Naughty Dog created a spectacular, yet flawed, game in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (released in 2007). While the graphics seemed to take full advantage of the PlayStation 3 hardware, most critics had issues with texture pop-in and enemies that were able to take more bullets than a brainless zombie.
Honestly, I felt that the combat was atrocious, which made me rage quit the game within the first three hours. The feeling of never ending spawning enemies that can take multiple bullets to the head was enough for me to break my original Sixaxis controller. Good thing I had the money to upgrade to a Dualshock 3, right? At the end of the day, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune never reached its full potential. What should have been a cornerstone in the PS3 library (and bragging rights for all Sony fanboys) was cut short due to these limitations.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves arrives this week (Oct 2009) and once again Sony fans have the opportunity to rejoice. It’s the story of Nathan Drake, a fortune-hunter with a shady reputation and an even shadier past who is lured back into the treacherous world of thieves and mercenary treasure-seekers. So far, everything I have seen of the sequel gives me hope and issues I had with the first game seem fixed. What concerns me about the sequel is all the positive press and reviews UC2 is already receiving. I haven’t seen this much hype for a game since Grand Theft Auto IV, which I’d say, is a good thing for Uncharted 2.
But judging a game by a hype doesn’t always work. GTA4, while fun, deserves nothing close to the attention it got at launch.