Zero Punctuation: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

[C14N]

Umm, when I was in London for a week on holidays I saw red telephone boxes...like everywhere. They were plastered with porn and prostitution ads on the inside but they were red on the outside. That was 2009, have they gotten rid of them all since then or something?

Oh and it's not nearly as bad as the Simpsons having red telephone boxes and buses in Ireland.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

And whoever decided that one firefight should contain a grenade launcher, three snipers, a running armoured shotgun guy and standard enemies needs to go to the corner and seriously think about what he's done.

I remember that fight. Really had the face vs. concrete wall feeling. It took a rather specific method to clear that, like with a lot of situations in the game. UC2 was a lot easier on you on that and had the fights neatly split up with savepoints.

I think that's the main problem I have with Uncharted 3 I didn't feel was present in the last one. There's always that feeling that Naughty Dog intended you to go about it along their intended path. Whether it's the chase sequence early on or the firefights, they've planned what you should do, not present you with situations to react to. I felt like I had more options last time.

 

[CityofTreez]

Don't get the hate the Uncharted series gets.

 

[Whateveralot]

Snip

Snipper

I think that's the main problem I have with Uncharted 3 I didn't feel was present in the last one. There's always that feeling that Naughty Dog intended you to go about it along their intended path. Whether it's the chase sequence early on or the firefights, they've planned what you should do, not present you with situations to react to. I felt like I had more options last time.

Yes indeed. They have nearly shut out every other way of doing it then the way they intended. Sometimes sollutions just kinda offer themselves, like this part where there's always two guys coming at you, one with a riot shield and one that throws grenades all the time. It's like they force you to practice throwback.

Also, talking about that chase sequence, I've tried jumping down the staircase multiple times and each time I landed way out of reach of any enemy right inside the lobby, an enemy (apparently out of nowhere) grabbed me and I had to restart.

I sometimes wish they made this game way less linear. Still linear, but at least don't give me the slam-door-in-face kind of feeling when you're not doing exactly what they intended you to do.

 

[drummond13]

Harsh but fair, I guess. Even though I enjoyed the game immensely I too did start seeing the cracks in the game - most notably the recurring plot themes from Uncharted 2 and the lack of significant character development in this particular outing.

It was way too tacit and 'alluded to' rather than clearly touched upon... prime offender being the relationship between Drake and Elena. I mean, all this talk of a ring and wearing the ring, and not wearing the ring... yet no mention of the significance of it! So are they married or what?! Way too vague for me.

I disagree that the series is past it;s sell by date though, I finished the game desperate for Uncharted 4 so bring it on Naughty Dog... Bring it on!

It's funny to hear you say that. This was by far one of my favorite aspects of the game. I felt Drake's relationships with Sully and Elena were wonderfully represented in a far more subtle fashion than pretty much any game is doing these days, not to mention several hints about Drake's past and his motivations for doing the crazy crap he does. I thought it was very clear without being thrust in your face. I loved it. Far preferable to having Sully say some forced expository line like "hey, didn't you and Elena get married last year? And then break up shortly after that?" Spoon feeding character relationships is something way too many games do.

Also, note to Yahtzee: You press the circle button. That's it. Press the circle button when in cover and Drake magically becomes "unstuck". Don't tilt the left analogue stick in a backwards direction, just push the freaking circle button. It works every time. This is not a flaw. Great review otherwise, though, one of the better ones in quite a while.

 

[Dooly95]

By and by, if anyone wants to know where this crazy ideas of all these set pieces first and then fit them in later comes in,

Wells says, "So this concept came to us around the end of summer. The only reason we knew that we were even going in that direction wasn't because we had the entire story laid out -- in fact, the story was still very skeletal at that point. But right after Uncharted 2, a couple of designers and animators started playing around with ideas about epic setpiece moments for Uncharted 3. And that's where the cruise ship came from, and some others had this cargo plane sequence. So we knew that we had a gigantic cargo plane, and that it would have to crash at some point, and we knew at some point the story was going to take us into the desert. So we knew that there would be a crashed plane in the desert. We thought, 'that'd be a pretty cool announce for the game: Show this crashed plane in the desert.' That's where we started building this, but we still didn't know where he was going to walk to. How does he get out of the desert? Why does the plane crash? Why was he on the plane in the first place? These were things that some people had ideas for, but nothing concrete, and we just took a leap of faith. "
Source [http://www.1up.com/features/mapping-uncharted-3-drake-deception?pager.offset=4]

The whole thing is quite interesting to read, if you've got 30 minutes to kill.

