Review: Uncharted, Drake’s Fortune
Name: Uncharted, Drake’s Fortune
Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: SCEE
If I was a treasure hunter, I would always be the last guy to raid the tomb and I’d get crushed by the over-sized rolling boulder. Yes, I’m often the guy following behind rather than the guy out in front. That’s why it’s probably no surprise that I have only recently played Uncharted, Drake’s Fortune but I tell you something. I’ve not come away empty handed from the experience.
I became a PS3 owner earlier this year, so I have a considerable backlog of titles to catch up on. One in particular that had been recommended to by many friends was the subject of today’s review. Spurred on by the tidal wave of excitement that currently accompanies Uncharted 2, Amongst Thieves, I decided to pick up a copy of its predecessor and see what all the fuss was about.
The game was initially released back in 2007 with a Platinum re-printing the following year. The game is, at its heart, an action-platformer with quite a lot of gun play thrown into the mix. The lead character, the man you control, is Nathan Drake. A full time treasure hunter who, although an honest fellow himself, mixes in dubious circles. The story revolves around his quest to find the lost treasure of El Dorado. The story starts with Nathan raising Sir Francis Drake’s coffin from the depths of the ocean. Nathan, supposedly being a direct descendant of the historical explorer, finds a clue to the location of the treasure inside the coffin. From here on in, the story takes a dramatic turn involving modern day pirates and a chase for the treasure. I don’t want to give anything away but the story is fantastic and everything you could want from a good adventure film.
One of the first things you will notice about this single-player game are its stunning visuals. Often, a video game review will harp on about frame-rate this, pop-in that. Not here though. Even the most newbish among you will see that this game is simply beautiful. Two years on, with developments in game design progressing, the graphics still stand out as some of the best on any console. Your character, Drake, moves in a very natural way with superb animation. When you make a death defying leap, you’ll grab hold of a ledge at the last second and the character animation is such that there is a real level of tension accompanying the acrobatics. Drake will stumble, frantically grab at outcrops and other desperate actions to make him feel fallible. This is an essential balance because he is, quite clearly, the most talented free-climber ever seen. The guy can drop twelve feet and grab a finger hold to stop him falling to his doom. Obviously this is a super-human level of ability, but the animation makes you believe that although he’s pulling off these incredible moves – he’s only just about achieving it. This is backed up by clever voice acting. You hear the desperation in his voice as he “just” makes the leap to the next hand-hold.
Spider-Drake, Spider-Drake, does whatever . . .
The actual game play is very good, but not without its flaws. You run around, shooting bad guys, climbing walls, leaping chasms and solving puzzles. The climbing aspect is very well executed for the most part. As I said above, the animation and audio gives that aspect of game play a real, tangible sense of tension. Pressing [X] and the direction you want to jump will pretty much take care of you. Pressing [X] to leap onto a wall hold and then the left stick will allow you to climb. Occasionally, the next grip will be out of reach and you will need to leap from hold to hold using the [X] button. It’s all very slick for the most part. However where it falls down is that because the scenery is so alive and vivid, it’s sometimes hard to see where you’re supposed to climb. I spent quite a bit of time jumping aimlessly hoping to grab hold of a ledge or grip that wasn’t completely conspicuous. An associated minor gripe is that when you do leap and whiff, the animation is a little weird. Compared to the realism of the rest of Drake’s animation he can look like a Thunderbirds puppet when leaping against a wall for a non-existent perch.
The gun play is decent with a good cover mechanic. Pressing the [O] key will see you stick to the nearest piece of scenery. From here you can blind fire (shooting without looking), using the R1 button. This is often an effective technique when surrounded by numerous enemies. When you do have a little more time to breathe, you can hold L1 down for more deliberate aiming. You can hold two guns at a time – one pistol and one rifle as well as carrying a handful of grenades. Some of the enemies you face can take quite a few hits to take down, unless you hit the headshot, which can be frustrating at times.
Using cover can be an essential part of the gameplay
The puzzle elements are sporadic and Drake carries a journal with him that provides hints and tips as to what you need to do to solve them. The puzzles themselves are quite straight forward, but the presentation in this respect is excellent. In fact, the whole game is superbly presented, from the simple and attractive menus, to the incredible cut scenes. The polish the Naughty Dog (the game developers) have put into this title is very impressive. Well, it’s time to wrap this baby up but stay tuned as I’ll have a review of the sequel Uncharted 2, Among Thieves up in the next few days
REVIEW ROUND-UP
Graphics: 5/5 Quite simply the benchmark against which all PS3 games should be judged. Beautiful colours, vividly rendered with superb animation.
Sound: 5/5 A superb audio track with some of the best voice acting I’ve heard in a game as well as incredibly clear incidental audio.
Gameplay: 4/5 The basic gameplay is done particularly well with just a few minor gripes to detract.
Longevity: 3/5 This is where the game suffers. As a single player only experience, and with 60 treasures to find in the game, once you’ve played it a couple of times, there’s not a lot to bring you back.
Overall: 4/5 Absolutely one of the must buy games for the system. A few small points tarnish an otherwise magnificent game.
[starreview tpl=16]
I really enjoyed this game after my brother sent me a copy from Japan. I recommened it to all of my friends with PS3s. Having said that, for some reason the European version of the game does not support full 1080p High definition graphics, but the Japanese version does! It isn’t a huge issue, but I wonder why the Japanese version looks better than the European one, especially considering that all PS3 games are region free.
That’s weird. I thought my copy was 1080. Hmm, I will have to double check that.
If you have the platinum version then it might be. All I know is that the original UK release said on the back of the box that it only went up to 720. My friend and I spent ages messing around with his tv trying to “fix” the picture before finding that out. There was a bit of a bust up online about it at the time as well I think…
Excellent, excellent game, my very first platinum trophy.
Oh and BTW you can force games into 1080p by disabling 720p and 1080i option in your PS3 settings. This will however cause some games to be displayed in 576p but it’s worth a look as it only takes a few seconds to do
Handy to know.