Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was, for me, one of those games I picked up because I had a PS3, and had absolutely nothing to play on it. I had gotten into the habit of only buying exclusives for my PS3 and picking up everything else for my Xbox 360 because I’m an achievement freak. The only other games I had picked up for my PS3 had been Resistance: Fall of Man and Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction (blah!). Both the others were good games but Uncharted was kind of sleeper hit. I had read about it a bit in EGM and heard great things about it on the 1upYours podcast so I decided to give it a shot so I could get some use out of my beastly black machine. Needless to say I wasn’t disappointed at all by my purchase, having played through it twice after pickup and playing it 2 more times recently to refresh my mind so I could write this review.

Uncharted is a pulp-fiction-style treasure hunt for Sir Francis Drake’s lost treasure El Dorado, which takes you everywhere from richly detailed jungles, tombs, boats, castles and shores. The game has lots of puzzles, combat, exploration and a good balance of well executed cut scenes and story elements that grabbed me about 15 minutes in and didn’t let me go until I finished my fourth play through of the game. Just to note though, I am an avid Indiana Jones fan who loves exploration and item collection in my games, and trust me, this game has enough unlockables and hidden treasures that if that’s your shtick you’ll play through this game multiple times to get them all. Trying to find all of them was a pain for me because I got down to the last few, obsessing enough to stay away from GameFAQ’s.

The first cool little hook I found when the game starts up is how lively and charismatic the main character “Nathan Drake” acts. This is thanks in part to the great animations he performs while doing any action necessary to reach your goals and also to the voice work done that adds a lot each situation you’re in. I believe that the developers tried to make Nate seem more of the average Joe hero as oppose to the traditional in your face, steroided up protagonists in most games. Nate also adds a great element that most games lack, comedy, and the developers really seem to run with it. Nate isn’t the only character in this game that’s pretty believable; all of the characters are, from your basic mercs/pirates to the main pro/antagonists. One of Drakes counterparts, Elena, isn’t just Drakes female love interest in the game; she’s also not your average “trapped-in-the-castle” Princess Peach. She’s a strong female character who handles her own and does what she wants, which honestly I kind of liked, especially because I wasn’t always worrying about the girl getting caught by the enemy (Ashley from RE4 says hello).

I was also extremely impressed by the combat system which is a blend of mainly Gears of War and Assassins Creed. Third person shooting, with a quick easy cover system like Gears and the fluid climbing with more to do than Assassins Creed. The enemies will die in a few shots: one headshot on any difficulty, but you will die just as easily which makes the cover system essential. There’s also a hit and miss melee system which will kill an enemy with a quick combo or break his neck, among other things, if you can sneak up behind the enemy. Watch out if you take one guy out, the others are quick to turn around and fire off a few shots. The enemy AI isn’t much of a change up from other games that pull it off well, the enemies will flank you, take cover, and snipe you. These enemies are very accurate shooters and very aggressive, but they are very inaccurate with their grenade throws, often times you will leave cover and run into one of these lying well off from where you were. You will be stuck fighting these same enemies with 3 or 4 different pirate and merc skins until later in the game where it takes a very dramatic shift. Your partner AI can hold its own and I’m not sure if they can die because even on the higher difficulties I don’t recall it happening once, which in my opinion is a good thing because it makes you feel like you’re not alone without burdening you.

Climbing, jumping, swinging, balancing and leaping are all things you will learn to do a lot in this game while searching for treasures and routes and these are all performed with a fluid grace. Technically the graphics are very good, they’re not the best out there but they hold their own against most AAA titles on consoles. As I hinted at earlier with my rant, what really stands out in this game is the characters and the animations; each of the main characters is very believable and original to the story line. There are a couple of these main characters who live through stereotypes and predictable pulp fiction storylines (which I love). Voice acting in this game easily compares to the best you will find in the video game medium, rivaling games like Mass Effect, Metal Gear Solid, and Bioshock for character believability. Through the entire game you will be surrounded by beautiful, but in some cases disappointingly linear environments, but on the upside of linear they change up the locations quite frequently with fresh artistic candy, and heavy atmosphere.

The game has a great sense of pacing, with heavy combat sequences that come quite frequently and quite a few puzzle solving and exploration sequences. I like to think of it like a good sandwich, the combat is the meat, the puzzle solving is the veggies, the treasure hunting is the sauce and it’s all held together by the rich story driven bread. I had a great time playing this game, I may be a little biased because the game really hits one of my favorite movie genres, but I truly believe this is one of those hidden gems that may have been overshadowed last holiday season. While many people may criticize and say that Naughty Dog simply re-made their own version of Tomb Raider, (Lara Croft undeniably launched the entire 3D tomb raiding genre) Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is, in my opinion, a much more all-compassing product, a much more enjoyable experience, and generally speaking, a much better game, and I can’t wait for the sequel.

By Evan Doran