His search for treasure, or rather insinuated treasure, takes him on a whistle-stop tour of the entire planet, unearthing hidden tombs, relics, puzzles and ancient, conveniently outcropped ledges to climb along the way. %Gallery-130781%If the story driving Uncharted 3 sounds a little formulaic, it's because it's a little formulaic - Drake (Nathan), with lifelong paternal partner Victor Sullivan in tow, is in pursuit of a secret hinted at in encoded passages penned by Drake (Sir Francis). The moments of thrilling peril which punctuate Uncharted 3's every chapter have been daisy-chained together with exhausting proximity - they're so close, in fact, that it's sometimes a little difficult to see the thread that ties them all together.
The sequence of events that propels Uncharted 3 from start to finish has clearly been the subject of the same brilliant centrifuge which separated wheat from chaff in the series' previous outings. It's not one to play host to unextraordinary moments: Every plane must crash, every truck must flip and every ancient, long hidden civilization must be discovered (and, as a natural result, destroyed).
If you were to take all the good parts - you know, "Oh, guys, you have to see this one part," or "Watch! Watch! My favorite part's coming up!" - of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, and strip away all of the filler, you'd be left with the same game you had when you started.