Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

The third piece in a franchise is often when the franchise begins to feel a little strained for ideas and innovation. Part 1 should serve as a satisfying introductory piece to the characters and their general conflict, and a satisfactory Part 2 often raises the stakes and expands upon the conflict in meaningful ways. But that leaves Part 3 to do one of two things, and sometimes both. One is to wrap up a story, because for some reason the "trilogy" has become the de facto standard model of multi-volume storytelling. The other is to raise the stakes even higher and harder than they were raised in Part 2. But the issue is that because Part 2 typically already raised the stakes to the maximum level of belief and verisimilitude, Part 3 often either needs to go over-the-top entirely, "jumping the shark" in that regard, or allow itself not to be bigger and better than Part 2, which can be read by cynics as a lack of effort. It's a lose-lose situation for the most part, and maybe that's why it's so rare to see a second sequel be a better all-around piece of work than either of its two predecessors. Last Spring, I played through both Uncharted and Uncharted 2. I was thoroughly impressed by the gameplay, particularly that of the second game, and I swore I'd buy and play Uncharted 3 as soon as it came out. (Eh, so I'm a couple months late. No biggie.) And I'm happy to say that this third game was every bit as impressive as the second one in terms of level design and action-cinematics, which are really the bread and butter of the Uncharted series. Now that I've finished this game, I will never forget escaping from a burning wooden mansion, escaping from a sinking cruise ship, or escaping from a crashing airplane. (There were plenty of non-escape-based parts of the game, I assure you, but these three stick out the most.) In this respect, Uncharted 3 did not disappoint. Aside from being a tiny bit glitchy - I got "stuck" in two or three walls at times - the gameplay was no worse than that of the second game, which had expanded and improved upon that of the first. So purely from a "fun to play" perspective, Uncharted 3 was just as good as Uncharted 2 was. Not better, mind you, but just as good. And that's high praise. Now, let me revisit the role of "Part 3" that I brought up earlier. If Part 3 won't go farther over the top than Part 2, and won't raise the stakes anymore, then it needs to embrace the task of being a proper point of closure for the characters and conflicts involved. And that's where Uncharted 3 comes up a bit short, I guess. It wouldn't be fair to judge the game for its plot and character development. After all, that's not the way I've judged the previous two games in this series, and it seems unfair to ask Uncharted to suddenly become something it's never been, which is a game that can tell a memorable story with memorable characters. But the thing is, for a little while it seemed as though that's exactly what Uncharted 3 was trying to do. When the third level took place twenty years ago and depicted the day Drake met his wise-cracking mentor and sidekick, Sully, I was suddenly intrigued about their shared history in a way I'd never wondered about before. Just who is Nathan Drake, and what makes him tick? For the previous two games, I'd been content ignoring his history and letting him be a generic but charismatic 21st century hero. But suddenly, I wanted to know more about him, and that's thanks to Uncharted 3 willing to "go there" for lack of a better phrase. But just as soon as I thought this would be Drake's story, it wasn't; aside from a moment where the game's antagonist addresses Drake, "or whatever your real name is," implying that our hero has made up his own alias and is not in fact a descendant of the legendary explorer Francis Drake, we never hear about our boy's past again. This was only one of several issues I had with the writing in Uncharted 3. The whole thing felt like it lacked a focus or a presence; if I didn't know there were 22 chapters in the game before reaching the 21st one, I'd have had no idea the game was about to end, as I'd only just reached the forbidden city that had been discussed all game long. Half-way through the game, Drake's ex-girlfriend appears. How many times are these two going to break up off-camera and between Uncharted installments before they either fix things for good or learn to accept that it's never going to work? Their reunion in Uncharted 2 was forced, for sure, but at least their relationship was revisited and rekindled in a believable (or at least movie-script-acceptable) way. THis time around, it's just kind of like, "oh, you again?" (And yes, you better believe the pair is happily reunited before the closing cinematic.) Or how about the part of the game where Drake escapes from a sinking cruise ship? I've already called it one of the most memorable moments of the game, but in order to get there we had to spend four (of 22) chapters on a rescue mission of sorts that ended up being a false alarm anyway. Of course, Drake washes back up on the beach right next to the very village he set out from, so the entire cruise ship saga is completely cut off and irrelevant to the rest of the story. The thing is, they easily could have made this a relevant part of the game's story just by changing a few lines of dialogue or the location of one or two characters during the quest; the cruise ship level was awesome and I'm glad it was part of Uncharted 3, but it didn't have to be as pointless as it ultimately was if the writers had taken the time to properly connect and tie together the various parts of the story. Again, story is secondary to gameplay here, and the gameplay was fantastic. But several issues in the writing - maybe pacing is a better and more accurate word - prevented Uncharted 3 from being quite as memorable as Uncharted 2 was for me. That doesn't make it a bust and it doesn't mean I regret playing it in the least. This isn't the first game not to live up to a predecessor and it won't be the last. If anything, I'm hoping for Uncharted 4 to happen more than ever, not necessarily to "redeem" Uncharted 3 but more to provide closure that Uncharted 3 didn't. Actually, maybe "closure" itself isn't what I'm seeking here. After all, each game contains a self-contained plot with all-new antagonists. I guess all I'm looking for is another great game. The possibilities seem endless. Drake in China! Drake in Europe! Drake in outer space! Seriously, bring on three more Uncharted games, because I'd gladly play all of those. Better writing would just be a bonus. Oh, and for what it's worth, I played most of this game in 3D and didn't notice many substantial instances where my experience was cooler because of it, but I also didn't notice any instances where the quality of the visuals was diminished. Now that's a ringing endorsement!