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Not your Average Joe

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 126 / 129
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nathan Drake is not typical of characters you see in videogames much lately. Nate doesn't look like he pumps iron, he won't win any sexiest man alive awards, and his unassuming ways make him enjoyable. Of course you may recognize the name Drake for the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake. Yes Nate is related to the famous explorer and now he is off to find the mysterious El Dorado(City of Gold). To say the least the journey will be unforgettable to most.

The story starts off more like a movie. On this quest you are accompanied by an attractive documentarian Elena and of course your comrade Sullie. What sets Uncharted apart from some many games is the cinematic approach is so seemless it makes it hard to seperate gameplay from movie watching. As your journey progresses you begin to realize you have many enemies. It seems Sullie doesn't live the cleanest life and borrowing money from a bad guy doesn't help. So now the bad guys are out to collect the debt by finding El Dorado. Although it becomes apparent that El Dorado is not a city of gold but a man of gold.

Without getting too much into the story it will definately leave you filling your aderaline need. The gameplay is incredible in this game. The enemy A.I. starts off slow and quickly progresses as you get further into this game. Enemies will actually out manuever you. If you don't plan out your attacks well you will find yourself dead. Although the battles are not the only thing you face in this game there are a number of puzzles that are not overlly difficult. What I do enjoy about this game is that it has a hint option. You can use it to help you in confusing spots. Although if you are more hardcore you will probably leave this option off. There are four difficulty levels and the toughest option is locked until you beat the game on hard. What is a first for a PS3 game is the reward system that is being used. There are 60 treasures that can be found througout your journey. On top of that there are objectives that you can try to complete. Some are simple like killing a certain amount of enemies with one of your weapons and others are more complex like getting a certain amount of stealth kills.

The visuals in this game are stunning and some of the best I have ever seen. What is good to watch is the incredible amount of detail put into everything. The jungle environments are lush and beautiful and the water effects are some of the best ever. Sometimes it is enjoyable just to stand and enjoy the beauty of the environment. Tree branches sway, clouds move, and leaves fly all over the place. This is as close to reality as I have seen.

If you own a PS3 this game is a must buy. To say the least it is one of the best games available on any console. The storyline is enjoyable and reminiscent of many great adventure movies. Uncharted sets a new bar on next gen games and hopefully others will follow with this excellent quality. If you like action and adventure and don't mind being the star of a playable movie then Uncharted should be on your list.

Uncharted is the Best Game Put Out This Year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 60 / 65
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Uncharted is the most fun I've had with a game in a long time. The game-play is flawlessly implemented. There is an excellent balance between fun platforming and third person shooting with the best cover system I've seen in a game. In my opinion the cover system in Uncharted works better than Gears of War.

Visually this is the best looking console game ever made. Hands down, no question. As someone who enjoys immersion in games, I've never had a better experience with a video game.

Have you ever wanted to play a GOOD Indiana Jones game? Well, this is that game. The world, style, and humor is straight out of Indiana Jones. So you have a game set in a world that is much like Indiana Jones, and it just happens to have some of the best game play I've experienced in any game on any console. If you own a PS3, you simply must buy this game. If you don't, I feel sorry for you. If you don't own a PS3, you should buy one to play this game, and pick up Ratchet and Clank while you're at it. You will not be disappointed.

Very good so far

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 45 / 55
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as I was looking for some PS3-only games, as I buy everything for XBOX360 if I have a choice. I started playing and immediately got a real feel for the adventure that begins right from the start.

The game looks amazing graphically, in fact, the PS3 shines thoroughly here in the way it creates exact shadows, and matches the characters mouths to the voices so you can almost read their lips. When Nathan takes a swim, his clothes darken and get wet and change appearance to show it. When Nathan gets out of the water, the clothes remain visibly wet. Not important at all, but an incredible bit of attention to detail. The old ruins explored in the beginning are gorgeously crafted and you can really feel the deep, dank, musty feel that they have. In the lavish jungle, the trees, plants and everything on screen keep an amazing frame rate and the visual pleasure that this game creates is utterly everything the PS3 is all about.

I haven't played through the game yet, so I'm a bit unfamiliar with all of the levels. The ones I have seen are not terribly long, so I don't think the game will take terribly long to finish. I hope that I am wrong, as I'd love to get further lost in the game play and story line that gets established right from the jump off. So far there have been traps to avoid, puzzles to solve and pirates to shoot at. I get a real Indiana Jones feel to the story. The game play has had me climb levels, swim distances, find treasures, swing on vines and all out become an adventurer, which makes the game feel a bit like Pitfall if it had been made twenty five years later.

Overall, I can only recommend this game so far. It's been an amazing journey and I've only just begun it. I'm usually much more biased towards my 360, but in this case the PS3 has been used perfectly to compliment what I consider one of this year's great games.

