Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Review PS3

A game would be worth its price if it contained even half of the single-player experience Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception offers. Uncharted 3, though, has plenty of options for competitive and co-operative multiplayer – both online and off. There are a total of six competitive and three co-op modes. Each mode has its own batch of objectives; some are your standard “kill everyone else” type deathmatch while others have more meaning to them.

Everything you do in any of the modes rewards you with cold, hard cash to spend on upgrades, skins, costumes and more. The more you play, the more you rank up, and each new rank brings new abilities or unlocks more goodies for you to spend your cash on. The money will burn a hole in your pocket with how many upgrades, boosters and mods are available.

If you’ve got a lot of money, or you wanna make bank quickly, try one of the various missions. Missions can be purchased for a set fee, which then set a challenge and time limit in place. Complete the specific challenge, medals or achieve the right kill count within the time limit and be rewarded handsomely. For the completionists out there, there’s a lot more to the multiplayer than just playing and upgrading. Carrying over from the single-player are treasures. These treasures come in a set and can be found in chests littered around the multiplayer maps or are dropped by fallen enemies. When treasure sets are completed, more upgrades and skins are unlocked, such as Marco Polo, Genghis Kahn, or even Sir Francis Drake himself.

You can really get a lot out of the multiplayer modes with the right partner. The all-new buddy system encourages players to team up and devise a strategy. The ability to respawn on a buddy means neither of you will be without backup for long. Don’t like your buddy? High-five another player and that will change that sacred buddy bond to the new player. But you better get his/her back, because they can just as quickly ditch you for someone else.

Every mode is enjoyable; the multiplayer experience has something to satisfy everyone. But the real highlight of multiplayer is the Co-op Adventure mode. Co-op Adventure is a short, five-chapter campaign featuring all of the Uncharted characters. It even includes some familiar, yet unfriendly faces from Drake’s past. While nowhere near as deep as the single-player campaign, there is a cohesive story. It’s more of an accompaniment to the main campaign, like a side dish to the main course. The sweet desert would be how excellent it feels to team up with friends–either online or through splitscreen–to go through the story. It does make you wish that there was co-op in the main campaign, though. Here’s hoping for full co-op in Uncharted 4: Drakes on a Plane.

The entire Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception experience comes together and delivers an unforgettable adventure rich with cinematic eye-candy, intense action sequences, and a multiplayer component that convincingly entertains. Many will compare it to the Game of the Year-winning Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, but it’s better, by far. As a result of its predecessor’s skyscraping success, the level of expectation may be too high for Naughty Dog to surpass Uncharted 2 the way it did Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Simply put, that’s just not gonna happen (not this console generation, anyway), but it doesn’t really need to. Uncharted 3 is a masterpiece of a game in every way possible.