Taking A Look At Uncharted 3 Part 2 (Gameplay)

By Neal "NeoMahi" Evans

"One of the first things that we concentrated on was expanding and polishing the melee combat and so the very first thing was to give Drake the ability to engage multiple enemies. An enemy might come up behind him and grab him and Drake has to kind of struggle to free himself. Other enemies could come and attack him at the same time and so if the player wales on the melee button he'll kick him away, kick him in the chest, finally struggle free. So, its that kind of thing we were focused on the gun combat, the traversal gunplay in Uncharted 2 and we wanted to expand and evolve the the hand-to-hand combat in a way that really honored the source material. Of our game." - Richard Lemarchand (Lead Designer/Naughty Dog)

I can remember the first time I played Uncharted: Drakes Fortune as clear as I can look out the window of the room I'm sitting in and I can see a lot as Spring time is finally here and the sun is shining down on everything. I can remember downloading the demo of the game through the PlayStation Network and starting it up. Played it for a little while and probably finished the demo, that I don't remember, and putting it down and thinking, alright, that wasn't too great and going back to playing Gears of War. I then remember a while later looking at reviews for the game and everyone talking about how great it was and that PS3 owners should buy the game. I didn't care. I was having fun playing playing other games. One day, I had a free rental of a game that needed to be burned up or I'd lose it so I went to the store to see what they had. I looked at Resistance, Heavenly Sword and I think it was Haze. I looked at the Xbox 360 games which I'd had all the best ones and finally onto the Wii games which I'd just gotten my hands on a Wii, but didn't see anything I liked. I returned to Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and stared at for a good while and reminded myself, I had to burn up the rental so I got it.

When I finally got home, I don't think I was too excited to pop it into the PlayStation 3, rather I went off to do other things and came back to it, finally put it in, played the game for about a half hour, ejected it, boxed it, took it to the store dropped in the box (that same day) and rushed to the gaming store and purchased the game. I never hesitated again. When Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was announced, my face was pressed up against the glass of the TV sucking up the VGA announcement trailer and waited for more news. I saw Uncharted 2's gameplay at E3 online and sat salivating over its graphics envying those who got to be at E3 and would get to play the singleplayer campaign. I knew nothing of the multiplayer however and just wished and wished. I later got to play Uncharted 2 as my brother worked maintenance at a store that sold the game and on his lunch break was able to purchase the game and bring it home to his little brother. I threw in the game and got going on it.

Uncharted is without question my absolute favorite gaming franchise of this generation. Capcom has slipped through my fingers and Gears of War comes close. But to those whom have played Uncharted can understand exactly what I'm talking about. The cinematic feel of the game, the balance of action and breathing with its storytelling, its combat system, its puzzles and its traversal. Its all great! What's interesting however, is that I absolutely dislike Tomb Raider. I've tried several times but its far too buggy for me. We'll see how the reboot does.

Well, several years have gone by and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves still remain big games. In fact, Uncharted 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 still remain ranked at the top list of ten of the greatest games of this console generation and every developer envy's Naughty Dogs success. What is the secret to Naughty Dogs success is on on their minds. Here we are at Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception on a few months away from E3 (we're likely to see its multiplayer this time around), and even longer until its release. Thankfully we won't have to wait long until its multiplayer beta at least. So lets talk about what matters most. The games gameplay.

GAMEPLAY. IT ANY FUN? Well, again very little has been shown about the game as both Sony and Naughty Dog are keeping things pretty tight lipped. Its an explosion they're planning for. A total surprise. Still, again, we know more about Uncharted 3 by now than we ever did about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves at its equivalent point in time. But I don't doubt that our jaws with once again hit the floor when its all said and done. Regardless, this is what we've learned since Uncharted 3: Drakes Deceptions official announcement. With a little speculation.

