clandestine ops, and "the art of deception". Groups like the CIA really used magician's tricks as well as drugs, etc. to trick and frighten their enemies. So - you can assume there's a rational explanation behind these mysteries... e.g., a bulletproof vest, an escape rope/wire, whatever--which looks "magical" but has a rational explanation, just like a magician's trick.

Magic, tricks, deception, illusion, perception vs. reality - these are themes throughout the game.

Amy Hennig said that^

They had to shoot someone with a dart in order to somewhat control them, but it wasn't even perfect. We saw Cutter snap out of it and we also noticed how Drake went mad by it. NONE of that compared to the water that was in the City of Brass/Ubar/Iram of the Pillars. Once drinking from the water, you were seeing things that had a far more impact... Sully dying is a good example. The supposed "Djinns" are also an example of this. Since the organisation focuses on fear and deceit, it is very clear why they would want this power.

I'm one of the select few that didn't mind when Tomb Raider Underworld didn't have bosses.  Yeah, they were awesome in Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary but Tomb Raider was more about the exploration.  Bosses were cool but there absence was okay, too.  It all depends on what you were going for.  U3 was going for a movie vibe.  Real life doesn't have bosses so I guess it's cool there, too.....but there was the opportunity for something amazing.

Oh, and I didn't want Sully to die, either.  I just didn't believe he died and I didn't feel anything when they tried to make us believe he did.  And that moment shocked you once.  Will it be able to do it again?  The things I listed earlier in this thread really happend to their characters.  Sully's death was just a hallucination.  It loses some impact because of that.

Glad it was awesome for you.  I'm not here to tell you that something you enjoyed wasn't amazing......

Fair enough ^_^

But imagine if Nate's history wasn't just "Some kid raised by nuns decides to steal a ring because he's related to Francis Drake. Kid get's taken in by Sully."

Imagine if Naughty Dog went as far as to have Kid Nathan Drake as one of Marlowe's clan. He's her little pickpocket and they treat him really bad. She slaps him and abuses him a lot--and she tells him that he'll never amount to anything. Sully gets fed up with this and takes Nate and give him a better life. Nate's skill would have been something he learned from his time with Marlowe. AND (now get this), when he was drugged later in the game, he could have turned back into a kid (which he did) but this time, he imagined Marlowe was there and he's frozen with fear. Then, Sully (who we thought was dead) re-appears and makes the bad visions go away.

Imagine if Nate still had some leftover feelings for Chloe but he saw that she now felt for Cutter. It would have made for an emotional moment if she had to choose between shooting an insane Cutter who was going to kill Nate in that fist fight.

Imagine how evil Marlowe would have seemed if we actually saw her kill Cutter--a nonestablished character that we sorta grew to love in the short time we saw him. Setting a fire and walking away was just so......cliche.

Imagine if that Djinn water had some sort of side effect. It caused increased strength or mutation or something. Yeah, THIS is a cliche but it would have been better than "It causes stronger hallucinations than the hallucination juice we already have...."

Imagine if Marlowe was smart enough to have some guys wait outside of the "Atlantis of the Sand". Did the entire organization that existed since Elizabethan times perish in that city? If they didn't, did the death of Marlowe and Talbot cripple them?

When Marlowe had Drake drugged and tied up, I totally thought that they had a reason for keeping him alive and letting him escape. Turns out, they were just totally incompetent. Imagine if there was some sort of plan to have Drake solve some problem that they couldn't solve so that he could help them get the treasure.

And imagine if there was some reason for not killing Drake and Cutter. They obviously had no reason to keep them alive and they were close enough to shoot them if they were close enough to shoot them with crazy darts. WHY keep them alive? They already had what they wanted. Hell, Marlowe and company already had access to the secret city. It just makes absolutely no sense!

Imagine if there was a reason why these super bugs were left behind to guard those clues. Who left them? Francis Drake? It should have been explained that they were guardians left by the Djinn to protect the treasure.

And why did the key item they needed to decipher Drakes riddle (or whatever--I can't remember) HAVE to be in a deer head in THAT room. (Drake: "It's GOT to be in this room!") How could Drake be so sure?

Why did Francis Drake search for the city, find something so terrifying that he went back to England (or wherever) and seal off all evidence of his trip.....but he left clues and riddles so that somebody could find what he found?

It's the little things. The parts of the story that don't make any sense. The missed opportunities for something awesome that I criticize about the game. Maybe I just wanted so much more. Believe me, I didn't pay off a pre-order (only did this with Arkham Asylum, Gears 3--which I cancelled, and Uncharted 3, this whole generation) and get the game on day 1 so that I could bash it. These are just my feelings. I can't help it.

Just finished it first time on hard (died 150 times lol).
For me, it was big disappointment, but good game.I have played all Uncharted games and every game has been unique and somehow very much different from previous game, but this..And story itself was very disappointing.

I feel like you... It was a GREAT GAME but I still feel dissapointed. It didn't caused me that sparkle that the other uncharted titles. And its sad, because I feel like this was the one with the most potential... but it finished being the worst of the trilogy.

Good read.

My two big questions are:
Whats with the zombified dude in the chateu?
and
So is snake...err Talbot a super human or something?

I don't know if anyone has thought about this but I believe if and hope fully when they do UC4 that drake will wear the ring from his finger around his neck. I just can't see Drake not having a ring over his neck (I was devastated in that scene). Anyone else think this?

Maybe some of the critics or ppl are disappointed not because of the game but because they try so hard to be/choose to be for reasons thats either just a blant nitpicking just so they can have something negative to present or pure hate most likely due to fanboyism (A.V club reviews and such)?

I just finished it and it really didn't dissapoint me.
I thought it had some really great and epic moments (desert, boat, drake on drugs, the finale and so on) but the story was boring...
I love U2 and 3 because of the amazing gameplay and the phenomenal graphics, but I absolutely don't care about the stories or the characters.