BulletPointReview: Uncharted Drakes Fortune (PS3)
What is it? - Take the cover and gun mechanic from Gears of War, sprinkle in the exploration elements of Tomb Raider and add some Indiana Jones-esque attitude and adventuring and you're basically there.
What I liked:
Water - How many times in a game when you shoot someone do they fall in the water and simply disappear? Lot's right? In Uncharted when a body falls into the water it floats. And not only that, but if it lands in say, some rapids, the body will float down those rapids. It's pretty cool to see.
Colors - Lots of games this generation are known for their gorgeous graphics...like Gears of War. The problem is games like Gears stick to a very brown darkish color palette. In Uncharted not only are the graphics pretty damn nice to look at, the colors the producers have used here are amazing and really make the game pop from a visual standpoint.
Animation - When Drake makes his way through a certain submarine that he discovers along the way he moves through it with amazingly detailed animations. Since the sub is full of tight spaces, he'll grab a door frame or prop his foot up on a step and that simple animation gives the sense that Drake is really there and interacting with his environment.
What I didn't like:
Bugs - No not the kind of bugs one might find in a jungle game, I'm talking about game bugs. The kind that take you out of the experience. Drakes Fortune has a lot of screen tearing and that takes away from the visuals and is really distracting.
Enemies - If you shot a dude wearing a white wife beater he'd probably go down pretty fast wouldn't you say? Not here. The baddies in Uncharted take alot of ammo to put down...that is unless you manage to pull off head shots. Oh and for the most part the bad guys all look the same. Not cool. Let's mix it up Naughty Dog.
Boss - The end boss, IMO, is really disappointing and doesn't really live up to the end fight I was hoping for...which I won't spoil here.
Summary - A buddy of mine told me that Uncharted was a really short game and was not worth full price. He could not have been more wrong. True I got the game when it dropped to Greatest Hits and thus paid less than full retail. But if I had have picked up Uncharted when it was the full $69 (up here in Canada) I would have come away from the game fully satisfied. Uncharted is honestly one of the best games I have ever played on my PS3...quite possibly the best. As for the length, it's not the longest game ever made but, IMO, it ended right when it needed to.
If you have a PS3 and have been wondering about picking up Uncharted wait no longer. This is game is amazing.
I give Uncharted Drake's Fortune (PS3) a 5 out of 5.
