The controls are shit and they turned me off going for the platinum even though I did it for UC and UC2. Lining up shots was moderately frustrating (not just annoying) on hard so I'm not gonna put up with it on crushing even though it can be done, no way. While Nate is out of cover and pointing all over the place to try to center on a guy 10 feet away, I'll get hit so hard and so fast I'll travel back in time. To be fair there's also the fact that they put A HUNDRED treasures in again that's stopping me from a platinum. I can't justify wasting so MUCH TIME looking for 100 hidden and useless items for a second time. And it bores the crap out of me too. That is all.

so many plot holes… *shudders*

All of this back-and-forth is pathetic. Fact is, anyone in today's world can start a website and write a review, and it minimizes the impact of much of this criticism. Stu Horvath is no more knowledgeable of video games than anyone who makes a point to play them consistently. He simply has a website forum to present his views. He makes it a point throughout this website to say that everyone who writes for this site – including him – is just like you and me. He is not high-and-mighty about this, even if he takes a heavy-handed tone on this particular game. Fact is, he is just another person with an opinion, and you know what they say about opinions and assholes.

For those who have leveled harsh criticism on him in the comments, all you do is legitimize somebody who is no better or worse than you, adding credence to what is nothing more than one man's opinion. It is a pointless opinion; if you want the game, buy it, if you don't want it, don't buy it.

But oh, the irony. Stu, who apparently reads the comments on everything far more often than he lets on, then adds credence to your unnecessary opinions of his one-man opinion. And then we have a senseless debate. I call it senseless not because it is worthless, but because the name-calling makes it terribly unproductive.

It would be one thing if this were Gamespot and the review lacked these basic tenets of a review and made these brash statements. But again, this Stu is a good man, a man who says quite plainly that he is no better than his readers, that the readers of this site do in fact evolve – or rather, can evolve – into writers here, and that this is everyman's site. He started a site, and he listed an opinion, plain as that.

But now, the common man disses the common man. And then the writer of this review, suddenly taking himself too seriously, responds to the common man as some kind of "expert," when he professes throughout his site and on his Kickstart that he is not such a person, and this site is not made up of such people.

Serious re-evaluations to everyone all-around. And now, I myself get off my soapbox, because I realize that I, like everyone else here, are just another person with an opinion.

I do have some answers for you. The storytelling in this game is surpisingly minimalist. Here's what I picked up:

A Chateau built around an old castle isn't preposterous. Architecture works like that all the time. Go to any Church in Europe–bet an older one's foundations are in there. You're following Francis Drake, not TE Lawrence. It's in the Chateau that Nathan first sees a connection to Lawrence. Drake was chasing Iram for some reason. We learn that the city was actually destroyed by its water supply that was turning its people insane. Thus, as Nathan learns, Drake laid traps (Spiders etc) so that any following him would be dissuaded, culminating in his warning written on the walls in Yemen. I figured the bad guys just did the Indiana Jones thing of letting the smarter guys solve puzzles before rolling in and taking the info.

The two knights are knights of the crusades, meaning they pillaged the Islamic holy lands. Symbols are Sabean, from that area. So, maybe they were partners who got this cool amulet but broke up. Didn't really bother me not knowing that, but I bet playing through it again would give me a better idea.

Dee had a lab here because Godfrey, who was buried here, and Dee were both part of the English Cult now run by Marlowe. Just one of their hidden bases. Drake left the spiders as a security measure. He left them everywhere in hopes of keeping people from fucking with Iram.

This is all in the game, Mate. More, too. It's not spoon fed and it's even a bit obfuscated. Naughty Dog tries really hard to not have too much expositional dialogue. I kinda like that.