Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a game that still holds up, even years after its release. It’s not a long game about 8-10 hours for the main story and honestly, that’s one of its best qualities. It’s the perfect length to enjoy in one sitting, and it never overstays its welcome.

What really sets it apart is how much it feels like you’re playing through a movie. The set-pieces, the action, the story—it all blends together perfectly. One minute you’re scaling cliffs, the next you’re in a high-speed chase or gunning down enemies as explosions go off around you. It’s cinematic, and it makes you feel like you’re the star of an action blockbuster.

The main character, Nathan Drake, is super likable charming, funny, and easy to root for. The chemistry between him and Elena adds a nice personal touch to the adventure.

For its time, the graphics were stunning, and even today, the remastered version looks great. The platforming and combat are simple but fun, and while the shooting mechanics might feel a bit outdated now, it’s still enjoyable.

Overall, Drake’s Fortune is a short but sweet experience that delivers a great action-adventure story. If you haven’t played it yet, it’s definitely worth checking out.

I'll start with the positive. This set a fantastic foundation for a franchise that would go on to spawn a few of the greatest games of all time, and inspire many other action franchises. It inspired them with the likability of it's characters, with it's high-quality writing, and with some of its action set-pieces and vistas.

The highlight of this game for me was the set piece around halfway where you operate as a turret on the back of a jeep as Elena drives. That section really captured for me what they were going for with these games. I finally "got it" at that moment.

The gameplay is.. interesting. Gamers in america would really thought everything had to include gunplay back in the day, and this was a stong symptom that would linger for the next 2 games to a lesser extent. The platforming sections are good, and were likely innovative at the time, but do not sit well in the memory when you play the rest of the games in the series right after. The shooting sections are simply not very interesting and go on for far too long. They also happen constantly. The only interesting mixup I experienced was the run-and-gun sections in the later part of the game.

Despite it's flaws I think anyone interetsed in this franchise in general should start with this game, and try their best to get past it's flaws to enjoy the narrative behind them. You won't regret spending more time in the world of uncharted.

The plot was very interesting and full of twists that made this feel like if it was something from Hollywood. The setting used was incredible and clever to keep this game mesmerizing.

This is definitely a blend of tomb raider and Indiana Jones. However that does come with the problem here which made this into a 4 star game.

The plot twist at the end reminded me of a cheap film that ran out of ideas for a plot climax. Unfortunate but many people seemed to have enjoyed this but it wasn't my cup of tea.

I am really looking forward to the rest of the series.

It is only the promise of the next games being some of the best of all time that got me through this game. Story is fine, but nothing amazing. Characters are ok. Graphics are decent.

But the mechanics: super inconsistent, infuriating bullshit non-stop.

You want to jump to that ledge? Nah, just overshoot it for no reason.

Want to peek out of our badly designed cover system to kill an enemy? Nah, get one-tapped man.

Want to roll to avoid the one-tapping enemies? LOL, you're in cover now. And by cover, I mean you're locked to a box with your back to the one-tapping enemy.

Meh.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is the first game in a series of treasure hunting adventures of Nathan Drake. I played the remastered version on my ps5.

As someone new to PlayStation system I had high expectations when it's coming to Uncharted series. I've heard many times that the series is awesome and I have to check it out. I've also heard that the first game is way worse than the rest. So yeah, to be honest I got pretty much what I expected and i wasn't blown out because of what I saw.

The game is fine and just fine. The plot is okish, the characters are likeable, i was pretty interested to see what's coming next and the twists were decent. The gameplay was fine, I played on the highest difficulty (not brutal, it was locked) and it provided a really good challenge, in some cases frustrating, but not many times.

I enjoyed Tomb Raider games more, but everyone says that Uncharted gets really good from the second game and the first game was good enough for me to try the next one, so I guess it's done its job. Worth to mention that the game is thirteen years old, so back then it had to be pretty spectacular.

7/10

Shockingly good experience for a thirteen years old game.

~Wo

I had never played any entry of Uncharted. I got the collection as a present and decided to just start with the first one. Reviews contains minor spoilers (about gameplay parts) I didn't blot out. Major spoilers I did.

Narrative

The story is about Nathan Drake, following a trail left by his ancestor Francis Drake towards El Dorado, the supposed city of gold. To finance this trip he pretends to do this for a tvshow and Elena, the journalist/camera girl is on this journey filming it. They are on a ship, which gets blown up by pirates and after this the story begins on an island with a ruin. By finding old tombs, buildings, unraveling mysteries, doing puzzles and shooting baddies we try to find the lost treasure of El Dorado.

At first Drake, and his buddy Sully leave Elena on some island and take their own boat to find the treasure. Then sully is shot and Elena tracks Drakes movements and they try to find the treasure.

The story was fine. The lore was pretty interesting, and I was definitely interested I finding out what happened to El Dorado and the spaniards that tried to find the treasure. Character development was pretty much non-existent. Drake was Drake throughout, a witty adventurous son of a bitch. The only thing really happening to him is he at first doesn't respect Elena, and then he does, because she turns out to be pretty badass. Of course they totally fall in love as well. The characters however are all likable, the badguys are assholes, and the banter between main characters was enjoyable. Writing was pretty good.

