...a half-tucked bleh
Played through in Winter 09.
So…there’s this guy… he rocks a half-tucked long sleeve t-shirt and has an affinity for all things shiny, which include a spunky blond reporter and his ancestor’s lost treasure (not necessarily in that order). And so “half-tucked shirt guy” finds himself entrenched in a harrowing adventure, surviving sweaty jungles and scaling ancient ruins, escaping perilous dangers where I’m sure all that he’s REALLY thinking is, “Damn… kinda wish I packed a Tank Top…”
The best thing about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, is the sheer amount of personality it has. The music, the story, the humor all have this great romanticizing tone that captures you from the very beginning and lets you know…you’re down for some adventuring
I think the way Uncharted achieved this was by simplifying a lot of elements that other games tend to expand upon. The cast is small and relatable, the story is light and fluid, the game play is practical and…to the point. It’s not an over complicated game, yet it still manages to give you a great sense of accomplishment.
For two years I’ve heard the MAIN critique about this game being the shooting portions. The game is notorious for the amount of bullets it takes to drop a fool in the jungle. But while it can be frustrating and cumbersome, I never felt that it deterred me from enjoying the combat. Instead it reminded me that I was not watching a summer movie, but playing a video game. It made me take my time through a very fast-paced game, which I didn’t mind.
I take bigger GRIPE with some of the in-game animations of Drake being absurdly clunky, the item collection being completely unappealing, and the ledge design (in which you spend most of your time climbing on) not blending realistically with what they are attached to, making them pop out as if they’re saying “Hey STUPID! Jump over here!” But an in-game medal system makes up for it by giving you more than just the achievement/trophy prerequisite. You can unlock different costumes, weapons, art work, and “making of” videos. All of which made me appreciate my second play through the game, especially after seeing all the faces and paws that went into it…not to mention discovering the different spoken languages and enlisting a German Nathan Drake…heh…wiener schnitzel…
What TRULLY makes me want to play the next iteration of Uncharted are the characters that inhabit the fantastic lore. The flinching hero Drake, his cigar eating comrade Sully, and the shiny blonde Elena are such likable characters, that I can’t wait to see what shenanigans they get into next time….and hopefully a time after that…
