The game and film industry are completely obsessed with each other. You either get games being awfully remade into films or you get games removing gameplay to make it more 'cinematic' but Uncharted is the first game to grasp the concept of being both a superb summer blockbuster film and the the start of a fantastic action-adventure franchise that defines the Playstation 3.
Naughty Dog have managed to perfectly blend 3rd person shooting, puzzle solving & platforming gameplay elements with a story that gives the Indiana Jones films a run for their money in one of the best Sony exclusives ever made.
The story follows Nathan Drake, a supposed descendent to the great explorer Sir Francis Drake. The catch is that Sir Francis never had any children and was buried at sea...or was he? The game opens with Nathan unearthing the coffin of Sir Francis and finding not his corpse but instead a set of directions to the fabled lost city of El Dorado.
And so Nate, his best friend and partner Victor Sullivan (Sully) and TV reporter Elena Fisher set off for the Amazon in search of a treasure that will change their lives forever. Of course it isn't this simple, along the way they encounter double-crosses, competing treasure hunters and a dark secret about the treasure of El Dorado which make Uncharted the Indiana Jones game you have been waiting for.
The game plays as a hybrid of Gears of War and Tomb Raider. Any puzzle solving and platforming is very obviously inspired by the first lady of gaming however Naughty Dog have streamlined the process and made it much less frustrating and much more fun. Instead of walking up to a wall, finding the ledge, jumping then taking a leap of faith due to the wonky camera; Uncharted allows you to just run and jump, Nathan grabs onto nearly anything and the easy to position camera adapts to the environments meaning that you'll always be able to see where you need to go, the trick is figuring out the correct way to get there of course.
The gunfights follow a pattern of hugging chest high walls, peering over and firing. The cover mechanic rests on one button much like Gear of War and is just as tight and responsive.
Of course what would a treasure hunting game be without treasure, there are a total of 60 treasures scattered throughout the game, all of which are highly detailed and unique but they serve no other purpose.
My biggest gripe against Uncharted is it's odd difficulty fluctuations, the game begins at a reasonable difficulty before getting a bit easy for a couple of hours, then it becomes stupidly hard for an hour or so then easy again for the majority of the game before ramping up the difficulty again for the final hour or so. Though a difficult game is never bad, it does become frustrating to have to keep repeating several waves of enemies only to continually die from a sniper or RPG wielding bad guy hiding somewhere out of sight. The final boss fight is also rather difficult which makes a nice change from the below par boss stages we have been given as of late.
The game is incredibly well directed from a cinematic perspective, some great camera techniques are on display here to get any film buff wet in the trousers and some really great edge of your seat moments all helped by the motion capture technology behind the character movements.
It also looks great for a PS3 launch game, the jungle is a rich green with deep blue skies and seas. Water actually gets things wet and the frame rate never drops below 30FPS. Texture pop-in is a problem though with textures often being loaded in as you play, but that's the price you pay for short loading times and a lack of installation functionality.
The game sounds great too, guns sound punchy and the voice acting is top notch from all the main characters.
So in a nutshell Uncharted: Drakes Fortune is the game film buffs have been waiting for...or the film that game buffs have been waiting for...either way its bloody brilliant and a must own PS3 title. The game will last you around 12-15 hours and there is little else to do besides find all the collectibles or harder difficulties but even so you are getting your moneys worth with an excellent story and a good length. Anyway I'm off to go treasure hunting now!
Uncharted Drakes Fortune – 9/10
+Great Gameplay
+Great Graphics
+Great Story
-Difficulty Spikes
