Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

The Good
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is one of the first PS3 games I have ever played. I bought it shortly after getting my PS3 and I quickly found out why this game series is so beloved by critics and gamers alike.

In Uncharted, you play as Nathan Drake, a self-proclaimed direct descendant of the legendary British explorer Sir Francis Drake. Whether Nate is a legit descendant of the famous adventurer remains unanswered. Although the ring he carries around his neck is a ring worn by Drake himself, so it might be true. But what definitely is true, is that Nate has the same undeterred passion for exploration and adventure as his "ancestor!"

In Drake's Fortune, Nathan, along with the sexy reporter Elena Fisher and long time friend Sully, goes on a quest to find the mystical statue of El Dorado, the Golden Man. This adventure leads Nate and his friends to a deserted island somewhere near the coast of Panama. However, they are not alone, as they get some brutal competition in the form of Gabriel Roman, a merciless treasure hunter who wants to have the gold for himself and he has an army of vicious pirates who, like him, are willing to kill everyone in their path in order to get the treasure. And so begins an epic race to find one of the world's most legendary treasures. But is this treasure really as beautiful as it is claimed to be or does it have a more sinister secret in store for the unsuspicious adventurer?

Uncharted's gameplay is a well-balanced mix of platform action and gunplay. The platform sections of the game are made quite straightforward in order to keep the game's pace high. Jump toward a ledge and Nate automatically grabs it. And once he's got a hold of it, Nate will point his hand to another ledge which he can jump to. But be careful, as some ledges or platforms tend to crumble in seconds.

As for the shooting, the gunplay is very similar to games like Gears of War or Call of Duty. It is therefore obligatory to take cover during pretty much every gun fight. Particularly on the highest difficulty you can only take one or two shots before you get killed. If you do get hit, your screen will lose saturation and when it is all black and white, it is all over for you! So take cover, pop out, shoot a few rounds and hide into cover again. Health regenerates completely if you do not take damage for some time, making you ready to fight again! Your weapon arsenal is pretty usual stuff, you have access to pistols, machine guns, shotguns and grenades. You can only carry one handgun, one two-handed weapon and about five grenades.

All weapons are fun to use (except for the grenades, but I'll talk about that later) and there's plenty of ammo to find in the game (mainly from dead enemies). You can also engage the enemies in hand to hand combat, but since all enemies are armed with guns, this is not very advisable. They are pretty smart as well. Like you, they will keep on moving while shooting at you and they will efficiently run for cover when things get heated up. And in case you stay in cover for too long, they will certainly lob a grenade or two your way. During some of the game's levels you need to navigate the place by driving a boat or by riding shotgun in the back of a moving jeep.

Furthermore, there are puzzles which, like the platform sections, are quite easy to solve. In these moments, Nate can access Sir Francis Drake's personal diary in order to find hints on how to solve the puzzles. They mainly consists of flipping some switches in the right order or finding a certain specific object. And finally there's also hidden treasure scattered over the levels and metals you can achieve when by performing feats like killing a specific number of enemies with a certain weapon or by beating the game on a particular difficulty level. Overall, Uncharted's gameplay is lots of fun because of the silky smooth controls and the variety in gameplay mechanics.

I usually don't care much about a game's visual flair, but Uncharted just looks marvelous. It was one of the first games that truly showed off the PS3's graphical prowess. Even today, eight years after its release, the game still looks good. Particularly the lush, colorful jungle environments are still a joy to look at. The game's animations in particular were far better than in any other game that came before it. That is mainly due to the fact that every animation in the game has been motion captured. Nathan's movements in particular look very realistic and fluid. The way he runs, jumps, grabs his gun and rolls for cover, it all looks very organically and believable.

But one thing in which the game truly shines, is the game's overall presentation and characters. It has the look and feel of a Hollywood style action adventure movie. It has high energy action, spectacular stunts and a light hearted storyline with plenty of humor. Give Nathan a hat, leather jacket and whip and he could be Indiana Jones's grandson!

The characters themselves all have their own personalities and truly feel like real people. Nathan, for example, is a great example of that. Like real people, he sometimes gets upset, scared or overly enthusiastic. He makes mistakes, gets hurt from time to time and at one point in the story he even completely loses all motivation of getting the treasure but keeps going just because Elena managed to convince him not to give in to his fears.

All other characters also are very enjoyable to see on screen. You have Elena, an ambitious news reporter who eventually becomes Nate's love interest as well as Sully, who acts like a mentor and father figure to Nate and joins him on all his expeditions, sharing memories about their pleasant and less pleasant experiences from the past. It all helps in fleshing out the characters and making you care about them.

Music and audio are excellent. The music has that typical epic orchestra style that you can easily associate with those Hollywood action adventure movies (particularly the title theme is very memorable and reminders me of the theme from Indiana Jones). Nolan North delivers a captivating performance as Nathan Drake and the other voice actors do a great job in giving life to their respective characters.

The Bad
Throwing grenades is quite a pain in the ass. First, you have to manually select your grenades (because they are considered a separate weapon, quite usual for the time but completely obsolete these days) then you have to use the PS3's motion control in order to determine the arc of the throw. It would have been a lot better if you could just lob a grenade with the press of a single button.

I also wished that there was some more variety in the game's weapon arsenal. All your weapons are very generic and having access to less common weapons like Molotov cocktails, throwing knifes or some magical staff could have spiced the game up. Since we are hunting a mystical treasure, it would be a cool twist to get access some magic objects or spells to vaporize your foes.

The Bottom Line
With Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Naughty Dog once again created an awesome gaming franchise. While very different from their previous work they still succeeded in delivering the excellence they are known for since Crash Bandicoot. So grab your handgun, washed out jacket and lucky coin and go out on a unforgettable adventure!