(The photo is from Uncharted 2, buuuuuttt…) Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is in my PS3 and I am playing it a lot.
I need to say that I am only half finished with this game and that my final thoughts will come later, but there are a few things I need to get out there so that I can remember them. Now on to some positives…
The animation of the characters, facial expressions, voices and overall aesthetic is something that really should be talked about more about this franchise. I have an overall feeling of how Nathan works in the environment, what he will interact with or how is dialog will fit the situation on screen. The same goes for the other players, they all feel very real and believable. These characters are set up to tell an interesting story that is being bogged down by the gunplay.
At the beginning of the game, you are given a few puzzles and environments to traverse through with little conflict. The combat feels great at some times, which is entirely dependent on how many guys you are fighting on screen. The sweet spot is about four, when it gets more than that, you start to notice that you are no longer in control of the situation and start to make mistakes. It is too bad that some of the weapons are hard to use as effectively as you would like when confronted with a large amount of bad guys. Often, I would run out of ammo and result in using the grenades which were a pain to use because of the tacked on six axis controller functions. You would have to aim, then tilt for distance. It takes some getting used to, but right now, I am still not comfortable with it. The only problem with the combat is that it happens way to often. You are given a 15/85 mix of puzzle or adventure/shooter. That means that 85% of the time, I feel like I am not that in control, that almost every confrontation is a gamble to whether or not I will make it out alive. But in comes the games saving grace.
The cover system is needed and on par with GoW with me. I find it easy to transfer to other places on the map and hide in cover. When you are blind-firing, you can get it to work to your advantage as a distraction, but you can also zoom in and start landing in some head shots. This slows down the progression of the game, especially since I am not the run and gun Halo type. However, this ultimately creates another problem I have always had with the GoW games, which is the whack-a-mole gunplay. Basically, when combat happens, run up to cover, stay there, shoot when they pop out, rinse, repeat until the end of the game. Fortunately, the game mixes it up by adding other elements so that you always don’t feel like you are running through a maze and shooting guys. The waverunner segment was good, but when it came to completely stopping so that you could shoot whoever was bugging you, it started to show some problems. It wasn’t fun to ride the waverunner, it was just a new set of legs to make me feel like I was transversing the maze faster. Either let me shoot or let me drive, being both isn’t working for the game.
My eyes are getting heavy and I need to lay down, I will continue when I finish Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I can already tell that I will end up loving every minute of the game regardless of the combat flaws.
