Drake’s Fortune is a game in pretty rough shape. The skeleton of a good game is clearly there, but it doesn’t seem to execute anything particularly well within the gameplay. Combat is extremely clunky and hard to handle. At the end of the day, the combat plays like a pretty standard third person action shooter. Each section of enemies has its share of cover to hide behind, but moving between cover or even just in and out of it is very clumsy and frustrating. By and large, you will likely just stick to one piece of cover and stay there. However, they also overwhelm you with enemies, and often wind up flanking you right after you finish with one group.  Combat is easily one of the worst elements of the gameplay, which is unfortunate given its about eighty percent of the game.

A smaller chunk of the game is comprised of climbing stuff and solving fairly basic puzzles. The puzzles themselves aren’t anything to really sweat about. Climbing stuff can be – at times – every bit as frustrating as the combat. Sometimes your body lines up with the spot you want to jump to, only to find yourself jumping in a totally different direction. Jump lines are either automatic, or stagnant which causes you to die or fail to make the hop you need to.

The game also utilizes AI companions throughout. You are often joined by your long time exploration partner Sully or your love interest Elena. They will join you throughout several chapters of the game, often helping you move heavy items or get up to reach a ladder. They don’t really do much else other than provide fun conversations though. They sometimes help you in combat, but they don’t really do much in that department either. If you’re ambushed by a group of ten enemies, they’ll maybe take down one or two at best. At this point in time though, you can clearly see how it was basically the early stage experimentation that lead to The Last of Us. 

The meat and potatoes of Drake’s Fortune is the story and characters. Nate Drake is basically a modern, funnier Indiana Jones. He’s on the search for Francis Drake’s lost treasure with Elena Fisher filming for a documentary  on the subject. What unfolds is a strange mystery, complete with evil businessmen on search for the same thing. There is also a strange mysticism as we find out they’re actually looking for a golden statue in the mythical city of El Dorado.

Many problems of the first game are dealt with for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The gameplay is much more ironed out, the weapons handle much better. Even the climbing mechanics are much more reliable and easy to handle.

Voice acting is top notch throughout the series. This only further adds to the great character writing, which is among the best in any franchise for the sequel. The graphical fidelity is an interesting thing to note. At one point, it clearly was the pinnacle of the PS3, but playing them now, especially the first two, the graphics aren’t as incredible as they were when you saw them for the first time. Still, at the time of their release, they were top of the line in that department too. They’re not bad today either, just noticeably weaker and “last gen” at this point.

For Naughty Dog fans, Among Thieves marks Neil Druckmann’s entry as one of the lead game designers. The creative director for The Last of Us, you already the early stages fingerprints all over it. One of the first things is how cinematic the game is outside cutscenes. Shifting camera angles when cautiously walking across a ledge or a top-down view as you climb up a train car dangling over a huge drop: they do more here to make the game sections more cinematic. There are even some awesome set pieces, like fighting on a long, moving train or getting chased by a helicopter and later, a tank. It feels more epic than the previous game.

Additionally, they work in multiple ways to play. In Drake’s Fortune, there’s only one way to play: run and gun. That’s still largely the way you’ll end up playing for most of the game, but they do provide you with a stealth option. Not quite as smoothed out in mechanics as The Last of Us, but still solid enough that you can do it without struggling too much. This helps change the pace up. The first game had a problem of constantly throwing countless enemies at you. The gameplay felt repetitive and tediously never-ending. Giving you the option to go in guns blazing or sneaking around mixes it up enough so even when there are long bouts of waves upon waves of enemies, it doesn’t feel as repetitive.

Another wise decision – which also came back for The Last of Us – was to change up the pacing of the levels as well. There still isn’t ultimately that much to explore, but you aren’t just moving from wave to wave through each section of the game. There are times where you’ll spend most of the chapter jumping around a mountain, or wandering through a city. It gives you more opportunity to examine your surroundings, and really just changes up the pace even more. You won’t feel like you’re just being hampered by an entire army.

The final boss is something of a weakness for the game, and the main villain isn’t particularly compelling. It’s pretty much the same one from the first game, but made to be more pure evil. He’s your pretty typical Eastern European bad guy. The interesting component is Harry Flynn and Chloe, two characters who have a history with Nate. Flynn starts off as a deceptive guy, but plays the straight villain for the remainder of the game. Chloe has a duality in her role, trying to help both Harry and Nate. She isn’t neutral really, but it takes some time to really get a sense of whose side she’s on.

