If the video game industry’s highest ambition is to produce interactive movies, “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” is the greatest game ever made. This teen-friendly action-adventure hardly goes a minute without something spectacular happening. Playing it feels like taking the Universal Studios backlot tour. And I don’t mean the part where you look at the “Psycho” house. I mean the part where your tram “malfunctions,” the wheels lock, and an earthquake sends a fuel tanker sliding toward your face. Monumental setpieces are a dime a dozen with current technology, but with “Uncharted” there’s a sense you’re really there, that you retain the slightest bit of control as the world churns around you.
Credit the graphics, among the most impressive in the medium. Credit also the million ways the developers forcibly intervene in the action.
Punch a guy near a window, and protagonist Nathan Drake will throw him through it. Bump into a basket of fruit, and it swivels and drops a couple pieces. Jump from one ledge to another, and the original ledge will crumble the moment you leave it. The game world is so riddled with “spontaneous” events, it feels like a shooting gallery, with a trick every three inches.
HHHHH
| ‘Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception’ |
| » System: PS3 » Price: $59.99 |
And this is where “Drake’s Deception” runs into trouble. Maybe the developers overdo it this time, maybe I’m just used to it by the third installment, but the invisible hand that has always guided Nathan ain’t so invisible this time around. The game’s makers need to ward against their special brand of magical realsim devolving into self-parody.
If Nate’s solo adventures do start to feel too predictable, you can always turn to the game’s surprisingly good (and relatively bloodless) multiplayer. Using a third-person camera angle and Nathan’s excellent climbing skills, the multiplayer escapes the wasteland of military shooters, and is more about running and jumping than shooting people in the head. – Ryan Vogt
