Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

In investigating whether Uncharted 3 was really not as good as its predecessor, or I was just jaded by nostalgia, I've determined that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Completing Uncharted 2 again showed me that I was remembering it more fondly than it perhaps deserved. But completing Uncharted 3 again showed me, well, pretty much the same thing.

The third game's mechanics are an improvement over the second's, but only incrementally -- there are still way too many encounters that are just insufferably frustrating, due to an unbelievable number of enemies, irritatingly overpowered enemy snipers or shotgunners, and the absolutely incredible resilience of armored foes. Fun fact: even on the lowest, "Very Easy" difficulty, snipers can one-shot Drake, while armored guys can take two direct shotgun blasts to the head.

And - just as I previously evaluated - these small mechanical steps don't make up for the narrative shortfall when compared to Drake's previous adventure. As I noted before, Uncharted 3's pacing is kind of wacky, with disparate side-trips taking up too much of the game's length. This leads to too many of the game's stand-out moments - the ship, the plane, the horse chase - getting jammed together in the last third. And the finale is unsatisfying, despite being refreshingly realistic.

So my conclusion is that, yes, Uncharted 2 is overall better than the third, and that this isn't mutually exclusive with the nostalgia factor. In fact - having definitively observed that Uncharted is better remembered than played - I would say the reason Uncharted 2 stands tall, is simply because it has more memorable moments.

Progress: Finished again (on Very Easy because fuck it)