The writing for all of the games is pretty great, but in the sequel is when it’s at its best. Nathan Drake is less happy-go-lucky about killing hoards of men, the story has more of a roller coaster ebb and flow to it, and the weird mysticism gets a good enough build up. (It’s weirder than the previous game, but still works in a strange way.) At times, it even gets kind of meta. When Chloe and Nate run into Elena, she introduces herself to Chloe as “last year’s model” in a clear shot at the way many of those action/adventure movies work, with a new love interested every film. Then there’s Harry’s conclusion, which has him mention that Chloe doesn’t get to save the day and reform the villain. “It’s not that kind of story,” he says. Even Lazarovich, when about to be defeated, calls Nate out for all the men he’s killed. He’s basically speaking to the player when he says, “How many men have you killed today?”

While not perfect, it is the pinnacle of the franchise so far.

While Among Thieves ironed out the gameplay and pacing, making the franchise much more enjoyable. The expectations were high for the follow up, Drake’s Deception. There are many things the game does well, and it even improves upon a few things. By and large though, it winds up being a step in the wrong direction, especially compared to the leap Among Thieves made following Drake’s Fortunate. 

One of the most glaring issues with the game is how insanely reliant it is on cutscenes. Normally, the use of cutscenes is not inherently bad. However, it gets a little tiresome when the game is interrupted every five to ten minutes with another one – especially when they don’t need to use it. Drake’s Fortune relied quite a bit on them to create the cinematic story. Among Thieves toned it down a bit and attempted to do what they could within the context of the gameplay, rather than breaking out into a cutscene. Here though, Drake’s Deception is far too heavy on them. It’s a step backwards in the franchise.

Oddly, the gun play feels a little bit clunkier than Among Thieves, although it’s still improved from the first game. Combat is similarly tiresome, with an overwhelming number of enemies thrown at you, and while stealth is sometimes an option, it’s not as much an option as it was in the second game. Even the climbing controls feel a little bit clumsier. The only control scheme the third game improves upon is the hand-to-hand combat, which is probably the best it has been in the series.

While a dynamic combat system was introduced in Among Thieves, it’s much smoother and more fun to play in Drake’s Deception. Button mashing isn’t much of a thing, really, and countering and throwing enemies helps. It’s also more exciting now that Nathan Drake might occasionally use his surrounding environment. Still, it is a little strange that the attention given to the melee combat appears to have taken away from the improvements made in gun play and climbing before. (As an aside, it seems strange that each game offers a slightly different mechanic for tossing grenades, and somehow they’re all equally terrible.)

The game delves into the relationship between Sully and Nate more than any of the previous games, even going so far as to make us play a flashback sequence to show us how they met. This also introduces us to the villain. Overall, Marlow is the most memorable villain in the franchise. Yet in the end, it features one of the most anti-climactic finales. Sure, you run through a crumbling mythical city, but that’s something you do all the time. Unlike the previous games, you don’t fight the villain. Instead, she meets her demise in – you guessed it – a cutscene. You do, however, fight her henchman. Though arguably one of the better final bosses in any of these three games, it’s still a bit of a let down.

Overall, the third game does a number of things really well. Level designs are pretty intriguing, the melee combat is the best within the trilogy, and there’s a nice diversity of weaponry. It also features an improved villain and co-op play, but overall, it’s over-reliance on cutscenes and its clunkier camera and gunplay and climbing controls make it a bit of a step backwards in the franchise.

The pinnacle of the trilogy is Among Thieves, but there is one constant throughout: the music. Primarily composed by Greg Edmonson, each soundtrack has an incredibly cinematic sound to them. There’s a uniformity to each, while he also deviates into a very specific sound unique to each individual game as well. For example, in Among Thieves, you get more of a Lawrence of Arabia type sound by the end. It’s among the best collection of scores in gaming.

All in all, they’re mostly fun games, but the only one that’s truly great is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Drake’s Fortune Reductive Rating: Eehh.

Among Thieves Reductive Rating: Very good!

Drake’s Deception Reductive Rating: Totally fine.

All available on: PS3, PS4

From Naughty Dog