Australian Gamer Review :: Uncharted: Drakes Fortune

WE APOLOGISE IN ADVANCE

Uncharted: Drakes Fortune

Reviewed on: Playstation 3
Available on: Playstation 3

Uncharted: Drake�s Fortune doesn�t break any new ground. But like a new Indiana Jones movie, it doesn�t have to do anything new, it just has to do it well.

Players: 1 Player
Genre:
Release: 2007-12-06

Developer: Naughty Dog
Distributor: SCE

View Screenshots

view profile

I have a confession. I rarely finish games. If I�m not reviewing it, I most likely won�t finish it. Games I am reviewing, I generally will finish under a certain amount of duress. I get bored quickly with games these days, and the type of game I enjoy playing often takes up more time than I have to put into it. I love RPGs, I love strategy games (turn based or real time) and I love MMOs. I never get anywhere past about half way in any of them. It�s a disgrace, really. As a result, I have a pile of unfinished games that I promise myself I will get around to finishing �one day�, but when you consider the pile includes games like Jade Empire and Final Fantasy X�well it�s clearly not going to happen.

I used to think I was just getting old. I can clearly remember playing Civilization until four in the morning on many occasions. I would forget to go to uni lectures because I was too engrossed in Age of Empires. I played through the first Crash Bandicoot from start to finish because I simply couldn�t put it down. Even the original SSX on PS2 (when there was nothing else to play) had me and my mate sitting down for hours at a time trying to beat the each other�s ever increasing trick high scores. So what happened? Is it truly because I am getting old that I can�t play a game for more than 2 hours at a time? Have I lost interest in gaming?

It's like Tomb Raider, only not

I had, up until recently, convinced myself that my age and lifestyle were serious factors in my lack of interest in games. I failed to get into Mass Effect even though I loved it; I failed to finish Ghost Recon 2 even though it was a heap easier than the first one; it took me over a month to eventually finish Assassins Creed for the review and the list goes on. But then a funny thing happened over the Christmas holidays; I bought Uncharted: Drake�s Fortune and played it non-stop for 4 days straight, stopping only to eat and sleep. The game does absolutely nothing new or original, but it hooks you in and it doesn�t let you go until you�ve completed the game.

If you ask someone what they know about Uncharted you will get one of two very different responses. The response from those who haven�t played it is that it�s simply Tomb Raider without the skinny waist and big chest. To be honest, it�d be hard to disagree with them, it�s a fair description. Of course, those that have actually played it, have nothing but praise to give this game. I�ve heard plenty of people argue it has a worthy contender for Game of the Year 2007. Whilst I wouldn�t go that far, it�s easy to see why PS3 owners are raving about it�. they�re simply happy to finally have something to rave about.

Uncharted: Drake�s Fortune follows the adventures of Nathan Drake, the supposed long distant relative of Sir Francis Drake, the famous British captain (or pirate if you�re Spanish). The story goes that Sir Francis has a long lost treasure hidden at some exotic, and Nathan knows where it is hidden. The game follows the adventure of Nathan and his two offsiders, Elena (the token blonde love interest) and Sully (the token grumpy old guy), as they try and track down the rumoured famed golden city of El Dorado. Of course, what Nathan finds isn�t quite as he had expected�. But telling you what would spoil it.

The game plays pretty much how you�d expect a jungle faring adventure game to play. There is a healthy mix of platform jumping, rope swinging, ledge grabbing, bad guy shooting, car driving, puzzle solving, jet ski riding, treasure hunting and of course reloading from checkpoints when any of the above go horribly wrong. For the most part the activities in the game are good fun, and never get overly challenging. The game keeps you on your toes, but never becomes too easy or too hard. The gun fights are exciting and challenging, especially given that you have limited ammo and can only carry two weapons at any time. Shooting requires a certain amount of restraint and accuracy; otherwise you�ll find yourself diving for more ammo whilst angry foreigners are launching grenades in your direction. The preferred option is to take the time to use the aiming reticle, but many times your only option is to shoot from the hip and hope for the best, and this certainly adds to the excitement when you find yourself out of cover and needing to make an escape. This is especially true later in the game when your cover slowly disintegrates under heavy fire.

