Review: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a third person action-adventure game for the PlayStation 3. It was developed by Naughty Dog.

Uncharted uses an over-the-shoulder camera angle when Drake is in a gunfight.

Nathan Drake, the descendant of Sir Francis Drake, has discovered his ancestor’s journal. The journal contains the location of El Dorado, the lost city of gold, which somewhere deep in the Amazon. Drake, along with his friend Sully and Elena who is documenting the expedition, must reach the lost city before Gabriel Roman, another treasure hunter that Sully accidentally tipped off, and his army of mercenaries reaches it.

This game is all about shoot-outs in ancient ruins in the middle of the jungle. Anyone who does not find that scenario a little bit interesting should not play this game.

The player follows Drake as he travels through 22 chapters of jungle-based ruins, first in the Amazon and then on an island, not that there is a noticeable difference. 80 percent of that time Drake engages in firefights with mercenaries. The other 20 percent is spent jumping around ruins, with lots of hanging on cliffs and jumping from ledge to ledge. The game does not feel divided up by chapters; the narrative goes from area to cut-scene, making the whole thing feel like one long story.

For combat, pressing the left shoulder makes Drake aim his weapon and moves the camera from third-person to over-the-shoulder, and the right shoulder button fires Drake’s weapon. Drake carry two weapons, a smaller gun like a pistol and a larger gun like an assault rifle, and four grenades, all of which Drake picks up from fallen enemies. Drake’s health regenerates, so if he is shot, all the player has to do is find some cover for Drake until he recovers. And if he does die the game restarts shortly before the fight, thanks to a handy auto-save.

Uncharted uses a cover system; all the player has to do is press the circle button to make Drake dive for the nearest cover. This is the only way to survive, since running around in the open will get Drake mowed down by gunfire. There is a slight problem in that Drake will sometimes run to the wrong object for cover, like running up against the side of a wall instead of behind the wall, leaving him exposed.

Enemy AI is decent. Almost all the enemies know to use cover, and will hardly run out to get shot at. Later enemies will learn how to flank Drake as well. Some enemies will carry pistols, while others will carry bigger weapons, and including grenade launchers and sniper rifles, so there is variety in the weapons Drake faces. The enemies’ only problem is that they do not learn to move when their cover is not working.

The fights are the best part of the game. They are challenging enough to delay the player, but not so much that the feel frustrating or unfair. The areas where the fights happen are usually big so the player can try a couple of different strategies if something is not working. That no two areas are the same also adds to the variety to the fighting.

The other main part of the game is climbing around ruins. This involves lining up Drake to jump and hang on to a ledge, skirting around the ledge, and then jumping to another. Missing the ledge will kill Drake. Drake automatically grabs whatever ledge is in front of him, so there is no challenge in trying to grab it. The problem is figuring out what Drake can jump to. Drake cannot grab onto all ledges, he can only grab onto whatever ledges the computer allows Drake to grab. So it turns into a guessing game for what will not kill Drake if he jumps to it. Awkward camera angles in these segments do not help figure out what Drake can grab. The only use of these segments is to break up the fights so they do not get too monotonous.

The graphics are fantastic. All the ruins look detailed and original, and the jungle really pops out at the screen. The developers put a lot of time into making the buildings look like they are covered in dirt and age.

The cut scenes are detailed as well. Character’s faces are expressive, with moving brows and complex looking mouths that synch up with the dialogue perfectly.
As said before, level design is all ruins in the jungle. They look great and individual areas where fights happen look different, but after a while they do all start to meld together in the brain. Some more variety would have been nice. There is one area that takes place in a military base, but that area awful.

The storyline is okay. It is not original at all, but it is a well made knock off of other stories. The characters are likable; Drake is entertaining, but he can be annoying and smarmy at times.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune suffers from problems with originality and repetitiveness, but it fun overall, and should not be dull to anyone.