This our fortune

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 28
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I dont want to give out any spoilers, if Drake found his fortune or not. We found ours. What a fantastic game.

I haven't even seen a PC game as good looking as this one. Every thing lives and breathes around you. Water, Vines, Plants and trees every thing. This is what Next Gen is. Buckle up and be ready for a heart pumping action thrill ride.

Best Looking Console Game Period...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 26
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Aside from being THE best looking console game on the market, Uncharted is also some of the most single player fun on a console this generation. Some people simply call it Dude-Raider or a Gears of War clone, and while Uncharted borrows some of these games proven formulas, Uncharted is a game into itself full of action and better than the sum of its parts.

The gameplay is linear, but why would Drake wander off in the middle of the jungle to save a citizen or return a lost item to a small child. The story works and engrosses the player in an interactive pulp action experience. Coming in at about 8-10 hours, Uncharted is not the longest game, but once the game is over there are still medals and achievements to unlock as well as various treasures to find.

The AI is very intelligent, and at times frustratingly intelligent as they will flank you constantly if you hunker down in one place and flush you out with grenades. Nate, Elena, and Sully make Uncharted a can't miss game. The game screams franchise and is well worth the price of admission to enjoy....5/5

A masterpiece, THIS is what gaming should be all about

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 22
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is one of the most complete, immersive, and outright FUN games I have ever played. It is a remarkably fluid game, that transitions seamlessly from pulse-pounding action to epic exploration, all tied together in a fantastic cinematic style. The game is relentlessly entertaining and delivers the goods on EVERY level, with some fantastic twists leading up to a truly satisfying finale. It was with some regret that I watched the ending credits roll, but now I get to go through the game again! (It took roughly 12 hrs to complete on the "Hard" difficulty -- finishing on Hard unlocks the "Crushing" difficulty).

Gameplay is where Uncharted really shines. Since you are constantly doing and seeing new things (there are some truly dazzling set-pieces), there is never a "grinding" feeling to the game that too many action games seem to have these days. What surprised me most is the fact that not only does Uncharted succeed as an adventure game (you will visit all sorts of exotic locales and climb cliffs, scale walls, etc.), but is also a great action game in its own right with a well-designed and balanced combat system. The game features both gun-play as well as viscerally thrilling melee combat. Unlike the Tomb Raider series, the gun play requires some skill (there is only 'limited' auto-aim) and has a lot of depth. The different weapons are fun to use, and you are forced to make some tactical choices due to the fact that you can only carry around two weapons (plus grenades) at a time. The enemy AI is pretty intelligent and will sit back or aggressively charge/flank you depending on your own posturing.

The story line is well written and neatly ties the whole package together. Let's be clear -- the story is not the Next Great American Novel. What it IS is the best of adventure pulp fiction, rolled together with some faux historical intrigue a la the Da Vinci Code. Most importantly, all the characters in the game are likable and deliver some good laughs in the process. Note: the game is rated "Teen" and deservedly so - without any spoilers, there is some content that would likely be pretty disturbing for younger children.

The graphics and audio are top-notch and well-polished, which adds greatly to the immersive feeling of the game. The whole world feels alive - trees sway in the wind, fish swim in the ponds, ambient noises are well balanced by heroic in-game contextual music. Close attention has been paid to details: Nathan Drake (the character you play) will grit his teeth and mutter under his breath when bullets go whizzing by him, if he is too close to a concussive blast you will hear the ringing in his ears as the other sounds fade out. The level designs in Uncharted are also amazing. While the game play is linear (story-driven), the world still feels expansive and the architecture of the various ruins, castles, etc. are beautiful and allow for plenty of exploration (you can find treasures hidden throughout the game that allow you unlock various extras in the game).

The unlockable extras and the built-in rewards system make the game well-worth replaying as well. In summary, this is a terrific game that shouldn't be missed. I can't wait for Uncharted 2!

A more objective opinion

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 53 / 75
Date: January 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm going to try to give a more objective opinion here as I feel the game is good but has some annoying flaws. I'll try to break it into sections first:

Graphics: The graphics are indeed fantastic. The textures and detail are amazing. It's great to see a sunset in a game that rivals what I've seen in real life while in Hawaii. However, I can't understand why this title, as well as every other PS3 game I own, is in 720p whereas my XBox titles are mostly in 1080p. As a result there are plenty of sharp but jagged edges. This could also be fixed with decent antialiasing. There are also a number of times where the textures take a second to draw. So you'll see the 3D model untextured for a moment then suddenly the texture appears. Another problem, and probably the biggest and most annoying, is the small graphical glitches that resemble what hidden treasure looks like - small white flashes. Many times you think you see treasure only to find it's some small white rendering glitch. These things aside the game is simply gorgeous! They did a fantastic job with the scenery and environments.

