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.
