The life of a treasure hunter is not the most glamorous. There's always competition, the risk of death is pretty much certain, and there's always the chance of running into supernatural forces that guard the very treasure you seek to uncover. Okay, maybe that last part isn't always true, but for treasure hunter Nathan Drake, it's become routine. One of his quests is portrayed in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This game is a marvel of the PS3. The high cinematic quality, the amazing visuals, the tight gameplay, and the quirky and loveable characters all make this game a must-play for all PS3 owners out there, even if the story and overall experience doesn't feel as satisfying as it seems to promise.
The story begins with Nathan Drake going deep-sea diving off the coast of Panama with a TV documentary filmmaker Elena Fischer. He's on the hunt for Sir Francis Drake's resting place, as Nathan himself is a descendant of the famous explorer. After finding an empty coffin, he soon finds a clue to the whereabouts of not only his famed ancestor, but of the lost treasure of El Dorado. He must fend off pirates and other treasure hunters in order to find the fabled golden treasure, but Drake soon discovers the sinister secrets of El Dorado, and the reason Sir Francis Drake kept it under wraps for so long.
Right off the bat, the game hits you with a sense that you're participating in a big budget Hollywood film. The sweeping camera angles that highlight the grandeur and beauty of the jungle setting, the shaky cam during big action cutscenes, and the incredible pacing all show signs that Naughty Dog wanted to make a gaming experience like no other. It helps set the tone of a grand adventure story well in a way few games before could manage.
The story may not be the most original story, since the treasure hunt gone wrong storyline was been done to death several times, but Uncharted seeks to add its own flavor by adding some of the best characters the gaming world has seen. Nathan Drake, the protagonist, comes off as lighthearted, charming, and gets a good laugh here and there. He doesn't display the arrogance of other stock treasure hunters, and even has moments of insecurity when things start turning sour. Assisting him are Elena Fischer, the feisty, yet naïve filmmaker who gets caught up in Drake's misadventures, and Victory "Sully" Sullivan, Drake's mentor and father-figure. The clever writing, which features some of the best "scripted" on-the-fly banter and witty dialogue (even if a little trite so as to maintain the story's plot in check), helps set these characters up well. Even the villains, though stock in nature, come off as almost genuine due to the great writing.
Credit has to go to the graphics as well. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is one of the best-looking games on the console, even if the graphics are slightly outdated by today's standards. The facial and character animations are near groundbreaking, as characters show off life-like expressions and lip-synching, as well as impressive movement. The jungle environment, though used in many other games before, is rendered beautifully. Every tree, patch of grass, and mountainside comes with careful attention to detail. The water physics are also remarkable, as they're almost on-par with BioShock in terms of realism and detail.
The basic gameplay of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is your standard Third-Person Shooter mechanics with exploration elements. Drake can climb just about any surface with ease, and his acrobatics are just as impressive to play as well as admire. This is important, considering that Drake has to climb many ancient ruins, buildings, and rock walls in order to find his way through the vast jungle setting. The fluid character animations make everything look and feel seamless, from climbing to jumping to even running around. The paths you travel do fall on the linear side, however, so exploration is fairly limited apart from finding mini-treasures as collectables for the completionists out there. Seeing as how this is a story-driven game, however, this fault can be forgiven.
You will run into several firefights throughout the campaign, and here's where things start hitting a snag. The basic shooting mechanics work rather well. You can run-and-gun, take cover and fire from it, as well as being able to perform melee combos for enemies that want to get up close and personal. The AI here is especially intelligent and brutal, as they never seem to show a discernible pattern in their movements. They'll flank you, toss grenades to force you out of cover, and even sneak up from behind. However, many of the enemies seem to enjoy a diet of bullets, as they eat numerous amounts that should technically have killed them after at least the third shot. This can make the firefights especially challenging on higher difficulties, as the difficulty can spike sporadically with each fight, as does their daily intake of bullets. The fact that the melee system is flawed, requiring well-timed combo button presses in a high stress situation (such as what you'd find in a fighting game, except with a severe input lag), also doesn't help. You'll spend much of your time taking cover and searching for ammo while enemies keep coming, each with bigger guns and more opportunities to find you. Considering how fragile Drake is in comparison, you'll get used to hiding behind crates more than you will being satisfied at taking down a mass squad of enemies.
There are moments in the game where a cutscene will seemingly start to play out, but will immediately thrust you in control of Drake, forcing you to either escape from a collapsing building, or try to plow through a massive onslaught of bullets. This is where the game truly shines. These moments keep you in control while tearing through some pretty dangerous areas. Coupled with the amazing camera work and stunning visual effects from explosions to dust rising, these moments feel ripped straight from a Hollywood chase scene, where you take control of the main star as they desperately try to survive the chaos around them.
As incredible as these moments are, it's with the story itself that the game seems to feel the most unsatisfying. The action is well-thought out, the characters are instantly memorable, and the events of the treasure hunt all start leading towards a gripping climax…right before the game comes to an almost abrupt and forced ending. That's not to say it's a bad one by any means. It's just that when the story begins hitting its high-note, it starts to resolve itself, reducing the game to a mere six to eight hour experience for something that deserved so much more. And with the campaign being your only mode of play, the replay value drops considerably due to this.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a benchmark for what games can ultimately become. The intense cinematic set-pieces, memorable characters, well-done responsive gameplay, and the beautiful graphics and setting all give this game its identity and strength. Apart from the frustrating and tedious firefights, the familiar story basis, and the relatively short campaign with a brutally forced ending, I see no reason to pass this game up. You might not play it as long as you'd want to, but it'll still be a memorable experience for years to come.