Grade: B
Pros
Amazing graphics and voice acting. Fun story.
Cons
Occasionally frustrating gameplay.
Introduction
Uncharted, Drake?s Fortune is unique because it delivers a more movie-like experience than other games. Even though the gameplay is lacking, everything else is top notch, and may be enough to carry the game through a satisfactory nine hours and twenty-two chapters; even through the frustrating sections.
Story
The following is the appetizer written on the back of the case: ?A 400-year-old clue in the coffin of Sir Francis Drake sets a modern-day fortune hunter on a pulse-pounding exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado. The search quickly turns deadly, as Nathan Drake begins to uncover mysteries of the Island.?
Story is a fun, and similar to the fun half of Fool?s Gold. Don?t take it too seriously if you see something that doesn?t make sense; it?s supposed to be fun! The story is told to you via cutscenes, in-game dialog, and animations. You get to know the characters really well because each has a distinct personality that you may already be familiar with. For instance, the main character looks and acts similar to Nathan Fillion?s character in movie, Serenity.
The acting is very believable. The voice acting will make you laugh. Great facial expressions will make you smile. It feels like a movie when watching the cutscenes.
The in-game animations are also amazing and help make the world and characters very believable. When the character goes into water, he gets wet. When he runs, he breathes like he?s tired. He also has an attitude and opinion about things that are happening as you play, like when enemies show up, or when he has to do something difficult. If you go close to a dead enemy, the main character will put his foot on top of him, as if he was a conqueror.
To make Drake and his adventure believable, Uncharted has best graphics I?ve ever seen. It has great lighting, shadows, textures, and realistic animation. I?ve never seen a game that looked as photo realistic as this one. It almost feels like you?re there.
The music is also done very well. It helps to create tension, mystery, and even feels adventurous. It?s spot on most of the time.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very simple: shoot people from behind cover and then do some insane jumps from ledge to ledge. I guess it tried to be a Gears of War VS. Tomb Raider type of game, but doesn?t succeed in either. Shooting people in Gears of War was vastly more entertaining and there is practically no puzzle solving in Uncharted for it to be compared to Tomb Raider. Not only that; the game can get frustrating.
Gameplay gets repetitive in the first 30% of the game. Go into an area, shoot a few waves of similar-looking enemies, then move to the next area and shoot more waves. Then jump a few ledges. This all happens in a mostly linear fashion. It got so boring and so frustrating at times, that I almost quit the game.
Enemies aren?t very smart, but can be a pain to hit as they dodge out of your crosshair. And you run out of bullets fast in the beginning. Sometimes I found myself out of bullets and had to run around the level being shot at collecting them. Because of the pressure, this can be a thrill if you succeed, but it?s likely that you?ll die. This happens too often in the beginning.
Later in the game, the gameplay changed. You didn?t run out of bullets as easily due to the fact that waves of enemies weren?t as likely. Now you walk into an area, take the men out and move to the next area. This is much more fun. It is also accompanied by more cutscenes which encouraged more play.
The enemies always know where you are before they even see you. So expect them to be ready. Sometimes you?ll find them completely unaware you are there, but that may just be a CPU fart. If one guy spots you inside of a building, everyone will start firing at the wall you?re hiding behind. They always know your precise location. Some enemies are funny because they try to kill you by spraying their AK-47 all over the place.
Although it tries to be like Gears of War, it fails miserably because you can only hide behind certain spots and you have limited movement. Sometimes you try to hide behind one spot, but the game misinterprets it as another spot and Drake automatically runs through the line of fire in the opposite direction to another spot. This may get you killed.
It?s very easy to die in many of the firefights because of the waves and the difficulty of killing one enemy. You can unload quite a few shots, even hitting the face, before an enemy finally goes down. Firefights become frustrating when you keep dying. And if that wasn?t enough to annoy you, the enemies laugh at you after they kill you.
The health system is similar to Call of Duty 4. When you get hit, color starts to fade from the screen until it becomes completely black and white, and then you die. Taking cover from enemy fire will restore your health. However, some covers can be destroyed and enemies can choose to go around cover if they?re brave enough. At least the game is forgiving when it comes to dying. After you die, you restart very close to your last position. This is great during frustrating sections of the game.
Other than shooting enemies, you can also do melee attacks. However, I barely use melee. While I?ve seen the developers pull off some crazy moves in the ?Making of? videos, I found it very difficult killing someone via melee while other people are shooting you.
