[Review] Uncharted - You either love it or hate it

Written by: Im a Goofy Goober August 7, 2019

Uncharted, You either Adore it, or hate it, or you might have some other unwanted option. Ever since the first Uncharted game was released back in 2007 by Neil Druckmann, Mark Cerny, Richard Lemarchand, and Hirokazu Yasuhara, I myself believe that it doesn't seem to get the attention that it deserves. I mean, from a casual gamer view, it may seem like it's just another shooting game, and while they're not wrong, they are not that correct either. But now I have a chance on telling you why. After all, that's the whole point I'm writing this.

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Story

As the game opens, treasure hunter Nathan Drake, accompanied by a reporter named Elena Fisher, recovers the coffin of his self proclaimed ancestor Sir Francis Drake, which he located from coordinates inscribed on a family heirloom: a ring Nate wears around his neck. The coffin contains Sir Francis Drake's diary, which gives the location of El Dorado. It's at this point where it becomes a race to find El Dorado with Elena, and his long time friend Victor Sullivan, and a bunch of thieves and crooks who seek the power that residents within it. Anything more from here would be considered spoilers.

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Gameplay

For when you are actually able to take control, it's pretty good. It's a shooting game with some puzzles thrown in as well, and I appreciate that, they switch it up. The puzzles themselves are really good and I myself have spent a good amount of time to solve them, and I think that's great, trying to solve it with what you already know, combining it with the hints scattered around, it just seems right in this game. You're only able to take two guns at a time, not to mention you are also able to punch and you know, fight, like how a real game is supposed to let you do, for the most part, which is alright I guess, you know, make it balance, but I will say that having to pick new guns up every time to switch them out is tiresome but as they say "Beggars can't be choosers" and I'm okay with that.

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Songs

As for music, you can't really hear it since 90% of the game is shooting, loudly. Though once you do get to listen to it, take some time to appreciate it, since some people did try to make it sound nice, and it is. You got songs like "A Bitter End", "Unwelcome Guests", and my personal favorite,"El Goddamn Dorado". It's all so good it makes me think of how long it took them to complete all the music for one game.

The Power of Protagonist

The main person of this story is Nathan Drake, a man with a backstory so deep they had to give him his own game, but that's not the point. You can tell he did some things before and probably will still continue to do it, but every now and again he has tried to do the right thing, even if there's no treasure in store for him. I just hope that the upcoming Uncharted movie doesn't ruin it for me.The only thing you can complain about him is how on earth does he know so much on all this Ancient Treasure. He would have to do more research than a simple visit to the library.

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Others

Other characters that I have already mentioned earlier are Victor Sullivan, long time friend of Nate's, and in order to understand that relationship you might have play Uncharted 3, Drake's Deception. There's also Elena Fisher, a reporter that tags along hoping for a good story, and to fully understand their love story because they have a love story, playing 1-4, will give you that understanding of that, and that's about it since everyone else in this game are not important enough, and also spoilers I guess.

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Settings

As you continue your journey you'll come across some areas that show the tone of this game, from caves to an abandoned ship, it's all out there, and like I stated before, any more could be considered a spoiler, but trust me, it gets good. Something I will mention that I think is clever is that is scattered throughout the game is that there are collectibles that are meant to represent the treasure of the game.These collectibles don't have a purpose for the game but it's something to keep an eye out for if you're hardcore gamer.

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Ughhhhhhhhhh, Alright, almost done.

Excuse me what? 😂

Development

After completion of Jak 3, Naughty Dog had to assemble their most technically talented staff members and began development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It was in full production for about two years, with a small team of engineers working on the game for about a year beforehand.The game was first unveiled at E3 2006. From early previews of the game, inevitable comparisons of elements such as platforming and shooting between Uncharted and the well-known Tomb Raider series were drawn, earning the title the nickname of "Dude Raider", that seemed a little unfair, but it was true. Back when I was like eight years old I saw the game through early leaks and hated it, now I look at it be grateful for what we have.

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The Issues

As perfect as a game as Uncharted, no game would be complete without issues somehow not being noticed while in the developing stage. One of these issues was the repetitiveness, it was exhausting having to constantly repeat the same shooting,climbing, no matter where I went in the game. There were times where I found myself yelling after repeating shooting segments over and over and I would mostly, always fail. Additionally, the developers recognize that correctly tuning enemies to capture realism was incredibly difficult. Developing the enemies began with the idea that each enemy would have to be a formidable opponent for Drake, but test players brought up that enemies taking a bunch of bullets before finale dying was unrealistic. Naughty Dog then tried to tune it to waves of enemies, which is why the game feels so exhausting: the player defeats one wave and then another wave generates in order to create difficulty. But this type of artificial difficulty doesn’t always equal fun, and that’s the case for this game.

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Fan Film

Lets just say for the moment you are interested enough to see it for yourself but you can't for whatever reason, don't fear, for there is a fan film here. It has the same aspects from the original games. Watching this will give the same idea on how the actual games are like, and i like to consider it a test to see if you're really interested enough to finish it.

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Finally

GAME RATING: 9/10

Overall thoughts

Yes this game does have its flaws every here and there, but that was the quality of the late 2000s, Sorry if this wasn't enough to make you interested yet, kinda made this up on the spot last minute ,but next time might be better. Back on track, you should definitely take a look at it, if you're a fan of shooting stuff, here you go, puzzles, it delivers. You don't have to look at it right away, but at least take a look at it

it has some elements I hope you are interested in.

Until Next Time, Praise Fruit Jesus~

Im a Goofy Goober

Rejoice! The one to inherit all powers across time and space, the only king who will rule over the past and future because he had nothing else to do! His name is Im a Goofy Goober. We bear witness the advent of a new age.