Another day, another lost city to discover and inadvertently destroy

My previous writings on Uncharted 3 ranked it just below its predecessor, but this most-recent playthrough has me reconsidering.

Particularly, I'm re-thinking takes like there aren't as many standout "Uncharted" moments and pacing is kind of wacky. Yes, this round of adventuring sees Nate and his crew racking up a crazy amount of air-miles, and none of their destinations have quite the gravitas of Nepal or Shambhala...

But the other side of that coin is a considerable accumulation of "postcard moments." The burning chateau, the night-time fortress incursion, escaping a sinking ship, air-dropping into the desert, a horseback convoy chase; sure, Ubar itself isn't all that impressive, but the journey there has plenty of vivid set-pieces that make this adventure a memorable one.

And my anecdotal impression - that is, not a conclusion I've decisively measured - is that Naughty Dog (or perhaps Bluepoint) did a better job of facilitating the "Explorer" playstyle this time around. Generally speaking, Uncharted 3's combat encounters felt lighter in terms of tiresome bodycount, having fewer waves of mooks to senselessly mow down. Still enough to classify Nathan Drake as a bloodthirsty warlord, but, making positive progress.

On the other hand, I also encountered more-frequent frustrations with unclear parkour directions than in the last game. Especially in several Crash Bandicoot-esque "running towards the camera" chases which, just, come on guys -- some thrilling screenshots of Nate's "oh no" face aren't worth so many die-and-retry loops caused by invisible obstacles.

At this point in the franchise, though, trying to rank Uncharted 2 and 3 against each other is basically futile. We know that the fourth game out-classes them both.

Progress: Finished on Explorer, again.