Gameplay

It's basically a third-person shooter with a few puzzles in it. I didn't know much about this game beforehand so I was expecting the other way around. It consists of doing some puzzle, climbing or otherwise, to get to a place. Get a wave of badguys, get a story tidbit, and repeat. There is not much more to it than that. The gunplay was not terrible, not great. I had weird moments where drake would make weird movements and get shot, baddies die and fly off anywhere, as well as their gun (which you want to pick up ammo). Cover system was basic, sometimes hard to change cover as it wasn't always clear where Drake would decide to go. I did play on easy, I don't think I'd want to deal with the clunkyness on harder difficulties.

The puzzles were extremely easy. The climbing puzzles extremely frustrating. It was rarely clear where to go, what things were climbable and not, I've jumped to my death numerous times. I really hope this gets better in the next games, because some parts I was so frustrated (Church) I rage quitted.

Then there are the "chase" parts. The first one in a jeep, which is fine. Not much to say about that. But there is two bits where you have to drive around on a jetski. You have Elena with you who can shoot. Most annoying though, you can't do both at the same time. Well, you can but she won't aim for the enemies lol. You have to drive, stop and shoot. Drive, stop and shoot. It turns from a high speed chase, into a annoying dumb part that I hated. The second time this happens, you have to go upriver as well, so if you don't keep driving you float back. There is exploding barrels you need to avoid, and people to shoot. Where the first time Elana had a shotgun, now she has a measly handgun which means most enemies have to be shot multiple times, unless you can aim, which I can't do very well with a controller heh (even then, a lot of enemies have helmets now which means you still need to shoot multiple times usually). These parts were just awful.

Finally the final boss was very stupid.

Setting

This was the remastered version of the game, and I thought it looked pretty good for its age. The tropical island, lost city environments looked interesting and detailed. I did get that mystery/creepy vibe from them. The various dungeons are creepy as well. In terms of looks I thought the levels were pretty good. It's just very hard sometimes to know where to go. The artstyle is otherwise not very interesting so got not much more to say about it. Animation shows it's age, especially when descending stairs.

Music I barely remember, not much to say about it. It fits the setting, but was not memorable.

Other

No crashes in this game, but some weird physics bugs where drake does some weird dancing. The AI of the enemies also did some weird dancing sometimes. Nothing really bothersome.

Conclusion

I enjoyed playing this game in the end, otherwise I would not have finished it. The story was enjoyable, the characters were likable. Not many terrible bugs, just some crazy physics stuff sometimes. Gameplay shows it's age. Gunplay clunky at times, climbing puzzles pretty abysmal if I'm being honest. I was hoping there would be a bit more balance between puzzles/shooting, as shooting was definitely the bigger part of the game. Not sure if I would recommend it though. Not to busy people at least, there is better games to play. But if you have nothing to do some weekend, and you have this already lying around, why not, give it a go.

When I first got into the Uncharted franchise, I started with 2, because that is what I had on hand, and then went back to 1. I remember thinking, wow this isn't as good. Years later, with the remastered version on PS4 I wanted to try it again, and yup that initial impression fit.

Uncharted 2 +3 are amazing and I highly recommend them, Uncharted 1... ehhh

There is the glimmer of some amazing features that really shine in Uncharted 2 + 3. The climbing system, while not perfected, is largely there and works. The bright and interesting ruined environments, all there. Great soundtrack check.

However, gameplay, story, and pacing is where this really fails.

First, in gameplay, the core isn't too different then the rest of uncharted, but there are a number of issues. I kept getting stuck accidentally on cover and killed. The AI noticed me way to fast, pretty much the second I entered an encounter area, even while crouched moving behind cover. This meant I never got to attempt to partially deal with encounters through stealth.

The melee system sort of works, but the threat of enemies around makes it almost always a poor choice. The gameplay isn't bad, it just isn't good.

The story, again, the glimmer of what made later uncharted games amazing is here. Nathan Drake shines out as a likable character, who has a few charming moments. However, his supporting cast just are flat. And the villians.... terrible.

The core of the story is basically looking for Francis Drake's lost treasure/ El Dorado, and basically you are trying to beat people to El Dorado. Weirdly apparently Nazis discovered the treasure at some point, maybe a nod to the Indiana Jones movies that I am certain inspired this. There are some cut scenes, but not a lot happens in them.

And finally the pacing, this was the biggest and worst hurdle. Pretty much every encounter felt the same, collection of jungle ruins and boxes, few weapons scattered about, while a few waves of enemies come in from different directions for far too long.... There are some attempts to switch this up, but every environment looked and felt the same, as did the combats, minus the end with the ghoul-like humans, which added some much needed flair to the end, allowing me to push through and complete the game.

Overall, if you love, love Uncharted, maybe give it a try. But I would avoid this one as your first entry to the series. The second one is leaps and bounds better, and does just as good a job introducing the characters and themes of the game.

Being the 1st game in a well beloved series, I was overall impressed and left looking forward to seeing what's next. Nathan Drake and the supporting cast are great and well voice acted and also delivered some awesome cinematic moments. Gun Handling and some of the camera angles during climbing sections leave a lot to be desired but not enough to put me off the overall experience.

