[PS3] Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

[SinisterDeath]

Naughty Dog, famous for Crash Bandicoot, and Jak and Dexter, strayed abit from there cartoony type graphics, and from the classic action/adventure gameplay of bandicoot/Jak game series.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, is Naughty Dogs newest 'trilogy' they've invested there time in; The main difference is, They took the Tomb Raideresque game, Revamped it, Made it look better, Play better, and whats best of all? Make it feel like you were Playing National Treasure, or even at times, Indiana Jones, and the Temple of Doom. ;)

While I played this game, I could not help but think, "These guys really out did them selves! Not only did they improve upon the 'failings' of the tomb raider 'genre' they made it go to its roots, the 'indiana jones' or 'tomb raiders' movie genre. They actually made it FEEL like you were 'actually' there, amongst the action, of the National Treasure or, Indiana Style of movies!

 

The gameplay was all 3rd person shooter with the obvious Tomb Raider style of making your way across the ruins of an old temple/builings/chuches/ect. Except, one of the MAJOR issues with the tomb raider games, (Specially now days) is the frustration that comes, when your spending HOURS trying to figure out that one blasted puzzle! Combined with all the running, jumping, trying to not jump to soon, or fall to your death, or jump to late, or fall to your death, and even if you jump just at the right time, you have to quickly press the 'grab' button at the perfect time, or you die, die die!

Drakes fortune, has a similar system to Assassins Creed, You simply 'jump' and your character auto-matically 'grabs' onto the ledge, or nearly misses', or simply falls to his death (if you were way to early) No more do you get those annoying buggy ledges that don't work half the time! As a player, this alevates frustrations, and getting rid of those frustrations that last for hours really makes a game much, much more fun! That isn't to say the game doesn't have its frustrations! (There were a few puzzles that had me scratching my head, only having to repeatidly slam my head against a wall for the obviousness at which the puzzle was solved, and the subsequent times i've jumped into a hole trying to catch onto an imaginary ledge that wouldn't have existed until AFter you solve the puzzle. :P

 

Graphics in this game are TOP Notch, at least if you compare it to the genre. The character detail is pretty damned good, and considering the characters detail remains the same from gameplay to CG, (even the cutscenes look pretty damned good) The one thing better then the characters, (even with there 80,000 polygons, and 100+ textures per character) are the Environments. The Environments truelly make this game look awesome. The tropical jungle Island your on, the various ruins, they all blend in a way that makes this game look truelly stunning, and not some kind of gray and bleak tunnel. One of my favorite scenes in the game, involved You riding in the back of a Jeep with your handy Mounted Machine gun, blasting away at enemies aproaching your rear, while the vehicle was racing through a heavilly forested area, with sharp turns, steep cliffs, not to mention that while I mow down my enemies, You even witness TREES falling around them as your machine gun cuts them down.

As for character animation, this game has well over 200 animations, I can't quote the exact # but there are so many different character animations that go on while your playing its truelly staggering. Added into that is some truelly superb voice acting, with actors even stepping in, and goin in those ridicolous animation capture suit things, to not only get realistic body movements but also facial animations using a similar method.

 

The cast is fully well rounded from the run into trouble Hero, to hot headed blonde goading the hero into further trouble when even he's saying 'lets get the #%@# outta here! To an old guy man with debt up to his eye balls and would willingly leave friends behind to save his own ass. Then of course you have the evil villian guy, a dimwitted Indoneisan Pirate Guy whom the main hero has 'encountered' before with a sorta, friendly but not so friendly insulting each other with guns to there forehead kinda manner.

 

The story is definately reminisant to that of the Indiana Jones genre, but not necissarilly with the whole 'templar' theme of National Treasure (its not about a conspiracy, per-say)

The story is basically about Sir Francis Drake, famed treasure hunter, who 'died' and was burried at sea. His 'ancestor' The hero, Nathan Drake, believed that Sir Francis Drake never died out on sea, but 'faked' his own death to search for the famed El'Deroldo, the city of gold, or as a better translation, The Man of Gold. Upon flying to the location his plane gets shot down with him and a 'reporter' who was there to record his amazing finding, they get split up, meet up, you know the same old same old that happens in 'action/adventure' movies. But what sorta 'treasure' in the Indiana Jones genre, isn't cursed you say? What kind of traps are there? There are plenty! And the curse is frightening indeed! They elude to the 'curse' through out the latter half of the game several times, but when you see it, you wish you'd be fighting the zerglings in Halo 2 or 3 instead! ;)

The horrifying aspect of the Curse isn't what the 'curse' does, but what the people plan to 'do' with the curse, the subsiquent events that follow, actually suprised me for a 'twist', if you want to call it that. I can't really go into to much detail with out spoiling it, but its definately teh awesomeness plot wise.

 

Music/Sound. I don't really listen to music/sound so I can't really testify whether its the best sound/music since individually sliced/wrapped cheese.. But due to the capacity of Blu-ray Disks, all the music/sounds/SFX are RAW sound, meaning they are uncompressed, and the highest quality you can find.

 

Replayability.