Sound: Excellent!! Everything about the audio has been fantastic and I have experienced no issues with 5.1 surround sound. The music is great and atmospheric sounds do a amazing job making you feel in the environment.

Story: The story is also excellent. The search for El Dorado but having it turn out to not be a city but a large gold statue of a deity. Now ***MINOR SPOILER***.... where it goes wrong is where they introduce zombie/golem like creatures. Talk about taking a good story and turning it corny.

Gameplay: Poor. There are a lot of excellent aspects to the gameplay like the platform side of the game where you explore and jump from ledges and such and the shooter side which is really cool cause you can take cover, manually aim, have a good amount of different weapons, etc. However, the gameplay fails horribly in a number of areas. For one there's the fact that the "O" button doubles as roll and take cover. Later in the game when the enemies have laser sighting the only way to move to another location and avoid being shot it to roll. You will find yourself trying to roll to another location to get ammo and instead have the game duck you for cover IN THE WRONG DIRECTION leaving your back wide open to the enemies!!! This usually leads to you getting killed and having to restart the whole area over again. Then there's the camera. In a number of instances you can't turn the camera. So you may need to jump to something and not see it, or be getting shot at and not see where from till you take cover and manually aim, etc. There are also times where the camera will spin by itself into the worst possible position, this happens mostly while climbing leges and such but even sometimes while fighting.

Another gameplay flaw comes later in the game when fighting the creatures. They move very fast and even climb walls. They should've incorporated a true first person view like Halo and Quake so you can manage fighting them easier. In manual aim the character turns way too slow to keep up with their movements so the only way to fight them is run and gun in which accuracy is terrible, especially since you can't target anything specific as the only two stick controls are run and camera. It gets really aggrevating.

Another frustating aspect is how often the controls don't translate exactly as they should. As a result you will fall many many times in the game and it takes away dramatically from it's fun. For example, when you have to jump to a wall behind you you are supposed to push in it's direction and jump. When doing this you'll find he'll sometimes jump off at a diagonal for no known reason and miss the ledge and fall.

It also gets tiring fighting wave after wave of enemies, though that's not all that annoying. It's more annoying and bewildering when you're supposedly opening secret hidden passages that haven't been opened in centuries to find enemies there already!!! What is up with that anyway? You're searching for this hidden treasure, you have the book with the clues, yet the enemies are already everywhere you're going to! Nearly every secret area you unlock has enemies already there with lights and equipment.

Lastly, the game is waaaaay too short! It's only like 9 hours long. They could've made it a lot longer. Being it's only 9 hours long I cannot at all recommend *buying* the game. I don't agree with others that say it has replay value, other than to show off the graphics to friends. Once the story is beat and you know all the puzzles what's the point? So, I'd recommend renting it and beating it over a couple of days.

Where the game does shine is in excellent graphics, minus the jaggies, with fantastic cinematics that are truly engaging. I love how the game goes from cinematic right to playing. You'll find yourself at the end of a cinematic not realizing you're back to controlling the character which is really cool.

So overall despite it's issues I do like Uncharted, it was just more fun earlier in the game. If I could I would actually rate it 3 1/2 stars. I'd certainly recommend this title as a rental. It's far too short to spend $60 on.

Lives up to the hype.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wasn't buying into the hype for this game as I was focusing on Assassins Creed... Two days later I went to return the unplayable-glitchy-pile-of-digital-crap that was Assassins Creed and needed something to get the bad taste out, so I bought this figuring there's nothing better right now.

This game is absolute blast. I won't go into details - you can read them everywhere else. I'll just say that graphics are beautiful, story is engaging in an Indiana Jones type way, but the BEST PART: the enemies are SMART (I'm playing this on normal difficulty)! Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. Combat also requires thinking on your part - you will not be picking up 200 rounds of ammo of each dead enemy, so you actually have to think before you shoot. The cover system is also great. You can't just duck behind a stone, as the enemy will flank you immediately. You have to keep moving and constantly be aware of where your enemies are. Long story short - you can not advance in the game by just running down the middle in spraying hundreds of rounds of ammo - you will have to develop tactics.

To keep the game from being repetitive, there's a very big platform and puzzle element (although puzzles have been kind of easy so far). But all of this works really well.

In short, I would recommend this over any PS3 title that's out there right now.

I

The Game of the Year!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is so good it really defies explanation. If you have a PS3, you MUST buy this game.

Graphics: Possibly the best looking console game ever; Uncharted delivers in every possible way. Rock solid frame rate, textures that are incredibly realistic and animation that makes the characters seem truly alive. Details abound such as if a bullet gets too close for comfort drake will cover his head while he runs (while cursing). In addition, some of the later levels feature some of the best lighting ever in a video game.

