Off the Charts
Uncharted is an extremely promising start to what could be the first true Indiana Jones-style adventure game, but it's going to take a little work.
Published: November 18, 2007
Uncharted did weird things to me. It had its way with simultaneous parts of my brain on a near-constant basis, throwing repetitive, limp-feeling combat sequences at me that had me screaming at the TV, only to introduce a cutscene that pulled me so far back into the story that I had to see what happened next. Clunky traversal would be mixed with simple-but-fun running/jumping/climbing/swinging bits that just felt right. And through it all, Uncharted repeatedly and unapologetically made sweet, sweet love to the graphics whore in me.
I am spent, left befuddled and unsure of exactly where I stand. I feel almost abused, like I was taken advantage of, like the game knew exactly what buttons to push to make me love it and then would work actively to make me regret it. In the end, Uncharted's infinitely likeable characters and pulpy storyline are just too damn good to pass up, but you will find yourself beaten and bloodied by the time it's all said and done.
Let's just get the bad stuff out of the way first. For a game that is really quite front-loaded with combat, you would think it could have felt a little more satisfying. Maybe it's a byproduct of this fancy-schmancy animation system that calculates and layers multiple pre-set animations on the fly, but the bullets never seemed to smack home with enough force (excepting the way a shotgun or a desert eagle could send someone flying 10 feet, mind you), and it felt like too many of them were necessary (again, with the exception of headshots, which were juuuuust difficult enough to not be a point and shoot affair).
Some enemies could literally take entire clips and still pick you off with their fancy laser sights with a single hit. It's frustrating as hell, leading to the screechy death note being played dozens and dozens of times before the game was finally over. A bigger gripe about the frequency of combat is that it happens everywhere. You're supposedly taking a path as guided by a never-before-seen document yet a few minutes into your exploration of secret passage not used in hundreds of years reveals... more pirates to fight.
There are definitely things that the game does right; the cover system is absolutely brilliant, allowing Nathan Drake, a man who thinks himself a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, to contort and shift his body to variations in cover. His weapons are nearly always changing because ammo is so scarce, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Enemies know how to use cover too, and are more than happy to coordinate attacks to suppress, flank and tag-team, all while dodging out of the line of fire just as your draw a bead on them. Melee attacks, too, are visceral and hit with plenty of oomph, leading to more than a few "hell yeah!" moments when frustration takes the better of you and Drake just runs up and wallops some poor chump.
Offing someone with a powerful attack not only ends them in three hits, but it causes them to drop double ammo. This is one of the key parts where Uncharted distinguishes itself from the game's that were clear inspirations, namely Gears of War/kill.switch, Resident Evil 4, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and by proxy Tomb Raider: Legend. Ammo management is absolutely crucial, and especially on the harder difficulty levels, near-constant shifting to maximize the few clips you have to thin a group of entrenched enemies is vital to progressing to the next little pocket of shootouts.
It took me a while to figure out, but the best way to move through an area was to pick off any approaching enemies, move up, lob a grenade if I had 'em, catch the one or two guys that ran out (or just stood there and blew up), and then charge in and beat the snot out of the last guy. It worked great until the last few parts of the game where everyone has a laser sight or a grenade launcher and suddenly moving up isn't really an option. The final boss fight was infuriating not so much because it was overly difficult, but because the flow of fights at the beginning of the game are more or less tossed out, with cover constantly being destroyed and enemies and one-hit kills that just feel deep. The end is ultimately satisfying that it all works, but the near-marathon battle coupled with some of the shootouts preceding it were enough to make my blood boil.
So the gunplay is a little weak sauce. The traversal parts, unquestionably lifted from Prince of Persia and the brilliant Tomb Raider reboot, are a little more solid. Yes, there are moments when Drake will suddenly make a momentum-changing leap instantly, but it all felt quick and fun, which is important. Naughty Dog clearly had a lot of fun with the traversal parts of the game, often wrapping bits of clambering around previous footpaths with the added scenic view of a couple stories in height separating them. Only a rope swing section on the outside wall of an old Spanish fortress gave me any real trouble, and these parts of the game are often the rare respites between the shooting bits.
I am spent, left befuddled and unsure of exactly where I stand. I feel almost abused, like I was taken advantage of, like the game knew exactly what buttons to push to make me love it and then would work actively to make me regret it. In the end, Uncharted's infinitely likeable characters and pulpy storyline are just too damn good to pass up, but you will find yourself beaten and bloodied by the time it's all said and done.
Let's just get the bad stuff out of the way first. For a game that is really quite front-loaded with combat, you would think it could have felt a little more satisfying. Maybe it's a byproduct of this fancy-schmancy animation system that calculates and layers multiple pre-set animations on the fly, but the bullets never seemed to smack home with enough force (excepting the way a shotgun or a desert eagle could send someone flying 10 feet, mind you), and it felt like too many of them were necessary (again, with the exception of headshots, which were juuuuust difficult enough to not be a point and shoot affair).
Some enemies could literally take entire clips and still pick you off with their fancy laser sights with a single hit. It's frustrating as hell, leading to the screechy death note being played dozens and dozens of times before the game was finally over. A bigger gripe about the frequency of combat is that it happens everywhere. You're supposedly taking a path as guided by a never-before-seen document yet a few minutes into your exploration of secret passage not used in hundreds of years reveals... more pirates to fight.
There are definitely things that the game does right; the cover system is absolutely brilliant, allowing Nathan Drake, a man who thinks himself a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, to contort and shift his body to variations in cover. His weapons are nearly always changing because ammo is so scarce, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Enemies know how to use cover too, and are more than happy to coordinate attacks to suppress, flank and tag-team, all while dodging out of the line of fire just as your draw a bead on them. Melee attacks, too, are visceral and hit with plenty of oomph, leading to more than a few "hell yeah!" moments when frustration takes the better of you and Drake just runs up and wallops some poor chump.
Offing someone with a powerful attack not only ends them in three hits, but it causes them to drop double ammo. This is one of the key parts where Uncharted distinguishes itself from the game's that were clear inspirations, namely Gears of War/kill.switch, Resident Evil 4, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and by proxy Tomb Raider: Legend. Ammo management is absolutely crucial, and especially on the harder difficulty levels, near-constant shifting to maximize the few clips you have to thin a group of entrenched enemies is vital to progressing to the next little pocket of shootouts.
It took me a while to figure out, but the best way to move through an area was to pick off any approaching enemies, move up, lob a grenade if I had 'em, catch the one or two guys that ran out (or just stood there and blew up), and then charge in and beat the snot out of the last guy. It worked great until the last few parts of the game where everyone has a laser sight or a grenade launcher and suddenly moving up isn't really an option. The final boss fight was infuriating not so much because it was overly difficult, but because the flow of fights at the beginning of the game are more or less tossed out, with cover constantly being destroyed and enemies and one-hit kills that just feel deep. The end is ultimately satisfying that it all works, but the near-marathon battle coupled with some of the shootouts preceding it were enough to make my blood boil.
So the gunplay is a little weak sauce. The traversal parts, unquestionably lifted from Prince of Persia and the brilliant Tomb Raider reboot, are a little more solid. Yes, there are moments when Drake will suddenly make a momentum-changing leap instantly, but it all felt quick and fun, which is important. Naughty Dog clearly had a lot of fun with the traversal parts of the game, often wrapping bits of clambering around previous footpaths with the added scenic view of a couple stories in height separating them. Only a rope swing section on the outside wall of an old Spanish fortress gave me any real trouble, and these parts of the game are often the rare respites between the shooting bits.