My Top 100: #91 – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

2007 – PlayStation 3 (Naughty Dog)

 

It took a while for the PlayStation 3 to really find its legs after it was released.  Sony’s show at E3 in 2006 was unforgettable, albeit for all the wrong reasons, and whatever games they had worth remembering were buried under all the other terrible presentations.  Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter creators Naughty Dog had an ace up their sleeve, and though Killzone 2 was shaping up to be the console’s first exclusive to rock the gaming world, it was their trailer for a so-far untitled game that really got people buzzing…

 

 

*The trailer above was shown somewhere between “Riiiiiiiiidge Racerrrrr!!”  and “$599 US Dollars!”  Interesting to see now, how much better the game actually looked by the time it was released.*

Last Christmas, I had been looking to try a few really popular games, like Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham Asylum, to see what the fuss was all about.  As part of a combo pack with a PS3 controller, I snagged Uncharted: Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  I had heard that playing them was akin to playing an interactive movie, so that had me convinced I should check ’em out.

The game is part Tomb Raider and part Max Payne (minus the bullet-time), with some obvious homages to Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure.  Nathan Drake is a likeable everyman who seems to have amazing strength in his fingertips – most of the game has him hanging and jumping from one narrow cliff to another, with only the seemingly limitless strength at the end of his digits to depend on.  As improbable as it all seems, it makes for some intense platforming, to say the least.

The shooting action has you finding cover most of the time, since running out into the middle of a firestorm can get you all good and dead pretty quickly.  Any situation Nate gets himself into can usually be approached in a variety of ways, which definitely helps to keep the game from getting too monotonous.

So, yeah;  great cinematic presentation, great humour, fun story and intense action.  One of the best games in the last five years, no question!

 

Leaping from tiny ledge to tiny ledge… highly unlikely, but fun as hell.

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