Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

An adventurer and treasure hunter by the name of Nathan Drake is after the lost treasure El Dorado which is located on an abandon island. He's on the trail with various clues left behind by his ancestor Sir Francis Drake. He brings along a reporter by the name of Elena and his associate and friend Sully. The group is eventually separated and Nathan finds himself on the island searching for the treasure solo, while being pursued by various mercenaries. -summary

Developed by Naughty Dog, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was the one game to be drilled into my brain as a "must have right now" title by most gamers when I first picked up a PS3. To my understanding (or at least explained to me) around that time; the PS3 was doing rather poorly concerning sales and this was the game to put the system on track back in 2007. When I finally played this game in 2009, the sequel Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was just hitting shelves, and I'm the type who tries very hard to play a game from the start to see what type of progression is made from sequel to sequel. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to me, is a mildly bad start to an otherwise entertaining series. I do not find this game to be the untouchable greatness many claim it to be. While its presentation is something to brag about there's just no denying that the game has some very annoying issues all in its game play.

Game Play:

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a third person, action and adventure game that follows Drake as he explores an island in South America in search for that treasure. The story feels movie like with some good scenes and action. The beginning sees Drake along with Elena defending themselves from pirates. Later he encounters another man with a lead towards the treasure with his own little personal army. From here the action is quite slow and there's a bit more storytelling setting the player up on some things to expect. I liked the plot for the most part along with the pace; and despite some very early foreshadowing the plot twist which takes place late in the game was still kind of unexpected.

The action picks up like crazy eventually. Drake will find himself in plenty of gun battles on foot and in vehicle, plus solving puzzles and traversing perilous terrain. The meat of the game play is no doubt the gun battles despite this also being billed as an adventure game. Drake engages the enemy by seeking cover and picking them off one at a time, in which their strategy is to gang up, rush, or pop shots from a distance. For the most part, I like the realism of this because you have to exercise patience here. If you attempt to rush'em and pray, then you'll be dead in no time. The screen is full of color and as Nate takes damage his heart beats loudly and the screen loses color until it's in black in white. There are no health items, so Nate heals by hiding behind cover until the screen regains full color. I like this actually because there just wouldn't be enough health items in this game to keep Nate alive, since you will take damage in every encounter.

I like the whole seek for cover element, but it's not well tuned as in Gears of War. Nate exposes too much of his body and the enemies are firing like experts, which results in hits every time you try to fight back. Plus one of the buttons sends Nate to cover, and you can use this as an offensive or defensive strategy to lunge from one spot to another. The problem with this is that Nate won't always choose the RIGHT cover, which can lead to a laser-scoped sniper picking you off. So most of your time in combat is shooting and healing for the most part; to make matters worse head shots are what counts the most, but either they don't always register or the targeting reticule is just difficult to handle.

Another huge peeve is that ammo is kind of scarce and you can find yourself running out; but this is mainly due to the enemies withstanding so many damn bullets. You can spend an entire clip trying to kill them. Those whom have played Black for the PS2 or X-Box knows how frustrating that can be, but don't worry though, the enemies are nowhere near that bulletproof. Fortunately, there are firearms that can kill in a single shot, those weapons are very low in ammo though consisting between 3 to 7 shots but they can literally be a life saver. The weapons you can pick up are 9mm's, AK-47's, Shotguns, and a couple of others. Although the shotgun is stronger, it's mainly at close range you can actually do something, and since the ammo count is so low for it; I usually find myself abandoning it for anything that carries more bullets. Very late in the game you will find out just how worthless the shotgun can be at times.

The combat is even more painful because there are so many shoot outs with so many guys appearing after you waste many of them. I say the game is about 85% combat with the exact same strategy until late in the game with a new enemy that requires something different. The combat has a small bit of variety as one segment follows Nate through an on-rails segment as he mans a machine gun turret on the back of a jeep, and then later on a jet ski. The jet ski portion was very annoying for me and not fun at all, because I found the ski tough to control over the currents, plus the gun battle system that takes place adds to the annoyance. Eventually, the combat starts to be repetitive and tedious.

The puzzle segments are so weak they're not even worth mentioning. The plat-forming portions are decent fun but feel's like a water downed version of Tomb Raider: Legends. Nate will have to scale plenty of walls and leap from one point to another. Some of the deaths will come from just not knowing where to go, but there are ledges, loose bricks, and even devices right in the open. It's just a matter of being patient and looking around. There's no time limit for any of these things.

Another flaw in the game play is just how limited Nate feels in regards to exploration, plus the lack of imagination. The game is very linear and I think it's impossible to find yourself lost anywhere. Naughty Dog puts up a red herring having you believe that you're actually searching for things, since Nate can find up to 60 rare artifacts, but this is just window dressing. There's no real sense of exploration on this island at all, hell, Nate can't even go under water. The jungle and ancient ruin settings all feel the same and just lack imagination. Some people will point out that it does take place in one location, but let's use Ninja Gaiden:Black for the X-Box as an example. After the third chapter of that game, Ryu finds himself in the city of the Vigoor Empire. As you explore the city and its underworld, you get this feeling as if you're fighting for your life in completely different realms. There are plenty of locations in the city that sets itself apart from its initial urban feel. You run through dark caverns with several killing devices, plus there are enemies specific to those areas. At least for me, I never felt like Nate visited that many places; I just have to be honest here. After awhile of looking at the same scenery I'm going to get tired of that shit.

