Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - First Look

He has been hunting his ancestral treasure looking for EL Dorado in South America. He traversed the Himalyan foothills looking for the Chintamani stone at the legendary Shangri La.

Now he is back, hunting the fabled lost city in Arabia. A city that Lawrence of Arabia called ‘Atlantis of the sands’.

His name is Nathan Drake, and he is a descendant of Sir Francis Drake.

He is quick with his gun, his fist and his tongue. He is suave with the ladies, slick with his friends and sly with his enemies. He may have shades of Indiana Jones and follow the well trodden footseteps of Tomb Raider, but he is becoming an icon in his own right, solidly backed up by the two outstanding games from Naughty Dog.

He is a hero millions of you have controlled.

He is the hero of the Uncharted series, the millions selling games from Naughty Dog for the Playstation 3.

The first game Uncharted : Drake’s Fortune came out of left field and surprised everyone with its agile ergonomics, Tomb Raider-esque settings and surprisingly good game play. The lush polychromatic locales rendered in beautiful graphics made the best use of PS3s processing power delivering outstanding visuals that would put most Hollywood films to shame.

The second game upped the stakes and delivered brilliance. The lush locales of Himalayas, the astounding cut scenes, brilliant voice acting and story lines, a relentless pace all helped to make Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a delight to play. It was no surprise it went on to become one of biggest selling games of 2010.

Now the new game promises to up the ante several notches.

Set in the sweltering Arabic deserts and other locales, Nathan Drake is once again accompanied by Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan in a quest to find the mythical city ‘Iram of the Pillars’ .

The story goes that Iram was a magnificent city that was the jewel of the desert sand. Many ancient kings and kingdoms traded with Iram and it flourished unperturbed until a chance encounter with the Deity, who disapproved of certain practice.

Accordign to Islamic texts Legend has it that the King Shahhad defied warnings from a prophet Husd regarding certain practices and God unleashed huis fury on the city. It was driven into the sands, its glory, wealth and its people perishing into the endless sands of the desert.

Referred to in some texts as Ubar ( it is the region that is called Ubar and the people Ubarites) Iram is considered forever lost. Westerners become aware of this legendary lost city in the translations of 1001 Arabian Nights.

The legendary Lawrence of Arabia himself, TE Lawrence, referred to the city as the 'Atlantis of the Sands'. One suspects Drake has stumbled upon TE Lawrence's diaries, as it can be seen in the opening sequences.

As with most new games the graphics are meant to be even more eye scorchingly good. Naughty Dog say that like water, sand has never been rendered so well. It flows, swirls, hides, hazes all through the desert levels. There is blazing building (chateau) level where the flames lick lasciviously everything in their way. Nathan himself is in is usual civvies, the facial animation is now bettered even more. Naughty Dog are using 32 cameras similar to those used by Robert Zemeckis in Beowulf to heighten the rotoscoping and body mapping. The voice acting and the script are as ever stellar.

Apart from Sully there is a promise of his previous girlfriends returning as what would Uncharted be without the scorching chemistry and wordplay that it does so well.

New moves include automatic weapon and item pick up, new climbing moves and combat moves. Nathan has a lot more naturalistic contextual combat that means the fight scenes are even more action packed, giving the player a lot of combat satisfaction.

There are going to be more Boss battles and more crazy situations for Drake to wake up to. Hanging from a ship lost in the jungle or from the runaway train on a clifftop will be topped again and again in Uncharted 3 as they up the ante.

As the game began production before the PS3 Move controller launch, the developers feels returning to remap the game around Move doesnt make sense . So there will be no Motion control and move support. I don't regret this as the Move has not exactly set me on fire like the Kinect has.

However there is full stereoscopic 3D support, taking advantage of the beautifully rendered HD graphics and camera movements. So if you haven't already got your 3D TV and you are a fan of the series, you have time to invest in the kit.

With another 10 months to go before the release date, Naughty Dog are busy polishing the gameplay and the graphics, tweaking out any bugs ad fixes, getting their baby ready well in time for next Christmas.

The official release date is 1-11-11

One wonders what secrets and mysteries the third instalment is going to uncover.

Nathan Drake is going from strength to strength and will the third outing prove more satisfying than Indy's recent caper?

There are rumours that the original Tomb Raider is also being resurrected. With plenty of original competition and imitations, Drake has got his job cut out.

But as ever, with his casual demeanour and unfluttered coolness, Drake will triumph.

Copyright © Mohan Kumar 2011

Thanks you for visiting, please leave comments and vote using the buttons below. Do look around the other hubs.