Charting the...
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I borrowed the game and played it over the weekend. Spoilery review follows.
Not a bad game, though seeing "PS3 Game of the Year" on it makes me wonder what the competition was like that year. Good, but not quite great.
The story's fine - well portrayed and about what you'd expect of the adventure theme. The actiony gunplay is... functional, but not outstanding. Cover generally works, but manuevering while aiming and shooting isn't easy. Or at least it wasn't for me. The platforming is pretty good, but suffers from difficulty in some places when trying to distinguish a ledge from background decoration that definitely won't hold you. And falls mean insta-death in a lot of places, which can be frustrating.
Early on, the worst thing I had to complain about was when gunfire was tossed into the platforming. You just come off a difficult jump onto an exposed ledge or something and suddenly you're under fire from guys who have a bead on you when the reverse isn't true.
Then we get into the ruins and secret passages and such, and I started to feel my suspension of disbelief strained a bit. Okay, I just got through this secret passage to the catacombs and... I'm immediately attacked by half a dozen mercenaries. Well, gosh, this place isn't very secret if they're ahead of me, huh? As this kept up, and I got some achievement for 50 headshots with some particular weapon, it dawns on my that Nathan Drake has been gunning down people all across the island left and right. Literally hundreds of mercenaries (from a couple different groups, apparently) have perished, and they keep coming. I know enemies are "necessary" as part of the game, but... dang, the endlessness of them gets a little silly.
And then I get introduced to the zombies. Oh wait, sorry, "cursed Spaniards." That scene was one of utter frustration (resulting for me in perhaps a dozen or more attempts, and some screaming at the screen), where the slowness of manual aiming was emphasized and everything the game taught you about hiding under cover at range and picking off your opponents was thrown out the window as you now faced opponents that deliberately charge into melee and kill with one or two attacks. And, joy of joys, these most hated of enemies becomes the primary opposition for a few chapters. I'll grant that they were suitably creepy, but I truly disliked them for the sudden change in combat style they brought as well as their ability to spawn out of nowhere (climbing down walls, etc.). Developers seem to like to do this with monster/zombies in games and while it does add a bit of "OMG!" factor, it seems pretty cheap. The same can be said for Mass Effect's husks, or things I vaguely remember from playing a little System Shock 2 - yes, it's scary to have a monster spawn in an area that was clear and inaccessible, but can't a dead end corridor you cleared a second ago actually be a dead end?
But the beasties tapered off for the ending, leaving a show down with a bad guy who hadn't been built up much in the story, but was a reasonable opponent. All-in-all, not a terrible way to kill time on a weekend.
Not a bad game, though seeing "PS3 Game of the Year" on it makes me wonder what the competition was like that year. Good, but not quite great.
The story's fine - well portrayed and about what you'd expect of the adventure theme. The actiony gunplay is... functional, but not outstanding. Cover generally works, but manuevering while aiming and shooting isn't easy. Or at least it wasn't for me. The platforming is pretty good, but suffers from difficulty in some places when trying to distinguish a ledge from background decoration that definitely won't hold you. And falls mean insta-death in a lot of places, which can be frustrating.
Early on, the worst thing I had to complain about was when gunfire was tossed into the platforming. You just come off a difficult jump onto an exposed ledge or something and suddenly you're under fire from guys who have a bead on you when the reverse isn't true.
Then we get into the ruins and secret passages and such, and I started to feel my suspension of disbelief strained a bit. Okay, I just got through this secret passage to the catacombs and... I'm immediately attacked by half a dozen mercenaries. Well, gosh, this place isn't very secret if they're ahead of me, huh? As this kept up, and I got some achievement for 50 headshots with some particular weapon, it dawns on my that Nathan Drake has been gunning down people all across the island left and right. Literally hundreds of mercenaries (from a couple different groups, apparently) have perished, and they keep coming. I know enemies are "necessary" as part of the game, but... dang, the endlessness of them gets a little silly.
And then I get introduced to the zombies. Oh wait, sorry, "cursed Spaniards." That scene was one of utter frustration (resulting for me in perhaps a dozen or more attempts, and some screaming at the screen), where the slowness of manual aiming was emphasized and everything the game taught you about hiding under cover at range and picking off your opponents was thrown out the window as you now faced opponents that deliberately charge into melee and kill with one or two attacks. And, joy of joys, these most hated of enemies becomes the primary opposition for a few chapters. I'll grant that they were suitably creepy, but I truly disliked them for the sudden change in combat style they brought as well as their ability to spawn out of nowhere (climbing down walls, etc.). Developers seem to like to do this with monster/zombies in games and while it does add a bit of "OMG!" factor, it seems pretty cheap. The same can be said for Mass Effect's husks, or things I vaguely remember from playing a little System Shock 2 - yes, it's scary to have a monster spawn in an area that was clear and inaccessible, but can't a dead end corridor you cleared a second ago actually be a dead end?
But the beasties tapered off for the ending, leaving a show down with a bad guy who hadn't been built up much in the story, but was a reasonable opponent. All-in-all, not a terrible way to kill time on a weekend.
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