I have played through Uncharted: Drakes Fortune about eight times playing it on every difficulty level and a few times on the same difficultly level. I recently finished the game for its Platinum Trophy not long ago finishing the game on its Crushing difficulty setting. As I did so, I was reminded of the controls at that time and to this day, when I recommend Uncharted to gamers and friends, I always recommend they play Uncharted before Uncharted 2. I found how new Uncharted: Drakes Fortune really was. It was much like my first experience with Gears of War, though it was a little more responsive because my cover button and other buttons were pretty well separated and not just mapped to a single button. Gears of War still has its issues with trying to go into cover. It still thinks on its own and tries to skip your farther ahead, or when at a ninety-degree angle assume which direction you want to go. I found getting in and out of cover in Uncharted was much easier. Gears finally caught up with Gears 2 having taken lessons from Uncharted and still has its problems but, while playing Uncharted on Crushing, situations can get pretty intense and the controls seemed buggy. By Uncharted 2 they were finally fixed and work much better being more responsive as well. The SIXAXIS function with the grenades I noticed was removed and replaced with SIXAXIS controls for leaning back and jumping to another ledge.

There's no question in my mind that Uncharted 3 is going to take that a step further and that its going to expand and tighten up those controls giving the game a more responsive feel and most likely reveal the unnoticeable bugs Uncharted 2 may have had and you'll think, yeah, that does work or, controls will remain the same because they still work great.

Uncharted 2 introduced advanced stealth to the series giving the game a Sam Fisher sort of feel. Its not Metal Gear Solid by any means, but its not trying to be a stealth action game. Its rather a means of strategics to change up the gameplay and take down your enemies and is a nice touch. In the video of the burning chateau, we find Drake circling his target from above and then leaping down onto his enemy breaking his neck and putting him down. Later on, you see Drake grabbed from behind and he forces the extra guy off of him, break's free of the man holding him, knocks out the extra guy and then rushes back to finish the job on the guy who was holding him. It hasn't been confirmed yet, but rumor has it that Drake will also be able to use objects around him in melee combat as well. The example was given of a broken bottle.

We have also seen that Nathan Drake will do a fair bit of globe trotting as he did in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and will end up in Arabia at the conclusion of his search. The extended announcement shows him running through a flooded hall, leaping into a building window and in water up to his chest in what looked to me like the opening stage of Crysis 2 and you make it out of the sinking ship. We don't doubt in the least that there will be many great stages to play through with stealth mechanics. Hopefully and it seems they have, Naughty Dog will find ways to up the stealth giving you more stealth-type missions.

The nice thing about Uncharted 2 pitted up against Uncharted is that the stages were much more vertical. They were still linear in order to tell the story Naughty Dog wanted to tell but, you could change up the way you were playing by going up top and taking them out that way, or flanking them otherwise. That's not to say it wasn't possible in Uncharted because I found plenty of ways, its just that stealth was kept in mind with taking out enemies in Uncharted 2 and hopefully that continues.

There is also no question in my mind that there will be plenty of leaping and puzzle solving in this game. This a game that's all about climbing higher, making impossible leaps and getting behind cover and blowing enemies away. When Gears of War was first released, the cover system was everything and it was great! It was a new way of playing a shooter and other games followed right along. The problem is, you're grounded. Uncharted gives you the freedom to go where you want. You're not limited to the floor and stairs but can climb wherever you want.

We've also seen in a few instances of videos that working together with Sully will be important. The two instances we've seen is Drake getting his foot caught in the step. While Sully tries to free up his leg, Nathan has to hold off the baddies that are coming at them. The other is in the chateau in which Drake has found a way for Sully to make it across the gap. Drake knocks down a beam Sully has to get across and Drake has to hold off the enemy. Taking cover seems to have a little more depth as well as its more destructive than that in previous. I remember playing through the final boss of Uncharted with Navarro and on Crushing, your life restores very slowly and those crates get taken out pretty quickly. With Uncharted 3, it appears things are taken out a piece at a time, and there even seems to be instances in which Drake has to shoot out obstacles himself, much like Uncharted 2 trying to reach the top of the hotel with fire around him, taking out 2 x 4's in his way to get through much like this but with more depth.

We're likely to see many of the interactive moments such as lifting things for Sully, or in Uncharted 2 lifting things for Chloe and maybe even dragging along a dying reporter. Elena had better show up, though its extremely likely as Uncharted 2 ended with Drake finally! falling for Elena and also that Emily had posted on her twitter page that she would be doing more voice recording for Uncharted. We know its going to happen, we just don't know how. Whether we'll play along with her, or whether she's become the damsel in distress. 

