Uncharted 3 Counter-point

SmittyD made some bold claims in his Uncharted 3 review - and to be honest some of them are fitting. However as an Uncharted Lifer, and a fullblown PS3 fanboi - I expect that from him.

Uncharted 3 needs some real talk though; Nate may in fact be the best protagonist of this generation, and he is also surrounded by some of the most memorable characters as well. This is the true strength of Uncharted 3 and perhaps the Uncharted series. You care about these characters and their stories are always interesting.

Uncharted 3 needed a few things though; first - it was too short. Way too short in my opinion - the game really could have ended in the boat as that was the most epic part of the game and truly displayed the ultimate creativity of the Uncharted 3 team. Keeping it going was required because cutting it off @ the boat would have made Uncharted 3 2011's Heavenly Sword. So they recycled a bunch of crap and made up some stuff to try to slap an ending on the game. This made it so that noone could call it 2011's Heavenly Sword - however no other game in 2011 had this much potential and delivered such a short experience. The reality is that Uncharted 3 IS 2011's Heavenly Sword. Tacking on PvP does not resolve this problem anymore. MW3 tacks on Single Player - Uncharted tacks on PvP - noone actually cares about either.

Also I beat this drum with my friends and fellow bloggers here constantly but Uncharted 3 is the #1 missed co-op opportunity of all time. Drop-In Drop-out and split screen coop should be bundled into the MAIN story in this game. Yeah - we get it - Nate Drake is THE GUY - but that does not mean that this amazing supporting cast should not be put into the rotation to make the game more interesting to the people in your house who have to watch you play it.

I enjoyed my (limited) time with Uncharted 3 and I expect that the recycling and shortened timelines are avoided for Uncharted 4.