Pros: stunning picture quality and sound quality immerse you in this movie style video game
Cons: why couldn't Lara Croft look this good?
The bottom line: Games like this are why the PS3 and home theater exist! Or is it the other way around? Either way, this game looks and plays great!
Video games have come a long way. I remember being in love with a certain PC and Playstation vixen by the name of Lara Croft. When Tomb Raider first came out, the animation was considered cutting edge, and she looked darn good as she explored ancient ruins for long lost treasures.

Along comes Nathan Drake, the descendant of Sir Francis Drake, a long lost treasure hunter. As much as I loved Lara Croft, I have got to say this new PS3 game in the spirit of Lara Croft or Indiana Jones is now THE ADVENTURE GAME that sets the bar. I felt much more like I was playing in a movie than playing a video game.

So what is the game about?

Drake's fortune is what video gamers call a platformer. Although the game appears three dimensional, you are more or less pushed in one direction, making the game linear. You move from area to area, doing lots of jumping, scaling, hanging, climbing, shimmying and otherwise working your way about the massive sets that make the game up. Some mild puzzle solving will lead the way to the next area. Often time this seemed to involve shooting a conveniently located barrel of TNT to clear debris from a hidden door. The game I was most reminded of was Lara Croft's Tomb Raider.

The game is also a third person shooter with plenty of enemies to battle it out with. The game uses a duck and cover system, that allows Drake to hide behind objects in his environment, and lean out and shoot people. Aiming is easy, hit L1 to draw, aim with the analog stick and fire with R1. You start with a pistol, but soon enough you pick up AK-47s, shotguns and other assorted weapons as well as ammo to go with them. You'll need them too, right from the opening scene of the game, bad guys are shooting at you often. Aiming is quite accurate, and Drake can do pretty good taking out the bad guys. His companions aren't so bad either!

Finally, the story line seems right out of an Indiana Jones movie. Jungle ruins laden with puzzles, a long lost treasure, a book of secrets acquired by our hero, bad guys with guns, prop planes, shoot outs, and good ole fashioned fist a cuffs. Of course our hero has a lady friend, an intrepid reporter Ellie that he tries to ditch after the very first episode. Fear not, she returns later.

Control Scheme or Directing?

First, the look of the game is awesome. You see all beautiful widescreen action unmarred by health bars, indicators or anything else, unless you bring up options. The digital pad for example will let you switch weapons, select will bring up the journal of secrets. Otherwise, only the thumping of your heart and a fading to black and white will indicate that your character Nathan Drake is not doing very well. Like many games of this type, the left analog stick will move the camera, and the right will move your character. L1 draws weapons, then the left analog stick will target, R2 fires. O ducks for cover. Square will punch the character closest to you. X lets you jump. Hints will appear on screen to guide you through various controls.

Controlling Nathan Drake seems very fluid and natural, and after playing for just a bit, the movements seem second nature.

There are no load screens either, just fade outs from one scene to the next when the scene changes. In any massive set however, you play through uninterrupted until the action is resolved.

What sets UNCHARTED: Drake's Fortune, apart from other video games?

This game is yet another example of why PS3 really brings gaming to a whole new level. First, it is a game that takes advantage of home theater systems. I have my PS3 hooked up via HDMI cables to a Yamaha RX V663 Receiver and six Cambridge Soundworks MC400 speakers and a Velodyne Subwoofer. The game itself is displayed on a large 105" Da-Light Cinemavision Movie screen by an Optoma HD70 Movie projector. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a game that truly takes advantage of all that, and shows it off.

Video and picture quality Drake and his friends looked more like Motion Capture images than they did video game characters. When I saw Drake and Ellie on screen for the first time, I was reminded, not of a video game, but of the Philip K. Dick based movie, Through a Scanner Darkly. The characters truly look real. On a movie screen, video game imperfections are glaring. Perfection on the other hand, looks amazing. This gamehas quickly been added to my short list of games that look stunningly beautiful or.and stunningly realistic on the screen. (The list includes X-Box 360's Bioshock, PS3's Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, GTA IV and Assassin's Creed).

The look of the game doesn't just extend to the way the characters and environments appear either, the way they move and behave adds to the overall impressive appearance. No movement is herky jerky. Even on PS3, Nikko of GTA IV suffers a bit from that syndrome. I would describe this game rendering as fluid animation. Your 3rd person character moves naturally, not like a video character. In this respect, Drake's Fortune surpasses many other games. Lucky for you, Nathan Drake also climbs like a monkey!

Sound and audio quality Yeah, the game in stereo and its in Dolby 5.1 but forget that. This is PS3! I set the game to 7.1 LPCM. Yup, the audio codecs available on blu ray /ps3 games are awesome! Although only available via HDMI, if you have a system that can handle it, the High Definition soundtracks are the way to go. (for the record, with 6.1 a rear center channel is separate, with 7.1, it is sent to two rear speakers, I use one center rear). Sound truly is immersive in this game, and assists in game play. You can hear where people are by listening. Early in the game, you are exploring a ruins with your friend. Usually I could see him, and hear him up ahead of me. Once, when I lost where he was, he suddenly spoke and sounded like he was right next to me. His voice actually came right from my rear center speaker which is right between and behind my theater seats. When I turned my character around, he WAS right there behind me, exactly where he sounded like he was. Sonic detail is very accurate and detailed from the rustling of the wind, the sound of waterfalls and the hail of bullets. The 7.1 LPCM sound track really placed me right in the middle of my own Nathan Drake adventure movie, much more so than the newest Indiana Jones epic.

Replay Value

This game has plenty of secrets and rewards of outfits, weapons and behind the scenes stuff that you can unlock as you find treasure and earn medal points playing the game. These accumulate game to game.

Summary

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a game to get if you have PS3. It is truly a "show off" quality game that delivers both stunning audio and video quality and a very fun and immersive game play movie style adventure. I enjoyed it, my son enjoyed it, and I bet you will too.