Supplier: SCEA
Reviewed By: Rogue5
Price: $59.99 (MSRP)

The humid tropical air of a South American jungle sticks to the moss covered rocks and vegetation lining the forest floor. It’s palpable, almost overtly so, but that’s the art direction that Uncharted developer, Naughty Dog, decided to take – wet, moist, humid, jungle environs, with greasy, sweat-covered characters, all rendered with high detail and vividly bright colors. Even sweeter, everything runs at a smooth frame-rate with a real-time lighting and shadows system worthy of applause. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but after making it through the adventure, you not only grow accustomed to the visual style but will probably end up loving it. Uncharted is arguably the best looking console game currently available, and that includes heavy hitters such as COD4 and Gears of War.

Speaking of which, the levels and game play of Uncharted can be described with surprising accuracy as a cross between Gears of War and Tomb Raider (with a dabble of Prince of Persia thrown in for good measure.) Jungles and caves are similar in design to TR, while dilapidated churches, mausoleums, and ancient cities look like they could have been ripped directly from Gears. Stop’n Pop shooting makes up the vast majority of Uncharted’s action with simple platforming portions dividing up the gun play and preventing tediousness. If anything, Uncharted performs these tasks better than the games from which it was derived by using an ever-so-fluid animation system.

The silky smooth movement applies to everything, including the decent hand-to-hand combat mechanics. However, because of how little damage Drake can sustain, you very rarely find opportunities that benefit from using your fists instead of lead. The fighting is rather simplistic giving you only two options; you can either repeatedly tap square or try to land a square-triangle-square combo, which is difficult to get the timing right, but finishes enemies off quickly.

While it’s not easy, when you do pull off a bout of fisticuffs it’s quite satisfying not only because of how good it looks, but also because it’s context sensitive. Sometimes you’ll push opponents into a wall before unleashing the fury, other times you’ll jump on their back and break their neck, or, if nothing else, you’ll just kick their ass where they stand. It’s a much appreciated addition to what would have otherwise been standard (and boring) melee attacks.

Probably the game’s biggest appeal will come from the believability of the characters, again achieved in large part by the incredible animation. Nathan Drake, the protagonist that you control, moves in and out of cover, jumps across large gaps, and scales brick walls with understated realism. After spending some time with Drake, you’ll quickly realize he isn’t the pompous, wisecracking, smartass his hair-style suggests he is, but rather just a guy looking out for his friends (although he does have his fair share of wisecracks.) Graphical details, such as having the wrinkles in his shirt move as he walks or his clothes only getting wet up to the height they’ve been submerged, help to make him an even more convincing entity on screen.

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