The game has no multiplayer so that cuts its 'replay' in about half, or rather, into quarters... However, the game is not with out the standard 'find X treasures', or 'earn these medals'.

The treasures are randomly asorted through out the levels, and sometimes, you wouldn't even see them unless you were lost trying to figure out where you were, (aka heading backards ;) )

Medals are similar to that in most games these days.

You earn X Medals for every 'criteria' you accomplish, like you earn 10 medals for getting 5 head shots, another 10 for 5 head shots. and 30 for 100 head shots. You earn medals for killing enemies in melee combat, from behind, with certain weapons, also using those weapons with out aiming, (aka you can hold LI and shoot with R1, or you can just press R1 and shoot, but with no aim.)

The main reason to earn these medals?

Well, you get certain Unlocks after achieving so many Medals, Anything from infinite ammo, to unlocking Galleries, Making of Videos, and various other gameplay altering effects, from changing your 'costume', your enemies 'costumes', even flipping the screen upside down, changing the color, ect. So there is definately some incentive to get 100% completion in the game... However since the PSN doesn't have any type of point system like Xbox live does, playing the game just to get infinite ammo seems like a waste, but thats just me. ;)

But when Home comes out for the PS3, and the Trophy System (which is going to be similar to the xbox point system, possibly), getting 100% completion could be at least good for bragging rights, or at least, making your 'Home' look more awesome then your neibhors. :P

 

 

Gameplay: 9.5/10

Grahpics: 9/10

Story: 10/10

Music/Sound/FX: 8/10

Replayability: 5/10

 

Final Score: 9/10.

 

btw, due to this games awesomeness, this will change the score of Lair/Heavenly Sword, from 9's to more like around a 7, as those scores were basically judged around the genre & the other PS3 games i've played, which made them, at the time the best game for the ps3, However Uncharted Is definately one of the best for the ps3 thsi year. Hand Down.

 

*Edit*

Nearly Forgot, to view some screenshots of the game go to

http://www.us.playstation.com/Uncharted/ and click on Gallery, to at least see some of how great the game looks like.

You can also find out more about the story and other such fun stuff.

*End of Edit*

 

Also, some would probably complain about the ending, the game being about 15? or so hours long (Just playing through with out any effort at getting 100% completion, which could well put the game above 100 hours if I tried getting all that crap) the game almost felt like it could have continued for alot longer then it did, but they ended it, in the classic sense of the Indiana Jones action/adventure genre and in that aspect, I feel the ending suited it perfectly. It may have been cliche, but it was cliche in the good way, not in the bad way (like in Lair, Halo 3, ect. ;) )

 

Also, as great as Uncharteds cast is, Heavinly Sword Does have the best cast, evah, hands down.

[SinisterDeath]

The guy who does cad comics made up a mini-review on drakes fortune + a funny comic

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/index.php

[SinisterDeath]

Well, since I haven't got any reply on problaby the only real game of the year,

Heres a link from a guy named Terry Mesnard, at Ctrl-Alt-Del's "cad-media" site, for a review of uncharted.

http://www.cad-media.com/mediaitem.php?mid=573&c=ps3&page=1

 

Enjoy.

 

http://www.cad-media.com/media/images/cmi1721.jpg[/img]

http://www.cad-media.com/media/images/cmi1723.jpg[/img]

http://www.cad-media.com/media/images/cmi1724.jpg[/img]

http://www.cad-media.com/media/images/cmi1722.jpg[/img]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-krmHjWqRRc

[Silver]

can't really reply since i haven't tried it yet. my friend has it though, should really go over to his place and play :P

[Quisalas Selene]

Quisalas: resurrecting old threads for your enjoyment.

 

My husband had this game rented right now and has been playing it for the past few days.  No where near done with it, I don't think, but I do agree with most of this review.  Especially the stuff about how pretty it is and how nice the expressions and movements of the characters are.

 

I wouldn't give it a 9, though.  I don't think I'd give it any higher than a 7.  The combat interactions is rather annoying, the headshots that are supposed to kill things don't always kill things, and it's downright aggrevating trying to figure ou the minute difference between Vital Vine You Need To Climb and This Vine Is Painted Background You Idiot, Stop Jumping At It.  I think it would make the overall game less seamless and smooth, but much easier to play, if there was a clearer definition between elements you can interact with and elements you can't.  Also, realistic as it may be, having to choose between the shotgun and the machine gun and not being able to carry both was sad.  Although that may be something that is dealt with later in the game - like I said, Jay hasn't finished it yet.

 

I still think Heavenly Sword has this one beat, I'd probably give it an 8 or so.  But maybe I'll change my mind once he plays the rest of the game and I have endings to compare as well.  The hunting down treasures and earning medals things are both really fun. :)

[SinisterDeath]

Well, finding those 'vines' is all part of this genre.

I mean, Look at any Tomb Raider Game, and copmare it to this, If you say Tomb Raider gets an 8, and this a 7 I really, relaly have to know what your smoking. ;)

 

When I 'rate games' I tend to do it, even if I don't imply it, within its own genre.

