Nope nope nope nope, don't agree at all. Not with that sandstorm combat sequence. Heeeeellll no.
Does it improve upon some stuff that UC2 did? Yes, the desert sequence and the desert village following that? Pretty good! The caravan? Great! But the plane sequence? Not really, doesn't compare to the train sequence at all -- it's significantly shorter, with barely a combat sequence in it to speak of -- oh yay, I'm forced to fight another brute with melee! The physics stuff is all great, obviously, yes that stuff is fun and cool but everything after that...? You don't have to shoot more than two guys and then you just sit there, really... waiting for the plane to pull all the enemies out and then you along with it.
The spectacle is all great with that, yes, but from a gameplay standpoint it doesn't really make use of the plane in a unique way like the train does. The train is a whole two chapters of gameplay! What's the plane? 5 minutes, somehow it counts as a full chapter. The airport building up to it is just as short if you play it correctly.
I like chasing after the plane, at least, that was cool.
But then after the caravan, it goes down the drain to be honest.
You get put in a sandstorm where you'd think because of the sandstorm enemy visibility is low and their accuracy is worse. Wronggggg, they have the same visibility as normal and 100% accuracy, while you the player suffers the side effects of the sandstorm like any normal human is supposed to suffer. This creates the most frustrating and unfun combat arena in the entire series for a number of reasons (that I don't need to spell out but I will):
1) Sandstorm limits your visibility when visibility in a game like Uncharted is extremely important to succeeding in a combat arena. If you can't make out enemies at all then it's poor design. Meanwhile the AI is perfectly fine seeing you through this really thick sandstorm! Awesome.
2) You are given the chance to stealth but unfortunately it is only for 1/3 of the combat arena and if you fuck up the stealth, I hope you enjoy a brute with a PAK-80 because when you get spotted he comes charging right in and starts shooting you (most likely off-screen, might I add!) Or, if you stealth it but miss one guy I hope you enjoy getting shot off-screen and/or trying to figure out where you're being shot from in a sandstorm that makes it nearly impossible to see enemies from a certain distance!
3) Because you're forced to engage in combat at a certain point, a lot of it becomes hiding behind cover and poking your head out when Uncharted is more about moving around and using Drake's movement to your advantage. But because you can't see where enemies are, can't get close enough to them to actually see them, and most of them have long-range weapons it forces you to play a safer way which is playing it more like a run-of-the-mill TPS which is definitely not fun. It's not a well designed combat arena.
What this sequence is trying to copy is the one from UC2 when you finish climbing the train wreckage and have grabbed the phurba dagger. The one where there's, at first, no blizzard so you can see where the enemies are and their patrol routes and you can actually stealth kill all of them without any trouble! Then the second wave appears behind you, which you are given ample notice as the game has you press up on the D-Pad to see where they're coming from. Since you stealth killed everyone, you likely have the Hammer still and probably the Desert so you can take them all out very easily.
Then and only then, for the third wave, does the blizzard pick up and lower your visibility to some extent. But guess what? You can still make out the enemies despite the blizzard! This is so the player can actually... well... still see them while still capturing that cold and frigid atmosphere by having a slightly thicker blizzard but not so thick you can't see the enemies.
Basically, the sandstorm sequence really brings down the end part of UC3 as once you get past it and get to Ubar it just further goes downhill as Drake hallucinates and the Djinn pop up. I have no problem with the Djinn themselves -- really, it's the combat arenas you're put in with them and the lack of enemy hit reactions (unless you use an explosive/Shotgun). This makes these fights much more prone to death and error than The Guardians in Uncharted 2. Especially because the Djinn can teleport behind you without much warning at all! Leaving you no time to react most of the time and subsequently eating a lot of damage or dying.
Then following those combat arenas are even worse combat arenas, your view often gets obstructed by buildings -- causing you not able to see enemies carrying deadly power weapons like rocket launchers or snipers. Or, enemies just popping up as you pass a very obvious trigger (because the enemies just appeared there when you clearly killed everyone around them).
Compare those arenas to the ones in Shambhala in Uncharted 2 and they are clearly inferior and not thought out well at all. Shambhala's combat arenas are super well designed and you can take care of The Guardians with the crossbow in two shots, one of those shots actually causes a hit reaction for them. Does Ubar look graphically prettier than Shambhala, most of the time? Sure but that doesn't make up for the awful combat arenas littered throughout Ubar and at the end of it.
I vehemently disagree. Spectacle, maybe. Gameplay? No. It's absolutely not better than UC2 in that way. It is definitely much worse.