The developers also put in some vehicles in the game. They have you shooting from the back of a Jeep, driving a jet ski under fire, and even going through some water rapids. All of these are fun to do, but not without frustrations. You can either drive or shoot from the jet ski. This limitation sort of forces you to forget about shooting and just try to go through the area dodging bullets, grenade launchers; and barrels of explosives, which kill you if you touch them. Going through the water rapids was initially fun until I started dying like crazy trying to get through it. I must?ve died about twenty times. During this section I started wondering how many times I?ve died throughout the game. ?I hope they tell me in the end,? I thought. It disappointed me that they didn?t.
The SIXAXIS control scheme is featured in this game. You know the, whole Wii rip-off part of the PS3 controller. These SIXAXIS controls are just tacked on and more annoying than useful. You use them to pick the distance of your grenade throw. I?d rather just use the analog stick. It?s quicker. Thus, I don?t like using grenades unless I think they?ll make a big difference.
The SIXAXIS controls are also used in some context sensitive cutscenes which are generally dominated by buttons; so when the SIXAXIS appears, it?s a surprise and you end up dying because you were under prepared. These context sensitive cutscenes are practically pointless anyway because of how few of them there are, and because of the small roll they play.
If you get stuck during a ?puzzle,? there is always the L2 button which focuses your attention to the solution. Also, the main character helps you with certain puzzles by telling you when something isn?t right. The game is too quick to give you help and destroys any minimal puzzle elements it did have. You can certainly not press the L2 to make it more difficult for yourself, but it?s right there in your face appearing many times if the game thinks you are wandering around clueless.
To extend the game, the developers put 60 hidden treasures to find. These unlock content such as making-of documentaries, concept art, costume changes, and cheats. You can also unlock content by gaining medals for getting a certain number of kills with certain weapons, and collecting a certain amount of treasures.
Conclusion
The story, acting, music; and believable environment, due to amazing graphics; carry the game surprisingly well. The gameplay isn?t very exciting, having poor execution, thus the game is almost great. I felt like quitting the game a few times because of how frustrating it can be. This would have resulted in a very low grade. But after the first 30% of the game, I couldn?t stop playing it. Thus, if you can deal with more than a handful of heavy frustrations, even during the fun part of the game, it is worth a play.
Pros
Amazing graphics and voice acting. Fun story.
Cons
Occasionally frustrating gameplay.
Introduction
Uncharted, Drake?s Fortune is unique because it delivers a more movie-like experience than other games. Even though the gameplay is lacking, everything else is top notch, and may be enough to carry the game through a satisfactory nine hours and twenty-two chapters; even through the frustrating sections.
Story
The following is the appetizer written on the back of the case: ?A 400-year-old clue in the coffin of Sir Francis Drake sets a modern-day fortune hunter on a pulse-pounding exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado. The search quickly turns deadly, as Nathan Drake begins to uncover mysteries of the Island.?
Story is a fun, and similar to the fun half of Fool?s Gold. Don?t take it too seriously if you see something that doesn?t make sense; it?s supposed to be fun! The story is told to you via cutscenes, in-game dialog, and animations. You get to know the characters really well because each has a distinct personality that you may already be familiar with. For instance, the main character looks and acts similar to Nathan Fillion?s character in movie, Serenity.
The acting is very believable. The voice acting will make you laugh. Great facial expressions will make you smile. It feels like a movie when watching the cutscenes.
The in-game animations are also amazing and help make the world and characters very believable. When the character goes into water, he gets wet. When he runs, he breathes like he?s tired. He also has an attitude and opinion about things that are happening as you play, like when enemies show up, or when he has to do something difficult. If you go close to a dead enemy, the main character will put his foot on top of him, as if he was a conqueror.
To make Drake and his adventure believable, Uncharted has best graphics I?ve ever seen. It has great lighting, shadows, textures, and realistic animation. I?ve never seen a game that looked as photo realistic as this one. It almost feels like you?re there.
The music is also done very well. It helps to create tension, mystery, and even feels adventurous. It?s spot on most of the time.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very simple: shoot people from behind cover and then do some insane jumps from ledge to ledge. I guess it tried to be a Gears of War VS. Tomb Raider type of game, but doesn?t succeed in either. Shooting people in Gears of War was vastly more entertaining and there is practically no puzzle solving in Uncharted for it to be compared to Tomb Raider. Not only that; the game can get frustrating.
