Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered - Review

A thief´s start.

Console: PlayStation 4 game played on a PlayStation 5.

After closing out the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy with Shadow of the Tomb Raider I ran out of action-adventure-type games to play on my PS5. Well, those that I had on my shelf anyway. It just so happened Sony has its own in-house Tomb Raider-like series: Uncharted. Thanks to my birthday and the 2nd hand market I now basically have the entire series to dig my teeth into in the coming months. 

Since I'm currently in the market for smaller, shorter titles to play I decided to dive right into the first game, Drake's Fortune, and see what one of Sony's premiere series during the PS3 and early PS4 days has to offer. I've been hearing good things from the Uncharted series but I've also heard that this first entry hasn't aged the best since it came out nearly 15 years ago. 

So, let´s dive into Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (the PS4 version found in the Nathan Drake collection) and see how well this little nugget of gold shines today. 

After doing 3D platformers for nearly a decade, developer Naughty Dog wanted to do something different for their first PS3 title. They were inspired by several action-adventure media, like Indiana Jones, and the game wears those inspirations on its sleeve. From the narrative to the gameplay. 

Renowned adventure Nathan Drake, who claims to be a descendant of famous explorer Sir Francis Drake (he's real, look him up) has set his sight on El Dorado. The "City of Gold" has long since been dismissed as a myth but clues on a ring supposedly from Sir Francis have led Drake to believe otherwise. Together with his mentor and friend, the gruff and tough Victory 'Sully' Sullivan and journalist Elena Fisher, whose producers bankroll the operation, Nate sets out to unravel the mystery Sir Francis Drake left behind. 

The game's narrative doesn´t hold many surprises or twist turns but that's not a bad thing. Not every story needs to be complicated. Need deep dialogue and/or massive twists to be engaging and entertaining. It just needs to do enough to pull you in and keep you entertained. Uncharted does just that with its tone and atmosphere. The treasure hunt, the locales, the big action pieces and the chemistry between our heroes were done well enough that I was more than happy to be along for the ride. 

Yeah. This is something I´d expect to see in an ´Indiana Jones´ type of game. 

The only big issue I have in this department is the monsters. I always thought that a thing in which Uncharted set itself apart from Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones is that it was more grounded. No mystical mumbo-jumbo and whatnot. Seeing that this isn't the case wasn't only disappointing but I felt it was out of place with the world that had been built up to that point. 

For the gameplay, Uncharted is a 3D action-adventure title ala Tomb Raider. That comparison has been made a lot and for good reason. They really are very similar though I must say: I was expecting it to play more like the 2013 Tomb Raider, the game that borrowed from Uncharted, but this first instalment at least is much closer to 'Tomb Raider: Anniversary', more like PS2 title, than anything else. 

What I have to get into immediately when talking about the gameplay are the controls. It's the number one problem I have with this game. It's heavy, sluggish and finicky. I can't count the amount of times I wanted to take cover but the game read it like a roll or vice versa. These things made playing the game, at times, a lot more taxing than it should've been even in this updated re-release. 

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune feels like a PS2 game at its core with only certain aspects, like the visuals and the performance, feeling like a PS3 title. Or what I assume to be, at least. Never owned a PS3 myself so a lot of that feeling is based on what I picked up through videos, talks to others etc. The lesser of the two aspects that really remind me of the PS2 era is gameplay and the general level design. 

The exploration sections are the expected platforming-based puzzle-solving from Tomb Raider. Nathan investigates a location, like a seaside fort or a cathedral, and to progress you jump across chasms, open doors to hidden rooms etc. These puzzles are never taxing. It's pretty easy to see what has to be done even without the game clueing you in through the use of Drake's Journal. You just have to be careful you perform the jumps correctly. That can be a challenge since the title just loves to (re)position the camera all the time making it difficult to judge how you have to jump exactly or even see where to go. 

