Uncharted:Drake's Fortune (Full Review)
 

Okay I lied, I couldn't last until Christmas & spoiled myself to getting this game. After playing the demo every day, at least once, I had to admit I was hooked.

The game is beautiful, and the animation is near flawless. There are points where, Nathan Drake will slow down into a trot & isn't able to jump. However, story wise this works well & easily explained. However, on the realistic side you know the game is loading the levels.

Combat is even more complicated than I thought, considering the demo. There's the ability to run & gun, where Nate auto-aims. You've got fisticuffs, and at least two combos to use. You can switch to a first person view, complete with reticule, which is something best done behind cover. Finally, and this is something I learned late in the game, you can also stay completely behind cover & fire blindly (just holding you gun around the edge).

Not exactly easy to aim, but a neat feature.

Gameplay kinda feels like Ico/Shadow of the Colossus with guns (except without big bad bosses). There are a number of times where you've got to puzzle solve how to advance in the enviorment. You can also use it to your advantage in combat. I especially like attacking while cliff hanging (preferably someplace that actually has ground beneath it).

Story. Pretty good overall, but there are some either plot holes, or things that could've used better explanation. Fer instance, I have a hard time believing that just 1 cargo vessel brought all the jeeps, trucks, ATVs, troops & equipment. Also, I question the occasional odd placement of equipment trucks (in areas that appear to be boxed in), and machine gun mounts (because guarding a sewer is so essentially important. Plus, I've got a bit of an issue with the breadcrumb trail that gets Nate Drake to the island. (I mean, it isn't entirely clear as to why Sir Francis Drake would have his descendants go to the island. On the PS3 forum, some have suggested that Francis Drake gathered the information from the Spanish, before heading out to the island, and learning of the danger. However, I wish that would've been better explained.)

Overall, a great game with a lot of replay value. Why is that, you may ask? Well in those numerous times I replayed the demo, each time was different. Same goes for the actual game, plus you can unlock the ability to mirror the game's levels, creating for more variety. I'd compare it favorably with Jak II, in terms of my favorite games.

SWB

Im still debating between this and Assasin's Creed for when I get my PS3 this weekend.

I'm a 360 owner and Creed owns on that system. So i'm sure it's good for the ps3 as well, on the other hand... the Shadow of the Collossus refference sparked my interest, if they make a ps3 version of that game... I will buy a ps3 that day. :D

Given Brian's recent review of AC, I'm thinking that Drake's fortune might be the better option. Not that I'm not planning on getting AC eventually, but its something that wait for me.

SWB

I could always get both, I mean I only have 1800 fuggin dollars.

they DO get them AND extra rumble controllers... i mean, good god man you can actually have all the good games of the PS3 (Ratchet and Clank are in there too)

Uhm, unless I'm mistaken the PS3 rumble controllers don't hit the states until 2008. I mean, yes you can import them, but other than PS2 titles, I don't know if anything PS3 has the feature put in just yet.

SWB

I just wanna know, is it true that the framerate will drop during combat?

Holy crap, if the full game is even half as fun as the demo, I am sold.

Not that I noticed, well except when you intentionally switch on slow-mo (& you can only unlock that... well I'm not entirely sure, after you win enough medals, I suppose). And I played straight until the end. There is a tendency towards waves of baddies, so maybe that's how they eliminated the slowdown, by limiting the number of opponents to X amount.

And the game is twice the fun of the demo, and is 22 chapters long. And the chapter you play in the demo? That's only 2/3rds of the chapter. And that's one of the shorter ones.

SWB

Waht weapons can you get. Ive seen grenades, a pistol, an AK and a shotgun, can you get a sniper rifle?