From the studio that brought the world platformers like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter comes an especially jumpy third person shooter starring Nathan Drake, a youthful Indiana Jones, in an adventure that takes you to a mysterious island in search of Drake’s ancestor, the explorer Sir Francis Drake, and the treasure of El Dorado. Along with companions Sully, an older, more gruff version of Nathan Drake with a boatload of gambling debt, and resourceful journalist with a mean right hook, Elena.
Traversing the strange Pacific jungles and its various tombs, bunkers, and fortresses is easy since Drake is intensely acrobatic. Clever use of camera angles and eye-catching textures clue the player in on where you can move as you scale walls and climb cliffs. It’s not always perfect however, as there were several times where I would unexpectedly miss jumps thanks to Drake not ‘attaching’ on to the right surface, sending me plummeting to my death on the jagged rocks below. I would say that for the most part, it works. Getting around the levels is accomplished by discovering the linear path from point A to B, with a little variety in the form of collapsing pillars or exploding jeeps. Rarely will you get stuck and not know where the go, as there is really only one path through the story.
The game crafts a balance between the platforming sections and third person shooting. Drake can hold a pistol and either a shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, or grenade launcher, and three grenades. There’s a clumsy cover system and you can blind fire while in cover. I say clumsy because on more than one occasion, I would be trying to roll away from an incoming grenade, only to roll into a nearby piece of cover instead, eating the shrapnel in the process. Most enemies take several shots to bring down, or one well-placed headshot. For melee, you can mash square until they die as Drake executes a combo of punches and kicks, or time out square, triangle, square to deliver a brutal combo that nets you more dropped ammo. The way enemies react to being fired upon is fantastic. There are enemies in the later game that have laser sights on their guns, and getting caught in the red line of fire results in instant death. You can fire some shots in the general direction of the would-be assassin, and even a close miss will send him diving for cover. Enemies hop up and down on one foot when you blast them below the knee, they attempt to duck and weave as you rain lead upon them, and they will do their best to grenade you out of cover or flank you. Enemies with shotguns will attempt to close the gap, while snipers and grenade launcher enemies will try and keep their distance. No spoilers, but later on in the game you encounter a third party of enemies that are entirely melee. In some sections of the game, you fight both the regular human enemies and these other interlopers, and during these scenes I was straight up having ‘Nam flashbacks to playing Half-Life, with me, the marines, and the aliens of Xen firing on all fronts.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am terrible at shooters on a console. I grew up mouse+keyboarding my way through shooters from Quake onward, so when I sit down with a Playstation 3 controller, I tend to suck terribly. I had some issues with Uncharted when it came to accuracy in firefights. I had to mess with the sensitivity to find my comfort zone, but more often than not, a lost battle could have easily been won by being patient with smarter use of cover and clever ammo and grenade conservation. Even on normal, some fights, with the variety and number of enemies that they throw at you, were downright difficult, but each encounter ended up being satisfying once I figured out the trick to it.
To pad out the experience, there’s a turret sequence in a jeep, and a couple of jetski levels where you drive as Drake and shoot as Elena. It’s a shame Elena couldn’t bring along her infinite ammo, reload-free pistol and grenade launcher outside of the jetski moments, but I can’t blame her I guess. Using Sir Francis Drake’s journal, you solve a variety of puzzles that all amount to some variation of “push that button in this order.” It’s not rocket science, but it pleasantly reminded me of Legend of Zelda.
The characters in this game, the writing, and the voice acting in general, are all fantastic. The cutscenes and set pieces have a filmic quality, and Drake is downright James Bondian in terms of his love affair with the player. He’s charming and funny and you want to see him and his crew triumph over rival treasure hunter Roman and his mercenary Navarro. The game takes a fantastical turn at one point, and the way it ties things together is great and satisfying in the way that say, the first three Indiana Jones movies are. Sure there are magical elements, but they don’t feel jarring or out of place in the world that Naughty Dog has crafted. It’s as easy to excuse because it’s a video game where you kill hundreds of people – I didn’t have an accurate body count by the end of the game, but I did get several trophies for killing x number of baddies with specific guns, so I imagine they add up at some point.
The graphics still look great years later. Strong lighting and thoughtful level design craft a believable mystery island. The animations of the characters both in and out of cutscenes is great, and Drake’s startled “whaaao!” whenever a platform he’s on is about to crumble beneath him is perfect. Rounding out the audio-visual package is a solid score with lots of drums during battle sequences and thoughtful string arrangements to go along with story beats.
The first entry in the Uncharted series is a fun, pulp adventure with some great character moments and solid combat. The AI impresses, even when they fail to jump out of the way of grenades, and is engaging to fight. The platforming can be rough in spots, with missed jumps being the key frustration factor, but it looks slick. I was mildly disappointed when Elena dropped from being perfectly capable on her own, even saving Drake after he’s imprisoned by baddies, to a cliche damsel in distress. Drake’s bromance with Sully is the highlight for me regarding character chemistry. Lastly, I appreciate that game has the poetic sense to both start and end on a boat, each with the promise of adventure.