Saturday, November 10, 2007

Game Preview: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune



First of, let me apologize to the PlayStation fanboys who got agitated because I left out this game from my November must-have games post. Frankly, I completely forgot about it. Now that the demo is available on the PlayStation Network Store, I will devote a whole preview post for it. Everyone can be happy now.

Nothing I had previously seen about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune had impressed me, and I mean nothing. It looks like Tomb Raider with a random dude in jeans who doesn’t know how to aim a gun. Well, that’s still my impression of the game, but having played it changes everything.

The graphics are very nice to look at, with fluid animations and lush rainforest environments. The water effects are fantastic, and Nathan Drake’s clothes get wet in a very realistic way. I don’t remember ever seeing something like that. Even the guy’s hair is amazing to look at. Another nice feature is the facial expressions in the cut-scenes. As good as the graphics are, I have to mention that Metal Gear Solid 3’s jungle environments are still the best I’ve ever seen.

The demo begins with Nathan and a woman on a plane flying over a forest. Their plane is shot down by invisible enemies and they are forced to jump in parachutes and land in separate areas. You start running around, getting used to the controls, and you’ll immediately get the impression that someone at Naughty Dog is a fan of Gears of War. You can hide behind walls and obstacles by pressing the circle button, peek from the side by holding L1, and fire your weapon with R1. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I thought I’d mention it. You can also punch and, of course, jump, as well as climb stuff and hang from ledges. The controls are good and responsive, but it sucks that you can’t auto-jump over anything that’s over one inch in height, like in Ninja Gaiden or even Zelda, but you do get used to it.

Shortly after jumping over a few obstacles the enemies start to attack you. Generic guys in dirty tank-tops start crawling all over the place like cockroaches, armed with guns, rifles, shotguns and grenades. Punching foes is easy and looks cool, but gunplay is awkward and a bit challenging. There’s no health meter either, so you have to be extra careful. Standing still for a few seconds seems to refill your health, though. So you shoot the bad guys while hiding behind walls and rocks, and then steal their ammo and weapons. Most of the time I got shot and didn’t even know where the enemy was. They hide behind walls and shoot you from high, hard to reach places. And yes, there are exploding barrels all over the jungle, like in real life. The demo ends after fighting some more guys, in a very anticlimactive way.

Since the game will be released on November 15 there won’t be any changes made to the gameplay, so playing the demo and the full game will feel the same. I can’t really say it’s a must-have, but it does seem fun enough. PS3-exclusives are few and far apart so that alone makes Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune a game to look out for.

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