Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Review

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Publisher: Naughty Dog
Platform: PS3
Multiplayer: No
DLC: No

The Uncharted series is highly regarded as one of the best, if not the best, PS3 exclusive series. Drake's forturne is the 1st game in a 3 game series (so far).

Story: Your play as Nathan Drake, a young treasure hunter who is a descendent of the famous Francis Drake. Your hunting for the infamous treasure El Dorado that Nate feels Francis found ages ago but died before he got it. Your journey for El Dorado takes you from the ocean, to forests, to mountains and ancient buildings. To videotape your travels is the reporter Elena Fischer. And as always you have a sidekick, his name being Sully. Unlike Nate who only cares about the history of the artifacts, Sully only cares about the money. Which leaves you to wonder, can Sully be trusted? Along the way you must fight pirates, mercenarys, bandits and come across long time rival treasure hunters such as Eddie Raja. The story sounds like a typical tomb raider film but the way the story is told and how the characters are developed make it something special. You really get to understand Nate's relationships between Elena, Sully, Eddie and others. The graphics are also top notch, even by todays standards. Truly beautiful game to look at and great story telling. But this story isnt as straight forward as it seems, be prepared for some severe plot twists.


Gameplay: Uncharted is a 3rd person, over the shoulder, duck and cover shooter but yet seems more classic then other modern day 3rd persons. The shooting just seems to flow with a refreshing old style and the hand to hand combat can be satisfying. One of the coolest things is Nate's climbing abilites. Jumping from cliff to cliff, climbing castle walls or climbing the pipes above a incaved dock. Theres a nice variety of weapons ranging from pistols, machine guns, snipers, and gernade launchers. This is not an open world game but there are plenty of treasures to find during your journey, 61 to be exact. Some are right in front of you glowing, but most will really test your dedication to not look them up online. I've played through this multiple times and never got bored simply because the gameplay was just fun. The only problem i have with it, is none of the difficultys are that challenging. Even the secret, "super hard" difficulty you unlock by beating it, isnt much different then hard and can be beat with little deaths if you take your time. What would a treasure adventure game be without puzzles? It has plenty of puzzles throughout the game to leave you yelling at your tv "what do i dooo!!!!". With the help of Francis Drake's journal that Nate inherited, clues will be given but sometimes are vague.


Likes: Really suprisingly beautiful game given the fact it was an early ps3 title. Gameplay is very fun and addictive. The story really tells the tales of the characters and really gives you a sense of their personalities well. It's a great 1st game of a series.

Dislikes: Multiplayer would of been a good addition given the fun gameplay, or atleast co-op. And the last difficulties, should be difficult. It'll take you no time at all to get that platinum trophy.

Bill's Rating: 8.5/10. Fun game, if your into adventure games you should pick it up.