By Casey Lynch Sep 14, 2007, 2:56 GMT
It was back in 2006 at Sony’s E3 conference that we first saw footage of Naughty Dog’s upcoming adventure shooter Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and since then we keep running into it in the darndest places.
We flew half-way around the world to bring you the latest on Naughty Dog's upcoming adventure, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. That's how much we love you!
We spent some good time with it during Sony’s Gamer’s Day back in May in San Diego amidst Navy SEALS and Gordon Biersh micro-brews and loved it, though we had some concerns about the aiming and the AI (meaning, we fought basically the same dude over and over).
Rest assured, from what we’ve seen during some extended hands-on time with the latest build of Uncharted, including running through three new levels called "Going Underground", "Fortified" and "Sanctuary?", Naughty Dog has addressed all our quibbles and then some. And to think, it only took a trip to Croatia to check it out.
Croatia, in case you didn’t know, is on the Adriatic Sea, so going there to hang out with the Uncharted’s director Amy Hennig and the extended Sony Europe crew was quite the treat. But the real treat was the uninterrupted time we spent with the game over the course of a few days, a game that we predict will be among the best of the year.
Uncharted stars Nathan Drake, an everyman that’s on the trail of the lost treasure of Sir Francis Drake in a story that’s equal parts Indiana Jones action and pulp pirate comic adventure. Nathan will have some help along the way with Victor Sullivan and the brassy Elena Fisher. Victor is a sagacious hustler while Elena is a TV host who’s looking for a big scoop to save her show. Early on, you’ll realize Nathan isn’t alone in his quest for the Francis treasure; crime boss Gabriel Roman, his second in command Aroq Navarro and Eddy Raja round out the cast of ne’er-do-wells, backed up by legions of pirates (not the Jack Sparrow type) and mercs, all aiming to keep anyone, including Nathan, from beating them to the treasure.
The version we played was near beta and looking really good. Starting with "Going Underground" and "Sanctuary?", two stages that were linked together, Nathan and Elena are sneaking their way a library and spy on Victor who looks like he’s cutting a deal with Navarro and Roman. Nathan and Elena get spotted (of course) and must quickly dispatch a batch of mercs, which is no short order. The mercs are tough and can train a laser scope on you a turn your whole world black and white (the sign you are dead).
Once cleared, Nathan must solve a puzzle using Sir Francis Drake's map to situate four statues named after books of the bible. You have to face each one the right direction (north, south, east, west) in a Tomb Raider-ish fashion to progress.
“Sanctuary” had tough AI as well and featured enemies that flank in addition to several one-shot laser mercs that you have to deal with quickly with a sniper rifle. This level was tough, but not as tough as “Fortified”. Last, we got into "Fortified," which found Nathan waist deep in water in the Spanish Colony, and neck deep in enemy pirate dudes. The leg of the game was really hard for us. Now, keep in mind, we were playing the demo in the remains of a huge fortress on the Dubrovnik bay called… (wait for it) the Fortress.
Inside the brick and stone edifice were a huge line of PS3 kiosks, all with journalists from the international gaming community having their way with Uncharted. I could tell, just by listening to the complaints of the writers when someone was playing “Fortified”. In short, the AI is really tough. I died so many times I lost track. This was in part also because it was hard to find the ammo on the ground and when I did, I was usually shot out of my sneakers as I attempted to pick it up. When we asked the Naughty Dog peeps, they said it was tuned to a middle-of-the-road difficulty, which of course made us feel lame, but nonetheless, they assured us there would be scalable difficulties. We’ll be playing it on an easier setting our first time through when we get the final build, that’s for sure.
Once we limped our way through the initial firefight the 50th time, we made our way through a series of light platforming challenges including some gates that needed opening and some pools that needs jumping into. After the scrap with the pirates, this was a breeze and we were finished in a snap.
For fun, I went back and played through all three stages again to get familiar with the fighting mechanics, which are pretty rad. The guns, ranging from shotties, pistols and AK’s to SMG’s and M79’s are pretty cool, but Nathan has a grappling and fighting skillset that you can use to great effect. Comboing moves, momentum and timing make the difference between landing a solid punch and finishing blow or overthrowing a punch and losing your balance. Pretty darn cool.
Having played through the demo on hand several times, we feel like the camera isn’t as janky as it was when we saw the game in May, the aiming is tighter but the enemy AI was turned way up. It takes quite a few shots to down a foe, and meanwhile you’re always being advanced upon by 2 or 3 other jerks, so expect to do die a lot. At least we did.
The game still looks amazing, and little touches like Nathan’s clothes getting wet (and showing it) and Elena’s hair (which is quite cruisy) all add to the already stunning environments and character models. Nathan’s animations also are looking great. He breathes heavily when he runs too much, he shows fear when he’s taking cover and his hand-to-hand combat features dynamic animations and moves ranging from environmental attacks (face slams into rocks, etc.) to junk-destroying kicks. That said, we’ll be counting the days until the game hits retail stores in about a month.
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