Review Time - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

In this age of Next Generation consoles, you often hear a lot of talk about graphics, story and playability. This is a market that is dominated by games like Gears of War, Halo etc...

This is a market where innovation is often the driving force behind game design.

But there is something to be said for eschewing innovation in favour of doing something well, and doing it right.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, a flagship game for the PS3 that many have overlooked as "Tomb Raider with testicles."

Frankly, it is not. Part of this is because the main character, Nathan Drake, is not some mindless treasure hunter with big tits and a posh accent. He's a character with emotions and personality.

And this game is a classic example of innovation not through gameplay, but through design approach. This is a game that ever so quietly shows why the PS3 is such a powerful gaming console, and does so effortlessly.

Adventure, Exotic Locations, Women, Villains, and Lost Incan Treasure

Inspired by the old pulp classics, with dash of Indiana Jones, Uncharted is focused on three characters. There is your quintessential hero, the character you play, Nathan Drake - a treasure hunter who believes himself to be the direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake. Elena Shipman - a reporter who films for a show about treasure hunting, and whose producers have paid for Drake's little treasure hunt. Sullivan - also known as Sully, he is Drake's gruff sidekick and handy getaway guy when things get tough.

While these characters are stereotypical adventure/cliff-hanger movie characters, the actors and graphics engine inject them with an incredible life of their own. They laugh, smile and have extremely detailed expressions. Compared to Nathan Drake, Commander Shepard of Mass Effect looks positively wooden in comparison.

And Drake's expressive nature is not restricted to cinematic scenes... more on that in a moment.

The main story revolves around Drake discovering a journal of Francis Drake's that leads him to discover that Sir Francis may have found the lost treasure of El Dorado.

Through in a greedy and influential debt-collector, a mad superstitious Phillipino mercenary, a cold and efficient Spanish terrorist and an lost island of secrets with a dash of lost Nazi U-boats - and you get a genuine pulp-adventure story worthy of the big screen.

Gameplay and those Graphics

Still shots simply don't do justice to how this game looks.

Gameplay-wise, Uncharted is essentially a longer and slicker version of Gears of War. Most of the time Drake will be ducking behind cover and engaging in tense and exciting shoot-outs with pirates, mercenaries and an assortment of other enemies. There is a straight forward but cinematic melee system - but you kind of use it in a rare case of finding an opponent on his own and out of range of anyone else. Then it goes down to fisticuffs.

This is indicative of the level of detail that has gone into this game. Every tree and frond moves on its own. Jungles are a riot of colour and movement, and Drake himself is detailed to the point that his biceps bulge when he pulls on objects, his shirt wrinkles when he walks - and when I say wrinkles, it looks like a piece of clothing and not just a skin over a model.

When Drake walks in the water, the bottom of his jeans get wet. When he swims, he comes out dripping with his clothes soaked with water.

The fluid movements, the incredible attention to details- it makes for a lush and gorgeous game to play.

Now for the part that will stun you...

The game doesn't install itself on the hard-drive. It runs directly off the disc and only has one load time - when you start or leave the game.

It does all this without texture pop-up, and only the very occasional screen tear.



Compared to the unholy graphical nightmares of some 360 games, this is stunning. I simply cannot believe that the same level of quality and detail would be possible on any other console on the market.

Uncharted is a game that more people should try out and play. It is worth every penny and is a prime example of what the PS3 is truly capable of.

I love it and highly highly highly recommend it.

Laters!

Conan