Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Updated Hands-On -- The First Level

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is just weeks away from release, but for those who can't wait, we've managed to snag ourselves an almost complete version of the game to play through the opening level of the highly-anticipated PlayStation 3 game. But beware--we'll be going into mild spoiler territory below, so if you'd prefer to go into the adventures of Nathan Drake with a clean slate, best read up on our recent interview with Naughty Dog copresident Evan Wells instead.

Much like its console stablemate Heavenly Sword, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is aiming to be a highly cinematic game experience, and it shows this in abundance in its opening levels with several well-scripted and interesting cutscenes sprinkled throughout. For those who haven't been keeping track, Uncharted is an action adventure game which follows the travels of Nathan Drake, who supposedly is the ancestor of famed explorer Sir Francis Drake. The game's opening scene is underwater off the coast of Panama, with the camera slowly swimming its way through some thick seaweed before finally focusing on Sir Francis Drake's large coffin. The scene immediately cuts to the coffin now on the deck of a ship, and it's here we're introduced to two of Uncharted's main characters--Nathan Drake and reporter Elena Fisher. It seems that Elena's news organisation is funding a search for Francis Drake's remains, with Elena assiduously recording Nathan (on a Sony camcorder in a blatant piece of in-game advertising) as he pries open the coffin. When Nathan does open the box, the famed explorer's remains are nowhere to be found. In fact, the only thing inside the coffin is a smaller lock box which holds Sir Francis Drake's diary, something which the clearly elated Nathan obviously expected to find.

The elation doesn't last, however, as pirates in speedboats (that's modern-day pirates, not the Jack Sparrow kind) suddenly attack en masse. It's now that players will get to first control Nathan as he fights off the pirates, with on-screen instructions appearing to tutor gamers on the controls. Nathan can use a variety of weapons as well as duke it out melee-style, with the game's gun play heavily leaning towards the cover-and-shoot model. The circle button is used to take cover (thankfully there are plenty of wooden crates on the ship's deck to hide behind), with the L1 button used for aiming and R1 used to fire. If you're behind cover, pressing L1 will cause Nathan to pop up, while taking your finger off L1 will cause him to take cover again. Pressing R1 while in cover will make Nathan blind-fire. The pirates in this opening level are pretty easy, taking only two shots or so to finish off. If Nathan gets close enough, he can also melee attack, which is done using combinations of the square and triangle buttons. Pressing square five times in a row, for example, will see Nathan grab an opponent and continually pummel them in the stomach. A square, triangle, square combo will see Nathan punch, kick, then uppercut an opponent.

After defeating several waves of pirates--some of which have managed to actually board the ship--a new enemy speedboat arrives on the scene armed with a machine gun turret and an RPG-wielding pirate. Gamers will have no choice but to seek cover as the heavily-armed speedboat circles. Help arrives quickly, however, in the form of Nathan's offsider Sullivan, who rushes into the scene flying a large sea plane. Sullivan--or Sully, as Nathan calls him--flies low and uses the plane's turbulence to tip the pirate boat over. Unfortunately, the pirates squeeze in one last rocket which takes out some fuel tanks on Nathan's ship, causing it to catch fire and forcing Nathan and Elena to jump overboard. In the following cutscene, Nathan and Elena swim to Sully's sea plane, where Nathan shows Sully the newly-acquired diary. Inside is what looks to be part of a map to the fabled city of gold--El Dorado.

Uncharted's opening level offers a taste of what Uncharted looks like offering in abundance--an enjoyable action-adventure with intuitive controls backed up by a compelling storyline. The cover system works quite well, and it's clear right off the bat that taking intelligent cover will be an extremely important skill to master in Uncharted. While hand-to-hand combat seems well implemented, it looks like something which gamers will use mostly as a last resort as even in this opening level, opponents would often block attacks (not to mention leaving Nathan open to gunfire from other enemies). And even in this opening level, the strength of the story, characters, and the writing shines through. For example, when Nathan tries to convince Elena to fight the pirates instead of fleeing, he uses the line: "These guys don't take prisoners--well, at least male prisoners."

But probably what's most impressive are the graphics and animations in Uncharted. Simply put, the game looks great, with plenty of fine detail littering the game world and the characters. Animations are also quite lifelike--pirates flinch and bob their heads when under fire, while Nathan sports a wide range of realistic-looking movements.

Check GameSpot soon for our full review of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Gamespot