Uncharted : Drakes Fortune (PS3 EXC)

[Fiach]

OK, this is definately a game of two halves, I'm not really quite sure where the devs were going with this, It's like Tomb Raider with more shooting, now usually, when you mix genres in a game, the results can be pretty unpredictable, for every Fallout 3, You will have 100 Spellforce games.

Does UDF buck the trend? Well, yes and no. Alot of the "no" part would be forgiven to a lesser developer, but when you develop a game at this level, you really have to step up to the plate, To do otherwise, is a disservice to your gaming audience, who's level of expectation demands more quality control.

Now, I'm not asking Naughty Dog to re-invent the wheel, but I do request that the whell I purchase be at least circular, with no flat bits.

Firstly lets talk about the shooting as the game leans more towards this genre than platforming.

The shooting is adequate, with the player using a third person view point, it's no better or worse than any other TPS, it never raises the bar. To say that the best weapon in the game (well to me) was the pistol, says alot about how "good" this game is as a shooter. The pistol is very accurate, initially it carries 40 rounds, but you get a better one later that holds 80, There are a few other pistols, but to get enough ammo for them on a continuous basis, is problematic.

I used the automatic rifles only when I had no pistol ammo, they were weedy and not as satisfyingly accurate as the handgun. There are shotguns also but they never come close to other iterations in different games. There is another weapon, I'm not sure quite what it was, but seemed to fire some sort of 1 hit kill, explosive round, I dont know if its in MP, but if so, I would reckon its the noob weapon of choice.

The method of aiming, is hold L1 and shoot with R1, which is pretty straight forward, this is quite serviceable, but at close quarters, its as if the target box in monsters is borked in some way as point blank hits refuse to register, especially near the end game, where you get swarmed by monsters.

On that note, if one of these monsters grabs you, you are told to shake the controller, I have no idea why, as it seemed to have no discernable effect, you were no less dead after shaking it.

OK, so the combat is servicable, but its TPS leanings dont come up to the standard of other TPS games, eg. Resident Evil, The Suffering etc.

The platforming is weird, I could never make my mind up about whether it was good or bad, I tend to lean towards bad, rather than good though.
I'm going to compare it with Tomb Raider, because that is the game it apes, more so than Ratchett and Clank or Rayman.

Tomb Raider is a very precise game, its pure maths dressed in pretty graphics, but at the end of the day, precision counts decisively towards achieving platform greatness.

UDF is sloppy, its sloppy in a very forgiving way, but in a way that makes very little sense to a TR veteran. If you fail a jump in TR its because you screwed up, if you fail a jump in UDF, its due to sloppy development. Most jumps in UDF, are just a plot device to get you from A-B, they are not there for exploration or enjoyment, you just press X before you jump, and land on the area where you aimed ..... mostly.

Let me explain, Platform games have rules, usually covered by geometry and physics, Naughty Dog breaks these rules quite frequently. Give us some examples I hear you ask, OK.

You are in a section which you traverse by swinging through a series of yellow pipes, if its not yellow, then you dont use it. Quite plainly there is a "Treasure" underneath you and a Yellow pipe just below your dangling feet, enticing you down to retrieve that treasure, drop to the pipe and ....insta death. The pipe isnt the way down.

There are some sections where you are on a platform and there is a brief cinematic, where the ledge crumbles and if you dont react, you die, but there is no Button prompt or QTE for you do interact with, its pure trial and error. Eg. near the start, you step on a wooden walkway and the cinematic starts, you die, reload, it starts and you try subsequently to jump towards all the cardinal points of the compass, to no avail..... nope the solution is to run in direction that is opposite the camera (like in RE, where you turned a corner and the direction controls reverse).

Another section, you arrive on a ledge that collapses when you take one step forward, I tried jumping in every direction, but still died, I had to check a walkthrough on Gamefaqs, the solution..... you have to wait for a precice moment, then jump, there is no clue to when that precise moment is, its just trial and error.

