This game has generated a lot of its own hype - to do that a game has to be very very good. As much as i can see the appeal, i have to admit that i dont feel it is, and heres why.

First of all, you have the combat. Don't get me wrong, the AI is decent enough. Not as groundbreaking as many would have you believe, but the npc's are perfectly capable of escaping grenade blasts, and taking cover at appropriate times, which makes for quite tense firefights. The trouble is the firefights themselves last far too long. They end up being something of a tedious war of attrition - swarm upon swarm of gun-toting mercenaries charge you at regular intervals, which after a while, just becomes tedious. The parallels with gears of war are obvious, but the flow of the combat, and the feel like you have to make a decision to stay alive just isnt there in uncharted. Its just not exciting.

The platform jumping feels like its on rails. Its very hard to miss a jump, so it takes the fun out of the non-combat parts of the game. The set pieces, where parts of the scenery crumble as you jump, are exciting, but you never feel like you're one misjump from death, which ruins the experience somewhat.

I started with the negatives, because the positives are really obvious with this game. The graphics are amazing, the controls are very intuitive, and the story and voice acting are top notch. Special mention must also be made of the use of the sixaxis controller - the game takes is cues from Ratchet & Clank Future, by using it for a few "mini-games" which dont disrupt things and feels very natural.