History VideoGame / Uncharted3DrakesDeception

** The abandonned section of the London Underground is a bit of a stretch, since not only is the actual Tube network not that extensive south of the river, a lot of what’s there is far more modern than as depicted (The Victoria and Jubilee line sections south of the river are both post-1950) and in extensive use. The closest part of the network to what is depicted would be the Aldwych branch, a complete section of tunnel closed in 1994, which is north of the river.

* ThirstyDesert: Part of Drake's Deception takes place in the Rub' al Khali[[note]]literally ''The Empty Quarter''[[/note]], one of the largest and most inhospitable sand deserts in the world. [[spoiler:And Drake has no idea where he's going or where he is, and he has no supplies.]] The sequence makes ''very'' good use of NothingIsScarier, as the only thing trying to kill Drake is the unforgiving sun and [[spoiler:his own increasing desperation.]]

** In chapter 6, Nathan jokes about Sully smoking and warns him to not set the building on fire. In the following chapter, the villains do exactly that in an attempt to kill both the heroes and the spiders that plague the castle. ** In chapter 11, after activating a mechanism, two images of a brass vessel and a demonic face in fire appear in a wall, representing [[spoiler:the vessel containing the Djinn from the story that Salim tells Nathan at the end of Chapter 19]].

* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Happens to Drake in the first Brute fight.

** The water in the sinking ship

* TarotMotifs: Recurrent partly because Marlowe's organization deliberately plays up the symbolism. One journal has three tarot cards pinned inside it; The Tower, The High Priestess and The Magician. The last two are labelled "Marlowe" and "Talbot", respectively, and the cards are indeed excellent representations of the characters, being an older woman who guards hidden knowledge and a man of mysterious power born of trickery.
* ThirstyDesert: Part of Drake's Deception takes place in the Rub' al Khali[[note]]literally ''The Empty Quarter''[[/note]], one of the largest and most inhospitable sand deserts in the world. [[spoiler:And Drake has no idea where he's going, where he is, and he has no supplies.]] The sequences makes ''very'' good use of NothingIsScarier, as the only thing trying to kill Drake is the unforgiving sun [[spoiler:and his own increasing desperation]].
%%* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: The con at the beginning naturally goes off without a hitch.

* WackyWaysideTribe: The pirate-infested ship graveyard in the Indian Ocean. The entire thing could have been excised with no effect on the main plot or character development, not that that stops it from being one hell of a set piece.

* ZergRush: Hordes of fist sized spiders chase you through the various ruins.

* SpiderSwarm: The castles in France and Syria- and the underground chamber in Yemen- are infested with massive swarms of hungry, hissing gigantic spiders that swarm over Nate and his friends in droves if they can't get out of the way fast enough. Thankfully, Nate can deter them with torches or Sully's shotgun.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: The relics. One of them, the Antique Wax Seal Stamp, is found in Chapter 6 near a waterfall. The tricky part here is that there is a one-way drop just a short distance along the path, and the game autosaves after the drop, so if you miss this one and go too far, there is no way to go back and get it. Say goodbye to your HundredPercentCompletion.
%%* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Happens to Drake in the first Brute fight.

** While under the effects of Talbot's drug, Cutter comments that he sees floors and walls melting. When Drake is injected with the same substance later on, we get to see its effects from his perspective: His perceptions and sense of reality get distorted, with people becoming two-dimensional flat figures as Nate wanders through narrow alleys.
** Chapter 21 [[spoiler:is an extended hallucination sequence where Drake witnesses Sully's death, runs through the streets of Cartagena while being pursued by spiders, is attacked by flaming demons and sees himself being strangled by his own reflection]].

* JumpScare: In chapter 21, [[spoiler:Nathan is hallucinating after drinking Ubar's tainted water. When he stares at his reflection in a small pool, the image suddenly comes to life and attacks him]].

* ApothecaryAlligator: There is a dissected crocodile attached to a balcony in the library below London. There is even a trophy for jumping over it called "Ride the Crocodile".

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Drake and Sully have to escape a tomb full of ravenous spiders during their trip to France.

* AbortedArc: Lots, including the corpse that Nate and Sully find in France.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** Elena still wears [[spoiler:her old wedding band]] while working in Yemen since, according to her, "It helps in this part of the world." Anyone with a passing knowledge of Middle Eastern gender relations can guess [[SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes why]] she wears [[spoiler:that ring]].[[labelnote:For those who still don't get it]]For whatever reason, rapists in Middle Eastern countries are less likely to try and target women who are married and/or have children.[[/labelnote]]
** Nate mentions Sully searching out a "basket act"[[note]]A sex show wherein a prostitute in a suspended rotating basket is lowered onto a participant[[/note]] while serving in the Navy, to which he responds with a chuckle. Elena doesn't quite get it, and Sully quickly changes the subject.

* WeddingRingDefense: Employed by Elena.