Not unlike shooting plastic ducks at a sideshow alley

Naughty Dog have done a great job mixing up the pace of the game. They mix it up regularly switching between puzzle solving, enemy encounters and the occasional vehicle action sequences. It keeps the game fresh from start to finish. Cut scenes are infrequent, reasonably brief and unlike most games actually contribute to the story, giving a real interactive movie feel to the game. When most games are made worse by cut scenes, the elements of plot and suspense contribute greatly to that feeling of �just one more level�.

My only real complaint would be that the puzzles aren�t terribly puzzle�ish and the platform elements are at times like playing Mario Galaxy except an over-enthusiastic long-jumping Mario with a serious lack of self-preservation skills. There are a couple of points during the game where you are required to make a simple jump from platform A to platform B. The problem is that often it is hard to tell if you need to jump directly to the left, or left and up a bit. The controls are rather coarse meaning that pushing the stick in slightly the wrong direction has Nathan testing out his flying skills off the top of towers, walls and cliff faces. Other times you find yourself wanting to make a small jump to the right, only to find that with Nathan it�s �all or nothing baby�. Either you don�t jump far enough, or you jump too far. Of course eventually you work out that you have to position yourself the right distance from the edge, adjust the camera so you can see clearly which direction you want to go and THEN make the jump. Fortunately, Uncharted is pretty generous with its save points, meaning that you rarely have to go too far back in time to reattempt suicide.

Portal, which is not at all related to Drakes Fortune, raised some really interesting discussion about the length of games. In this day a game�s biggest selling point is how many hours of gameplay it has. Mario, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy all claim bigger levels, more missions, and longer play time. The problem is I never finish any of them, and hence never see the end of the story. Portal on the other hand was the perfect length game for the type of game it was. It kept you interested long enough to finish the game and feel satisfied. Uncharted, is much the same. The game is probably only 10 or 11 hours from start to finish, but when you�re done you feel like you�ve gotten your value for your money. You don�t feel cheated by recycled levels, or that �they could�ve done more�. No, once you�re done your simply content to say, �shit that was fun, when�s the sequel??� Had the game been another 10 hours, it would�ve become tiresome and stale. So, I say bravo to Naughty Dog for being happy enough with their game to be able to say, �that�ll do pig, that�ll do.�

The PS3 still hasn�t really wowed me with its graphics yet. Sure there have been some good looking games, but I still haven�t gotten that �next gen� hit that everyone keeps looking forward to. Uncharted is certainly one of the better looking games around at the moment, but I wouldn�t say it�s because of higher resolution graphics or more detailed textures. Uncharted looks nice because it looks like an Indiana Jones movie. It has what I�d describe as a Hollywood backdrop feel to it. Everything looks real, but deliberately placed to entice you in a certain direction, or with semi-directed camera angles to give you a certain view of the scene. Everything looks like a movie should look. But it�s also in the details. I think Uncharted is one of the only games I�ve seen where when you�ve running through ankle deep water, your jeans look wet up to your ankles. And when you�ve been running through knee deep water, your jeans look wet up to your knees. It�s insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but it�s just a little detail that makes the game more �real�.

Asking the gentleman kindly to hand over his weapon

Overall, there isn�t really much you can say about the game to describe it beyond what you already would expect it to be. If the game were made by Eidos it�d be Tomb Raider. If it were made by Lucas Arts, it�d be Indiana Jones. Somewhere between the two is what you�ve actually got here. There is nothing particularly new, and certainly nothing groundbreaking. But like Indiana Jones, it stick to a formula that works, and why change it when you�re on a winner? The game drops some surprises on you later in the game, to try and distinguish itself from your standard treasure hunter game, and for the most part it does it pretty well. Like any good movie, you need to have a twist towards the end.

Uncharted: Drake�s Fortune is a big change for Naughty Dog, and they�ve certainly pulled it off. I like to have a whine about most games, but to be honest I don�t really have anything to complain about. Uncharted is just a fun, well made game. Simple as that.

View Screenshots

Final Verdict

Uncharted: Drake�s Fortune, doesn�t try to reinvent the wheel; it sticks to the tried and true formula of adventure + excitement + a few laughs, and it does it all exceptionally well. Immersive and enjoyable from start to finish, Uncharted plays like an interactive Indiana Jones movie. A must have for those with dusty PS3s.

Pros
A classic adventure story, with genuinely fun gameplay. Challenging without being ruined by overcomplicated controls. Beautiful environments. A lot of variation in the game play keeps things interesting.
Cons
Ledge jumping can at times be frustrating. Ummm�. I�ve got nothing else to add.