7 Bit Arcade

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Never taking heed of numerical convention I approached this game not long after finishing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. If anything should be taken from this instalment it is how well tuned Naughty Dog’s sequel is. However looking at the original as an isolated product it is still worth picking up. For those unfamiliar with the series you play as Nathan Drake, a cheeky treasure hunter of sorts, in a third person shooter/platformer reminiscent of the Indiana Jones franchise. Nathan is voiced by Nolan North, a man infamous for whoring his voice through the gaming world, playing characters in other games such as Assassin’s Creed 2 and Dragon Age. But we can forgive his voice prostitution for the little quips he adds to the dialogue providing amusement as he makes observations on his surroundings.

As prior mentioned the gameplay is a mixture of combat and platforming. Drake can harness a decent range of weaponry with grenades, magnums and shotguns on the menu. Yum yum. When ammo is sparse (not a regular occurrence) hand to hand combat is also available but the presence of a dubious combo system is questionable. Fatal moves can be executed by mixing up the square and triangle buttons but you’ll find mashing square is all you really need to put your enemies down. Fisty cuffs aside, head shots appear to be the most effective method of retribution and are rewarded with achievements and general satisfaction.

Drake makes use of the objects around him for cover, useful up until you find yourself needing to leave the scene at haste due to an incoming grenade. Drake’s ability to dive between objects can sometimes be a burden, sticking to them when all you want to do get the hell out of there. You’ll find yourself diving around like a mad man until you fully grasp the controls but nevertheless cover points are essential to avoid taking heavy damage or a strong dose of death.

Like any game the controls take a little getting used to, the platforming ones in particular are a little fickly. The instance depicted to the left caused me to put down the game for over two months out of sheer frustration. The vine jumps provide my biggest quarrel with the game, in particular with the timing of them. I never quite worked out when exactly you had to jump to make it to the next ledge. Logically I assumed at the widest part of Drake’s arc, however this only proved effective about 50% of the time. Watching Drake ‘lemming’ his way onto the rocks over forty times in a row proved a little too much for my sanity levels and thus the game was abandoned for the PS3 controller’s own safety.

After the jungle growth related strop forgiveness was granted to Mr. Drake. How can you stay mad at that heroic jaw for long? Turns out that was about the hardest platforming element of the game anyway so its worth it to push through. I swung back and finished what I started and I’m glad I did as the plot took a few unexpected, darker twists which helped make up for the latter mentioned flaws. More enjoyable were the areas of the game away from the jungle setting, theres only a certain amount of well animated trees I can admire before considering taking up a career in deforestation. Though Uncharted boasts some pretty stunning visuals, the change in surroundings was appreciated.

The bottom line on this game is that it is inferior to its sequel, with a few dodgy controls, less cinematics and weaker graphics but that doesn’t mean its a bad game. Its almost unfair to compare it to something that didn’t even exist when it was made. Though weaker, the visuals are still pretty shiny and if you haven’t played the second instalment some of my prior comments about the controls will probably be less noticeable. Through its faults this game still has its charms. So its 3.5 Nolan Norths out of 5 from me.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

“Oh heavens to Betsy that train is hanging off a cliff!” one might exclaim after booting up Uncharted 2 for the first time. The game starts as it means to go on, plunging you into a high risk scenario, surrounded my mind blowing scenery yet chuckling away at Nathan Drake’s displeasure at finding himself in yet another unusual situation. Like many games of recent times, throwing the player into what appears to be the deep end is a great way to grab attention and Naughty Dog executes this perfectly. After scaling the carriage and making an impressive leap to safety the plot makes an entrance as time goes backwards to find Drake in much more pleasant surroundings.

These transitions from past to present are new to the series but more noteworthy of the opening scene is the real time cinematics, noticeably less frequent in the previous game. As you plough through, explosions and destruction in general is orchestrated to perfection, constantly keeping you on your toes, even on the occasions when you can’t actually affect the final outcome. Like its predecessor, the twists and turns in the plot are also top notch with even more bluffs and double bluffs to keep you guessing.

So looking back on the previous review the main question is whether the platforming has been improved. For the most part this is the case with considerably less falls to play on my temper levels. Actually so few were death inducing plummets that I actually had to question whether the platforming aspect of the game was now too easy. In a lot of cases I would have found it near impossible to throw myself off the edge even if I wanted too.

The combat also shows improvement on Drake’s Fortune with more negotiable controls for ducking round corners and a much more satisfying combo system. Also the gun menu is extended with grenade launchers and miniguns making excellent additions to the firearms feast. Stealth moves are also more regularly used and players will find a certain satisfaction to clearing a room of enemies undetected.  So fans of Batman Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed can give this one the thumbs up.

All in all, as well as the fine tuned controls the whole game is jam packed full of wow moments and is leaps and bounds ahead of the original. For fear of lacking critique I’ll say the platforming element is made a little too straight forward to the extent it doesn’t really feel like a platformer at all, more so just a plain shooter but a damn decent one at that.  However depriving Drake of moments where he is dangling over oblivion would suffer the loss of a lot of great humour in the game, and that just wouldn’t do at all.  So if you are in possession of a PS3 and don’t own this game then remedy the situation immediately as its 4.5 Nolan’s out of 5 from me.

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