* EvilBrit: The antagonists are Catherine Marlow and [[TheDragon Talbot]]. Both are British, have pronounced accents and are very sadistic.

* ArtisticLicenceGeography: The vista after climbing to the roof of the dingy pub in the prologue implies it's somewhere in Southwark. Rather than being a rundown neo-Dickensian slum, it's one of the most multicultural, and more importantly most ''expensive'', areas in London. The chances of finding a dive like that, which [[ArtisticLicenceLaw openly breaks the smoking ban too]], are slim.
** The abandonned section of the London Underground is a bit of a stretch too, since not only is the actual Tube network not that extensive south of the river, a lot of what’s there is far more modern than as depicted (The Victoria and Jubilee line sections south of the river are both post-1950) and in extensive use. The closest part of the network to what is depicted would be the Aldwych branch, a complete section of tunnel closed in 1994, which is north of the river.

* BathroomBrawl: The above mentioned brawl eventually makes its way to the bathroom where Drake has to fight a GiantMook.

* BookEnds: See ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind.

* ChekhovsGun:
** Sully grabs an [[RareGuns propelled torpedo grenade gun]] near the ending. [[spoiler:Drake uses it a few minutes later to destroy Marlowe's crane.]]
** The preserved giant spider in the underground library in London.
* {{Claustrophobia}}: Charlie Cutter has a fear of small spaces. [[spoiler:It's what finally causes him to snap and attack Drake while under the effects of Talbot's mind control drug.]]

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Played with in a cutscene that was shown at an E3, where Drake [[CombatPragmatist headbutts a high-rank mook during his]] EvilLaugh, disarms him, grabs one of his grenades, throws it at a flammable barrel, [[SubvertedTrope then fires two shots at a Mook on the other side of the room, missing by a country mile.]]
** [[spoiler:Revealed to be played straight in the game proper where after stealing the mook's gun and grenade he puts a round in the chest of pirate captain with one shot.]]
* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler:Drake's push through the desert after the plane crash takes course over a couple of days with little supplies.]]

* EvilBrit: Catherine Marlow and her Dragon, Talbot. [[spoiler:Subverted by Charlie Cutter.]]
* {{Filler}}: The entire sub-plot centered around Nate being captured by Rameses' pirates is this. It takes up four whole chapters of the game, yet, it has no connections to the main plot, and was likely made as an excuse to add in a ship graveyard setting and a cruise ship setting. The game tries to justify its inclusion by having Rameses capture Sully, whom Nate is trying to rescue, [[spoiler:only to find out later that Rameses never had Sully to begin with, and lied just for the heck of it. This in turn, flips the entire sub-plot on its head]]. It's generally agreed upon that removing this part from the game would virtually have no impact on the main plot. Even Nate himself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this near the end of the part.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Happens twice in the game. The first one being in the sixth chapter, when before entering the castle, Nathan jokes about Sully smoking and warns him to [[spoiler:not set the building in fire, which is exactly what happens in the next chapter]]. Later, in chapter 11, after activating a mechanism, two images of [[spoiler:a brass vessel and a demonic face in fire appear in a wall representing the vessel containing the Djinn from the story that Salim tells Nathan at the end of Chapter 19]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Elena still wears [[spoiler:her old wedding band]] while working in Yemen since, according to her, "It helps in this part of the world." Anyone with a passing knowledge of Middle Eastern gender relations can guess [[SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes why]] she wears [[spoiler:that ring]].[[labelnote:For those who still don't get it]]For whatever reason, rapists in Middle Eastern countries are less likely to try and target women who are married and/or have children.[[/labelnote]]

* ImmuneToBullets: [[spoiler:Talbot is apparently immune to bullets, until he's finally killed at the very end by Drake shooting him. [[FridgeLogic No explanation is ever given]].]]
** This is possibly subverted, as [[spoiler:it may have been a MindScrew on Charlie's part (though it certainly seemed as if the other characters ''and the player'' saw Talbot get shot). Also, Talbot has a taste for the theatrical.]]
* JumpScare: [[spoiler:The end of Nate's second MushroomSamba near the end of the game has one when his reflection in the water unexpectedly springs to life and grabs him.]]
* LondonGangster: Nate and Sully's first meeting with Talbot takes place in a London pub full of these. When negotiations go sour, the gangsters start attacking Nate and Sully. [[spoiler:Charlie Cutter is only pretending to be one of them, though.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Unlike the previous games where you are shown exactly what causes the "Magical" phenomenon, all you get to see here is the brass container covered in magic seals, before Drake blows up the crane holding the container and it sinks to the bottom of the cavern. It's not even leaking.

