| Uncharted |
[04 Mar 2008|08:41pm] |
With the latest Mary Ann project back on schedule, I had some time to polish off my copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I got the game mainly to kill time, and was actually kind of surprised at how enjoyable it was. I thought, like most, it was going to be Tomb Raider with a dude. There was actually a much better combat system in place than in any of the Tomb Raider games, and a hell of a lot more combat in general. It was easily more than half of the game, with only a few (mildly irritating) bits of leaping around, shimmying, and room puzzles to contend with. But they were pretty straightforward. The combat system was much like that in Gear of War, and while it may sound strange to say this: If you liked Gears, you may like the combat in this game. It has more options for hand to hand combat, including combos, than Gears does, also.
The Bad
Action button sequences - For the life of me, I don't know how these things caught on, but they've appeared in so many games, and I hate them with a passion. I don't know why. I wonder if game developers started getting letters at some point, where ravenous fans began to beg for more cinematic sequences requiring rapid and accurate button pressing to prevent your character from dying, as opposed to, say.. more gameplay. There are only a few in this game, but they're irritating and stupid just the same.
Obstacle courses - There are just a few places in the game where you need to excercise extreme precision in jumping and other things, where if you're off by a few pixels, you plunge to your death. This is especially frustrating on a PS3 controller, which has much looser analog control sticks than the 360 controller. Often, the slightest nudging oopsy by your thumb can send your character flailing into the abyss.
Weapons - The pirate thugs in the game have an amazing resilience to AK-47 rifle fire. The M4 carbine seemed to dispatch opponents more quickly, oddly enough.
Cliche - Almost the entire game went by without any mythical beings, prancy unicorns, or other unreal crap, until near the end where hideous creatures which were once humans are unleashed, mutated and warped by the curse of El Dorado's gold. Bad guys are unoriginal and typical of most video games, and the good guys are only slightly more interesting.
The Good
Combat - Combat works in much the same way as it does in Gears of War. You can take cover and shoot around obstacles. You can blind fire your weapons and fire from the hip, as well as go into aiming mode to get a reticle and make more accurate shots. In addition, there are more hand to hand combat options than in Gears. You can do several combos, and if you're in a dead run, you can do a flying kick at anyone in your way. This comes in handy when you're running out of ammuntion during the parts of the game when it's raining men, and you have to somehow kill them all. There were many times when I thought I was done with a clump of enemies and as soon as I slip from cover, I hear more coming for me.
Room puzzles - I put this here, not because I especially enjoy room puzzles, but because the ones in this game were pretty straightforward and easily overcome. This allowed me to get back to kneecapping Indonesian pirates with a shotgun as quickly as possible.
I liked the game and if you're looking to leisurely kill some time with a few levels a day, this one wouldn't hurt. It's hard to discredit games for having unoriginal themes and stories, flat characters, and cliche goals, because I can't think of one single console game that doesn't have those. I think they've just given up and focus solely on gameplay, controls, and animation, and then figure out what kind of setting they're going to just slap onto it, like a superficial skin.
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