I just beat Uncharted for the first time, and I was lucky enough to not know anything about the game prior to playing. This game did a great job of introducing great characters and letting me live out my Indiana Jones fantasies, but the only thing I disliked was how many enemies were thrown at me. I think the game could have been improved if they added either more cut-scenes or more puzzles. I'm currently playing the second game, and as of right now it seems like the balance between combat and story is perfect.

Played on PS4

I started playing Uncharted, as part of the Uncharted Collection, on Saturday and finished it up the following day. Shorter than I expected. Not that this is a complaint, but it felt shorter than my memory of my play through of Uncharted 3.

I am a latecomer to Uncharted. I didn't have a PS3 until after Uncharted 2 was released. I didn't play Uncharted 3 until a few years ago when it was provided as part of the PSN Instant Game Collection. I enjoyed Uncharted 3 at the time. The mechanics were decent, the tomb raiding was fun and the character banter and dialogue were high points (especially all of the dialogue spoken by Drake, to himself, while solo). It was a fun adventure.

I received the Uncharted Collection with my PS4, and left it on the shelf for about a year. After playing, and really enjoying The Last of Us, I decided to delve into some more of Naughty Dog's post Crash and Jak and Daxter work. So, Saturday I started in on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Wow, this is a hard game to love. While it has elements from Uncharted 3 that I enjoy (primarily Nate's solo dialogue), the game has some glaring issues. Now, I suppose I should take into consideration that this game is nearly ten years old. I will, but I also have in mind that 2007 gave us games like Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Bioshock, so some games hold up better than others. Probably the most like Uncharted is Assassin's Creed in that they are both third person and involve a healthy amount of climbing. Both are also games that launched a series of much better games, but are themselves infuriating to play. That said, take the following with a grain of salt given the age of the game and the fact that I am influenced by ten years of improved mechanics in various other games, including those by the same studio.

1) Climbing mechanics are sometimes brilliantly fluid and, at other times, my worst nightmare. There are areas in the game where navigating a cliff-side, or climbing a tower feels quick, easy and graceful. There are other areas where the design of the environment not only makes it difficult to see where to head next, but presents a cycle of reach, jump. miss, restart. Uncharted may even beat out the worst of Assassin's Creed for wonky environmental navigation and frequent fatal plummets.

2) Waves of enemies. How many of these guys are there? My frustration with the sheer number of repetitively dull firefights was echoed only by the number of times Drake was audibly frustrated with the same. Seemingly endless gun battles litter the game, breaking up the far more enjoyable sections involving treasure hunting and puzzle solving. Thankfully, the little time I have played Uncharted 2, coupled with my memory of Uncharted 3, has reassured me that this issue was mostly left behind after the first game.

3) Hit boxes. Come on, did I really just get another head shot? How big are the hit boxes around enemy heads? I mean, sure, I'm alright at aiming, but I scored some seriously impossible miracle head shots on enemies that were undoubtedly over a hundred metres away. Which leads to...

4) What is the point of multiple weapon types if the best weapon is the pistol? The sheer ease of scoring a head shot means that I can quickly, and easily, dispatch all of my enemies with a pistol. If I poured bullets into enemies with an assault rifle they remained standing time and time again. However, one shot from a basic pistol takes them out in a flash. This is an area of the game that requires some considerable re-balancing.

5) The Sea-Doo/Jet Ski sequences. Enough said.

6) The final game play sequence. I came all the way here for that fight? No thanks. If I let it influence my rating as part of this write up, the final section on the boat would likely knock an entire star of my rating. It was simply not enjoyable. Despite its flaws, I enjoyed Uncharted up until this sequence. If I judge the game on the ending I would be hard pressed to award it more than 2 stars.

My experience playing Uncharted is still fresh, and my feelings raw. There was a number of things I didn't enjoy, but there was still a kernel of a decent game within. As I mentioned above I have started in on Uncharted 2 and am already feeling some improvements. Here's to less disappointment.

Drake's Fortune is far from perfect. The plot is super typical for a PG-13 action adventure, the characters are two dimensional caricatures that barely resemble real human beings, and overall it doesn't really bring anything new or interesting to the table story wise.

But somehow, it won me over. This game is fun as hell.

The whole game has a real cinematic quality to it, and while this wouldn't be a movie I'd really enjoy, it's way easy to get swept up playing it. Before I knew it I was on the Nathan/Elena ship and gasping at the over-broadcast twists and turns.

As a beginner some parts were difficult (second jet ski level, I'm looking at you), but the mechanics were pretty intuitive. Full disclosure here, this is the first game I've played on my PS4, which is my first non-Nintendo console in a very long time. So I played it on easy, and that was perfect for me. I'm a n00b. I'll own up to that.

Anyways, 4/5 stars. I was tempted to do 5/5 because I enjoyed it so much, but there's gotta be a little penalty for the terrible, dated tropes. I mean come on, 2007 wasn't that long ago, right? I was graduating high school then...

Shit, it's been a decade? Damn, I'm old.