Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – Review

Uncharted, one hell of a game 

Rating: 9/10

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Developer: Naughty DogPublisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Consoles: Playstation 3
Aus Release: December 6, 2007


First things first, the story: Written by Amy Henning (the creative mind behind Soul Reaver and all the subsequent games in the Legacy of Kain series) the story of Uncharted is some typical treasure hunting adventure fare in vein of The Mummy or Indiana Jones; Hero searches for treasure, Hero finds treasure, Treasure may or May not be cursed, Hero kills lots of enemies and saves world.


Derivative? Yes. Awesome? Oh hell yeah!


While it doesn't have the most original of premises the plot is well written, with some interesting twists and turns, serving more than just to provide cause and purpose to all the action.The characters, their dialogue and the voice acting is what really sells it. From the omnipresent Nolan North, to the ever malevolent Simon Templeman, all the characters are brilliantly played, not voiced, played: their actors also provide motion capture, adding a vast amount of depth and realism (two words which this reviewer feels are overused but he uses them anyway) to their characters.

Here Nolan North (Nathan Drake) and Emily Rose (Elena Fisher) act out a scene wearing mo-cap. 

The end result. 

Then there's the action:

From typical Jungle Japes and Tomb Terrors; dodging traps, finding clues, climbing and swinging a-la Lara Croft, Nathan Drake is one hell of an athlete. They never establish if this affable killing machine was some kind of special forces character, but really, who cares? The game is like a better (less embarrassing version of Tomb Raider, with excellent combat using a variety of weapons such as pistols, machine guns sniper rifles and grenades which are partially controlled via the PlayStation's motion sensors. The hand to hand combat is quite fluid to and Drake can easily go from running and gunning to punching the crap out of his foes.

Ok, who forgot the weed killer? 

The game also has a memorable score, with the main theme having hardly changed over the years. The music really adds to the game-play and helps create an epic feel as the player runs and fights for their lives.

Basically makes kicking ass that much more awesomely badass 

The graphics as you can tell are quite lush, having aged very well over the past five years. Like Naughty Dog’s previous games Uncharted is visually striking, averting the current ‘real is brown’ trend in games. That said, there are some clipping, screen tearing, and pop-in rendering, all issues which are decidedly last-gen. There’s also times where certain backdrops are clearly 2D, for example, in the jungle, looking out to the trees, the foreground is well rendered however when I gave the background more than a quick glance it was clearly a 2D backdrop.


The Jetski sections of the game, while fun, were lacking in overall polish; with the jetski feeling cumbersome to control and having to switch between either moving or shooting was a poor game design element. Although my biggest criticism of the game is this: it’s too short! Too fun for a 10-12 hour long game (shorter depending on player skill and difficulty).


Overall Uncharted is a fantastic game, a must have for any player. It’s no surprise that this modern classic is in the ‘platinum’ section of PlayStation games.

(P.S. All unlisted images found on the Uncharted Wiki) Originally written for and posted on Comikkazee.
Posted on the 11 of February, 2012