“History can be wrong, you know.” Nathan Drake knows a thing or two about history, mainly how to steal things that don’t belong to him. Don’t worry, he is not that good at it. Mainly because he always tries to do the right thing and so loses what he came for in the first place.
Although Uncharted is not the first series of games for developer Naughty Dog, it did have a lot of big name competition when it was released in 2007 exclusively for the PlayStation 3. That year also saw the introduction of Bioshock, Portal, Assassin’s Creed, and The Witcher. Uncharted has since been re-released as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake collection on the PS4 and soon for the PS5. Graphics for video games have come a long way since 2007 and replaying the collection you can see the evolution within the first 3 games. There are some issues with the graphics and the game play can be sensitive. It is very easy to miss the edge you are aiming for and fall to your death.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is a third person shooter with 3-D platforming in an action adventure setting. Most Uncharted games take the player to 3 main locations and yes there is a boat in this one too. You play as Nathan Drake, a sometimes charming, sarcastic, antiquities acquirer with an insane amount of historical knowledge. Most of what you do is illegal but you also have the help of some well developed sidekicks who will actually aid you in a fire fight. The two main companions in this game are Victor Sullivan, your mentor and Elena Fisher, a reporter who is funding the trip to find Sir Francis Drake’s coffin buried at sea. You find the coffin but the only thing in it is a journal which leads you, Sully and Elena on a dangerous journey to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold. Of course the three of you are not the only ones looking for this treasure. This leads us to our antagonists. Bad guy number 1 is Gabriel Roman who your friend Sully owes money to and is an older British man and bad guy 2 is his associate, a younger South American man named Navarro. There is also a third antagonist but Eddy is always late to everything and although not a nice guy, is more comic relief than menace. It also would not be an uncharted game if we did not also face off with some mysterious creatures who are really hard to kill. I recommend the shotgun
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Uncharted has been a favorite series of mine not only for its story, characters, writing, and performances from the voice actors but also because of the beautiful score composed by Greg Edmonson. Similar to large movie scores, this soundtrack makes you feel like the adventure is bigger than just your living room. Uncharted Drake’s Fortune was directed by Amy Hennig who was also one of its principal writers. I was glad to see her continue with the series to help develop and bring in new strong female characters. These are women who don’t need to be saved but are often there to save our hero. Drake is such a strong character within himself he needs to be pushed and countered by those around him, especially Elena. As Sully says, “You two have a funny idea of romantic.” As long as that romance doesn’t take me back to jet skiing rapids while being shot at and dodging explosive barrels, it is my kind of idea of romantic too.
Interest/Intrigue-9
Game feel-7
Atmosphere/ Aesthetic-8
Value-replayability was it worth buying-8
Enjoyment-10
Accessibility-6
Score=8
By: Elise Jossart
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