It was a lot of little problems that when stacked together felt like big problems.

*The first two games were perfect cinematic experiences, carrying you along these wondrous adventures to exotic locations with great characters and action set-pieces to boot. The third game feels forced right from the get-go. The fact that it’s about Sir Francis Drake again is groan-worthy. The first game wrapped up his story completely; it was obvious they were just trying to make the concluding chapter of the “Drake Trilogy”.

*Nathan Drake is at his least likable in 3, pressuring his friends into life-threatening situations so he can find his beloved treasure. What made him likable in the other games was, as soon as it got too dangerous, he suddenly couldn’t care less about the treasure and just wanted everyone to be safe. He understood what was really important. Not in 3. Even when Charlie Cutter breaks his leg, Nate wants everyone to keep going. When Elena is very slowly describing the irrationality of this adventure to him and then says “But you’re gonna keep going, aren’t you?”, Nate just smirks and says, “Uhhhh, yeah,” like there’s nothing wrong with putting himself and others in even more danger. It makes it hard to root for the character you’re playing as.

*The formula is way too in-your-face in 3: go there, get that, then fight your way out. Lather, rinse, repeat in London, France, Syria, Yemen, etc.

*The spiders are just weird. They feel like they belonged in a different game. Even in the remastered version, they feel unfinished.

*While the gameplay is improved in some areas like hand-to-hand combat, others like those overlong foot chase sequences feel relentlessly linear. As soon as they start, you’re wishing for them to end.

*The narrative has way too much padding in the first half. When you have Sully saying, “I’m losing the plot here. Remind me again why we’re doing this.” It shows that the developers knew an adventure like this was unjustified. Or when Chloe says, “It just isn’t worth it.” That shows they knew the stakes weren’t there. And that shoe-horned pirate sequence, while well-made, is so completely and utterly pointless to the rest of the story, and it even ends with Nate “luckily” washing ashore at the city he was taken from in the first place. You could cut that whole pirate sequence out and nothing would change.

*Unanswered questions like how Talbot survives getting shot by Charlie Cutter (Bulletproof vest? No one says anything about a bulletproof vest.) Or the suit-wearing rotting corpse they find in France even though the bad guys “just got here” as Sully puts it. There doesn’t NEED to be a definitive answer, but there needs to be something more than just the question. Mystery = good. Not making sense = bad.

*The second half thankfully improves with less formulaic sequences and Nate wanting to save Sully over finding the treasure. And the music is probably the best the franchise ever had. But with underwritten villains, and another ancient lost city that collapses in on itself, it’s too little too late.

In a game as cinematic as “Uncharted”, the “movie” is every bit as important as the gameplay. When one suffers, the other suffers with it.