The basic formula for Uncharted hasn't changed much. It's a third-person shooter that has you running through beautifully-rendered environments. You take cover, you get into fights, you pick up treasure, and you drop into exhilarating situations. Uncharted 2 was a quantum leap from its predecessor, introducing stealth mechanics with refined scenarios like the famous train sequence. Uncharted 3 retains much of the core functionality with slight tweaks to the melee combat. Throw in a little adventure, some platforming, and puzzles, and the formula is complete.
The platforming is as automatic as ever, with more collapsing platforms than you can shake a stick at, and the puzzles (what few there are) are actually quite devious and requires more thinking power than in previous games. That stuff’s fine, but Naughty Dog seriously dropped the ball when it comes to combat.
Functionally, the core components work just fine. Aiming is no issue (post-patch), and the one-button fits all multi-functionality of the circle button is bound to make you roll and stick to cover by accident, but that's not the biggest problem. The encounter design is a step down from the previous game. Much of this has to do with arbitrary spawn points for enemies. It's not organic, and they don't announce their arrival to let the player know where they're coming from. It’s like they pop up from anywhere, especially behind you. This can lead to frustrating encounters when you unfairly die because the game decides to plop enemies where you’re most vulnerable without any warning.
It's not always the best strategy to stay in one spot. The AI is quite tenacious and will lob grenades with pinpoint accuracy and flank you as you frantically try to figure out the situation. Much of the encounters feel like grand stand affairs. You’re stuck in an arena until all the enemies are cleared. These combat scenarios are responsible for difficulty spikes in the middle of the campaign. Later on, the game throws a combination of shielded enemies and heavies at you; combine this with the AI's super accuracy and combat can get pretty annoying quick.
The game suffers from minor mechanical issues. Collision detection with NPCs is borked. Getting stuck behind your AI partners freezes you in your tracks entirely. It can get irritating when they block your path. The climbing controls are also touchy, and you may frequently find yourself jumping in place when the game doesn't register your directional input. For some odd reason, shoulder swapping (switching the camera angle from behind the shoulder) is disabled by default. I beat the game twice without ever enabling the feature. It could've really helped me out in a few spots.
The most annoying aspect of the game has to be the "narrative sequences." They're fine for the first play through, but I wish the devs gave us the option to skip these parts on replays. There are moments where all you're literally doing is holding the analogue stick forward. It's nice to integrate interactivity with the narrative, but it breaks up the flow of the action on subsequent play throughs.
The story is good for what it is, although there's a severe disconnect between sequences. The game is clearly designed around its set pieces, which leads to a disjointed narrative. There are also baffling actions carried out by the game's antagonists that really make no sense in the overall plot. Fortunately, the character banter is still witty, entertaining, and spot on. Naughty Dog is still one of the best in the business when it comes to cutscenes.
It seems like all I have are bad things to say about the game, but that's only because it's so great that the flaws stand out even more. It's not as exquisitely paced as Uncharted 2, but it still gives you that feeling of "just one more chapter." It’s the perfect “experience.” It’s weak as a game, but it’s one hell of a ride.
After the game's release, it came to light that Naughty Dog was run ragged by an intense schedule and it shows in the final product. It's not the best game they've put out, but it's still a damn fine one. If you own a PS3, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t play it.
