The Uncharted series has been around since 2007, nearly 10 years late, I’m finally reviewing it. There is something weird that happens nowadays when you hear that something is great, and you hear everybody say it is great. Either you want to jump onboard, or stay the hell away. Personally I think something is lost to me when I’m experiencing something millions of people have already experienced. The same goes to reviewing it, why review it if it has been reviewed a million times, and is all over the news. I decided to review it now because I was excited to see what Uncharted 4 was all about. I hate jumping into a game halfway, so I had to start from scratch. Here we go.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is an action-adventure game created by Naughty Dog. It released back in 2007, and has seen three sequels as of 2016. This series has been incredibly successful and revered as an amazing game by a lot of gamers and critics. The story revolves around a man, Drake, who is a tomb-raider type of guy. He loves danger, and hunting for treasure. Him and his friend Victor “Sully” Sullivan have obviously been on many escapades by the time we join them in this game. The treasure they hunt in this game is that of the mysterious “El Dorado,” in South America. Along the way they meet a journalist, Elena Fisher, who also has a thirst for adventure and mystery. There are many, many aspects of these games that I want to talk about, but will leave them for a huge review of the series as a whole once I’m done with all four main games. The best compliment I can give this game is that it is the start of something great. The things this game nails, such as great dialogue, are consistent throughout the first three games, (I barely started on the third). Art direction, and overall presentation of the game never fail to impress. As each game progresses and you jump between sequels, you see how they try to push the technology and story more and more. Sadly, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune fails in one of the most basic things a game shouldn’t fail, gameplay. The game narrows down to platforming in very confusing levels, where camera placement becomes the game’s number one villain. Half the time when you jump from one place to the next, Drake will make it to a ledge he obviously should not have been able to make it to. The second aspect of this game is shooting. You run, you jump, you shoot some dudes, you get a cutscene, rinse and repeat. Somewhere along the way you’ll get a ridiculous puzzle that is so easy it’s almost insulting. This actually plagues the series. I’m on the third game, and a lot, if not all of these puzzles consist of matching shapes. Yes, you heard me right, matching shapes, as if the gamer is a 2 year old with one of those little boxes where you match the shapes. Pretty crazy stuff, right? The shooting mechanics are broken. Simple as that. Also the cover system blows. I can’t remember how many times I died from enemy AI that was ridiculously accurate, and times when I tried to take cover but the cover system got me killed. Trial and error is the only way to beat this game, and I dare anyone who has never played it to try to beat this game without dying, let’s say 50 times.
Bottom line is Drake’s Fortune started the series off with a lot of great ideas, and some pretty bad gameplay. If I would have played this game back in ’07, maybe I would think the graphics, story, and overall vibe to the game was great. I doubt I would have liked the gameplay even back then. What influenced my score for this game the most is the game play, because as you know, a video game is supposed to PLAY well. There were times I literally wanted to throw my controller at the wall. The enemy AI is way too annoying, the cover system is horrendous, and the game becomes monotonous without the story elements. I love games with grand story lines like Metal Gear, even with broken gameplay mechanics, I kept playing this game only to see what would happen in the end. If you played this game and know what to expect, I wouldn’t recommend replaying it. Maybe watch the cutscenes on YouTube, and save yourself hours of frustrating gameplay. Still, if you like a good story, characters and some beautiful artistic designs in your games, you should still give it a try, but keep your expectations of gameplay in check. Be patient, and like I am right now, you will enjoy playing through these games and watch them evolve right before your eyes.
I give this game a: 6/10.
Reviewed by: Edwin R.R.
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