Power to deceive

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is the upcoming third game in the Uncharted series for Play Station 3 due for release on November 2. It is the sequel to the most critically acclaimed game of 2009, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Uncharted 3 will see protagonist Nathan Drake and mentor Victor Sullivan travelling around the world in search of the legendary lost city, the Iram of the Pillars. He ends up being pulled into a deceit-spiked mystery which pits him against a shadowy organisation and the occult treachery of its cunning and ruthless leader. Marlowe is always trying to undermine Drake and getting him to do things he doesn’t want to do.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective, with the player in control of Nathan Drake. Drake will have a large number of different animation sets, enabling him to react according to his surroundings.

The titular character is physically adept and able to jump, sprint, climb, swim, scale narrow ledges and wall-faces to get between points, and perform other acrobatic actions.

Drake can now take on opponents in more ways than before: hand-to-hand combat with multiple opponents, contextual melee attacks and new stealth options. He can also collect weapons, automatically replacing them and additional ammunition from dead enemies.

Players can direct Drake to take cover behind corners or low walls using either aimed or blind-fire to kill his enemies. Players can also have Drake fire while moving.

If Drake is undetected by his enemies, players can attempt to use stealth to take them out. The stealth mechanic has been simplified and improved.

Some areas of the game will require the player to solve puzzles with the use of Drake’s journal, which provides clues to the puzzles’ solutions. When enabled, a hint system provides gameplay clues, such as the direction of the next objective.

Throughout the game there will be special treasures that may be hidden or in difficult-to-reach places that the player can collect. Collecting these treasures, along with completing certain feats within the game, is tracked by the awarding of medals, which gives the player in-game money to use to unlock special options. These include in-game bonuses such as alternate costumes, unlimited ammunition and new weapons, as well as upgrades for online gameplay.

All the money that players earn in the game’s story mode will be available for transfer to multiplayer, and vice versa. The statistics tracked for a large portion of the in-game medals are used to award trophies.

Numerous gaming websites have described Uncharted 3 as one of the most anticipated games of 2011 with 1UP and IGN ranking it number one in their Top 10 PS3 Games of 2011.

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