This is what next-gen gaming is all about!
The story can be completed in 9-10 hours (on the "hard" difficulty) without the aid of a strategy guide. I did however have hint system turned on in case I was wandering around for too long searching for an obscure ledge or path. There's tons of hidden treasures to find along the way, and only once or twice did I ever feel really overwhelmed by the opposition. There's a great twist towards the end of the story and the final "boss" battle was the perfect way to finish the story. I'm not saying that it's an epic battle to contend with Metal Gear Rex or Sephiroth, but with the flow of the game playing out like a feature film, it fit perfectly. Graphically, it's absolutely beautiful. The repetitive look of the generic henchmen could have been avoided, but their animations were well done.
I did find a couple of hiccups in the game, but nothing that seriously took away from the experience. The jetski portions could have been a bit better, but were a decent change of pace. There were also a few graphical glitches and spots where my character got stuck for a second, but I was able to get past them and complete the game totally satisfied with my purchase. (One programming continuity error to look out for like in real movies, Nathan Drake is shown in a close-up without his necklace on, then he has it, then it's gone again...look for this towards the end of chapter 19 in a cut scene.)
If you aren't into adventure/action movies like Romancing The Stone and Indiana Jones, you probably don't need to purchase it...just rent it and give it a try. For everyone else, this is a must have for your PS3 collection.