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Naughty Dog actually assumes you have a brain this time around too. In this one when you have a puzzle to solve it doesnt just give you the answer outright like it has in previous games. Or at least not immediately anyways.

There is Multiplayer as well but really I didnt find it all that interesting to cover. You get two teams of 5 and you play the standard multiplayer fanfare. Death match, team death match, capture the flag (plunder). You get base equipment but as you level up you get money to unlock new weapons and attires for your character. I played it for a little but online multiplayer never seems to do much for me. There is not level matchmaking so you get thrown in with noobs and vets alike. Usually it will randomize the teams per game to keep things fair but sometimes a clan will get together and just mows through new players. It was a bit of turn off for me. I suck at the multiplayer games. The one plus is the people I played with were pretty cool. One game some loud child was in the game, so of course I quit immediately.

Why dont the online services provide something for this. You have to put a date of birth in the online account to activate it. Why the fuck cant they make a filter so I can choose to not play anyone under the age 15. Nothing ruins a game experience for me like racist little shitdicks screaming obscenities into their stupid headsets because they can do it anonymously. Parents? I got a news flash for you, if you dont want your children to be subjected to offensive games, dont let them play games online. The worst thing that can be found in a video game is the horrible shit that comes out of a kids mouth. Children are the fucking worst and will always be worse than their teen or adult counterpart.

Ok, got that out of my system, back on topic. The storytelling is still this franchises strong point. I loved how they went with the villain this time around, instead of the usual gun toting psychopath we have Marlow. Marlow is an older woman who is cold, calculating, and definitely a cerebral opponent.  She has a very ominous way of bantering with the heroes. She has that villainous politeness about her that makes every thing she says sound like you are effd. It was a refreshing change from the normal types like Eddy, Novario, or Lazarevic.

But even the new characters and great story telling something still bothered me. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar: Drake treks through a jungle and find a series of ruins. Elena gets mad a Drake because they disagree if they should continue or not. Drake and Sully find a treasure or clue they are looking for only to have it taken away by the villain immediately after. They learn what they are after is evil or an evil power that Francis Drake tried to hide. Drake escapes from a ruin or temple from burning or sinking into the ground. In addition to that this game really tries to go over to the top in every level. With the exception of the snow level, the game takes place in pretty much every setting they can squeeze into the game. You go from a bar, sewers, to a jungle, run down manor, ruins, a marketplace, ship graveyard, and so on. Each level with its own incredible Hollywood blockbuster action sequence. I understand that its an action game, but when you cram things in as much as this does, it causes a little bit of an overload and I feel the impressiveness of a scene is diminished because of the not stop onslaught of scenes of this nature.

Drake never learns his lesson to stay off Planes.

Now, dont let this stream of complaints make you think this game wasnt great. I literally played the game from start to finish in a single sitting. None of the complaints were something that affected my ability to enjoy the game. The game has a familiarity at this point and the story is very compelling. Nathan Drake and the rest of the cast of characters are really what make the game so successful and with each passing title the characters have more life and nuance to them. They do a wonderful job of spacing the game out in the timeline so you have to take bits and pieces of dialogue to try to figure out what happened between the two games. The game has a pretty good pace to it and it goes just as long as it has to for a game of this type. My initial play through was about 9 hours. The only thing I fear is actually something said in one of the bonus features: "Where Do we go from here?" How many treasures can Francis Drake have hidden? How many more daring escapes can Nathan possibly get out of? Look, the bottom line here is that Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception is another incredible addition to this franchise, and if you own a PS3 you would be doing yourself an injustice if you didnt play it. My fear is that this game is not preparing itself for longevity, and is starting to show signs of repeating itself. They are still fun for now, but they are going to really need to reach to come up with something new for a 4th installment.