Uncharted Drake's Fortune, just as Gears of War was suppose to do with the 360, was to show what the PS3 can achieve. And it Delivers (in most places).
Story.
A 400 year old clue in the supposedly coffin of dead fortune hunter Sir Francis Drake sets modern day fortune hunter Nathan Drake on a wild adventure searching for the fabled treasure of El Dorado.
With the help of Elena Fisher, a presenter of her very own archaeology programme who helps Nathan Drake originally in finding Sir Frances Drake's coffin.
And also Victor Sullivan "Sully", Nathan's business partner and mentor, a seasoned adventurer himself, he's always buy Nathan's side bringing in the comedic lines.
You wouldn't be mistaken if you think the script could come straight out of Hollywood film, a.k.a. Indiana Jones or even National Treasure, both great films with great scripts.
The game plays out like an Indiana Jones film with the running, gunning, jumping of ledges, girls, explosions and of course the treasure. And as I said before this is no bad thing as it paves the way for a great playable gaming experience.
Gameplay.
The most important aspect of any game is its gameplay. Controls are well balanced with L1 used as manual aim and R1 used as fire.
X button used for jump/climb and square used for the melee attack. Finally we come to O (circle). This is where the cover system comes into play. 2 guess's where they borrowed this from. Naughty Dog has stuck to the same system as used in Gears of War, and this is no bad thing, in Uncharted the cover system works well within its surroundings. I would of hopped they would of worked on the cover system to make it there own and add a few new touch's but this was not the case.
Next comes another comparison and this is its platform roots. And yeah you guessed it. Tomb Raider, the running, climbing, ledge jumping can all be found before in Lara Croft games. As I played through the game I did have thoughts of "I've seen this all before" as I was jumping from one falling ledge to another, but this was to be expected I guess.
Graphics/Sound.
Now this is where Uncharted shines. As Gears of War was for the 360, this game was to showcase what could be done with the Power of the Playstation 3, and it doesn't disappoint.
The animations on the characters faces are incredible, it actually looks like the characters are talking with the right facial muscles moving in time with the words spoken.
The Fluency of motion when Nathan is climbing or running is like nothing i have seen before.
And the Scenery is breathtaking, I actually stopped while in the fort just to look at the backgrounds and take note of the fabulous achievement Naughty Dog has achieved with their game engine and the Playstation 3.
Some People are comparing it to the 360's poster child Gears of War, who could blame them, both games were made to show the power of each console, both games came out roughly a year after the console's were launched and both game's were graphic powerhouse's.
I for one think that it is unfair to compare the two. Both completely different styles, Gears is dark and gritty set in an on going war with a death mood, while Uncharted is set in a bright, open world with around 50 different shades of green (Ok that might be an exaggeration) but two complete different styles of graphics and therefore unable to rightly compare the two.
As for all games now in this so called ‘Next-Gen’, Multiplayer play’s a big factor and sadly Uncharted lacks and multiplayer what so ever. What really could of set this game apart from over platformer’s would have been co-op. Hopefully Naughty Dog takes this into consideration for Uncharted 2.
I for one thoroughly enjoyed this game and would recommend this game to anyone that has a PS3. It brings nothing new to the genre and it does feel like deja vu in some places and lacks any mulitplayer but that should not put you off this little gem.