There are parts where you have to jump and the camera shows an angle that looks impossible and your character leans at a 45 degree angle away from the targetted area, yet when you press the jump button, he miracluously lands on the place where you didnt aim, but is the correct place anyway.

There are times when the places you need to jump are painted white, no problem, but as you jump in succession from spot to spot, I found on a couple of occasions that the most likely places to which you should jump, were actually skipped and you did this massive super jump to a further area, which shouldnt happen at this level of developement.

Puzzles were OK, but I came across a doozy! You are in a room, your clue is II, V and VII, you see plate markers with lots of  other different roman numerals, they all have direction arrows on them, logic would dictate that you only follow the arrows, on plates II V and VII, which works up to a point, then inexplicably to get to the next area you have to use a jump at a plate with III on it, which was counter-intuitave, as it had this horrendus blazing lantern that swayed from side to side and knocked you to ..... yup, insta death.

Anyway, I thought the game was pretty good, but wasnt sorry when I was done with it, I'm pretty sure that the new one due out this month will be pretty awesome as this game had the makings of a top class game, but let down but utter stupidity in the QA department.

7/10, even though the PS3 press gave it 9/10, it was probably because there were so few games to choose from, they figured what the heck, lets pimp this one.

Tomb Raider Underworld was much better, more epic in scope, with huge set pieces and great gfx and is the nearest competitor to UDF currently available and more highly recommended.

Fiach : Playing games, so you dont have to.

[Art Blade]

Thanks for that detailed review, Fiach  :-X

What does QTE stand for?

[PZ]

As always, I appreciate your detailed reviews Fiach!

PZ: reading reviews to avoid playing games

[Fiach]

Quick Time Events :)

The first time I encountered them was in Shenmue, sometimes something happens in a game and you will see a button or a series of buttons on the screen, which of pressed in time or in the correct sequence will (usually) avert some catastrophy.

The thing is, in the game (UDF) there is a QTE, where a scaffold falls on your character and you are prompted to press "O" to avert being killed, so the game engine can actually handle QTE's, so not to use them to escape the disaster cinematics I mentioned above is all the more puzzling. ???


EDIT : lol at the reading reviews to avoid playing games  8)

[Art Blade]

Thanks for the explanation, Fiach :) I don't recall any game I played had a QTE in it. Probably some console gimmick :)

PZ: reading reviews to avoid playing games

HAhahahaha  ;D ;D ;D :-X

[spaceboy]

@ Art:  QTE is a Quick Time Event - means a button prompt is indicated on the screen to tell you what to do in quick fashion.

@Fiach:  I'd have to say it sounds like we played different games lol.  While clearly not the best game I've played I did not have the gameplay issues you did.  Also, being that it was released in 2007 - I'm expecting some minor issues to be cleaned up for Uncharted 2 next week.

Platforming:  I think I mentioned before that I prefered the platforming in DF vs. TR because you didn't have to be so precise (maybe I'm not a true platformer lol). My character seemed to know what I was trying to do and did it without making sure I took the precise amount of lead in steps to a jump in order to make it.  - I can still remember Lara telling me to back her up and try again  :D.   All I know is I died from falls considerably less than any TR game which means it worked better for me.  You mentioned "platforming greatness" and precision, but honestly TR has always annoyed me with requiring this precision.

Guns:  I agree the two main pistols were my favorites, but I'd say it's only more accurate because the automatics had recoil.  I did like the AK, and M4 automatics just fine though.  The other pistol you may be referring to was the Desert Eagle - only about bullets when you found one.  Great for one shot takedowns, use it - then pick back back up your main pistol.

Close up shooting:  I learned late in the game (the underground Spaniards) that Drake auto-aims quite well in close quarters so no need to use L1 to aim - just run and gun with R1 (you even get a trophy for it)  I had no problems with bullets registering on them.

Shaking off a "monster".   It worked for me.  You shake the Dual Shock controller and Drake throws off the guy -  For those who wonder what we're talking about they are most similar to the albino human- crawling on all four eat your face off kind of underworld dwellers from the movie "The Descent" I think it was.  Quite creepy, but my least favorite level of the game for that exact reason  :-[

QTEs etc.:  All of the QTE prompts came up when I was playing.  Also, the crumbling floors and bridges didn't give me as much trouble.  I can honestly say it may have only been one death on something like that until I "knew" what to do.

