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| Source // Naughty Dog |
One of the first video games I got was Tomb Raider on the PlayStation. I wasn't terribly good at it, but the mix of action and adventure, of shootouts with dangerous wildlife and clambering up ruins, was a key part of the fun. On top of that, of course, you had in Lara Croft a main character that was more than likeable and impressively capable for the many challenges she would face.
She was originally going to be male in a game that would very much be Indiana Jones-like because the idea of a treasure hunting smart-ass is an appealing one. It's just that we didn't quite get a treasure hunting smart-ass until Lara had retreated to the shadows and the PlayStation 3 loomed on the horizon.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune follows the story of Nathan Drake as he attempts to hunt down El Dorado, the lost city of gold. He's not alone, though, and the competition isn't the type to want to put lost artefacts on display in a museum.
Limber up, because treasure hunting isn't quite what it used to be.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fond Memories
When Uncharted was announced in 2006, I can't say I was instantly impressed by it. I've just watched the reveal trailer and have no real memory of it whatsoever. What I do remember, however, was the sizeable demo that showed off all the cool features, not only of the game mechanics but of the power of the PS3.
Walk into a river and Drake's jeans would get wet, slowly drying over time in the tropical sun. Roll through the river and he'd be drenched, might make a quip about it, and drip through the jungle until all of that dried too. Technology! Amazing.
But seriously, I played that demo an awful lot before buying Drake's Fortune properly, and as a great many players were from that point on, the series was always on my radar.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Fun Times
So what's so good about it? The game opens with a cutscene of Nathan hauling up and cracking open the supposed coffin of Sir Francis Drake, technically no relation, but don't let that detail get in the way. Inside isn't a skeleton, but a journal, supposedly pointing the way to El Dorado, and journaling this discovery is Elena Fisher, a video reporter swept along by Drake's charm, and probably the promise of an actual story at some point.
As cutscenes go, the PS3 rendition looks quite dated now, the models looking flat and plasticky, but in terms of voice acting and motion capture, Uncharted serves as one of the front runners pushing video gaming forward as the next step in visual storytelling. Real actors acting in digital playgrounds, telling you a story worthy of a film or novel.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
But this isn't an animated movie. This is a video game, an action-adventure that requires players to traverse the environment, solve puzzles, avoid or engage with armed opposition and ultimately save the day and get the girl.
A plane crash separates Nathan from Elena, and what do heroes do in such situations? They crack jokes to try and psyche themselves up to overcome the difficulties they face. Nathan is free to make witty remarks about his predicament, often contextually related to whatever action is taking place. Through the cutscenes, he is shown to be the kind of person whose mouth gets him in trouble, be it telling white lies to get something done or insulting someone through a sarcastic comment. He is, in effect, more human than a great many video game protagonists, and is part of why he is so loved.
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| Source // Naughty Dog |
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| Source // Naughty Dog |
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| Source // Naughty Dog |
The other part is that he's capable. In the water, through ruin churches, on the back of a jetski... he may cry like a baby and panic quite a bit, but when you're behind the controls he will use those cries to spur himself on to cross impossibly large leaps, climb up the outsides of buildings, swing along cliff faces using nothing but a vine, and kill an awful lot of pirates and other bad guys intent on stopping him.
Uncharted is split into chapters which seamlessly flow into each other, but its gameplay can be split up further into sections of adventuring, jumping and climbing to discover something, puzzle solving with that something to open a route through or unlock something, and then finding that the bad guys have gotten the upper hand again and you'll have to shoot your way out of trouble.
You'll spot the climbable objects easily enough, and animation hints will tell you whether a particular leap is or isn't achievable. You'll also spot cover in seconds, Drake sticking to it like glue to give you the option of blind firing or peaking out to line up a proper shot with any number of weapons you've gathered on your travels.
If you're feeling particularly brave, and the arena you've found yourself in allows it, you can mix adventuring with action, shooting over or performing stealth takedowns from ledges, for example, and using your freedom of movement to get a better angle on your opponents.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
All of this takes place in some stunning locales. From the bright sunlight shining through the jungles or over ruined cities to the cold dark interiors of underground complexes and tombs, there really isn't a boring thing to look at.
To prove that point, I used the photo mode of the PS4 release of the Uncharted trilogy to take hundreds and hundreds of screenshots to make my own Uncharted-themed version of the card game Lost Cities. It's not cool that P2 usually wins Lost Cities, but it is cool that I've got my own version of it, full of memorable moments and quotes from the series.
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| Source // PlayStation |
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| Source // PlayStation |
And that's really what Uncharted is. One huge series of memorable moments, starring characters that appear to have walked out of normal lives into extraordinary circumstances, rather than generic action heroes with clichéd lines. Admittedly, the villains aren't as memorable as the heroes, but that may be on me rather than on the writing.
Frustrations
Though I must point out that Uncharted takes quite the unusual turn in the last few chapters. You're lead to believe you're hunting down treasure, trying to get to it before the bad guys do, but you eventually learn that the treasure isn't an entire city but a single statue, and the statue is cursed, and the curse has turned Spanish colonists into survival horror monsters that lurk in abandoned German U-Boat pens.
It's been a long time since I've played the PS3 versions, having most recently played the PS4 remasters, but I do remember the odd moments of frustration with regards to tough enemies or difficulty levels, and the odd moment of having no clue where to go. Thankfully, there's a nice little hint system that prompts you in the right direction.
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| Source // PlayStation |
Final Word
It is, however, hard to find true fault with Uncharted. Later games in the series will, of course, improve upon practically everything, but not to any alarmingly huge degree. It's not like they had to fix what was broken in Drake's Fortune, because very little, if anything, was.
With a little bit of everything to appeal to a wide audience, characters that you desperately wanted to see more of, and excellent writing and ad-libbing from the cast who are allowed to really bring everything to life, Drake's Fortune sets you up for bigger and better things in a series that continues to wow players.
I can't tell you in detail about how the actual controls work because the series as a whole exists in my head merged together, the games are so similar and solid in their offerings. Would they be tweaked for Uncharted 2? Undoubtedly, I'm sure, but was I aware of any tweaking? I certainly can't recall dreading the replay of Drake's Fortune for any control issues.
If anything, it's just that weird curse that is the downside of this first outing. It comes out of left-field just a little bit too much for me. It's a little too weird, in a story full of mysterious lost cities, ancient civilizations, and buried treasure.
Uncharted as a game and a series leans on what came before it - the Tomb Raider's and the Indiana Jones films - but it does it so well that these days that Tomb Raider reboots have taken what works from it. Games, and media in general, all influence one another, and there's no shame to it. Uncharted isn't a copy, it's an evolution, and a celebration of what we all like. A bit of this, a bit of that, an epic adventure and a likeable hero.
Maybe my write up of Uncharted 2 will go into more detail. The 1001 list is too old for anything after that, but you can bet they'd all appear on an updated list. Play Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Enjoy it. Play the sequels. Enjoy them too.
Fun Facts
Early reactions to the game obviously took note of the Tomb Raider inspired gameplay, nicknaming it "Dude Raider".
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog, first released in 2007.
Versions played: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, PlayStation 3, 2007, via memory.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, PlayStation 4, 2015.