Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Preview
Eat Fresh, Play Fresher
by Quinn Levandoski
previewed on PS3
Braving the Elements (cntd)
I’ve always felt that Drake moves and reacts to his environment much better than most video game characters, but the smooth-as-butter motion and lifelike reactions in Drake’s Deception make his previous outings look like child’s play. For instance, combat has been expanded almost exponentially. Previously, Drake was limited to either shooting or fist-fighting one baddie at a time. Now he can not only grapple with multiple opponents at one time, but also can also use context-sensitive tools like structurally unsound walls and nearby bottles to aid him. All of these visuals and animations add up to Uncharted 3 being a strong contender for graphics of the year.
While the single-player campaign has always been the main focus of the Uncharted series, multiplayer has been steadily rising since its surprisingly enjoyable debut in Uncharted 2. For Drake’s Deception, multiplayer will be present in the form of both co-operative play and competitive multiplayer. Uncharted 2 had co-op, but Uncharted 3 is looking to up the ante. Players can now hop on with a friend (either locally or online) and take on a number of special missions specifically designed for this mode. These missions come complete with treasures, cutscenes, story and more. Details on exactly what these missions are and exactly how or if they’ll have any connection to the main campaign remains to be seen, but if nothing else the mode should be good for a few play-throughs with a friend or two.
Eat Fresh, Play Fresher
While co-operative multiplayer is looking like a worthy part of the game, Drake’s Deception is really bringing a lot to the table with its competitive multiplayer. Multiplayer will support six game modes, including normal Teach Deathmatch, Free-For-All, 3-Team-Deathmatch, Team Objective, High Stakes (a free-for-all mode where players can lose money and experience for doing poorly, or gain much more than normal for doing well), and Plunder (a sort of capture the flag mode where teams must capture treasures). None of these modes may seem particularly revolutionary, but there’s a lot more being added to the experience than a few game modes. Players can now customize their characters in multiple ways, including clothing and taunts.
They can select Boosters and Kickbacks, the Uncharted equivalents of Call of Duty’s Perks and Killstreaks, but with the power to turn into a swarm of bugs instead of martyrdom. To spice things up, the multiplayer maps have now been made dynamic, with drastic shifts in location during a match. One map has players start out on a cargo plane barreling down a runway while the other team is chasing them down in the beds of trucks. After a period of time the plane takes off, and fighting moves to a hanger-area with a completely different playstyle. The other map starts off with two trains racing through a subway track side by side before coming to a stop where fighting resumes in the subway station. Both of these are a blast to experience, and really make me wish that more games had these sorts of dynamic shifts to keep matches interesting. The best part of Uncharted 3’s multiplayer? It’s already available if you buy a meal at Subway restaurants. It isn’t the complete multiplayer, as there is a level cap and a few options left out, but it’s much more expansive than the beta and will transfer progress to the full game when it’s released.
With a suitably epic story, breath-taking visuals, a slew of new animations and a re-vamped multiplayer experience, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is shaping up to the another solid entry in one of Sony’s most praised franchises. Of course there are still a lot of questions to be answered. Will the game be able to keep the charm of the first two? Will it suffer from its own almost overwhelming hype? Who exactly is being deceived, and how? We don’t have much longer to wait, and I can’t wait to find out.
