Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is an action adventure game for the PS3, with its blend of Gears of War's gunplay and Tomb Raider's platforming, is it able to find its place among the rest? Here is my review.
Story
The story of Uncharted starts with treasure hunter Nathan Drake on a boat in the middle of an ocean off the coast of Panama with an enthusiastic history journalist, Eleana Fisher. They are both there to recover the coffin of Nathan’s ancestor and famous explorer Sir Francis Drake, but soon discover that the coffin is empty and all that is left is Francis Drake's diary detailing a place named 'El Dorado', the fabled 'city of gold'. Shortly after being attacked by pirates they are rescued by Nathan’s partner in crime, Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan, the cigar chomping ladies man, who is along for the ride to find some treasure to pay off some debts. The 8 -10 hour story is one rollercoaster ride from start to finish, you may be thinking that 8-10 hours is below the standard but for Uncharted it's perfect from the brilliant voice work and motion capture to the gorgeous locales and orchestral score this is one finely written piece of fiction and it is one that intertwines very well with the gameplay, which is something that I personally think is brilliant when pulled off correctly. The characters themselves are the key to bringing this adventure tale to life, from Nathan’s witty comments that fit him perfectly (he never seems annoying), to Eleana’s go-go attitude and Sully’s cut the crap wise guy personality. These fine characters will make you care about them and keep the plot engaging and thrilling through and through.
Gameplay
As I said at the start of the review the gameplay is a mix between Gears of War and the Tomb Raider series, although you will find nothing new here it is quite refreshing of having a perfect blend between the two, Nate will scale great heights to gain access to places, utilise cover to protect himself (even hanging cover) and use one-handed and two handed weapons to survive and the fact that Nathan isn’t a soldier, the gunplay is quite realistic, a natural mix of accuracy and ammo conservation is to be kept in mind. The platforming is also done very well, if you have played games such as Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider you will navigate the environment like a pro and only be stumped a couple of times. The hand and foot holds are naturally woven into the environment with the camera angle giving you a helping hand. The gameplay is a perfect mix, although it is basically climbs this and then shoot these guys, it has to be said it is perfectly paced with only a few annoyances with the jet ski sections and being outflanked by smart enemies who manage to get the best of you or the hand to hand combat which is very cool to pull off but the controls can seem clumsy for it.
Presentation
If you have seen the in game screenshots or videos of it in action then this section doesn’t need much information but for those of you who haven’t, then it is a beautiful looking game and one the PS3 should be proud to showcase, green lush vegetation, wet cave walls, destroyed ruins, blistering jungle sunset and the characters themselves all look fantastic with only some blemishes such as loading textures, water effects in the two Jet Ski sections (although the rest of the water effects are stunning) and jerky animation transitions looking a little off but like I said a blemish on what is otherwise fantastic technical achievement.
Problems
So far in the review I have been singing praises towards Uncharted but that's not to say it’s perfect, nothing is, the game has a poor way of telling you where enemies are in maze like arenas and also later in the story the game requires you to be risky and daring in your approach to gunfights but this kinda doesn’t work because the gunplay is all about self-preservation and ammo conservation, in the last 5 chapters, the game threw too many enemies at me that kept outflanking me causing me to find new cover or ammo but when I left my safe foxhole, I had a rather large shotgun shell, sniper bullet or even more annoyingly, a grenade launcher blast in my face. This also happened when I stayed put, but as hilarious as Drake looked when he died it grew old after the 20th time and the hand to hand combat that is clumsy added to this problem.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a game that every PS3 owner and adventure fan should buy. It is a game that feels fresh among the crowd of shooters we see spewed out daily because it blends platforming, shooting, high production values and blockbuster story together into a fantastic package. Although cheap deaths that increase towards the end of the game and cool but clumsy hand to hand combat are really the only things that damage this game from being truly legendary but to sum up Uncharted in 5 words it is ‘The best interactive movie ever’, just make sure you don’t leave this game as an old relic on the shelf of you local gaming store and go and claim this treasure as yours.
- UKSamwise