When I think back to the
days of Playstation 2 I will think of such beloved trilogies as TimeSplitters,
Prince of Persia and of course, Grand Theft Auto. These games were
action-adventure at their finest, they had interesting stories, fine gameplay
and a healthy dose of comedy.
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While writing this I
came across the crushing news that we probably won’t ever see a TimeSplitters IV
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But those days are over, I
stayed loyal to Sony and got myself a Playstation 3, I don’t play it nearly as
much as my old PS2, but I still manage to keep up with the modern gaming trends.
I’ve completed Skyrim and everything.
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Pictured: Keeping up with
the times
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On the PS3 The Uncharted
Trilogy is a personal favourite of mine, they are a series of
action-adventure games about a treasure hunter named Nathan Drake. The series
has a very cinematic feel that makes you feel as if you are playing through a
big-budget action movie.
The Characters:
Well there’s the star Nathan
Drake (pictured above). He’s some sort of distant descendent of Sir Francis Drake and he
spends a great deal of his time following in his ancestor’s footsteps in the
hopes of finding treasure. When he isn’t doing this he spends his time making
wise-cracks and rescuing his friends
when they are taken hostage.
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“Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy” –
Sir Francis
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He is joined by his
best-friend Victor “Sully” Sullivan, who acts as a sort of a father figure/mentor
throughout the games. I must admit that I thought that he would be killed off
in the first game, as these mentor figures are
prone to do.
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*sniff*
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And finally we have Elena Fisher,
Drake’s love interest. I quite like her too, she’s basically the voice of
reason, urging caution and suggesting that the missions are too dangerous. Boring
in theory, but it’s handled well.
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The gang
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So here are my thoughts on
the trilogy, however unlike film trilogies it is hard to reacquaint yourself with what
has happened in the previous games without spending 8 hours replaying the story
mode. I personally haven’t touched the first two games since at least 2010, but
I will do my best to remember the highlights. Also, Spoilers!
Uncharted I aka
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Where Are We?: The jungles of South America
Why?: Turns out that the city of El
Dorado is located somewhere around here
What Happens?: Well, El Dorado is in fact is
cursed. It turns people into mutants, the main villain wants to harness this
power and sell it on the weapons market. Also it turns out that some Nazis were
looking for El Dorado during WWII so, it’s Drake vs. Mutant Nazis.
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Nazis, jungles and lost
treasure? Get Harrison on the phone!
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Was It Good?: Yeah it was alright. I remember not
being a big fan of the jungle, and if I’m honest my least favourite video game
setting is the jungle. Jungles have little variety, maybe the developers can
throw in some swimming sections or a Jeep chase, but that’s all that they can
really do.
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Although I remember the
Jeep chase being a particular highlight
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My main memory of this
game was the final boss. He was absurd, it took me literally an hour of
retrying before I could finally win the battle.
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Plus he looks like a poor
man’s Robert Downey Jr.
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Verdict: I wouldn’t call the game forgettable, I just
feel that the other games in the are far superior and have overshadowed Uncharted
I. So I’m afraid that I am going to have to give it a lowly 6 Indiana
Jones-style whips out of 10
Uncharted 2 aka
Uncharted II: Among Thieves
Where Are We?: This is mainly in Nepal,
specifically The Himalayas. So that means snow.
Why?: Drake is looking for the lost ships
of Marco Polo, he eventually finds some sort of evil stone that turns people into
these weird snow creatures that are stupidly hard to kill.
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Hate these guys
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What Happens?: Well it turns out that Drake and
Elena had broken up between games, but they run into each other. I remember
being genuinely happy to see Elena when she makes her first appearance at about
the half-way mark.
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Their sexually tense,
“Will they? Won’t they?” relationship reminds me of a certain beloved
television couple
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I realised at that point
that I was fully immersed into the world of Uncharted, the gang was back
together, Drake Sully and Elena ready to hunt treasure and fight bad guys. And
they even get back together at the end in a nice heartwarming ending.
Was it good?: This game was a marked improvement
on the first one, it was very cinematic. There were a lot of big set-piece
shootouts, most notably the level where you fight on a train. It had everything
you want from a train sequence, there was fighting on the roof, helicopters and
to top it all off the train derails and is left hanging precariously off the
side of a mountain. Then you have to climb up the wreckage to safety as the train
begins to slip off the cliffside.
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A genuinely exhilarating
action sequence
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The Verdict: This game really made things a lot
more interesting, there were varied areas to fight in, a village, a temple and
the mountain tops. The variety and set pieces really improved things, plus with
the characters having already been established it allowed the story to start
much quicker and progress without the need to introduce a lot of characters. I
give it a strong 8.5 abominable snowmen out of 10.
Uncharted 3 aka Uncharted III: Drake’s Deception
Where are we?: The desert. Brilliant. There aren’t
a lot of games that use the desert as a setting, it is very refreshing and it let
me live some of my favourite desert movie moments. Such as wandering through
the desert for days without water.
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Complete with mirages!
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Why?: Turns out Francis Drake went on a
secret mission to Syria to find the ‘Atlantis of the Sands’, and Drake is
following in his footsteps to uncover the mystery.
What happens?: So towards the end of the game Sully gets shot
and dies, (I actually gasped when it happened.) The villain lady unleashes an
army of dudes with flames for heads, classic Uncharted, the supernatural
enemies had arrived and they were predictable difficult to kill.
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Seriously fuck these guys
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But the level becomes
increasingly surreal until it is revealed that the entire sequence was actually
a hallucination , and we are greeted to Sully’s healthy face as Drake re-enters
reality. It sounds like a very cliché plot twist, but the game sells it very
well, and I felt very relieved that nothing had happened to Sully.
So, yeah Uncharted III
sticks to human enemies, minus the dream sequence.
As is tradition Elena comes
in about half-way through the game and helps Drake out, but she’s much more
serious in this game. She questions why Drake is still trying to beat the bad
guys and accuses him of being blinded by his pride. She’s right, he really has
no other reason to keep going other than pride, plus he is also putting
everyone else in danger by doing so.
It injects actual drama
into the story, and makes you question Drake’s motivations and if the mission
really is important.
Either way, Drake
continues regardless and takes down the bad guys, the ending strongly implies
that he is going to marry Elena as the gang flies off into the sunset.
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hopefully they all decide
to move in together
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Was it good?: Good? Yes. Difficult? Incredibly.
This may be one of the most difficult games that I have ever played, there are
so many henchmen and they are all have stupid amounts of health. Each action
sequence feels overwhelming and I most certainly struggled through this game.
Having said that the game
itself is fantastic, there are so many great moments, the stand out example is
when Drake is escaping from a sinking cruise ship. You have to run through the
ship as it is sinking looking for a way to escape, plus there are still guys
trying to kill you, the whole thing is genuinely exhilarating, like the last hour of Titanic. But with guns.
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Yippee-Kai-Yay-Motherfucker
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The thrilling conclusion
takes place in the main hall of the cruise ship, which happens to have a literal
glass ceiling. As you are going around killing the bad guys and what-not, you
can hear the glass starting to crack under the pressure of the water, it is stark
reminder that you need to find an exit quickly before the glass shatters like
main hall of the Titanic.
The Verdict: This is the strongest of the
trilogy, it has the best story and action sequences. I have no hesitation in
awarding this game a prestigious 9.5 desert scarves out of 10.
Where next for the
series?: Throwing
it out there.
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It just makes sense
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