Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Reader Review

Disclaimer: I do not work for Sony, I am not a professional reviewer, proceed at your own peril.

I just completed the review code of this game, and I have to say I was pretty damn impressed.

What's it like?: Calling this game "Gears of Far Cry" would not be far off the mark. Slightly less martially inclined than Gears, it still has a similar feel to the firefights, what with the absolute reliance on dodging from cover to cover, and the hard-as-nails AI. It shares the tropical island milieu and some story-points with Far Cry, and they're both examples of games that are at the top of the graphical heap at the time of release. All in all, this is one hell of a game.

Proof: Not only did I stay at work until 1.30am last night to finish it off, one of my co-workers ALSO stayed behind, just to watch me play and see how the story'd pan out. He described it as 'not that different from watching a decent action-movie', and missed a party in order to stay and watch.

Caveat: It is fairly short; before yesterday I had completed 40%, and I played for 6 1/2 hours last night, so 10-12 hours is about right.

The Good:

• Amazing Graphics

• Very Satisfying, brutally punishing fire-fights, with some proper dodging and weaving from the AI opponents.

• Excellent story in the adventure-hokum tradition, backed up by some great voice-acting.

• Nice mix of action and adventuring

• Excellent control

• Never felt 'lost'

• Excellent atmosphere

The Bad

• Puzzles are too easy, most of the time the solution is handed to you on a plate.

• Jumping and dodging is context-sensitive (á la Gears of War), so you never feel like you're really 'making the jump'.

• Linear, you're never in doubt where to go (this is also a good point for this typ of game, I reckon).

• Hand-to-hand combat is underused and under-developed

In Conclusion:

I loved it; I actually (blasphemy, I know) enjoyed this somewhat more than Gears of War, probably due to the superior story and atmosphere. The first "must have" game exclusive to the PS3.