The fact that Uncharted: Drake's Progress has ended up so good has come as a real surprise, given that there was never any real 'buzz' around it leading up to its release. But, thinking about it, when has Naughty Dog ever let us down? Given a fresh platform and a new lease of life with a radically different style of game, it has carefully pieced together the best bits of all your favourite action adventures and come up with a fundamentally focused offering that's easily as good, if not better than any of them.
By focusing on keeping things fun at all times, it might not be considered the most expansive or ambitious game out there. It doesn't have a free-form openworld, but this is proof - if it were needed - that making a linear action game is nothing to be sneered at. By starting with a great control and camera system, building on that with excellent combat and a wonderful spin on Ico's platform adventuring, and then topping it off with a decent storyline, Naughty Dog has cooked up one of the most relentlessly entertaining, fat-free games to emerge in ages. Topped off with the most stunning use of the PS3's underused technical prowess yet, Uncharted: Drake's Progress is the first must-have PlayStation 3 title.
Score: 9/10