I also didn't feel the main character or his drive. Nate comes off very bland in comparison to his associates; both of them have very real reasons to find this treasure or just being there period. Ellen is a reporter looking for that ground-breaking story, and Sully is in debt with money after dealing with very bad people. Sully has a reason to be killing because his life is at stake. Then you have Nate...killing lots of men... for the treasure... and why? What's separating him from any other greedy bastard in the game? What, he decides to have a change of heart and save the world? Oh, please. I need my heroes, anti-heroes, and villains to be more than that.

Uncharted doesn't have traditional boss battles. The various ambushes and gauntlets you come across can qualify as some type of boss battle though, because when you think it's over, it's actually far from it, and you will die during a lot of these altercations. It's a somewhat short game that can take between 10-12 hours to complete. It's the shoot-up segments though that will take up much of that time. There's no online mode, however you can increase the difficulty and collect trophies if that's your thing. I don't play for trophies though.

Controls:

The controls use all of the buttons and there are good and bad points. The cover mechanism has more to do with mastering the function than actual response; with practice and patience most players will be able to pop out and land shots, plus lunge to the next position. The d-pad allows to swap and load weapons on the go, and it's very easy to master, I love this feature. Using the target to aim even with no pressure at all can be a problem, this is just something Naughty Dog didn't put much work into. Nate can also get physical with a melee attack that is so simple on paper to perform, but it's so damn unresponsive to where it seems like he wasn't even programmed for this. The same with precise jumps on some occasion, but that has something to do with the camera, more on that later. I also hate the quick time events here. I may have died on every last one of them during my first play through due to sluggish response. I just knew that I hit that circle or triangle button and I would be killed anyway. To include there was one QTE where the button prompt didn't show up. I just slid down to my death waiting for an onscreen button push that never came. Overall, the controls aren't a chore to deal with.

Graphics/Sound/Music:

This is one area that I have to give it up for Uncharted. The presentation is the game's greatest feature with very little problems to be found. The visuals are outstanding for the environment. The jungle feels so life like that you can almost smell the air and the moss from around the water ways. There's a heavy focus on the water, and Naughty Dog just did a magnificent job making it all look so grand from the ocean to the coastlines. The game works very well with its atmosphere, as it captures that very cramp and claustrophobic feel during one segment that features Nate exploring an abandoned submarine. Although I beefed about the setting, there are just too many pretty moments to really be mad at the game's visuals. The soundtrack helps a great deal working into the games atmosphere. The BGM plays according to the dangers, so there's plenty of moments without music. There aren't many games out there this can actually work for, but Uncharted is definitely among that small list where this approach benefits.

The character designs feel kind of average, and there isn't much depth concerning the enemies. However, in the case of facial designs this game is outstanding there. You can see the fear, shock, and frustration on their faces, especially during the cut-scenes which all look pretty good. I must also point out Nate's clothes when he gets wet. He really does look soaked and you just don't always get that kind of detail. Now the voice acting is spot on. I may not care for all of the dialog, but the voice actors earned their money. The plot twist towards the end forces Nate on several occasions to bust out, "Ohhh shit!", in the most hilarious of voices. Elena is hilarious here too when she experiences a loss, and I love Sully, he's pretty cool. The sound effects feel genuine with a distinction between pistols and rifles.

I have two gripes here concerning visuals. One is the lack of gore. In combination with the wisecracks from Nate, it feels as if Naughty Dog was playing it safe. Let's not forget, these are the same guys responsible for Crash Bandicoot and Jack and Daxter which are aimed for kids and teens. This game was meant to be for adults, so it feels lacking in terms of violence. I mean what kind of sense does it make to earn trophies for head-shots, when you're getting no brain matter splattered all over the place? There's no real reason to chase a head count when there's no blood splattering reward. I want to see brains, I want to see heads taken off shoulders, and I didn't get that. The second is the fixed camera during certain platform segments. You remember playing God of War, and thinking to yourself just how helpful a camera at your control during those wire-tight jumps could have been? This game suffers from the same problem, but its nowhere near as carried away with it as GoW. There are some easy to miss jumps simply because you can misjudge your placement, and in combination with Nate feeling a bit sensitive at times, it just adds a certain amount of unnecessary complication.

Final Thoughts:

I have replayed this game a few times already searching for the greatness some are going to feel I missed. No such thing, I don't believe Uncharted is as great or innovative as some claim it to be. It borrows shamelessly from other games that did a majority of these things better. I think a lot of people fell for the hype and already made up their minds on loving this game. I've seen plenty of false examples on originality and such; and if people must go that route, then the game probably isn't all that great. So do I recommend Uncharted? Yes I do, and I only recommend it to the more serious gamers because they're going to work their way through that combat system. I think most casual gamers are going to put it down, at least the ones I know did. It's very pretty to look at, but the flaws in game play dampened plenty of the fun for me.

Rating: 6/10

Pros:Visuals, voice acting, some other nice elements

Cons:Combat engine is the biggest issue