 

[algalon]

Uncharted 3 - same as it ever was, now with 90% less oogley eyes

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Great episode, a lot of laughs.

Quite fun, but nothing we haven't seen before, got it.

 

[gphjr14]

Game was fun but it didn't have that wow the 2nd game had for me.
As he covered the whole unstable climbable objects is neat on your first play through but if you're going for trophies or just want to get to the next set piece its annoying.

Multiplayer is fun but most of my friends are playing MW3.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

I absolutely loved Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. However, for some strange inexplicable reason Uncharted 2 just failed to "wow" me the same way the that first one did.

If this review is anything to go by, then Drake's Deception won't be able to bring back the magic of the first game...at all.

I'll still give it a try though, because even if this turns out to be the weakest entry in the series so far, if it still retains even a minimum of the polish and pacing of the other games, then I'll enjoy it nonetheless.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

Awesome as always, outstanding episode though.

 

[Mydnyght]

"I'm gonna buy a concubine for every square inch of my cock!"
"THREE concubines?!"

^This.

The actual verbatim quote SO needs to be Zero Punctuation Quote of the Year.

 

[viranimus]

I truly resent the use of the term Douchenozzle!

I know I have not actually played an uncharted game personally. Personally didnt get into tomb raider, and while I know it is different, still seems like the same shtick. But what I have to wonder is, how depressing is it that a game, can not only get past its prime within 3 games, but to do so within a single console generation is an amazing feat if its actually true.

 

[Dethenger]

'Shooting bread out of a Tommy Gun' is the stuff entire movies could be based on.

I'd like to see that "Bread out of a Tommy Gun" scene. Dead Bread Redemption?

You need this. [http://mirrors.rit.edu/instantCSI/]

 

[rickicker]

Nope, Yahtzee, you won't deter me from buying this game. Why? Because I've never given the Uncharted games two shits of a fuck before this.

While Uncharted 1 & 2 was busy being hailed as the second coming of Christ, I was too busy to give a fuck as I finished up Eternal Sonata and Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Hey fuck you! I like JRPG!) and doing subsequent replays of Bayonetta, Vanquish, and inFamous 1 & 2. Now that I got the "good gaming" part out of my schedule, I'm ready to start my "experimental gaming" phase by picking this up to see what the hub-bub is all about.

So, I'll be going in with fresh-eyes and would probably be blown away by this simply because I ignore the first two games. Yay for ignorance! XD

 

[Fox242]

I pretty much expected Yahtzee to give this game a hard time and then at the end say it is still enjoyable. Wasn't surprised when that's how it turned out.

The Wayne's World reference was a nice as well.

 

[drummond13]

I truly resent the use of the term Douchenozzle!

I know I have not actually played an uncharted game personally. Personally didnt get into tomb raider, and while I know it is different, still seems like the same shtick. But what I have to wonder is, how depressing is it that a game, can not only get past its prime within 3 games, but to do so within a single console generation is an amazing feat if its actually true.

Really? I would say most games get past their prime within one or two games. I can only think of a handful of series that have stayed just as strong after the second game.

 

[mysecondlife]

I pretty much expected Yahtzee to give this game a hard time and then at the end say it is still enjoyable. Wasn't surprised when that's how it turned out.

The Wayne's World reference was a nice as well.

He did try to be harsh. I expected racist jokes. But not enough to fill half the content of the video.

Shrug. I'll take it as a good thing for the game because he couldn't find a lot to critique about..

I mean Call of Juarez must've been a really horrible game that Yahtzee didn't have the time to even comment on the explicit racism there.

 

[Swifteye]

Don't get the hate the Uncharted series gets.

Yathzee dislikes it for two main reasons. One: that the writing is generic and is almost completely stolen from the likes of Indiana Jones and tomb raider (or was it national treasure?) and that he doesn't like nathan drake as a person.

 

[CityofTreez]

Don't get the hate the Uncharted series gets.

Yathzee dislikes it for two main reasons. One: that the writing is generic and is almost completely stolen from the likes of Indiana Jones and tomb raider (or was it national treasure?) and that he doesn't like nathan drake as a person.

IMO here, you can say that most popular game series gets all of it's ideas from other areas.

ME = Star Wars, CoD/BF = MoH ect. Now, Uncharted obviously isn't the most original by any stretch of the imagination, but you shouldn't hate on the Uncharted series (or any other) just because it isn't % original. Rate it on how the game is, not on what the inspiration is. Just my opinion.

about Drake him self? Eh, at least he's not your average macho guy ala Gears of War.