#UNCHARTED 3 GAME FOR PS3 MOVIE#
It's also mildly didactic, and feels less dumbed-down than any mainstream movie we've come across in years.
Its production values are sky-high, and it puts you at the centre of a gloriously rich and irresistible world, controlling a character who is heroic, but also convincingly human.
But Uncharted 3, perhaps for the first time, represents what we all hoped games would eventually evolve into. And Drake and his cronies have become much more humorous than before, never knowingly sparing the wisecracks.ĭecades ago, all the talk in the world of games centred on beating Hollywood at its own game – but what we got, instead, demonstrated how difficult that was. At times – thanks to a baddie with a habit of firing darts filled with mind-bending drugs – proceedings become positively psychedelic. And there are a couple of unexpected aspects to the game. The trademark rich, colourful and vibrant environments are present and correct, and the cities are better populated, and therefore much more convincing, than before. Graphics-wise, Uncharted 3 is beyond impeccable – it is one of the finest looking games ever. Uncharted 3 is gratifyingly keen to make its shoot-outs more challenging and hectic than its predecessors. As ever, the shooting places great emphasis on plundering guns and ammo from dead enemies, and different classes of enemy (including heavily armoured tank characters), keep that side of the game interesting. Drake even gets to show off his horsemanship skills at one point. The (British, and nicely observed) baddies dog you every step of the way, so bouts of adventuring are usually followed (or even preceded) by shoot-outs. Drake and Sully's banter compares favourably with that of the best-buddy movies, and is leavened by the occasional reappearance of various allies from previous Uncharted games. It flows magnificently, and is much more tightly plotted than the average movie, despite lurching across the globe. It does, nevertheless, feel fresh and ground-breaking. It's very much a traditional game, and takes care to be forgiving for those who wouldn't describe themselves as hardcore gamers. You wouldn't say that Uncharted 3's gameplay is fantastically innovative. The game then returns to the present day, apparently competing with itself to take you to ever more exotic locations as Drake's treasure hunt takes shape. It soon busies itself by filling in a crucial chunk of back-story, as you flash back to control a teenage Drake in Cartagena, Colombia – where he first encounters Sully. The game's narrative flow, as tortuous as we have come to expect, also provides an extra level of immersion. Those tiny incongruities that remind gamers they aren't actually controlling a Hollywood movie have been ruthlessly eradicated, and the dialogue is vibrant rather than clunky.
And second, that the franchise has raised its game in terms of virtual acting to a level only previously occupied by LA Noire. Which illustrates two things: first, the game's hand-to-hand combat engine has been massively improved (although it takes a back seat once weapons enter the equation). It begins with Drake and his mentor Sully, unarmed, taking part in a great brawl in a London pub. From the beginning, it makes clear its intention to avoid the predictable and obvious, mixing up its gameplay and exotic locations cleverly. Talk of adhering to blueprints, commendably, is slightly misleading in Uncharted 3's case. Uncharted 3 has a cinematic grandeur that would make Lara Croft choke with envy. That's where the resemblance ends though. So it's a good job that, like a polar opposite of the England football team, it seems able to feed off the pressure and achieve new heights.Īs ever, Uncharted superficially adheres to the blueprint established by the Tomb Raider games, in that the game's protagonist, Nathan Drake, divides his time between acrobatic leaping, climbing and swinging around, shooting and solving puzzles. In recent years, the burden of providing a reason to buy a PlayStation 3 rather than Xbox 360 or Wii has been shouldered by Naughty Dog's action-adventure franchise Uncharted, so the third iteration, subtitled Drake's Deception, is the company's great white hope for this Christmas. Games exclusive to a single console have apparently been subjected to 1940s-style rationing these days, but rumours of their death have clearly been exaggerated.