Puzzles:  Really weren't too many I thought.  The one you mention with the Roman Numerals was less a puzzle to me than just following around the paths that opened up to you (or Drake looked at for me).  Perhaps you were over thinking it - it was clearly easier than a TR puzzle (I liked that of course hahaha).  As for the swinging lantern - I'm surprised that upset you - that is a total TR moment!  I tried timing running past it and of course got knocked off, but after 3 times of that I said "Ah, crap..of course"  and dropped down to the ledge, scooted past and climbed up again on the other side.  That couldn't have been that frustrating to you.  But of course if you weren't enjoying the entire game - then you're likely to be more critical.

At the end I'd say probably an 8/10 instead of 7.  Trying to think back what I would have thought in 2007.  Anyways, just thought I'd give a slightly different viewpoint on some your dislikes on it.

Cheers mate.

[spaceboy]

looks like Art was answered just as I hit post...anyways, read my thoughts above

[Art Blade]

cheers, I did :)

[Fiach]

I never thought about the run n gun, but it was no biggie, I just roll dodged and ran to a corner and sprayed n prayed, but when I aimed against those albino things, at point blank they didnt registerany hits.

The only prompt I ever got was when the scaffold fell, none after that.

The lantern thing, well the lantern didnt upset me, it was the puzzle, it was counter intuitive, it references the book, where it has the three numerals, II, V and VII, there was no III mentioned in the clue, My problem was that to progress to the next area, you had to use a numeral that was not on the list. I just noticed we are talking about different lanterns, mine is just after yours, you jump onto a ledge that has a lantern swinging on it, your one is path II, when you drop down, it leads to a plaque that says III, which leads you to the level exit.

With regard to the platforming I seldom died, apart from the crumbling ledge cinematics, take the ledge for example with the pigeons, that is pure trial and error, there is no way to guage accurately when to jump, It could be that I am used to faster events like that in TR, where you have to press REALLY fast and I was pressing too fast, where a more relaxed approach would have worked better...... never had Lara tell me to back up and try again, if she did she would be picking up her teeth with broken fingers :)

My point was eg. The area in Bunker, with all the yellow pipes, one pipe clearly leads to the ground, its just under your feet, I saw a treasure there, so I dropped to the Yellow pipe, but Drake didnt grab it, he just kept falling, that would never happen in TR, which is a great game, its governed by precise rules, if you follow the rules, you have no problems.

With regards to platforming greatness, I wouldnt consider UDF as a platform game, its just a method of getting from A-B, where as in TR, its the whole ethos of the game. Like the guy having to jump to a platform and when you push the stick to aim his jump, his hands point at a 45 deg angle away from the intended platform and still he makes the jump, I'm not saying its hard, its just silly and shouldnt happen at this level of developement.

Its wasnt the eagle, it was a weird looking thing, it fires some sort of explosive device, looked a little like a flintlock pistol with its icon.

The "shake the Shock" never once worked for me, like never, on saying that I only tried it a couple of times and shrugged and just rolled around like in Ninja Gaiden with the "O" button.

I thought the game was pretty good, but at that level, a launch title, huge budget etc. plus huge scores in the press, it just didnt float my boat....... just read a review of U:AT, lol 10/10 cant wait to cast my jaundiced eye over that and review it :)

[spaceboy]

Oh yeah, I thnk that gun is the M-79 or something like that.  A little grenade launcher,  only used it twice I think.  If avail to take out a guy or two, fine but I'd always pick up my main gun(s) before leaving that spot.  You're right a noob weapon if in MP.

Well I have U2, U:AT, whatever Uncharted 2 lol  on pre-order and have been enjoying the multiplayer beta for both MP and co-op.  Standard MP basically, but beautiful graphics and some descent co-op imo.  Can't wait to hear what you think.