Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
About
The game that started the popular Uncharted series. It is all about a treasure hunt in the jungle and ancient ruins and thus somewhat similar in mood and aesthetics to the Tomb Raider series, albeit with a slightly more realistic approach.
The plot follows the adventurer and treasure seeker Nathan Drake, who believes himself to be a distant offspring of the famous Sir Francis Drake. When exhuming his ancestor's remains, Nathan discovers an artifact that supposedly shows him the way to the legendary El Dorado, the city of gold in the Latin American folklore. Accompanied by journalist Elena Fisher, he sets out on a dangerous journey to a remote island. Throughout the game Nathan, controlled by the player, will have to fight pirates, using both melee weapons and firearms, and explore ancient ruins by jumping the cliffs, climbing the walls and swinging from the ropes.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune includes motion-captured cinematic cutscenes that help develop characters and the plot to the point the game may feel like a blockbuster movie.
System requirements for PlayStation 3
System requirements for PlayStation 4
Where to buy
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune reviews and comments
This game does nothing special and even manages to struggle with simple elements of any shooter game.
Games like that are responsible for the idea of "shooter games are not made to console". No, they are just badly handled. The sensitivity and aim acceleration almost made this game unplayable for me. Shooting heads, doing flicks, and being versatile are crazy hard in this game because Naughty Dog can't understand what makes shooter games so good to the niche community (I mean, niche at the time, since everybody plays some shooter rn). If you are a casual player, this probably won't bother you though.
Another element that is present mostly in the game and is mediocre af is climbing. Or fake climbing, being accurate. Is so scripted that becomes boring. You almost can fail and precision was never in the discussion. Just spam X to jump and you are good. That's sad since climbing should be the identity of this game. Also, there's not much scenario variation.
The story is much simple. Really predictable. But to be honest, its uncommitted tone matches with Drake. I also consider him fun, with made the experience a little better. The characters are good either. I liked some jokes either.
Anyway, I expect the next game to correct some mistakes from this one. Since it's a 2007 game, I understand at some point. Even then, my experience was not great.
First of all, this game feels like a beefed up PS2 game which i quite like to be honest, Nathan moves and feels like he came straight up from Gun for the PS2. However, this game does show it's place in the awkward transition from the previous generation of consoles to the PS3. The shooting is not nearly as satisfying (with some weapons) as other games from the same generation with the enemies often acting indifferent to your shooting, the AI sometimes feel like they're bullet sponges which is weird because they're supposed to be just regular old dudes. There's a certain type of enemy that comes in the late game that is actually fun to shoot at but when they're shot with automatic weapons their animations start to jank a little bit. Though using stuff like revolvers, sniper rifles and shotguns is really fun since the characters ragdoll and often fly across the area.
The climbing sections in this game can go from completely obvious and basically plays itself to somewhat bullshit but they are consistently the weakest part of the game. The puzzles in this are so easy you don't really have to think to do them. But without a doubt, the worst part of the game are the jet ski segments, there's only a couple of them but the jet ski handles so stiffly and you ride it through some very slim areas that have barrels that explode the moment you touch them basically insta killing you. There's also a bunch of enemies shooting at you but if you wanna shoot back, you will have to stop basically making you a still target to a bunch of enemies. Thankfully it's only brought up twice and then you're done but those two parts are really really bad.
The story is quite simple and if we're being honest, really weak BUT the characters are so fun with such a great chemistry that you don't really mind it. Drake is a more playful Han Solo, Sully is an experienced adventurer that talks like he's always a little bit tipsy and Elena at first glance, seems like the damsel in distress (which in this game is actually S P O I L E R sully) , but we quickly learn that she doesn't mind getting her hands dirty, often disobeying Drake's orders and doing things her own way. The character's interactions are so fun and they feel very organic. The only weak part are the villains, which we only get to interact with them for a few moments and they do a little plot twist that doesn't really work because we don't really know or care about them.
Overall, somewhat disappointing. The graphics are beautiful, the characters are interesting and the movement is fun, but with a somewhat inconsistent shooting, lacking any intriguing villains, puzzles that basically do themselves and some very very weak segments, it's hard to recommend it nowadays. Maybe a great showcase of what the PS3 could do at its' time, but since then we've gotten infinitely improved sequels that overshadow any of this game's achievements and it's more of a novelty nowadays.
5/10