Good story, great graphics and a frustrating game..
Story: You play the witty Nathan Drake on his hunt to find El Dorado and his ancester Sir Francis Drake.. The story is a mix between Romancing the Stone and Congo and offers very little new - but it's presented in a way that makes you want to know more.. To put it short - you got Drake, his buddy and a young female reporter and you got the evil villian with an accent, his right hand and a ton of dumb cannon fodder to blast - add a curse and some monster zombie thingies and you're good to go :)
Gameplay: The main gameplay in Uncharted is greatly inspired by the old Tomb Raider games - but the climbing and jumping parts have for whatever reason been made much more simple, other than that you have a shooting part that is a direct rip off from Gears of War with the button cover mechanic and pop in and out gunplay.. Other than that you have a few jetski segments and a "on rails" jeep ride a final boss battle inspied by the button pressing system of God of War.. To sum up it's basicly stealing from the most popular games and mixing it together with various results..
Pros: It's a beautiful game, it is a bit overhyped, but it's still really beautiful and has some of the best water and lighting effects ever! The jungle looks great and so does the underground sequences - there's even a automated jeep ride ( where you man a gun ) that is really impressive and fun and the later jetski parts are top notch with the exception of the old and outdated explosive barrels heading down stream.. The story is deffinetly also great and while not paticular original it's still very interesting and was what carried me trough the game - the characters looks great and acts realisticly and are both charming and interesting deffinetly some of the best ever seen in games And finally the mood is great too - from your first walk in the jungle to the deep and claustrophobic dungeons to the cut scenes and sounds, it's really well done
Cons: Okay, I'm gonna sound very negative here because Uncharted does NOT live up to it's potential - it is at times really frustrating and even uses mechanics that a 10 years outdated - it's really a shame and it kinda feels like they released it before time.. Let's start with the gunplay - white the shooting itself is satisfying and the guns are great the enemies are dumb and unresponsive - not only that but they all look the same in a way you haven't seen since the first PS1 games - seriously I do not want to be fighting the same 3 types of clones - "hat dude" has a shotgun, "no hat guy" a gun and "bandana dude" a rifle - c'mon! And when you shoot them there's no real damage system, they pause for a second and stumbles a bit and then it's back to normal - no injury no nothing - the only way you can take them out is by head shots or emptying your clip in them - not very satisfying in this day and age - and even worse they come in the old wave after wave form - clear 5 guys and another set pops up, rinse repeat - when you are done the music changes and you know it's over and can start looking for ammo before venturing in to the next area trigger.. c'mon! And later in the game when you meet some monster thingies, the game changes to a horror game where the cover mechanics becomes completely useless and you find the turn time and bad damage detection a hassle and to me that really took a lot of the fun out of the game.. Then there's the climbing part, it doesn't get more simple - you press a button and he does the rest, when it's time to move on you aim the stick in the direction you want to go ( there's usually only one option ) he reaches his arm out to indicate you found it - :| - you press and he leaps.. This could have been okay if you could have enjoyed the scenery or something, but nope, the camera changes to a fixed position talking out any flexibility and scenic view.. that could have been done so much better.. And finally there's the end boss fight - I don't really want to spoil anything, but it all ends very briefly and in a frustrating manner where you basicly trough trial and error have to learn a pattern and get it right.. after trying 15 times with the excact same thing it's just not fun anymore ( not that the second time was ).. in this day and age I find it very unsatisfying and dumb! Then we have the levels, it doesn't get more linear than that... all that nice jungle - nope you can't enter it as there's invisible walls... that 1m crate you would like to climb over, nope can't be done but you can climb that 3m crate next to it - jeez! It's really a shame as many of the levels looks so great that you want to explore them but can't - the only areas where you have a little flexibility is i the shooting parts where you can outflank your foes, but later in the game the enemy will use sniper rifles with laser sights taking that joy away too And then there's ton of minor stuff I'll leave for now.. in general the many small anoyances really take away the fun
Overall: Drake's Fortune is not a bad game - it's beautiful and interesting and it draws you in, that is why I think it's such a shame it doesn't do any of the game mechanics really right - I found myself frustrated going from check point to check point simple so I could get the game's story, not to play the game and that is a shame.. Therefore it's also a game with very little replayability - it's fairly fun the first time - or atleast the first half of the game - and the jet ski parts and jeep ride can be fun to redo, but other than that there isn't much reason to revisit.. At it's best it's really good, especialy the story stands out, but the fun game parts are far between and most of the game will kinda feel like a hasle where you're just wondering what will be trown at you next and how many tries that will take before you get to the next part and so on.. It does have it's moments and if you only have a PS3 and want an exclusive game it's not the worst choice, I would however recommend trying the demo or renting it first..
7/10
