Then, you clearly didn't listen to Naughty Dog's promotion of it and just looked at the pictures. They made it VERY clear that it was going to be a cinematic sequence of Drake alone in the desert. Don't get me wrong, I love the train, but ultimately it is just gameplay. The desert is so much more. It was symbolism, it was everything Drake had faced until that point, and it was everything Drake had yet to face. The Desert represented Marlowe and Talbott and even Elena to an extent. It was the weight of the destiny he placed upon himself by calling himself a Drake as well as the weight of who he was before Sir. Francis became his life. If you let go of the thumbstick, you would notice that he falls to his knees. Even that is symbolic that Drake has reached his limit, and you, the player are his motivation. You aren't just watching Drake go through this ordeal. You are his guide, you are his motivation, you are with him. A cutscene would not have done that sequence justice, nor would an open-world map to explore. All the Video Game tropes were put away to hammer home the symbolic nature of the desert. And free-roam, shootouts, and even making it a cutscene would have not done that sequence justice.
That's fine. But I wasn't following the promotions like I did in the previous games (or any game for that matter) because I realized a lot of the gameplay gets spoiled in them. I decided to shut myself out of the media hype for U3, but not before the first promo shots and teaser.
I wasn't just trying to speak for myself only though. I enjoyed U3 and don't understand most of the backlash for it on this forum. My problem was that desert place and mostly the non-boss fight at the end when there was such a promise for a better one in the middle of the game (remember the chase?).
Speaking of which, ND is horrible at boss fights. They need to recruit some of the Koji-Pro guys.