Review: Uncharted - Drake's Fortune

The subject of today's review is the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It is the first Sony Playstation 3 game I was advised to buy, so I spent the Best Buy gift card I received from Lucas & Lee for Christmas on it, and I've been playing it for many hours since.

Nathan Drake is a treasure hunter on a special mission. He is also a descendant of the great explorer Sir Francis Drake, and he has come into possession of clues from his forbear to a treasure of fantastic proportions. Unfortunately, the current Drake has enemies who want to steal his clues, and the treasure. And these enemies are numerous, and armed to the teeth.


The game is part "shooter" and part agility skills and part puzzle solving. The "shooter" part is clearly the heaviest, and it took me quite some time to get used to the aiming techniques which are probably second-nature to video game players a generation (or two) younger than I am. Still, at "Easy" difficulty, I did figure them out, and began the quest to follow the clues, kill the bad guys, and find the treasure. It is a very pretty game, even on a high-definition TV, and that certainly adds to the fun.

I had a great time! Oh, sure, some of the battle challenges were difficult. Eventually, though, I was able to improve my gun technique enough, and figure out how to shoot from cover effectively enough, that I survived. And though, early on, I could not see any reason to pick up a shotgun in place of an automatic rifle, I eventually realized the benefits of a single close-range blast (when the game took a very unexpected turn!)

Sometimes, when Sherry was watching, she called the game "Groundhog Day" because I kept doing scenes over and over and over again. Yes, these were typically battle scenes. And yes, sometimes I got frustrated. But a good video game cannot be easy, and this was not. I felt a nice sense of accomplishment when I finally won, and I am pretty certain to want to play the sequel.

After Fallout: 3, which Adam loaned me....