* MetaTwist: [[spoiler:The previous games have humans transformed into monsters by the artifact. At first, ''Deception'' also seems to have them, but Drake's just hallucinating.]]
* MindScrew: Drake suffers from these [[spoiler:after drinking the water from the ruins due to its hallucination-properties]] towards the end. Several other characters do, as well, because of the effects of a mysterious drug the enemy wields. However, even apparently un-drugged characters see [[spoiler:Talbot [[ImmuneToBullets recover from being shot]], and [[OffscreenTeleportation mysteriously vanish from a dead-end]]. WordOfGod is that Talbot is simply a gifted Mind Screw Driver who wears a bullet proof vest.]]
* MushroomSamba: A very non-funny one as [[spoiler:Talbot uses darts with tainted water. First on Cutter whom he temporarily brainwashes to turn against Drake, before then commenting (from his point of view) that the floor and walls were melting. Drake gets hit with one later and his hallucination makes up one of the levels of the game. His perceptions and sense of reality gets distorted with people becoming two dimensional flat figures and Nate wandering around narrow alleys. Likewise later when he drinks some of the water and experiences what he thinks is Sully's death and yet another much more elaborate hallucination stage only to later be snapped out of it.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: [[spoiler:Nate flies into an UnstoppableRage when Sully is killed. Luckily, it's just a hallucination and Sully is still alive, because seeing the charming, affable Nate lose his temper like that is terrifying.]]
* OptionalStealth: Sort of. There are sequences where you can sneak up and dispatch enemy soldiers, but there are always a few soldiers near the end who cannot be killed without being detected, at which point more soldiers appear. The end result is that being stealthy is rarely worth the difficulty, and can be very frustrating if a player is trying to play through these sequences perfectly, not realizing that it can't be done. It ''is'' sometimes possible to use exploits to stealth kill the remaining guards, but this is complicated, requires a lot of luck, and is clearly not the game designers' intention.

* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Happens to Drake in the first Brute fight.
* PutOnABus: After [[spoiler:Charlie breaks his leg in Syria]], Chloe takes him to a hospital and neither of them are heard from again. What makes this use of the trope special is that they [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall actually used a recently commandeered bus to get to the hospital]].

* RandomEventsPlot: ''Drake's Deception'' is the most digressive of the four games and jumps around a lot before reaching its central plot. It starts in London, flashes back to Kid!Drake in Cartagena, returns to the present in London, moves to France, then Syria, and then Yemen and an extended section in a Ship Graveyard that digresses from the plot entirely only moving to the finale, the Rub' Al Khali Desert and the City of Ubar in the final few sections. The other games spend far more time in the location of the treasure and MacGuffin with a greater sense of place and mystery. Likewise, the other games had a single PosthumousCharacter (Drake, Polo, Avery) who inspires Nate to the MacGuffin, whereas this game switches between T. E. Lawrence, John Dee before returning again to Drake.

* SinisterSubway: A long abandoned station in the London Underground serves as this.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: [[spoiler:The con at the beginning naturally goes off without a hitch.]]
* VillainsActHeroesReact: The game opens with [[spoiler:Drake and Sully falling into a trap by the bad guys and being shot dead. Turns out it's a BatmanGambit so they'll lead Team Drake back to their HQ where they have ''another'' MacGuffin our anti-heroes want.]]
* VillainTeamUp: In Chapter 5 of the co-op campaign, [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead Lazarevic, Flynn and Eddy Raja]]]] team up to fight Drake, Cutter and Sully. [[spoiler:[[BackForTheDead Not that it helps them any.]]]] Cutter, who was only introduced in the third game, is understandably confused.
--> '''Cutter''': Who's [[spoiler:Eddy]]?

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We're never told what happens to Cutter or Chloe at the end, though Sully [[HandWave hand waved]] their fates midway through the game by saying that Chloe took Cutter to a hospital to get help for his broken leg.

->"All men dream. But not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to realize it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men. For they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. This, I did."

Since starting his career, Nathan Drake has carried a ring from UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake around his neck, which he believes will help unlock a great secret. Finally offered the opportunity to put his quest into motion, he gathers a team of his associates, including Sully, Cole, and newcomer Charlie Cutter to aid him in the prospect, but along the way he comes into conflict with an enemy from his youth who seeks the same end, and stumbles upon a centuries old conspiracy in the process.

* BarBrawl: the game opens with Nate and Sully fighting a gang in a London bar.

* BooksEnds: See ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind.

* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: During the flashback to Cartagena, young, defenseless Nate is about to be gunned down by one of Marlowe's agents, only to be rescued with one shot by Sully. [[spoiler:Inverted at the very end of the game, when the player must have Nate deliver his own conveniently timed shot to rescue Sully from Talbot]] (see also BookEnds).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Happens twice in the game. The first one being in the sixth chapter, when before entering the castle, Nathan jokes about Sully smoking and warns him to [[not set the building in fire, which is exactly what happens in the next chapter]]. Later, in chapter 11, after activating a mechanism, two images of [[a brass vessel and a demonic face in fire appear in a wall representing the vessel with the Djinns from the story that Salim tells Nathan at the end of Chapter 19]].