Uncharted: Drake's Tomb Raiders of the Lost Gears of Persia
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for the PS3 might be what some would call "derivative" of other games in the action genre, and in its way it is, but to brush it under the rug as derivative would be short sighted because you would be passing up one of the prettiest, most fun, engrossing, and addictive games ever created. Naughty Dog has polished this game to a sparkle and it's my current favorite game for the PS3 platform.
You play the game as Nathan Drake, a fortune hunter and descendant of Sir Francis Drake. At the beginning of the game Nathan uncovers a lost journal that belonged to Sir Francis, a journal that might help point the way to Francis' lost treasure, the gold of El Dorado. This is the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" portion of the game. Nathan has a very "Indiana Jones", tongue in cheek vibe to his character. He's serious when he needs to be, but is quick with a snarky remark, infinitely likable, and expertly voiced by Nolan North. Before it's all over he will meet several bad guys along with a his debt riddled partner Sully, a crack journalist named Elena, and it's all wrapped under high adventure, tropical locations, dusty ruins, and a back stab or two along the way.
Gameplay consists of about 40% third person shooting, 40% climbing puzzle solving, with 20% being a grab bag of driving, jet skiing, hand to hand combat, and quick time events. This is the "Gears of War", "Prince of Persia", "Tomb Raider" portions of the game. Gunplay is pretty reminiscent of Gears of War because Nathan is really dependent upon cover if he's going to stay alive. Enemies also use cover, attempt to flank, and flush you out with grenades, so the gunplay does have a very dynamic "never the same way twice" feel to it. The climbing and puzzle solving is very much like those in the Tomb Raider series, but the actual climbing feels a whole lot more like the Prince of Persia franchise. Again, you would think it would have a very derivative feel to it, but somehow (and I'm not quite sure how) it feels fresh and fun.
I think that the biggest thing this game has going for is its super fluid gameplay and overall five star presentation. On paper the game looks like something you've probably played before, but the game looks incredible and plays even better. Everything runs super smooth and the environments are really eye popping. The gunplay is easy to get used to, and I actually thought that Uncharted handled the cover system just a bit better than the one in Gears. I never once ended up sticking to a wall or object that I didn't intended to, and that's not something I can say never happened in Gears. The climbing is also super smooth and it's almost beautiful to watch Nathan scale a wall. At times the climbing seems a bit too forgiving, and at times I made jumps where I was sure I was going to miss the grab, only to have Nathan make a Batman caliber grab at the last possible second. It helps to give the player a good sense of vertigo, but at the same time it's near impossible to plummet to your death in this game.
Uncharted also gets really high marks for graphics and sound. The cinemas are real time and they just look awesome. Very expressive facial animation, spot on voice work, and a musical score that could almost make John Williams hang his head. Once I finished the game I even caught myself humming the theme and wondering if Sony put out an Uncharted soundtrack. The actual story plays it safe for the most part, with a rather odd twist during the last third of the game, but it is engaging and keeps you pushing on. It's also open ended enough that they could take the story of Nathan Drake in any of a billion different direction...naturally.
If you take all of the elements above and separate them, Uncharted appears to be one of the biggest "me too" games to come out in a long time, but when you smash it all together and put a nice coat of Naughty Dog paint on the outside, you end up with one of the best action-adventure puzzlers that I have personally ever played. Throw in some cool unlockable videos and Uncharted's own version of an achievement points system, and you end up with one highly addictive game. It's the video game equivalent of a really good book. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for the PS3 is one very hard game to put down and a must-buy in my opinion.
+Great graphic and audio presentation
+Smooth all around gameplay
+Great voice acting
+Great new character in Nathan Drake
+Great unlockable extras
+Hard to put down
-Doesn't bring anything completely original to the plate
-Slightly short
-Just a little too forgiving in the challenge department
