Video Game Review: Uncharted Drake’s Fortune
Video Game Review: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007)
Platform: PS3
Developer: Naughty Dog
Official Website
Plot: Nathan Drake is a modern-day smart-mouthed treasure hunter (if Lora Croft and Indiana Jones had a baby, it would be Nathan Drake) who is the descendant of legendary explorer Sir Frances Drake. The game starts off with a bang: you’re in the ocean with journalist Elena Fisher who’s chronicling (and funding) your uncovering of Sir Frances Drake’s final resting place. But there’s a trick – the coffin is empty, to no surprise of Nate’s. Turns out Sir Frances Drake faked his death, and inside his coffin is a map that leads the way to El Dorado.
Suddenly you’re attacked by pirates. And not the Pirates of the Caribbean kind, but the modern kind. You enter into a duck-and-cover fire fight until saved at the last possible second by your partner (and good friend), Sully – an older adventurer with a smart mouth.
After analyzing the map, you take off (leaving Elena in the dust) to a mysterious island that the Spanish ransacked in the hopes of funding El Dorado. However, Elena makes it out there anyway, and the three of you embark on an adventure of epic proportions.
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The gameplay in Uncharted is duck-and-cover gunfire, fist fights, and platforming puzzle solving on a grand scale. The game is absolutely awesome, and the developers spared no expense in any aspect of production or development. They used stage actors for the voice capture and motion capture, so everything looks and sounds amazing. The scenes play out like something out of a blockbuster movie, and the score is on an epic Michael Bay film level.
Basically, everything about this game works and works well. The sequel (which I reviewed already) just improves upon what came before. Plus, they’ve already launched the trailer for the third game.
So why am I reviewing a game that’s almost 4 years old, you’re asking yourself? Because I just dusted it off and started playing it again. And even after enjoying the game that followed, as well as the games that have tried to follow in it’s footsteps, I’m still blown away by the thing.
I could sit here and talk about Uncharted all day, but honestly the best way to experience it is to play the thing yourself. With the game being a Best Seller ($20 at most stores), and available to rent at most video stores and Gamefly, it’s very easy to get your hands on this thing. However, it’s not a cross-platform game – sorry PC and Xbox gamers.
My recommendation: buy it.
