Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

PlayStation 3 Exclusive

Developer: Naughty Dog

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune features the adventure of Nathan Drake as he uncovers the tracks in the clues left by Sir Francis Drake 400 years ago. He searches for the treasures of El Dorado but what he does not know is that he will find more than he was looking for. With the help of his friend Sully and the reporter Elena, they escape a group of pirates, treasure hunters and mutated humans.

After acquiring the diary from Sir Francis' empty coffin and ditching Elena somewhere, they search through the remains in the Amazon river. Here they discovered a German U-boat and the group of treasure hunters led by Roman and his assistant Navarro who heard about Nathan's plans. Roman shoots Sully and Nathan was forced to escape. Later he met up again with Elena but their plane was shot down.

Nate was captured by Eddie Raja but Elena was able to rescue him. They also found Sully alive and who had chosen to cooperate with Roman and Navarro in the meantime. After escaping together, they explored underground tunnels and soon found Sir Francis' body. It was at this point also that they discovered that the island was populated by mutated humans who have been cursed because of the treasure -- a statue. Nathan finds out as well why there was a German U-boat earlier. He realized that Sir Francis tried to keep the statue in the island because of the curse. Instead of hunting for treasures, his task now was to make sure that the statue does not get off the island, just like what his predecessor did.

Nate had been separated earlier from Elena and Roman. They soon reunite when they were taken as hostages by Roman and Navarro. They finally got to see the statue for the first time, but they saw how it had changed Roman, who had been tricked by Navarro all this time.

When Navarro was about to transport the statue and Elena out of the island, the helicopter crashes onto a boat owned by Roman. Nathan has to kill Navarro and his men in order to stop their plans. Both Navarro and the statue fell into the water after the confrontation. The trio leaves the island.

***

I had a good time with this game when I played it several months back. There is a little bit of everything from wall-climbing, swimming, jet skis and cars. I liked how I was able to shoot enemies while driving. One memorable episode was Elena and Nate's escape from Eddie Raja. 

I enjoyed how I was able to fight both humans and zombie-like creatures. Meeting the mutated humans was like providing another level of difficulty one step further than the human enemies, which is good rather than meeting the same enemies who can be killed just like the previous ones. I was also able to use guns as well as experience hand-to-hand combats. There are puzzles as well as treasures to collect. They're not too easy or too difficult to accomplish.

The animation is one of the best I've seen. The jungles looked almost real and you can actually find several varieties of plants in the surroundings. 

I enjoyed the last boss fight as well. I liked the challenge in the last stage where Nathan has to time his final assault on Navarro without using a gun.

I never had much love for action-adventure movies or games but I enjoyed playing this. There's nothing really new to the story and I wish there could have been more fight scenes with vehicles. There are stages as well when there are too many enemies popping out of nowhere. It's not that it's difficult, but it's a drag. I'm giving in a 9 out of 10 rating because it's a lot of fun and it's one of those games that I can replay if I want to.