I’ll cut to the chase, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune is the best PlayStation 3 exclusive, the best PlayStation 3 single player experience and only competes with Call of Duty 4 as my best game on the console (I still haven’t decided on a winner yet). The game has often been described as taking the combat from the 360’s Gears of War and the plat-forming aspects the from Tomb Rader series. These are both accurate and troublesome comparisons. Indeed you play the game from a 3rd party perspective, the way you move, take cover, fire and even change weapon is very similar to Gears. The way you move, the jump, hanging and move between dodgy ledges is similar to Tomb Rader. Yet everything the developers Naughty Dog have ‘borrowed’ from the respective games, they’ve done so very well. The game doesn’t feel like you have played it before, it feels fresh and by no means a cheap copy. In fact Uncharted outdoes those games, and many others, in a variety of different ways.
I’ll start with a basic overview of the plot. You play as Nathan Drake, who believes himself a direct ancestor from the legendary explorer Sir Frances Drake. You start by uncovering your ancestors coffin and leads into a exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado. Along the way you must fight yourself through a variety of mercenaries, make death defying leaps and deal with whatever else this quest may throw at you...
Nathan himself is a great character, this is one aspect with differs significantly to Gears of War. Whereas the main character there was a beefed up, muscle clad hard man. Nathan is a more ordinary guy, sure he can navigate cliff faces extraordinary well, but you can see him flinch as bullets fly past, and just has a lot more personality then many main characters of late. You do not always fight by your own I might add; you have a couple of accomplices who journey and/or fight alongside you. For the most part they are quite clever, don’t get in the way, do a good job holding their own and can actually help fight your opponents back in some cases.
The game looks well ... stunning; this is the best in-game frottage I have seen within any console game. The cut scenes do not however match the quality that was seen in Heavenly Sword, but elsewhere you can certainly see the improvement in this game. The jungle environments are lush, green and bright, with very good use of the sun and shadows. There is significant texture details and the game is a joy to watch. A big feature of the game is the water effects and Nathan’s interaction with the stuff, get him wet and he looks it, stand in the sun and he soon dries off, a nice touch. Lots of other little visual details add to the game, birds flying through your screen or actually watching a breeze go through one tree then another in turn, good stuff. I have noticed some significant screen tearing when my PlayStation is outputting at 1080i but nothing when it was doing so at 720p. I little disappointing, I believe this might be due to the Pal versions of the game, which does not support 1080i, unlike the American version, for some reason.
The sound does not match up to the splendour of the graphics; however you will not be disappointed. Most of the sounds are strong, with the environmental jungle noises being particularly nice, with only a few of the guns sounding a little off. The music is good throughout and adds to the experience, though you will not be humming them when you leave game.
The game play doesn’t let the side down, as mentioned you play from a 3rd person perspective, taking cover is quick and easy, among ancient ruins there is plenty of it around. You can then dart out from your cover to fire on your foes. There are many guns to chose from, many are the standard gaming fare, assault rifles, shotguns, snipers etc, however it is the range of trusty pistols which are still best to get those all important head shots. The plat forming aspects may look very well done but may at times be a little easy, still fun to do and a good way of breaking up the shooting.
The game on normal takes about 10 hours to complete, however even with no multi-player or online aspects this game will still keep you occupied longer than many other PS3 titles. There is a wealth of unlockables, collectables and even an extra difficulty setting to unlock. Another good aspect of this is a range of achievements that match the 360 system very closely. There is a total of 1000 ‘points’ that you can gain via completing certain in game actions, such as achieving a number of headshots for example. Gaining these points is as you would expect addictive and getting them all requires you to play the game through more than once. What do these points do? Well they unlock the extras, and it is a great range of extras, you can change many of the effects in game, change costumes and it includes many videos, taking advantage of the space on that blu-ray disk.
November 19 marks 15 years since the release of the Uncharted game that started it all.
I hope they don’t make another until the end of the ps5 lifecycle…. Show us a better jungle
VGChartz's Issa Maki: "I finally have a proper designation akin to what I've always referred to internally as 'the line that must be crossed' or 'The Line', for short – ludonarrative dissonance – the separation from a video game's story in relation to its gameplay. Why isn't PETA all up in Mario's grill for jumping on turtles and killing fish, or charging Samus Aran with the extinction of the Metroid species? Ever notice how fire has that habit of making bosses in Resident Evil stronger? Read on my friend, for I endeavor to imbue you with the ability to engage in basic queries concerning the concept."
KeenGamer: "Which Uncharted game is the best? Uncharted is widely recognized as one of the most groundbreaking and consistently great franchises in gaming. For both long-time fans and newcomers to this action-adventure classic, here’s a ranking of the franchise’s four main games."
No Golden Abyss -_-, otherwise I agree with the order.
UC2: Best overall
UC4: Best graphics, best gameplay, best locations, best environements
UC3: Best set pieces IMO (the boat and desert fights will always be amazing)
UC1: A rough Draft of what was to come
UCGA: Basically UC1 on Vita
Great list and great article nicely writen and explained. Although for me personaly i would put Drakes Fortune above Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 4 is absolutely my favourite of the franchise and number 1 for me.
U2 is the only game playable on crushing without causing a great amount of frustration. Not to mention just how much influence it had that they redid some of U2s set pieces like the caravan twice, and armored truck chase in U4.
I'd rate it as the following.
1.) Uncharted 2
(Close to perfection of any game I've played in years. Single Player/Multiplayer/Co Op all amazing.)
2.) Uncharted 3
(On par with UC2 multiplayer/co op wise minus the kickbacks [aka killstreaks]. I really liked the Lawrence of Arabia story.)
3.) Uncharted 4
(Single player is amazing. Multiplayer was meh. Co Op had potential. Absolutely hated the health revive system it slowed down the game way too much. Always preferred the fast pace action of UC2/UC3. Made it way more fun that way. Recoil was too ridiculous that most people in lobbies would only do hip firing, using power weapons and using that OP grappling hook to melee people after dropping them. Nobody wanted to revive anyone.)
4.) Uncharted
(It's the first in the series so it's hard to judge. Though I loved the story.)
I agree here but it’s also a series you can play from front to back and truly enjoy. Story-wise, they are all great and flow so well. I wish they threw both Golden Abyss and Lost Legacy on this list. Lost Legacy is the best mechanically in my opinion. You can see it’s stepping stone framework for TLOUS2.
uncharted 2 is one of the few games that actually surpassed its pre-release hype.
I am a single player gamer...I barely ever touch a multiplayer component. The only exceptions over the years have been the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, TLOU factions, and the Uncharted 2 multiplayer. The Uncharted 2 multiplayer saw me spend more time playing it than all my other multiplayer experiences over the years combined. That game really was a masterpiece all around.
I agree completely, those are all stellar MP experiences, coming from another SP gamer who only occasionally gives MP some time.
Come to think of it, the step between Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2 is huge. It goes from the weakest in the series to one of the best games ever made.
I think I'm going to play all of them again soon.
is multiplayer still up for the remastered trilogy? or did it never have UC2 mp?
