UNCHARTED - DRAKE'S FORTUNE
Now think about that time you were in the nightclub with your buddies and Mr DJ dropped that all time classic, and everyone on the dancefloor was punching the air and whooping and screaming "Choon, Choon, Choon, Choooooooooon".... well I was doing that the other night when I completed Uncharted - Drake's Fortune in my living room, but I wasn't chanting "Choon" I was screaming "Game, Game, Game Gaaaammmmmeee".... Man oh man, what a game. Below follows a review of the game, and I'm sorry for those who haven't completed it, but there might be a couple of spoilers, but it won't stop you from enjoying the game as the spoilers will be more about the storyline.
Where to start on this review.... might as well start from the top... previous reviews I've read have slated the beginning of the game, but I think the reason why they do that is they feel they need to slate an otherwise fantastic game. Yes there are various ways they could have started the game, but this was as good as any. It starts with our Drake on a boat with a freelance reporter Elena, with Drake having just completed a dive to retrieve the coffin of Sir Francis Drake, who we find out seems to be related to Drake. As they open the coffin their boat is attacked by pirates, this part of the game essentially becomes your training level where they show you the controls, I think this a great way to do it as you learn and remember a whole lot quicker then in other games where they have a dedicated learn your controls area.
Straight away you get a great sense of adventure and it also sets the tone of the game... one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Once you complete this area you into the second chapter of the game where you've met your other side kick Sullivan who is an old time mentor of Drakes and a bit of a scoundrel. In total there are 22 chapters, but I'm not going to go through every one, all I'd say is that from the outset I loved this game and enjoyed every single frame even through the frustrating parts, because no matter what was thrown at you in this game, you knew it was doable with a plan of attack and some thought, which for me made this game a thinking mans game, especially in the gun battles.
I said even through frustrating parts, for me there were three parts that were a little frustrating... in the first one, you're in a room with four statues at the points of a compass, and all these statues can be rotated. Using these statues you need to find a combination to open something by using the compass points and the way the statues face. You are given clues in the diary you found on the dive in Chapter One, but it was interpreting that clue which threw me....The next two frustrating parts was being caught in a gun battle... the first gun battle involved forming an alliance with an enemy to fight a common enemy, but the sheer weight on the enemy was pretty high, especially as you had to hold them off for what seemed like an eternity, before one of your side kicks hopefully came to the rescue... the other frustrating gun battle was when you got caught in a three way battle.
The Finale was pretty cinematic, and was done very well based on you having to do a series of button press' as opposed to you trying to fight the big boss head on. I think doing it this way added to the "what a great finale." It seems to me the game producer thought, "Hey why don't we give this epic game a great cinema ending but we don't want the player not to be part of the action" This was great as with the HD power of the PS3, the finale looked great and because as a player you had to keep focussed to press any buttons when they very very quickly popped up on the screen.
Gameplay
This for me is all about picking up a game plugging in without reading the instructions, and this game was everything about gameplay, with the onscreen instructions I am still yet to read the instruction manual. Also there was fantastic use of the camera angles and they got it pretty much right 100% of the time. So for gameplay I'd have to give this a 10/10.
Content:
This for me would be the storyline and for this game, I would say the storyline was just good as if not better than many action adventure movies I've seen in my time. What added to the storyline was that the people who did the voices for all the characters were spot on in terms of voice acting and delivery tone etc, so for content I'd have to say 10/10
Simulation:
Here is where there might be a slight flaw in the game, in that whilst playing the game I hit a few glitches where I could run over or through something that I shouldn't be able to, and also the areas at times were a little linear, but this is a very minor issue, so I'd have to give the game 9/10 for simulation.
Music:
This was absolutely spot on. It was fantastic and up there with even the best film musical scores, I could not fault this game in anyway when it comes to the musical side of things, so 10/10 for the music.
Graphics:
Wow is all I can say about the graphics, these have to be the most elegant, beautiful and pretty smooth ones I've seen since say Gran Turismo on PSOne. It's been said that the power of the PS3 hasn't really been enhanced as yet, so with these graphics being 10/10, I can't wait to see what graphics we'll start to see once the power has truly been enhanced.
Pros of Drakes:
All of the aforementioned, along with the strong characters. Also the game has a Medal and Bonus system, which gives you an incentive to play the game again just to get the bonus as you get points and you can use these points to acquire game unlocks.
Cons of Drakes:
Though it took me 13 hours to complete, I felt the game could have been a little longer, though that was due to the game being so good. Another con is that there is no online part to the game, with his two side kicks there is def scope for co-op gaming or even two storylines which cross over and culminate in the finale. The gunfights were the right balance, but not enough use was made of the diary. They could have added more puzzles.
OVERALL DJTC SCORE
This game gets a 9/10