Uncharted is a very action-oriented title. It's one of the departments it really set itself apart from Tomb Raider (hello again) upon its launch. This translates to a somewhat more involved combat system and the large action set pieces the series has become known for. First and foremost: your health isn't on any health bar. When you take too much damage, the sound will start to get muffled, the screen will fade to grey and you'll start hearing Drake's heartbeat. Take too much damage in this state and you'll die. If you don't take any hits for a while you're health will regenerate. A good system and dynamic system that keeps the pace going. 

The combat consists of mostly firefights. Of ducking behind cover while in a firefight with the bad guys. Enemies drop ammo and weapons, of which Drake can carry a one-handed pistol and one two-handed rifle/shotgun/sniper rifle at a time. 

You can also choose to down your opponents with some hand-to-hand action through a quick, 3 button combo all about timing. Don't brawl with enemies. It will mean your end. Enemies are so aggressive that it's difficult to get close to them without already taking some serious damage or bad guy B shooting you in the back while you're punching bad guy A. You can't even use this to perform a stealth takedown; once you attack an enemy the others will instantly notice you. I see no reason whatsoever to ever use it over just shooting at them. 

The combat is a basic system but with the cover system, it provides just a bit more depth to the proceedings than you'd expect. Be warned though: this game can get pretty cheap with its enemy placement. Especially in the last few levels a lot gets thrown at you and some luck is involved in making it out alive. 

Taking cover behind the remnants of a pillar, waiting for an opportunity.

The big action set pieces are, more often than not, vehicle sections. From a grand escape from pirates in a jeep to jet-skiing over a Jungle River. I get why this element is an aspect the series has become known for. They're thrilling and feel very much like those big Hollywood action set pieces. That said the jet-ski controls poorly. Very heavy and slow. Initial reviews criticized the vehicle sections and I'm fairly certain that it was the jet-ski they were talking about.

The game is divided up into 22 levels, or chapters, which feature a mix of the above exploration, combat and vehicle sequences. Each level is mostly a linear affair with some dead ends and such thrown in where artefacts are placed. When looking at each level, they are fun and well-designed for their purpose, but they feel rather confined. They don't want you to go too far off the beaten path and mixed with the other stuff I talked about that PS2-vibe I mentioned so many times already is born. 

When it comes to bonus content I can't complain. From finding collectables, finishing the game on a certain difficulty and more you get a variety of bonus stuff. From neat concept art to gameplay bonuses such as the ability to pick your loadout before entering a level to different costumes. You can even play as Sully and Elena should you want to. 

Before moving on to the version differences, two more things. If you wanted to you could play the entire game in one go without ever seeing a single menu. Make it really feel like you´re playing through a long, very long, movie. I appreciate that. The soundtrack? It's good. The composition is simple, yet compelling. It's a powerful, orchestral score, that evokes a sense of adventure and perfectly fits the name 'Uncharted'.

Lastly: version differences. The version I played here, the one found in the Nathan Drake collection for the PS4, is the updated and enhanced one. The graphics and performance have been touched up. Textures have been improved and things look sharper. It´s not on the level of an actual PS4 title but it's still a noteworthy improvement. The environment looks good. The character animations and facial expressions of the characters stand out, especially for the time it was released in. Performance wise the game now takes advantage of the PS4 to feature faster load times and all such jazz. 

Aside from the graphics and the performance. Certain gameplay elements have also been altered so it falls better in line with its sequels. Think of stuff like remapping the buttons so that the control scheme is the same across all three games in the collection. Not everything is made better by these changes but certainly makes this the definitive version, without a doubt. I don't even want to think what my experience would've been like if I had played the PS3 version with its controls!

Conclusion

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, is a successful first outing for the smooth-talking adventurer/archaeologist/thief and his friends. It does show its age with its clunky controls and some frustrating design decisions that make it feel like you’re playing a PS2 title even in this updated PS4 release. Looking past those issues though and you find an entertaining action-adventure title with an adventurous tone reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the like. A simple game that’s easy to pick up and get swept away in due to its presentation, fun cast and wildly entertaining set pieces. 

Despite its flaws, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune remains a solid introduction to the series, worth playing for action-adventure fans seeking a shorter, action-packed experience.