One of the few must have games for the Playstation 3.

User Rating: 9 | Uncharted: Drake's Fortune PS3
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is developed by Naughty Dog and is one of their first installments on the Playstation 3. The game stars Nathan Drake, a sort of cliché treasure hunter looking for the lost gold of El Dorado. And what's even more cliché is that his travels mostly concise of fighting pirates on some island in the pacific. Now usually I would argue pirates > just about everything. But I have to hand it to Nat; he pulls off the protagonist spot quite well. While I have to admit, Uncharted is definitely not Naughty Dogs best work, their still off to a great start.

While I'm at it, I'll start off with the most enjoyable aspect of Uncharted: the combat. To basically sum up the fighting mechanics think Gears of War meets Ghost Recon. It's the standard cover system that has been used in tons of other games. The combat makes it the best part of the game due fast-paced action and good (could have been better) controls. There were quite a numerous times throughout the game where Nat didn't seem to want to do what I was intending. But other than that, I really didn't have any complaints about the overall gameplay.

Now that I've knocked off the gameplay, we'll go to the second best part the game: the graphics. For what seems like for just about every gamer graphics seems to be this amazingly important and unmatched part of any game. Personally that doesn't really fit for me, but if you are a graphics whore, Uncharted will do you just fine. I honestly don't think any other console game matches it in this department. I noticed at a few points the game would have textures pop-in and the dreaded 'screen tearing'. But these were so minimal you'll forget them the moment they're over.

If there's anything that'll keep you interested in continuing Uncharted, it would have to be: the audio. The voice acting is damn near perfect and I really couldn't have asked for a better job. Nat, Elena and Sully all pull off a fantastic job. I'm not sure who did the voice-overs, but hats off to them. Aside from Nathan's few cheesy lines, the audio in this game really draws out the character development and keeps you immersed in the game.

Now that I've broken down the good parts of the game, time to hit the bad: length and replayability. One of the worst things about where gaming is going is its development and budget course. Games are beginning take years and years to be developed and therefore cost millions and millions of dollars, thus resulting in cinema-like games that are reducing in length. And it's showed in past games like Heavenly Sword and Gears of War. Make no mistake, it shows up again in Uncharted. Even if you draw out the game, finding every relic, trying to complete all of the 'achievements', the game will still only run at about 10 hours in length. Sure the added bonuses in the game can warrant another play-through, but personally I only ran through the game once and didn't feel the need to do it again.

Overall Uncharted: Drake's Fortune turned out to be simply a great game. The storyline, combat, graphics, and voice acting are all top-notch in this game. It makes a fantastic rent, and I even recommend it as a buy. Sure the game is short on length, suffers in replayability. But if you want that action-packed, cinema-game-like feel, then Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is for you.

Fun-factor: 9.1

Control and Gameplay: 8.8

Graphics: 9.7

Sound: 8.5

Replayability: 8

Overall Score: 8.8