A gorgeous, cinematic treasure romp! With a few too many pirates...
Right off the bat, we find ourselves flung into the action - having just discovered the tomb of Sir Francis Drake (apparently a relative) and his lost diary - naturally we come under fire from some crazed modern day pirate types. Everything works well for the most part - the cover system is solid and for me the firefights are fairly standard if nothing all that exciting. Though after a few hours of play this element of the game started to become tedious and I began to resent having to go through the motions of destroying the hordes of swabbies filling the area. AI seems pretty good - enemies take cover and attempt to flank you, forcing you to occasionally try daring manoeuvres of your own. This presented a decent challenge, but still became predictable as the game continued. I almost felt my heart sink as I entered areas with low crumbling walls - you just know a firefight is coming up. This air of predictability put a slight damper on things.
On a much more positive note, I have to say that for me the most appealing aspect of the game is the environment - it is pretty darn beautiful. The sequence that stands out above most is the one in which you find yourself emerging into a clearing, ahead of you a vast waterfall on which rests a rusty old U-boat. The anticipation of climbing up and finding a way in to explore this beautiful wreck was probably the most rewarding and memorable part of the game for me. Luckily, traversing cliff faces and crumbling ruins is a breeze, and watching Drake scale these dizzying heights is really satisfying. Throwing in the odd crumbling brick ledge keeps you on your toes just as you start getting complacent with your acrobatic abilities.The puzzle and exploration aspects of the game were the most enjoyable elements, and I was left wishing that these had been exploited more fully.
Dialog is good, Drake is a pretty likeable guy and the interaction between the characters is a lot of fun to listen in on. Overall, the game is pretty well balanced, perhaps with a tad too much emphasis on gunfights. Despite this, it is well paced and you find yourself getting sucked in to the adventure - it's hard to put down once you've started. Towards the end things get a bit dark and 'kingdom of the crystal skull' for my liking (not aliens, but near enough) which I found a bit jarring. Thankfully these later areas are still dripping in atmosphere, although giving a much different experience to earlier points in the game. It almost goes a bit survival horror, which wasn't really what I signed up for.
All in all, I'd say this is a must play game. It is visually stunning, chugs along at a decent pace and features some nice little cinematic moments. Not having experienced the other games yet I'm not sure where it's all going, but I'm definitely looking forward to diving back into Uncharted.