Good as a 3rd person shooter, not so much as a platformer.
You've got Nathan Drake, a treasure-hunter with a sense of humour; the promise of hidden treasure, pirates on speedboats, jungles, beaches and ancient ruins. A combination like that could only mean one thing: adventure. It reminds you of everything you liked in the Indiana Jones movies and other movies like Rundown. Following this sequence, the story isn't that original, but it's brought to life by the the characters, which are based on familiar stereotypes but still manage to seem lively and original due to some excellent voice-acting and well-written dialogue.
Visually, the game is pretty impressive. Most of it is resplendent with detail and brilliant textures. Animations are neat and very life-like, and these are best seen when you're making Drake jump across chasms or climb up vines. The sounds are as good as the graphics. Guns have different sounds, grenades leave a ringing in your ears and Drake mutters and grunts when he climbs.
The best way to describe Uncharted: Drake's Fortune's gameplay is to say that is a combination of third-person shooting and platforming. The gameplay never gets repetitive due to the diverse environments, the considerable array of guns and various enemy types. The pace is further broken up by the switch from platforming to shooting. These two are rarely combined together at the cost that some of the environments seem contrived. You can almost always tell when enemies are about to show up due to the arena-like feel that persists in every place where combat takes place.
The controls are extremely easy to learn, although getting under cover is not as easy as I would have liked it to be. Sometimes, you end up on the wrong side of a column, in the face of enemy fire and it's often a scramble to get into a safe area again. Drake doesn't have much health - a couple of shots take him down - so more often than not, finding yourself without cover gets you killed.
The enemies have at least as much health as Drake, and there are usually dozens of them and one of you. They're also smart and will try to flush you out with grenades if you're under cover or try to flank you. This could lead to a few repeated deaths until you get the hang of it, but one thing is certain, the combat will always keep you on your toes.
Platforming, on the other hand, is much less challenging. The real difficulty is often finding where you're supposed to go, because there isn't anything to distinguish between a boulder that can serve as a ledge in-game and one that's simply part of the background. This can be frustrating at times, but overall, the platforming sections of the game are easy and are a break from the fast-paced combat. The best thing about the platforming is simply watching Drake's animations.
There are plenty of achievements to get and a good amount of unlockables which keep adding flavour to the overall experience.
In the end, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune isn't anything ground-breaking, but it's still bloody fun.