If Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a rock band, it would be one of those black-clad, skinny-tie-wearing acts that rip off the great punk bands of the ’70s and look cool doing it. Equal parts Tomb Raider, Gears of War, and Indiana Jones, Uncharted does not have an original bone in its body and makes no apologies for it. As far as we’re concerned, that’s just fine.
The fortune in the game’s title is the fabled lost treasure of El Dorado. Our hero, the amateur fortune hunter Nathan Drake, seeks this treasure. So do some nasty pirates. Along for the ride is spunky documentary filmmaker Elena Fisher. Refreshingly, Drake is not your typical macho ‘roid-tastic video game hero, and Elena is not the big-breasted digital hot chick gamers have come to know and love. Convention bucking only goes so far, though, as they still know their way around a semi-automatic. And this is key.
For while good chunks of the game are spent exploring and solving easy puzzles and leaping from cliff edge to cliff edge, most of the time you’re just shooting lots and lots of bad guys and relieving the corpses of their weapons and ammo.
While Drake might be the hero of the game, its star is the lush jungle locales.
We have been assaulted with browns and grays for much of this console cycle, so it is nice to see a developer acknowledge the existence of other colors. Crisp blue streams wind their way through the greenery. Sunlight filters through the trees, casting shadows realistically. Clouds of mist hang over raging waterfalls. Dilapidated stone towers buttress ocean-side cliffs. You really just want to bask in the game’s atmosphere and visuals, but that’s a good way to get your head blown off.
It’s no small relief, then, that the shooting mechanic works as well as it does. Any fan of Gears of War will be instantly comfortable with the game’s controls. Choose between two guns with the directional pad, shoot with the right trigger, enter cover with “circle,” peer out of cover with the left trigger…you know the drill. As is the case with Marcus Fenix, head shots are key. Pepper the pirates with bullets in their legs, arms, and torso, and watch with mounting frustration as they absorb the damage like a sponge.
Lodge a single bullet in a baddie’s skull, however, and he dies instantly with all the panache that a “T” rating allows. Don’t expect the minions to sit around waiting to be shot, though. Sure, occasionally you will find a pirate who pops out of cover in the same place, but for the most part these are smart and agile adversaries who won’t hesitate to flank and surround you if you stay in the same cover spot for too long.
Breaking up the gunfights are some rudimentary platforming and puzzle sequences which, while not exactly mind-melting, do a good job of keeping combat fatigue at bay. Faring better are those instances where Drake commandeers a jet-ski or truck and is given unlimited ammunition with which to wreak havoc. There really is a fair amount of variety to Uncharted. None of it is anything we haven’t seen before, but the mixture of elements results in an overall experience that is fun and almost feels new.
What lifts this game into must-play territory is its sparkling presentation. The story is pedestrian but told with wit and verve; wisecracking Drake and Elena make an appealing every-duo. The graphics are stunning. The orchestral score is better and more memorable than that found in most contemporary action movies. The cumulative effect urges you to play just one more chapter in order to see what’s around the next bend.
All in all, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a merely good game delivered with absolutely breathtaking clarity of vision. It’s not the first good game made great by its technical qualities, nor will it be the last. And there’s not a damned thing wrong about that.
[Rating: 4/5]
