Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)

Well I finally got a new ps3 controller, which in 2020 is an extremely annoying and slow process mostly consisting of enhancing ebay images by 200% as you try and figure out if that SELECT label is really centered or a little to the right and therefore fake and therefore worthless. 0/10 would not recommend.

However, I did eventually manage to find a ps3 controller that was real(!) and i decided to get this game along with it because it was another one of those games/serieses that I wanted to get a ps3 to play in the first place.

And yeah - I kinda liked it, could it have been more innovative, sure, could the story have been more creative - of course. But this was just a gamey game, and while I initially found it a little tedious for the first couple chapters I eventually settled into it and for the last couple hours of the game I was kind of excited to play it and see what happens in the story. This was just a plain pretty fun game with a clear beginning and end. I seem play so many endless dungeon rouglikes on pc that just never end and so it was nice to have a more linear experience I guess.

I do have to admit though that I am again surprised by how overhyped a lot of the ps3 exclusives have been in my brain, I think I always thought this was like a classic amazing game that everyone loved and broke new ground. It might have done that in terms of graphics, but as a game itself it is definitely not that - it's just pretty fun :)

This is by in large probably the game I detested playing the most in the past several years.

Nothing works here, it's a complete gen 7 cover shooter where nothing is kinesthetically satisfying to do and all the enemies are hitscanners that pad out time with very little strategy other than stop and pop. There's entire sections built around going as slow as possible, especially the notorious jet ski bullshit. The zombie section is equivalently jarring as it is more busywork, not even doing a decent job of giving pacing to the enemy designs.

Every climbing section is a bore, every setpiece underbaked, this is Naughty Dog's concept game through and through and it's made up by design pillars all of which I just detest from the offset. Don't get me wrong, I love UC4 and they've managed to salvage the series from the next installment but this one is just so utterly awful.

I didn't even chuckle a single time to the banter, so uninspired and lifeless I felt myself in limbo as I crossed every hour.

If you are absolutely interested in the Uncharted series at all, you start from 2. ANYTHING is better than playing this one. (1/10)

One of the first video games I ever played to completion was Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube. To this day it remains one of my favorite games of all time and, truth be told, I've bought a lot of Resident Evil games--and horror games in general--chasing that same high, but to no avail.

So it figures that a game I bought with no inclination of chasing the RE4 high would be the closest I've come to a similar game.

Trade out the undead for mercenaries, the decrepit European villages for decrepit Peruvian jungle ruins and you're in the right mindset. Otherwise you've got some similar gunplay and similar puzzle-based elements (albeit being more platform-based with Uncharted); it would be unfair to call Uncharted a reskinned Resident Evil 4, but it's hard not to imagine RE4 having been a huge influence on how they wanted the gameplay to work. Hell, they even give us "press the button quick!" quick time events that lead to certain death if you don't succeed.

And while ammo-scrounging isn't a constant drive like it is with RE, the limit for how much ammo you can carry makes it pretty easy to run out of bullets mid-battle. And you can only carry two guns at any given time: a pistol (or other one-handed gun) or an automatic rifle/shotgun/sniper/etc. Deciding to use new weapons isn't so much about whether the gun in question is better, but how far you can get with that gun's ammo limit. But, much like with RE4, if you enter a room with a shit-ton of weapons laying around, you know something nasty is coming your way.

Anyway, while I didn't expect an RE4 clone coming into Uncharted, I'm pretty tickled that's what it became.

I'll preface this by saying I picked up all three uncharted games recently. I have never played any of them and decided to attack them chronologically. This game was not good when it was released and has fallen further with today's expectations.

Drake's Fortune's gameplay is dull and repetitive and can be summarised thusly; swing from this vine, jump up this rock, shoot the same three enemies and progress to the next vine, scale the next rock and prepare to battle the same three enemies again. What I found particularly frustrating was the ridiculous spawning of enemies, I'd be laying down heavy machine gun fire and blowing the same three enemies to kingdom come with grenades, then turning a corner to find enemies that must have heard the commotion but are still surprised to see me. Despite being taught melee combat early on, I don't think I ever utilised it. It seemed a pointless and redundant mechanic given the plethora of ammunition available from fallen foes. My defining memory of this game is crying "PLEASE JUST BE OVER" during the final cutscene.

The one redeeming quality was the writing, characters are likeable, charming and believable. There are a fair few funny moments with well placed one liners. Perhaps this is the only reason that the game was given a sequel.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was one of the first games I purchased with my Playstation 3 a few years ago. I decided recently to go through my games and attempt to either replay most of them or make a definite decision to get rid of them, so I'm systematically going through games new and old to give them reviews and log that I have them.

Uncharted admittedly gave me a very difficult time when I first played the game. After a false start about a year and a half ago, I decided to try to give the game another look, and was pleasantly surprised when I did. At the game's core is a third-person shooter and platformer that might best be described as a modern-day Tomb Raider, and in fact the newest Tomb Raider game is highly reminiscent of this 2007 masterpiece.

In revisiting the game, I found that the game's mechanics were far more comfortable after some rounds of practice, and the game's story was a wonderful blend of swashbuckling, intense firefights, and broad adventure reminiscent of much of postmodern film, including films like Raiders of the Lost Ark or National Treasure. Indeed, the former seems to have left quite an indelible mark on the development of the game's narrative and protagonist.

As such, it's a delightful blend of storytelling and gameplay, with huge set pieces that feel both unique and somehow familiar, and it absolutely has revitalized my interest in the series. Admittedly, I only have the first two games to explore and have not yet initiated a playthrough of the second as of this writing, but it is a remarkable piece of video game fiction beyond being an enjoyable game, and I greatly look forward to the next installment(s).

While only the most hardcore of treasure hunters will want to revisit the game for its gameplay, which admittedly has its shortcomings (it feels far too loose in 2016, although I'm sure it felt much tighter in 2007), its narrative is its true core, and thus it deserves a spot on any game shelf.

Had a very good time playing it. Its the kind of game I like: 3rd person, exploring different places, animations well executed, very good textures, beautiful abandoned places in the Caribeean and Aztec art, magical sequences like the one you go up a river using a jet ski, passing through a destroyed village.

The downside was the wave after wave of enemies. For me, this clearly served one purpose only: to pad the lenght of the game. These guys are everywhere. Even when you enter a tomb, hundred years sealed, the thrill of exploring a place long forgotten...nah, more bad guys. This is a design technique that's hopefully being retired on newer games. I don't mind short games, but I do grinding. Also, I did not like much the monsters towards the end of the game. It would be better if the fantastical element was totally out.

Interesting fact: in the beginning, when you land on parachutes, you walk a little and encounter an impossible situation: a lush cascade that ends...in a pond, That's it. Where's all the water from the cascade flowing? I don't know.

Overall, at the end I was craving for more. So then I started playing Uncharted 2 :-).