Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
Archaeology, hardly an adrenaline packed occupation, wouldn't you agree? If you answered yes, you clearly don't watch TV very often or are too young to have seen one of the Indiana Jones movies as they came out. Yes, thanks to the rugged archaeologist even a slow, boring and pretty much thrill-less job was suddenly on every guy’s mind. And while I highly doubt Tomb Raider had a similar effect on the female public, Lara Croft just reconfirmed that archaeology can be more than just digging up fossils and dusting of urns. Now, can the newest gun wielding archaeologist, Nathan Drake do the same, or is it time action hungry gamers got over archaeologists?
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune TV Advertisment The gold of El Dorado Well, I haven’t been entirely honest in the introduction... Nathan Drake isn't an archaeologist per se. He is more of a tomb raider/treasure hunter kind of troublemaker. Think Lara Croft without the breasts or Indiana Jones without the professor persona. What does that leave us with? Well, contrary to my expectations a witty, charming young man, who is smart enough to know when to quit but rarely gets the opportunity to do so in time. I highly doubt Nathan will become as popular as Lara or Indy are, but I grew surprisingly fond of the guy by the end of the game, something that can't be said for most of the new franchise characters (if Naughty Dog are smart we should expect a sequel sooner or later). But, as charming as Nathan might be, any lead character needs a good supporting cast to truly stand out. Just think how much better the last Indiana Jones was thanks to Sean Connery's appearance as Indy's father. Uncharted doesn't really throw that bit of the Drake family tree at you (it does however point out that Nathan is supposedly related to the English pirate Sir Francis Drake), but you will get acquainted with Victor, Nathan's mentor and long term "business" associate. With only this bit of information at our disposal (either via game manual or by trusting your instinct when Victor first appears), the game does a surprisingly good job at making both Nathan and Victor believable as close friends. As good a relationship they might have however, the game cuts it off early on (whoops, did I just spoil the "surprise"?) when Victor's debts finally catch on. This leaves Nathan running for his life when he bumps into a female journalist he in Victor just dumped a few docks back. Not too happy with that, she first thanks Nate for his kind gesture and then proceeds to run for her life with him. With a map snatched from right under the noses of Victor's enemies, Nate and Elena fly to an uncharted island in the Pacific ocean (or is it Atlantic, they are all the same tropical mumbo jumbo in games anyway), him hoping to find the lost gold of El Dorado and her happily shooting footage for her rather unpopular TV show. Rounding up the cast are some generic scoundrels, namely the evil, Hispanic version of Nathan, a cocky old man going after the money that El Dorado would bring and of course their countless hordes of mercenaries and soldiers. Yup, the story of Uncharted is as generic and predictable as they come. But oddly enough, due to the very well thought out character interactions (both during cinematics as well as one-liners sprinkled around the levels), the whole thing ends up being refreshingly fun and interesting to watch. I'm not lying when I say that there were parts of the game that I played through just so I could see the next part of the story (and the accompanying cutscene of course).
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