Busy Gamer News

Too busy to devote 12+ hours a day to your gaming habit? Here's a review that's sensitive to your needs: Short and focused on just the things that a busy gamer like you really needs to know.


Busy Gamer Review-
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Reviewed On: PlayStation 3.

Nathan Drake in a climbing puzzle

In a Nutshell: Uncharted is a neat mix of Tomb Raider-style puzzles and exploration and Gears of War duck-and-cover combat from the developers of the Jak and Daxter series. It's also one of the few really good games on the PlayStation 3 - basically, a solid third-person shooter with great combat mechanics, a reasonably good storyline and an Assassin's Creed-like climbing engine (though expect to fall much more often as Drake than as Altair). There is a nice survival horror style twist, and some of the combat moves make good use of the Sixaxis motion sensors - particularly the one where you throw off an assailant by quickly thrusting the controller forward.

Learning Curve: The game gives you the standard introduction to each new gameplay element, so if you pay attention you can throw out the manual and just dive right in. Even after setting the game down for a spell, picking the combat back up took only a little trial and error to get back into it.

The Save Game: The game auto-saves very often, and you can save manually as well. You do restart at the beginning of the nearest checkpoint, but they're so close together in most places that you won't lose much progress if you have to quit unexpectedly.

Family Factor: Teen and up. There is a lot of shooting and killing and, while not the bloodiest game on the block, it's not for younger kids. Play it while the little ones are napping.

Buy, Rent or Skip? If the game were even a few hours longer, this would be a must buy. Alas, you can get beat the 22 chapters in 8-10 hours and replay value is middling at best - so it's a must rent.

On a Personal Note: This is the section where I normally wax poetic about all of the cool unscripted moments in the game that really blew me away. There really isn't much of that in Uncharted. There are some climbing puzzles (prepare to fall a lot) and some cool water levels (accelerate your boat, stop, shoot, watch wicked cool ragdoll physics, repeat). But mostly the game is either highly scripted or your basic single-player combat shooter. My first pass through I picked up about half of the hidden treasures, and I didn’t feel compelled to go back through for the ones I missed. Did I enjoy the game? Absolutely. Did much of it stick with me afterwards (as it did with Oblivion, BioShock or Assassin's Creed)? Not really. Will I totally check out any sequels, should they arise? Probably, if I'm not too busy.

This is your basic "enjoy this game and move on." If you don't have a PS3, it's not going to convince you to buy one. If you do, it will keep you busy for a few days.