Naughty Dog strikes gold once again.
+ fast-paced combat is brutally satisfying
+ balanced pacing, including the exhilarating gunplay and steady platforming
+ good amount of mission variety
+ varied visuals brimming with detail, superb animations, and a dramatic musical score
+ cast of relatable characters and wonderfully charming voice-acting to boot
+ twists in the story keep things fresh, compelling, and at times mind-boggling
+interesting bonus features
Cons:
- cover system is spotty
- on the short side
- some parts of the story in historical context aren't fully explained
-throwing grenades is so tedious that they become useless
It's always nice to see originality and uniqueness arise in gaming, but sometimes games reimagine awesome themes already found by past games or another medium. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for the PlayStation 3 doesn't include much originality, but it blends an Indiana Jones/treasure hunter theme with Gears of War-esque third-person shooting gameplay, among other features to craft a special game that is enjoyable on all fronts. A rock-solid experience that provides action-packed moments in both story and gameplay and has an excellent overall presentation makes Naughty Dog's first game on the PS3 one to remember. With many great features come a few grievances that only hamper small parts of the game and keep frustrations at a minimal.
The story follows witty treasure hunter Nathan Drake on his quest to find the mythological El Dorado by using clues from his ancestor Sir Francis Drake's diary found in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean. This leads Nate along with self-confident, reassuring reporter Elena Fischer and fresh, whimsical old-timer Victor "Sully" Sullivan to an uncharted tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Being tailed by bloodthirsty pirates led by different villains of different and often humorous characteristics, the heroes spend much of their time speaking to each other and villains, offering tons of smart, entertaining dialogue to be hold that keeps the story lively. The story itself is interesting and compelling, providing a few surprising twists that keep it engaging throughout and even astonish you. There's a considerable amount of historical context to the story that puts it in a somewhat realistic light, including Sir Francis Drake's journal entries, a dead Spanish colony on the island, and a Nazi expedition in search of El Dorado. Some of these parts are never fully realized throughout the game, but that is a small complaint as they provide some interesting settings anyway. For example, how there is a rusting, complex German facility directly after the path of the treasure vault, I do not know, but it does offer a intriguing environment to explore.
Great gameplay backs up a great story, and scenic platforming and heart-racing combat are the most significant inclusions. Traversing from one area to another involves a lot of jumping, climbing, hanging, swinging, and shimmying. The platforming sections are slightly contrived, however, as there is a set path for you to take, and experimenting with Nate's impressive agility outside of set ledges will often cause you to fall to your doom. Though, this isn't a huge issue since the platforming itself is so much fun. You'll make some seemingly impossible leaps and ledge grabs, quickly shimmy across crumbling ledges, and even avoid gunfire during this, which greatly increases the excitement of these relatively calm moments of the game. Much of what makes traveling in Drake's Fortune so enjoyable is the effect the great visuals have. Whether you're swinging on vines or metal chains, scaling a castle wall or a church, this is where the graphics really stand out, providing a palette of colors and detail, and superb animation also makes the platforming more fluent.
As you travel the island, you'll come in contact with enemies quite often, so you'll need to make use of multiple weapons including pistols, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, and even your fists to take care of them. Since Nate can't survive a shower of gunfire, cover plays an important role in the combat but is unfortunately a bit problematic. You must perform a somersault before taking cover, which may put Nate in an awkward position or take cover too late. Trying to quickly alternate between different sides of cover can also be frustrating, which can lead to difficulties when dealing with a large number of enemies in an open space. Enemies are devilishly smart too, flushing you out of cover with grenades and attempting to dodge your bullets, which makes certain firefights with plentiful enemies no easy (but never impossible) feat.
Dispatching those pesky foes is always a treat, whether it's done by gunplay or hand-to-hand combat. Strangely, pistols seem to be more adequate weapons than rifles because of the rifles' nasty amounts of recoil. Rushing up to enemies shotguns-a-blazing and sniping others from afar is painfully pleasing. You're also equipped with hand grenades, but because trying to control where they land is so clunky and awkward, you won't find them very useful. Luckily, you'll occasionally come across a grenade launcher throughout the adventure, so you'll still be able to blow up some baddies with a devious smile attached to your face. Nate isn't afraid to get his hands dirty when enemies try to get up close and personal. Going in for the punch triggers a cinematic confrontation in which you'll jab, hook, slam, and more until your opponent is knocked out cold. It looks awesome, but it actually only takes a few simple buttons presses to perform.
A few other gameplay features occupy your time when you're not engaged in platforming sequences or combat. You'll use Francis Drake's diary for clues when solving simple environmental puzzles, usually requiring you to turn objects so that they face a certain direction. While they're not the most exciting portions of Drake's Fortune, the puzzles provide a nice breather and change of pace after dealing with horde after horde of enemies. There are also a few immensely fun vehicle sequences, including one in which you operate the gun on the back of a jeep picking off pursuing pirates in other jeeps and motorcycles and another in which you drive a jetski up whitewater rapids.
Tying the complete Uncharted package together is its splendid presentation filled with eye-popping, detailed visuals and a terrific soundtrack. A variety of environments offer a variety of ambiances, including verdant jungles, unsettling catacombs, gloomy monastery ruins, and many more. Nice little touches really add to the game's graphical wow-factor, such as swaying vegetation, Nate's damp clothes after being submerged in water, and rusted metal. The life-like motion-captured animations in the game really stand out and are the most mind-blowing portion of the visuals. In both cutscenes and gameplay, characters move about naturally without the frame rate ever dropping. As I've mentioned earlier, the animation makes the platforming more look more fluent and dynamic; Nate will thrash his arms during a large drop, stumble before as he just barely reaches a ledge, and slowly extend his arm as he's about to jump from one ledge to another. Facial animation is another excellent inclusion to the graphics, conveying appropriate emotions of characters such as fear, anger, confusion, and of course a fair share of lovable impish smirks are worn by most characters throughout the adventure.
Constantly pulling you into the different environments is the great original soundtrack composed of a mixture of modern classical instruments and unfamiliar ethnic and primitive instruments that fit quite well to each area. Intense moments become all the more tense with the addition of bold, exaggerated sounds and themes. Voice-acting is simply phenomenal, creating an appealing and distinct personality for each character. Some nice sound effects include Nate mumbling to himself as he enters cover and the brief, deafening ring of a nearby explosion.
In terms of length, Drake's Fortune isn't ridiculously short, but the 7-9 hour campaign will definitely leave you wanting for more. Fortunately, there's a considerable amount of replay value thanks to tons of unlockable content, including concept art, developer interviews, makings of certain cutscenes, different skins, and various gameplay tweaks. To unlock these you can complete the game or harder difficulties, collect hidden treasures spread all over the island, and kill a number of enemies with a specific technique.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune may not be the most innovative title out there, but it's an adventure with a lot of heart that entertains and surprises throughout. A few missteps keep it from being among the best of the best, but its array of awesome features makes it an amazing and worthwhile experience. With keen platforming, intense combat, a wonderful story and characters, and a breathtaking presentation, there's so much to enjoy in the game and not much reason to be without it. PlayStation 3 owners who are adventure fans shouldn't need much convincement to purchase Drake's Fortune, but no one should miss an opportunity to at least give this charming, action-packed journey a chance.
Score: 9.0/10