Rub' al Khali is the eighteenth chapter in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
Plot[]
After Nathan Drake safely lands onto the dunes of the Rub' al Khali desert, he makes his way to the plane's wreckage to look for water or any other kind of supplies, but to no avail. With no map and no water, Nathan begins to wander aimlessly through the desert.
Eventually, Nate stumbles across a well, but it's dry and filled with sand, much to his frustration. Nathan continues on, walking all day and all night. He starts to hallucinate, envisioning Victor Sullivan, and water. Nate begins to hear Katherine Marlowe's voice (reciting a part of The Waste Land, a 434-line poem by T.S. Eliot) and discovers he's been walking in circles when he walks into the same well.
"What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, you cannot say, or guess, for you know only a heap of broken images, were the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, and the dry stone no sound of water. Only there is shadow under this red rock, come in under the shadow of this red rock, and I will show you something different, from either your shadow at morning striding behind you, or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
More time passes, and Nate is becoming increasingly dehydrated and exhausted. Through his wanderings, he eventually sees a settlement in the middle of the desert, and heads toward it.
Walkthrough[]
I. Run up the dune towards the wreckage to trigger a cinematic where Nate surveys the devastated plane, and takes in the enormity of the desert surrounding him. The gameplay sequence that follows is a little unusual. In the next scene, walk along the dune and admire the stunning scenery; the screen will eventually fade. In the next section, walk forward to arrive at a well. Collect Treasure #82, then approach the rope and press triangle rapidly to raise it. After the brief cutscene, trudge on until the screen fades once again.
II. When the story fast-forwards to the evening, press up on the D-pad, then stumble forward until you reach yet another transition. Approach the figure in the distance until you see the miraculous sight of vegetation to your right, then walk towards it; this presents a second opportunity to collect Treasure #82. In the following scene, approach the shadow beneath the rock; once Nate awakes, stumble forward. When Sully extends his hand to Nate, press L forward to grasp it. You will eventually reach a broken cart half-buried in the dunes. As you approach it, you will see a ruined village in the distance. In the final part of this montage illustrating Nate's journey through the desert, stride up the dune to reach the abandoned settlement.