Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

It's no secret that the PS3 needs hits, and badly. That's why games like Uncharted are so important: They're not necessarily triple-A titles but if they're done right, they can give hungry PS3 owners something to tide them over until games like MGS4 finally arrive.

Here There Be Monsters

PROs and CONs

PROS:
  • It's by far one of the best looking PS3 games around.
  • The gameplay has its faults but it still manages to entertain.
CONS:
  • The story is a little cliched.
  • Platforming sequences are way too easy.

The bad news is that Uncharted has its faults. First, the story, which centers on explorer Nathan Drake and his quest to hunt down a treasure that his ancestor Sir Francis had chased after, is sort of hokey and relies heavily on cliches.

The action can also be frustrating thanks to an overwhelming number of enemies that appear on-screen. The game's cover system is great but enemies will tear you apart the minute you peek your head out, and when your health is low, the screen goes black and white, which makes it that much harder to aim. It's also hard to see ammo when it's lying on the dense jungle floor, which is problematic since I was always running low on bullets.

I also had trouble with the game's platforming elements: it's just way too easy to navigate your way around the treacherous terrain. You'll constantly find yourself hanging by your fingertips from high ledges, but you can jump around like a hopped up monkey with a couple of button presses, which really takes away any sense of challenge. The environmental puzzles are also way too simple, and you're helped along by blatantly obvious things like explosive barrels that just happen to be sitting next to a tall pillar that you have to topple over in order to create a bridge.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The good news is that these complaints are fairly minor and while Uncharted will frustrate you, it also has the capacity to be thrilling and fun. The game offers up some amazing visuals and the gameplay is perfectly paced. You're always doing something interesting, whether it's investigating ancient ruins, trading bullets with modern-day pirates, or skydiving out of a burning airplane. And even though I never truly bought into the story, I still wanted to help Nathan solve the mystery behind Sir Francis Drake's diary.

Uncharted reminded me a lot of an Indiana Jones movie in that both are fun and enjoyable romps that are just good enough to make you forgive their respective weaknesses. It isn't going to single-handedly pull Sony's bacon out of the fire this holiday season but it is definitely a title that PS3 owners can be proud to call their own.--Tae K. Kim

[Update: Due to an internal error, GamePro mistakenly posted the Uncharted review at 4.0 when in fact the score should have been 4.25. It has been since rectified, and GamePro regrets the error.]

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Galfadez

Hey. Gamepro deleted all the old comments. I came back to this review to see all the old comments about how crap a review this is, and they are all gone. WTF

doniks84

Obviously Fag Pro 360 fanboys can't stand the thought of a AAA exclusive on the PS3, hence the 4 stars instead of 5 on this review. A game with rock solid gameplay(360 GOW 2 copied their combat system from this game) stunning graphics and quite an interesting strory y do they give it 4/5 stars, it beats the shit out of me. Cause they're stupid haters.

zombieking36

I loved this game, and I would have given it a 5/5 myself. It is better then both Gears of Wars IMO.

connor777

wtf you give bound in blood 4 and a half stars and you give this game 4 you and you workers fucked up imean what the hell

wisegamero

I'm a late adopter of this game, since I waited for the release of MGS4 to get my PS3, so I figured I'd rent this just to see what all the hype was about. Great graphics, but nothing really struck me as excellent in anything it did. It's a good game, that's it, not excellent imo. It just makes me miss my 360 all that much more, hopefully part 2 tightens up a few gripes here and there and I'm sure it'll be a classic.

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