Gameplay gets repetitive in the first 30% of the game. Go into an area, shoot a few waves of similar-looking enemies, then move to the next area and shoot more waves. Then jump a few ledges. This all happens in a mostly linear fashion. It got so boring and so frustrating at times, that I almost quit the game.
Enemies aren?t very smart, but can be a pain to hit as they dodge out of your crosshair. And you run out of bullets fast in the beginning. Sometimes I found myself out of bullets and had to run around the level being shot at collecting them. Because of the pressure, this can be a thrill if you succeed, but it?s likely that you?ll die. This happens too often in the beginning.
Later in the game, the gameplay changed. You didn?t run out of bullets as easily due to the fact that waves of enemies weren?t as likely. Now you walk into an area, take the men out and move to the next area. This is much more fun. It is also accompanied by more cutscenes which encouraged more play.
The enemies always know where you are before they even see you. So expect them to be ready. Sometimes you?ll find them completely unaware you are there, but that may just be a CPU fart. If one guy spots you inside of a building, everyone will start firing at the wall you?re hiding behind. They always know your precise location. Some enemies are funny because they try to kill you by spraying their AK-47 all over the place.
Although it tries to be like Gears of War, it fails miserably because you can only hide behind certain spots and you have limited movement. Sometimes you try to hide behind one spot, but the game misinterprets it as another spot and Drake automatically runs through the line of fire in the opposite direction to another spot. This may get you killed.
It?s very easy to die in many of the firefights because of the waves and the difficulty of killing one enemy. You can unload quite a few shots, even hitting the face, before an enemy finally goes down. Firefights become frustrating when you keep dying. And if that wasn?t enough to annoy you, the enemies laugh at you after they kill you.
The health system is similar to Call of Duty 4. When you get hit, color starts to fade from the screen until it becomes completely black and white, and then you die. Taking cover from enemy fire will restore your health. However, some covers can be destroyed and enemies can choose to go around cover if they?re brave enough. At least the game is forgiving when it comes to dying. After you die, you restart very close to your last position. This is great during frustrating sections of the game.
Other than shooting enemies, you can also do melee attacks. However, I barely use melee. While I?ve seen the developers pull off some crazy moves in the ?Making of? videos, I found it very difficult killing someone via melee while other people are shooting you.
The developers also put in some vehicles in the game. They have you shooting from the back of a Jeep, driving a jet ski under fire, and even going through some water rapids. All of these are fun to do, but not without frustrations. You can either drive or shoot from the jet ski. This limitation sort of forces you to forget about shooting and just try to go through the area dodging bullets, grenade launchers; and barrels of explosives, which kill you if you touch them. Going through the water rapids was initially fun until I started dying like crazy trying to get through it. I must?ve died about twenty times. During this section I started wondering how many times I?ve died throughout the game. ?I hope they tell me in the end,? I thought. It disappointed me that they didn?t.
The SIXAXIS control scheme is featured in this game. You know the, whole Wii rip-off part of the PS3 controller. These SIXAXIS controls are just tacked on and more annoying than useful. You use them to pick the distance of your grenade throw. I?d rather just use the analog stick. It?s quicker. Thus, I don?t like using grenades unless I think they?ll make a big difference.
The SIXAXIS controls are also used in some context sensitive cutscenes which are generally dominated by buttons; so when the SIXAXIS appears, it?s a surprise and you end up dying because you were under prepared. These context sensitive cutscenes are practically pointless anyway because of how few of them there are, and because of the small roll they play.
If you get stuck during a ?puzzle,? there is always the L2 button which focuses your attention to the solution. Also, the main character helps you with certain puzzles by telling you when something isn?t right. The game is too quick to give you help and destroys any minimal puzzle elements it did have. You can certainly not press the L2 to make it more difficult for yourself, but it?s right there in your face appearing many times if the game thinks you are wandering around clueless.
To extend the game, the developers put 60 hidden treasures to find. These unlock content such as making-of documentaries, concept art, costume changes, and cheats. You can also unlock content by gaining medals for getting a certain number of kills with certain weapons, and collecting a certain amount of treasures.
Conclusion
The story, acting, music; and believable environment, due to amazing graphics; carry the game surprisingly well. The gameplay isn?t very exciting, having poor execution, thus the game is almost great. I felt like quitting the game a few times because of how frustrating it can be. This would have resulted in a very low grade. But after the first 30% of the game, I couldn?t stop playing it. Thus, if you can deal with more than a handful of heavy frustrations, even during the fun part of the game, it is worth a play.
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