A love & hate game
Drake ventures through many island sections which consists largely of platforming and shooting. Platforming AKA - jumping like a flying squirrel is simple, Nate will always grab a ledge if he doesn't land on the actual platform. In fact, ledge jumping is his forte as he'll often need to jump between cliffs, exposed ruin, and aged mortar as well as wall sling himself using vines and even hold his balance across a narrow platform. One of the problems with Uncharted and platforming is it can be difficult to path-find your way through the environment due to the rich detailing. Also, what's climbable and what's just foliage is hard to distinguish because lots of platforms just don't end up really sticking out. This is also so with vines, I made a surprising number of blind leaps while not knowing the vine was there because the thing is so small and foliage vines permeate the environments. Others seem to have found this too, because it wasn't uncommon for the game to hint me in the right direction not long after being presented a situation (clearly included from play tester's actions).
I find Drake to move a little like a sack of potatoes; he controls fine but it seems he'll just roll off a cliff and fall to his death if he moves quickly when opting to jump at the last moment. I also swear there's this slight latency when Drake jumps compared to pressing the button almost like he gets a hoof from an invisible person every time he jumps. The potato sack also has a bit of pickiness with climbing upwards; if he's climbing beside 2 or more ledges, it's hard to steer his movement and he instead likes to move back and forth like an overly selective person. In actuality, this makes perfect sense when you compare him to a sack of potatoes because potatoes and sacks both don't have hands. None of these problems really hurt Donut Drake's adventure more than a few needles in the ass; a greater problem arises while trying to figure where the heck you're being guided to go.
The shooting is a lot like what we've seen in Gears of War - over the shoulder third person action. Now, there's a lot to talk about in terms of combat, specifically the imperfections of its designs, but the actual control while shooting is pretty decent. The enemy design in this game tends to go against the rule of thumb. You'll sometimes be swarmed at point blank, foes are bullet sponges meaning you'll not kill somebody when it seemed like you did, and enemies love to snipe from out of view (especially grenadiers). There's also a handful of skidoo sections where you have to navigate against obstacles, the environment, and enemies with a pistol… or a grenade launcher! It is a good diversion but also one of the hardest sections because the controls are badly sluggish and the AI does NOT like to miss its shot; it also seems the easiest section comes last. Uncharted does support a good sized array of guns; every basic type of weapon is available, all feel varied and well designed, and pistols, shotguns, smgs, and machine guns all have 1 other firearm or more. Furthermore, it seems Drake himself cannot move as easily as his enemies; he has difficulties evade rolling around cover as they're both mapped to the circle button!
When shooting becomes frustrating, Drake does have other options; he could shoot spare gas cans, chuck grenades, or maybe manning a turret. He has a small selection of melee moves, but it's very dangerous to use around more than 2 or 3 foes (I guess it kind of would be a bad idea). He can use stealth but the AI is very rudimentary; one hit will kill an enemy though if they even see a sliver of you (while you move in-behind cover), everyone sounds the alarm. You don't ever really, really need to make use of these tactics but they'll at least give you some extra choices in strategies.
There's no doubt that Uncharted likes to take the Hollywood route to action scenes; every so often, Drake will be running as the ruins he traverses crumble and fall a deadly distance right below his feet. Escaping from or on a plane, jeep, or skidoo just as another historical landmark gets blown to kingdom come is something that happens enough and always presents a pretty memorable situation.
We've seen great looking games try to sell us on the PS3's tech before but Uncharted seems to be the first game that actually pushes to a level of production not found on the Xbox 360… at least yet. Everything looks stunning and has a beautiful amount of detailing; but if there was anything bad to say, the camera could use just a bit of a tweaking. Some minor detailing like grass also noticeably snap in during cut scenes and textures may at first appear fuzzy. Still, it is Naughty Dog's first PS3 release and productions for the AAA title needed to be pushed a bit to arrive a year after the PS3's induction. Now on the sound side you obviously get great sound effects – some of them are a little distinctive but most really aren't anything too noteworthy. The actors embody their characters well; everyone talks like their nervous, anxious, or joyfully uncertain, or normal selves like regular people and it fits each character like a selectively fitted suit. The music makes lots of steady, rising tension, vaguely hinting at an imminent change of scenery. It also fits well with the action throughout the story but probably the best is the menu theme of the grand adventuring across forgotten lands, finding forbidden secrets, and retracing history.
You can expect Uncharted to wrap up in 9-10 hours. The game itself is pretty linear with only one ultimate direction, maybe somewhat open spaces, but also lots of scripted parts intended to push you down a path. Most high level games like Uncharted aren't designed for replayability but are so good that they're worth replaying. Uncharted doesn't fit this mold well enough; there are too many frustrations and familiarities to really be worth playing again. All the cut scenes and chapters to each level unlock after play, so there's no real good reason to do everything all over again. "Oh but TWiSTEDmerc, there's all these shiny things to collect," claims a user – and that person would be very right about something very small. We as gamers do like to collect items; when you collect these items, you get a nice photo of a shiny treasure but nothing else. There are also metals that activate when you reach a preset number of kills with a weapon, headshot, or discover something clearly hidden. It's very much a glorified spreadsheet saying, 'you did this', 'you made it to 75% completion', or 'you killed that bastard'. Also, neither the metals nor shiny collectables unlock anything more. So unless you wanna go searching for collectables and valueless metals like a magpie, once you're done, you're probably finished (save for a little browsing).
Everything that you'd see in the media for this game almost screams it to be a blockbuster release. That is because all the fantastic things about it can be easily seen and heavily resonate with most of today's customers. Everything it does poorly or more with a lack of finesse has to be played and felt out; or it has to do with the lack of value, including length and replayability. Uncharted would be a fantastic rental, or purchased at a reduced price; it's not quite worth its full value but at the end of the day, you want to play this because everyone loves a classic adventure into uncharted territory.
+Absolutely fantastic production values
+Features some of the best characterizations ever realized in gaming
+Pretty good selection of weapons
+Some awesome set piece battles
-Not very long or especially replayable
-AI can be a prick
-Can hit some rough path finding issues