I've owned a copy of Uncharted 2 since shortly after it came out and haven't even touched it yet, although I spent extensive time with the multiplayer betas. Even though I've heard so many great things about how Uncharted 2 pushes the possibilities of narrative and character development, I felt I'd be doing myself a disservice by not touching the original Uncharted first. After finishing Uncharted 1, I would like to say that I'm totally ready to move on to the next game to see where this goes, and as a sort of goodbye to the original, I'm writing this review while my thoughts are untainted.
Graphics - 8/10
For a game that came out in 2007, this is still one of the most impressive PS3 games I've seen. While some people have dubbed Uncharted as "Dude Raider" or "Larry Croft", it has a lot more in common with Indiana Jones than Tomb Raider. The way the scenes transition to cutscenes, and then the in-game cinematics all combine to create an incredibly beautiful game. While some games might give you a lush jungle and fail at creating any other locations, Uncharted looks phenomenal at every single location you end up in. The high quality graphics don't just stop with the environments either; all of the models, while not as realistic as something like Heavy Rain, their animations along with the attention to detail (Drake's Half Tuck comes to mind...) help to make these some of the most life-like characters you'll ever encounter in a game. Unfortunately, even though all of the models and environments look great, it's a bit of a bummer that eventually, you start getting into firefights (which have some amazing explosions, by the way) with a lot of the same enemy models, which kind of ruins things a bit, but it's understandable. If every NPC had been completely original, who knows how long it would have taken for this to come out!
Gameplay - 7/10
Uncharted's weakest area might be in its techniques used to build tension. Adventuring through the amazing locales, taking in the sights, even the platforming and shooting are all incredibly well done. The controls feel tight the entire time, allowing you to go to whatever cover you need to, pop a few headshots, then move somewhere else. So if the core mechanics are as good as I say they are, how is it possible that this section gets a 7/10? First issue is the problem with how they set up certain battles. When you're walking through twisty tunnels in a cave and suddenly come to a big clearing with randomly strewn about boulders and pillars, you'll start to realize that this means there are going to be dudes pouring in from everywhere. It doesn't matter where it is, this always happens, and during these encounters, you tend to die a lot until you figure out exactly where that rocket toting soldier is, where the snipers are, and when the enemies that keep punching you to death are spawning from (tip: it's probably behind you somewhere). Also, the last few hours of gameplay introduce a completely different enemy, and while the change starts off as being completely welcome, it quickly grows trite when you realize it's essentially forcing itself to become a straight up action game, which isn't the best path for this type of action/adventure game and brings focus to the respawning enemies + arena formula that plagues the whole game.
Sound - 9/10
I don't think I've played any other game where the dialogue between characters comes off as natural as it does here. Every time I've heard someone mention either Uncharted, they immediately start talking about how much the liked the characters, ranging from the archetypes they represented to simple character design. The presentation of archetypes are mostly done through their dialogue and how well the actors did, elevating the scriptwriting from lines on a paper to sounding like believable responses for any of the characters during these harrowing situations. Fortunately, the voice acting isn't the sounds only strength; the soundtrack is incredibly fitting. In addition to every song being fantastically composed to create that treasure-hunting atmosphere, all of the songs are used at fantastic times. Last but not least, the weapon sounds are all distinguishable from each other during gunfights, allowing you to audibly tell who you should be avoiding or precisely where that guy with a sniper rifle is firing down at you from.
Overall - 8/10
While the whole experience is fantastic, it's a bit disappointing that some of the gameplay mechanics really do drag what would otherwise be a fantastic experience. To this day, all these years later, I've yet to come across more believable characters, and while the graphics aren't the best any more, thanks to titles like Final Fantasy XIII and Heavy Rain, they are easily in the upper echelon of what's been presented on PS3. Despite its flaws, Uncharted 1 is a title I highly recommend every PS3 owner at least try out and any collector needs in their library.
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