3.5/5 ★ – isaiahbot's review of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered.

Uncharted Series Playthrough - Entry #3 This is surprisingly the toughest one to rank for me. On an artistic level, this is the most thoughtful of the PS3 trilogy and actually gave a damn about any type of character development or exploration, and aside from underdeveloped antagonists (which I think get somewhat of a bad rap here considering most Uncharted antagonists are this way to an extent), it did a decent job at this, particularly in its utilization of motifs and the cohesive weaving of Drake’s development into the development of Iram of the Pillars. His arc also ties nicely into 4, making the last two games feel like thematic companion pieces. Aside from the more standout puzzles of the series here, it was, at times, probably my least favorite to actually play, however. On a technical level, 3 feels the jankiest and sloppiest in the action department, which I think can be attributed to the obviously more ambitious depth of combat that they clearly prioritized from the opening bar brawl (which is no doubt a soft response to the popularity of Arkham’s combat that everyone was trying to capitalize off of at that point), and more intricate animations, as well as the more “reactive” (or “overreactive”) camera, the combination of which Naughty Dog hadn’t really perfected yet. Its action pacing is a double-edged sword, as I feel it’s easily the slowest and most meandering of the PS3 trilogy. Not bad by any means, but just offering pretty standard shootout after shootout between even lengthier platforming segments than usual. However, I also believe there’s intentionality behind this repetition to reinforce Drake’s arc, even in the most prolonged and purposefully fruitless of points like the ship graveyard. Regardless of its intentionality, I can’t really deny that I wasn’t fully engaged with some of the action segments here that makes up a substantial portion of the experience, but I respect its overall approach at depicting the decay of a romanticized “adventure”, nonetheless.