With Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Video Games Edge Closer to Movie Territory
With the economy tanking, our Constitution in tatters, Europe on the brink of collapse and the Middle East being taken over by Islamists, it’s time to take a serious look at Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Because I finished playing it last weekend. And all that other stuff is, you know, kind of depressing.
The truly amazing moments in this game — even more amazing than anything in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves — come in the playable action sequences that are so close to the experience of being inside a movie that they’re almost like being inside a movie. Escaping from bad guys across a rooftop, running from a collapsing palace, fighting your way through a ship on a storm-tossed sea, battling your way into a cargo plane even as it plunges toward the earth: these sequences look so good and play so seamlessly that they make just sitting and watching actors do the job seem kind of tame by comparison. I loved that stuff and I also loved the new emphasis on Lara Croft style climbing and puzzle solving.
And the reason I loved those things is that, for me, the major drawback to this series has been an over-reliance on massive gunfights. I played this game in easy mode in the hopes it would cut down on the number of bad guys I would have to shoot to get to the next level. Not that I have anything against shooting bad guys, but a few times in this game, as in the one before, I groaned aloud at having to get through yet another gauntlet before I could move on. That may just be me, but I find these massive melees repetitive and boring. They’re a leaden stand-in for truly creative levels.
But there is plenty of cleverness, technical and artistic brilliance and plot to go around here. Good script by talented director Amy Hennig. Excellent acting by Nolan North, Richard McGonagle and Emily Rose — who’s so much prettier than her animated character, it seems a shame to get only her voice. All in all, a very good time, and a reminder that, for all the unoriginal dross in the video game world, the technology and creativity are advancing toward a genuinely new and interactive form of entertainment that’s going to get better and better for a long time to come.
Unless Barack Obama gets re-elected. Then everything will continue to get worse.
Emily Rose/Elena Fisher - just saying. (from geekosystem.com)
Cross-posted from Klavan on the Culture
You finished this game? Really?
I tried playing Uncharted 2 but it sucked so hard I gave up after an hour. What’s wrong with it? Same thing as most of these games—the player is only allowed to go places and do things that advance the plot. The game allows no freedom of movement or choice. Boring! And the camera control in Uncharted 2 (and no doubt 3) was truly horrible. Tomb Raider was a much better gameplay experience over a decade ago, and Skyrim blows them all away.
But that’s just my opinion, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Up until now, I had great respect for Andrew Klavan’s taste in games, but Uncharted 3 is a *terrible *game, period. It fails on nearly every level, and even the things you’d hope this desperate to be an action movie wannabe would get right (see: pacing), it totally fails.
(If this game was treated like an actual film, 2/3rds of it would have been cut for slowing the film to a grinding halt. Of course, this being a game, nothing is thrown out past a certain point since it cost so much to produce.)
It’s a good thing that it is KZ’s and ECM’s opinion that Uncharted 2 and 3 are terrible games.
And yes, generally when a game is meant to be *linear* there is no freedom of movement or choice. Kinda similar to Tomb Raider, but what do I know.
Andrew, I mean no disrespect in saying this, but there are much better cinematic and creative titles out there. One that is a personal favorite of mine is Shadow of the Colossus. No dialogue, no script that’s being read to you by voice actors or is simply sitting on the screen. This game is the ultimate in letting the person playing absorb everything. The boss fights (which are the only enemies in the game) require skill, strategy, and sometimes luck to defeat. You cannot simply aim and pull the trigger to kill enemies. You must look for these HUGE bosses and then figure out their weaknesses and exploit them. Your skills or powerups consist of a horse, a bow and arrow, and a sword that leads you in the general direction of bosses. The music is fantastic, the emotional imprint is better than Hollywood could ever hope to produce, and truly no two enemies are alike.
If you want to truly enjoy a game that blew away the competition on the PS2 and then was remastered for the PS3, check out Shadow of the Colossus.