Even amidst so many good action games for Playstation 3, Uncharted definitely can find its place under the sun.
The story does sound a little like a Hollywood clichè movie, but it is a good excuse for a game, believe me. During the game you'll face several enemies just like the real life: you can either face your enemies with a hand-to-hand combat or using the fire weapons you'll find along your way. Unlike most of nowadays action games, you will only be able to carry two kinds of fire weapons and four grenades. Each weapon has its own maximum amount of ammunition and you can NOT carry any extra ammo for it. Meaning that if you pick a 9mm pistol, you will only be able to carry 50 bullets for it, nothing more than that. So, what happens if you run out of ammo in the middle of a fight? Depending on where you are fighting, you can find ammo and weapons spread throughout the scenario or near the enemies you defeated.
Also, if you are used to games like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 4 and 5, where you can freely run around shooting enemies, you may want to review your playing strategy. In Uncharted, you'll have to do a lot of hiding in order to survive. The controls resemble those of Resident Evil 5, but the aiming control is very slow, which can get really annoying sometimes. The aiming does not automatically lock in an enemy and since it also has some stealth elements, you better be prepared to spend a lot of time in the guerrilla-like combats. There are no life indicators, so Nathan may either take several shots before he dies... or die with a single headshot from the enemy. On the other hand, the same rule applies to the enemies: they generally die with three pistol shots, a single headshot or a regular meelee combo. Being able to walk while aiming doesn't seem exactly useful, though.
There are also no healing items. At all. If you get badly shot, the screen turns into black and white. The more blurred the image gets, the worst is Nathan's situation. But if you find a safe place to hide, he automatically recovers his health.
The game itself is absolutely stunning. The scenarios are very detailed, but the amount of places to go is somewhat limited, making the game linear. Even without a map, its very hard to get lost.
If there is one thing that I really liked in this game, besides the pretty cool puzzles, is the jump-correction system. Unlike games like Tomb Raider and Zelda, it is very hard to get a game over because of a badly aimed jump or an accidental fall. Nathan will automatically hold in the ledges if he is in the border of a cliff and will grab the walls and platforms if you jump in that direction, which is pretty cool. He will also let you know when the walls are loose when he is shimming through them.
If you think that solving creative puzzles and shooting bad guys is all the game has to offer you, there are also parts in the game where you'll be able to pilot a jet-ski, in the best of the classic Tomb Raider style. There are so many things to do in this game (and on a side note, you can also go hunting for hidden treasures) and the chapters go by so smoothly that you can go through five chapters at once without even noticing.
As in most of the action games, the cameras sometimes get in your way rather than help you and it isn't surprising to either lose a fight or make a bad move because the camera was badly positioned and you weren't able to see from where the shooting was coming.
The fighting system itself didn't really please me. It works relatively well against human enemies, but the slow speed with which the main character aims doesn't help and it gets specially annoying when you're facing a big amount of enemies... or quicker ones. I got really frustrated by the amount of times I had to redo a battle because I couldn't shoot quickly enough because my target indicator was too slow, specially in the chapters approaching the end of the game.
Overall, a good game. I finished it, I had my share of fun from it. But... sorry, action+stealth games are so not me, so I'm definitely not planning to play the sequence of the game anytime soon.