Finally, the good old treasure hunting is back. Finding treasure will give you Uncharted dollars you can use to buy things like rendering modes or art and unlockable videos similarly to Uncharted 2. This is all great and adds lasting appeal to the game. You can go through several times and find all the treasure and earn dollars to buy all of that unlockable stuff.

Also, you absolutely cannot mention Uncharted without linking it to the name Greg Edmonson and Gordon Hunt. Greg Edmonson has been with Uncharted from day one composing the musical score for the game that absolutely adds life and personality to the game as well as the ceasing of it allowing your pulse to slow and your heartbeat to return to normal in tense moments. When the music stops, you can finally breathe. Although sometimes, it goes to a steady beat and you think you're done and the next wave comes in, which with some, the wave after wave of enemies may have bothered, but without it, the game would have been too easy perhaps. And Gordon Hunt who had previously worked with Amy Hennig and with Uncharted a theatre director was the director for the mocap sessions of Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and without question surely to return to do the same for Uncharted 3. 

Lastly is the multiplayer. The multiplayer looks phenomenal. The modes, the maps, its all great! There appears to me much more customization this time around more specifically to your characters and your weapons and environment that will be a big draw and when pitted up against Gears of War will throw itself ahead of Gears. Gears of War still seems attached to its already given weapons but with what we've seen with Uncharted thus far it goes much deeper than that. You're characters aren't going to look the same. With Uncharted 2, it was unlockable skins and there were plenty of them, but in Uncharted 3, you're given a customizable character that you can buy clothing for and battle-clad like a G.I. Joe. Its also been mentioned that the winning team during matches with have their custom logo displayed that they create themselves. I absolutely love the customization to Uncharted.

The modes announced so far look stellar on paper and we'll see how they do in the coming months. We're likely to see the return of previous modes in Uncharted 2 such as Treasure hunt and cooperative stages. We do know that Naughty Dog has been talking about the prime focus of Uncharted 3 giving a really great multiplayer experience and as of now, success is in their future. The maps look impressive and spacious with a lot of different places to hide climbing higher and setting yourself up for those stealth shots and the environments look beautiful. We'll also likely see that on the fly map changes we've seen in Uncharted 2 that again, Epic seemed to like and with their dedicated servers can now apparently do. This keeps the experience ever changing with a Homer Simpson-type guy sitting in his computer storage room watching stats running through the system and moving around objects giving you a different map-by-map and game-by-game experience. 

Gears of War Multiplayer Map

The character models still seem to need some work though. I'm still playing through Gears 3 multiplayer and I've noticed getting on recently, that its not what I thought I'd seen before. The screen shots online on the web portray it as being really sharp and smooth, and when you get into it, textures seem flatter than I thought. Uncharted 3 is looking much more comparable with several months to go. Gears of War seems to have that camera really up and in there to purposefully show off the detail of the character, but environments are looking flatter. Its still beautiful, don't get me wrong. The point I'm trying to make really is that multiplayer graphics though they still need work, are looking neck and neck with Gears of War 3 and have a lot of potential to surpass them.

Throw Em Off a Building

The modes that have only been announced for Uncharted 3 are mostly Team Deathmatch. However, its Team vs Team vs Team Deathmatch. That's right. You're having to watch your back even more or find some sort of way to find allies during gameplay, and take out the tougher guys and then go at it yourselves, but I see one crazy battle set up. We also know that some levels with me moving stages which I'm anxious to check out. With what we've been given so far, its clearly just a small taste. Its certain that at E3 and closer to the games release we'll hear a whole more of the game and what it has to offer both in terms of stellar gameplay, and excellent and deep and engaging multiplayer, a cinematic storyline and top notch graphics that will raise the bar not to forget and epic soundtrack composed by Greg Edmonson really adding personality and life to the game. Hopefully, it doesn't all just look good on paper, but that it will deliver. Surely, we'll learn more at E3.

For more on Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception and all other things PlayStation and gaming. Check back as we keep you in the X-Zone right here at ThumbDrive.