Naughty Dog

Uncharted 3 is the best example of how not to allocate focus because it ends up producing two very flawed projects. However in this case, Naughty Dog was lucky and came out with two big hits. These are Uncharted 3 and The Last Of Us. The follow-up to Honor Amongst Thieves began with a very interesting process, where teams would create full sequences and move onto “Project T1” (an early build of The Last Of Us). This has always been a point of contention within the community due to the blemishes of trying to thread each area into a polynucleotide-esque chain. Where some do think it was rough, for what it was, they did it masterfully. However, we must look at these main levels to see whether the combat and visuals were even worth the effort of tying them together.

The combat itself is presented pretty much the same as the second title, however with more ammo sufficiency, and weapon variety, they give enough identity to this game and enough quality-of-life improvements to feel like the series has evolved once more. The biggest improvement was the hand-to-hand combat, the game focuses on stealth and fist combat, which uses more animations to interact with the environment anywhere throughout the game. This is such an immersive quality, that has only been presented here. Just overall the combat felt more focused and had some seasoning of difficulty, which allowed for more approaches and creativity which was well needed for the franchise. Another big element is its parkour, which was floaty. I would usually reject this idea since I’ve never really liked this type of movement, but since it is a change, it creates its symmetrical style from the rest of the series. But the overall mechanics were the same, and overall really smooth. Former Journalist F.T Wolf believes the game leaves a simplistic take on its approach.

“The gameplay has remained largely unchanged. Uncharted remains an action-adventure game with the occasional puzzle. Combat consists of firefights, stealth sections, and dedicated action set pieces. Nate is still a spider monkey that climbs all over the place moving from one section to the next,” Wolf said.

Visually, Naughty Dogs takes a more stylized approach by tuning down shading systems, which kind of splits in between cel and chiaroscuro shading. The architecture is the coolest with highly detailed grand set pieces, with the different teams each area feels unique with its art style. The color palettes change to oranges and reds for most of the game, sometimes there is some neutrality but overall they chose a unique palette. A longtime fan known as “FilmFreak94” loves the visuals.

“Of course one of the things that makes Uncharted so appealing is the graphics. They look amazing,” FilmFreak94 said.

Overall I really enjoyed this game and the story lays a foundation for Nathan Drake’s character study and is filled with a lot of mythologies of the world leaving the story constantly moving and suspenseful. Even though I do blame The Last Of Us for kind of ruining this game’s development, both have found effective ways into my heart and that’s really all worth the trouble in my opinion.