Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3) / 2007 Sony / http://www.us.playstation.com/uncharted /
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was developed by Naughty Dog Studios, the individuals that came up with Jak & Daxter, as well as Crash Bandicoot. One could logically guess that Naughty Dog would create a solid game with “Drake’s Fortuneâ€, and they do just that. The story behind “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune†is that you are Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter that is attempting to find a treasure hidden on an island. This treasure is related to the story of Sir Francis Drake, who is an individual that is some iteration of grand grand-relation to the main character. Â
The interesting thing about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (I’m not shortening the title to “Uncharted†as there are plans to make further games in this series) is the shift in perspective when individuals have Nathan do different things. For the vast majority of the game, individuals will control Nathan with the perspective being in the third-person. However, when Nathan pulls eir gun, the perspective changes and individuals enter into a 1st person shooter type of mode.  The shifts in perspective allow individuals to see the brilliant and vibrant graphics that are present in-game two distinctly different ways. Drake’s Fortune is decidedly game play based; while there is a story that is present throughout all facets of the game, it is sometimes just fun to work the different puzzles and shoot the hell out of enemies. Perhaps the best part of “Drake’s Fortune†has to be the amount of interaction that players can have with the environment. Individuals can take cover behind certain structures as well as actually pick off individuals in a realistic way from a moving target.
The cinematic scene, which approach the two hour mark, show what the PS3 can really do if pushed to its limits. While this seems to be a very small and unimportant thing, the facial animations that are present on the characters are some of the most lifelike I have seen in a game; apparently, this is part of the “Wrinkle Mapping Facial Animation†System, and it is something that should be used any time that there are human or humanoid characters in a game. With a tremendous amount of game play possible, I know that it will be a decent while before I am done with “Drake’s Fortuneâ€. Hopefully Sony and Naughty Dog can keep working together on this series, as I can see subsequent expansions and games only being better.
Rating: 8.5/10