Because giving a score to a game, as an arbitary value, that really has no purpose, and comparing said game to every game created.. Well, This would probably get a 3. Halo a -30, and Half-Life 2 a 4, with ChronoTrigger, and FF6 being 10's. ;)

 

That said, the combat system, has been growing on me, its almost industry standard.. But then, I suck at shooters on Console Games, always have, so I didn't feel it was necissary to say how badly I sucked at killing things in the game. ;)

But, like most games after a few hours of play, that initial sucky-ness starts to wear off.

But compared to other 3rd person shooters. (Kane and Lynch, And any other 3rd person shooter like bad company, or warhawk) I think I liked Drakes the best, if only because the AI was pretty good in the game. ;)

 

Damn, I got my ass handed to me a few times when the enemies flanked my ass! :P

[Quisalas Selene]

I don't know if I have played any other third person shooters at all on the console. 

 

And I might give Tomb Raider an 8 and this one a 7 just because they're judged based for their time and this game does a lot of stuff Tomb Raider already did.  It's a better game than Tomb Raider, but maybe it's only better because it had Tomb Raider and 15 years of technology to build on.  (I don't actually know when Tomb Raider was released, the 15 years was totally a guess.)

 

I guess if you're judging it on genre, it would be higher than a 7, just because there has to be a ten somewhere out there that sets the bar for the genre, and Uncharted is about as good as I can imagine a third person shooter getting. 

 

I concede the point. ;)

 

Oh, and I don't think I've played any console Tomb Raider games since the Playstation One.

[SinisterDeath]

Look at it this way, the last Tomb Raider game that was released, was less then 6 months prior to Uncharted Drakes Fortune.

Only, That tomb raider game had controls that would make you cry. ;)

 

For starters. You think the vines in Uncharted are bad? Not sure which ones you can grab, and which ones you can't?

95% of all the vines in the newest Tomb Raider game, are like that.

 

Ever have those maps where jump onto a platform, and have to keep running/jumping in order to survive the domino effect?

IN drakes fortune, all you need to do is hit the jump button and you land, and assuming your aren't pointed int he wrong direction its hard to screw it up.

In tomb raider, if you are to close to a ledge, or to far away, You die.

If you don't push a button to catch a ledge, you die.

If you don't attempt to cligb the ledge fast enough, you die.

If you don't catch a vine in mid air, at the exact perfect time, while jumping off a ledge at the exactly the pefect spot, You die.

;)

 

That is the difference imo.

 

I compared Uncharted with Assassins Creed, because they employ many of the same 'systems', in that it has this type of 'active' climbing/jumping/grabing system. Instead of trying to throw in 300000 controls involving catching/climbing/grabbing/ect, they decided to instead, throw out those irritations, and focus on relevant gameplay that wasn't just a massive headache.

 

Assassins Creed has a much better 'free climbing' system then Uncharted does, but thats because Asssins Creed is more of a sandbox then Uncharted is. Assassins Creed doesn't even have puzzles so its going to be much more 'constricted' and less 'free climbing'.

 

I'm not trying to make this sound harsh or demeaning or anything, and if its coming off that way, I can only say I'm not meaning to.

However, Tomb Raider (the newest one) has also been building off of the same technology for the past 15 years. And Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, IMO took that technology, took out the things that sucked, added in the fun, and actually had a story that felt like you were watching an Indiana Jones Movie. It doesn't really have 'long' cutscenes, but the voice acting/facial animations in the game are just sooo damned good, its nearly ahead of its time.

 

I recently played the game Mass Effect (PC) its a 3rd person shooter. Its story was 'alright', however its facial animation sucked so bad, Mario 64 had better imo. (Seriously, all the characters, looked like they were filled to the brim with uhh, that stuff that jone rivers uses to excess.... "its known to cause someone to be unable to smile for 48 hours.")

 

Before I forget, having that lady drive the jeep around, while you shot off the mounted machine gun, is by far one of the BEST drive-by, shooting sequences, I have EVER Played, IT even kicks every 'chase sequence' in all the MGS games its that good.

+ the trees getting cut down, and causing the vehicles to explode is just pure awesome in an environment that is wicked realistic, vibrant, and just plain alive. :P

[Quisalas Selene]

I liked Assassins Creed.  :)  It had a really nice system, just like you said, where they took out all the tedious difficult stuff with jumping and moving and replaced it with other difficult stuff, like trying to find a haystack when you've accidentally run past the wrong guard.

 

And I was deliriously happy when you got to the point in the game where you didn't have to ride your horse the entire way between cities anymore and could just right partway and then choose which city you were going to. :D  I was blown away by how nice the horses' movements looked in that game.  Being a horse person myself, it's always annoyed me how most games just totally phone it in when it comes to the horses, Assassins Creed excelled there.  It was a really fun game, and you didn't get shot in the back of the head in that game. :D

 

[SinisterDeath]

Aye, it does have nice gameplay features.

 

As for the horses, they are pretty good, But I do have to say that the horse in the game Shadow of the Colloses(sp) is the best game horse I have ever seen. (Ps2 generation mind you)

The horses in Oblivion however, sucked.