Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune Hands-on Preview

Tomb Raider is a huge success and this can largely be put down to a few key selling points. Yes, Lara is a woman and sports rather large appendages, but many of us grew up loving the Indiana Jones movies. While Lara certainly made the series her own, there’s no denying the link. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, a PS3 exclusive from Naughty Dog, is very much in the same vein. This time with a man as the playable character, we took the controls for a good twenty minutes of gameplay.

The first thing of note wasn’t the gameplay at all, but the game’s light hearted approach to story telling. While the hero is often in life threatening situations he doesn’t let it get to him, with cutscenes often displaying the kind of one-liners and comedy timing that Harrison Ford would be proud of. The full extent of the story and the range of environments is still to be revealed, but it’s likely that this adventure will take place across numerous large environments.

Jumping into the action things seemed remarkably solid and fluid. Your character runs and hops over scenery with beautiful realism that really has to be seen to be believed. Everything feels very Tomb Raider, but whereas Lara’s adventuring is often a little stilted, Uncharted feels far more organic. The main character features over 3000 animations, and each of these can be blended to create incredibly natural motion.

This is shown throughout the game, from the simplest of tasks like picking up ammo, to hanging from a cliff edge while shooting at the same time. Whereas most games these days feature a cover system that lets you poke out and fire at an enemy, the ability to do this from almost anywhere is a great touch. At one point in my time with the game I was running from a group of enemies and took cover over a small cliff edge. Not knowing it was possible, I whipped out my gun and proceeded to take out the enemies while still relatively safe from fire.

The game seems to be as much about action as it is exploration, but this isn’t a third-person shooter. During general movement the camera is fairly loose, as you’d expect in a 3D platformer, but when targeting the game switches to a more gun-friendly viewpoint. Certain cool moments are highlighted in what the developers are calling ‘Here Moments’ where you’ll be treated to a more cinematic viewpoint for a few seconds. It works well, without taking you out of the game for too long.

Environments in the game are large enough to allow for players to approach things in different ways and the weapons you choose to carry will also play a part. You can only carry a pistol and grenades plus a single secondary weapon at any one time, meaning you have to be a little picky over what you leave on the battlefield. Because of the aforementioned ways to get through each area, the team at Naughty Dog have put little signposts in, pointing you in the right direction. At certain points you can press L2 to focus the camera on a particular area of interest, hopefully meaning you won’t spend ages wandering around aimlessly.

As ever some Sixaxis motion control has been built into the game. Grenade trajectory is controlled by tilting the Sixaxis until the throw arc ends in your desired location and walking along narrow bridges often requires you to tilt the pad in order to remain balanced. It’s simple stuff, but works well without feeling tacked on and gimmicky.

There are many great looking PS3 exclusives due out in the final quarter of 2007, but Uncharted could well be the most impressive upon its release. The animation alone is incredible, but the detail in the environments is superb and the use of vibrant colouring gives the game a bold appearance that’s worlds away from the dour greys and browns we’ve become used to.

Going into E3 2007 I knew that the PS3 would have a good show, but with this, LAIR, Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank the much criticised next-gen console could well have a quartet of titles that Sony’s rivals will be jealous of come this holiday season.