How a Cover System Spoiled Uncharted

Last week Shacknews finally bit the bullet and purchased a PlayStation 3 along with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. That game is undoubtedly the prettiest belle at the ball and quite a joy in the gameplay department, so much so that they are actually finding themself drinking Sony's Kool-Aid, waving a banner for the HD revolution and preaching about set-top boxes and such.

But there's one problem: cover systems. Shacknews don't disagree with cover systems ideologically, because in many ways they bring action titles a bit closer to functional reality, in which players and characters alike take advantage of terrain and behave as though they're actually being shot at. But what's discouraging about the cover system, or more precisely the implementation of the cover system, is the ways in which it informs design choices across the board and cheapens action.