This might be hard for some to believe but today marks the 10th anniversary of a Naughty Dog game; Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Quite frankly it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but that’s just how impressive the Uncharted series is as a whole, the whole thing was years ahead of its time. To commemorate this, Naughty Dog President Evan Wells, Vice President Christian Gyrling, and Video Game Director Kurt Margenau all enjoyed a retrospective on Drake’s third outing in a blog post.
Wells recalled the multiplayer aspect that really took off after it was introduced in the previous entry. “So many new features were added, we greatly improved our map designs, and did some very early live updates with limited-time modes and even experimental maps that we rotated through called The Lab. ” Gyrling reminisced about a critical bug that had to be removed just days before the title shipped, so much so that if they did not implement it, it could’ve potentially ruined the experience. “We ended up putting the fix in and shipping Uncharted 3 with this critical bug fix just 2 days later.”
The most interesting aspect of this retrospective was when Margenau talked about creating the now-famous scene where Drake falls out of a cargo airplane into the hot desert. “Our Lead Designer Richard Lemarchand really wanted to capture the epic cinematic scale of the desert and feeling of being lost, the way Lawrence of Arabia [1962 film] did.” The shot was first used as a trailer for the game when it was revealed in 2010. The actual gameplay experience was nothing short of a spectacle, as you control Drake and attempt to safely land after falling out of a destroyed plane.
Despite being critically acclaimed at the time, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is often overlooked in the franchise as a whole. The previous entry, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and the finale of the main story, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, are both considered the top contenders for best title in the series. Drake’s Deception sits in between the two, which is a shame as it improved on several aspects that the first two titles utilized. Regardless of this, many fans still love and adore Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and it’s amazing that it’s already been ten years since it was released. The original trilogy’s director, Amy Hennig, is back in the news as well as she will be involved with a new AAA project in partnership with Marvel and Skydance New Media.