Gameplay: Anyone who has played Gears of War will feel right at home steering Drake through dangerous situations. He can take cover behind objects of different sized with the press of a button and the cover system is the basis for combat. Gunplay unfolds quickly with enemies coming in waves. Aside from a couple spots where you may suffer a few frustrating deaths from aggressive enemies the balance is excellent. Hand-to-hand combat is one of my favorite parts of the game. The secret is in the timing! Some reviews have said the combos are difficult to execute, however if you pay attention at the beginning of the game it is made very clear how to execute combos. You must press the attack buttons in good timing you CAN be too fast. Drake will slam enemies into walls, knock them over ledges, head-but, cheap-shot and drop kick in situations when you are light on ammo. The platforming sections of the game (jumping from place to place) are also very entertaining and break up the action nicely. There are a few areas that are difficult, but for the most part platforming is relatively easy.

Sound: A beautiful theme and intense music during the game combine for some great atmosphere. The ambient sound is fantastic as well. If you don't have a surround sound system then get one and turn it up.

Replay Value: This is the one area that some people may take points from uncharted. On my first time through I got 12 hours out of the adventure. I take my time looking for the hidden treasures to unlock rewards, however. A realistic expectation would be 10 hours on the first time through. There are plenty of bonuses to unlock that will bring you back for more, not to mention you can jump back into you favorite "chapters" to blast a few bad guys on a whim.

Overall: This is definitely the game of the year for PS3 and maybe overall. No review can do the production values of this game justice however. The voice acting, art direction, cut-scenes and presentation are all so fantastic that it has to be played to be believed. Sony went above and beyond to help naughty dog make a hit game and the results are obvious. A game that people will talk about years from now.

Amazing game, and I'm a cynic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: November 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying I've been playing video games since the 2600-era in the early 1980s. I'm very hard to please, and the glut of FPS ("first-person shooters" for the non-geeks out there) has me incredibly jaded with the industry right now. Games that get insanely great reviews from the mainstream have generally been boring me in a matter of an hour or two.

Uncharted is, quite simply, the most fun I've had with a video game in the last decade. For those who play a lot of games, imagine a cover system like the one in "Gears of War", but implemented more smoothly. Plus a quality of story, presentation, and musical score like that you'd see in a big budget popcorn flick like "National Treasure" or "Indiana Jones". Plus the best platforming implementation since "Prince of Persia". I won't bother comparing Uncharted to "Tomb Raider" as many seem eager to do, as this owes virtually NOTHING to that series. Yes, Uncharted features a 3rd person perspective, yes, you're looking for treasure, but the similarities stop there. Uncharted is on an entirely higher level of quality and polish, and the controls, graphic style, and feel are totally different. It would be like comparing "Police Academy" to "The Departed" just because both films have cops.

The graphical quality of Uncharted is amazing. It truly is one of those very few games that actually looks better in action than it does in media screenshots and grainy videos. The implementation of light and shadow is by far the best I've ever seen. When you're walking under a tree, the shadows of the leaves play with the intensity of the bright sunlight as realistically as is imaginable. The indoor environments are similar with the behavior of torches and flashlights, especially towards the end.

Speaking of indoor environments, it's as if the developer and media have gone out of their way to limit what is shown in screenshots to the earlier jungle stages. As the game progresses, there are more and more indoor areas, and they become almost ridiculously elaborate and impressive towards the end of the game.

Which brings me to the end of the game. There are a couple of twists in this game that wildly change how you handle combat. The first involves a new weapon tactic employed by some of your enemies, and the second...I won't spoil it, and you won't see it coming, even with some brief hints before it happens. The entire atmosphere of the game takes a massive turn over the last hour or two of the roughly 10 hour play time. The intensity of things ratchets up to 12 on a scale of 10. You will love it. Whoever scripted this game is brilliant.

Final thoughts...As a long time player of video games, I laugh when people knock this one for its 10 hour length. That's plenty of time for an action/adventure game. The cut scenes are great, are rendered on the fly by the system, and have very solid acting and brilliant facial animations that capture the subtleties of emotion better than any other computer generated stuff I've seen yet. Also, once you start/load your save game, there are absolutely no further load screens. You could play the game from start to finish, with zero delay...everything flows together. It's highly impressive, and gets you hooked because there really isn't a "next level" to play to, aside from periodic chapter titles that pop up on the top of the screen...it just keeps going, non-stop.

How great is this game? I just "finished" it last night around midnight. After the credits rolled, without skipping a beat I found myself starting all over again on the next hardest difficulty level. Brilliant game. There have been a couple of media reviews giving it a mere 8/10, and all I can say is that it's clear these people based their entire review on the demo. This is a must-have title all the way.

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