Maybe I'm just OUT OF LOOP or something but I seriously haven't seen people talking about this game at all. I don't really know how well it has been received, and I don't know if it's popular or not, or how many people have played it but I hadn't even heard of it before buying PS3, and I only heard the game's name because it was coming with the console. It surprised me that Uncharted is made by Naughty Dog because I seriously had no clue they were working on a new game. Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter are both among my favorite platformers so this of course was very good news for me. But anyway, I suppose it's just me who didn't know about Uncharted, and I was really, really positively surprised when I finally got to play it. If you have a PS3 but don't have this game, I really recommend you to get it. And if you are looking for a reason to buy PS3, I think you definitely need to add Uncharted in the list of games to buy.

SCREENS:

Uncharted is a hybrid of many genres. It's mainly an action/adventure game with heavy emphasis on Gears of War-esque gunfights but there are also a lot of platforming and puzzle elements plus cool driving and water scooter sequences. I'm not really a big fan of console shooters so I was kinda pessimistic about the gunfights but it was actually pretty fun to hide behind objects, pop out and quickly shooting your enemies while they surround you from each direction and you'll constantly have to reposition yourself while evading bullets and grenades. There's really nothing new here, and the weapons are all pretty basic (various pistols, rifles, shotgun, rocket launcher and sniper) but the game is always fun to play, mostly because of the really good level design. It's also awesome to see bullets and grenades destroying your cover in midst of hectic gunfights.

The main reason I like Uncharted is not the gunfights though, in fact, gunfights were my least favorite parts of the game on most part, but that's mostly due to the fact that I don't really like shooters on consoles that much, as I already mentioned. What I really liked about Uncharted above all is the fantastic level design and this feeling of exploration you get. It's actually a very linear game, there's pretty much only one path to take at all times but it didn't bother me one bit because there are some large areas as well and it's always fun figuring out what you have to do to proceed. Unlike in most platformers, there isn't really any challenge in timing your jumps or anything of the sort, it's really all about finding where to go. Most of the puzzles are really simple and it's also usually easy to figure out what to do next (I never got stuck for more than a few minutes) so the platforming parts are usually pretty easy but surprisingly fun, believe me. I'm sure you'll be dying at least a few times in the platforming parts but they never get annoying because the controls are really smooth and you just have to make the jump in the right direction and that's all there really is to it. I'm not sure if it sounds fun, but I enjoyed it a lot, and I definitely prefer the way Uncharted is doing things to, for example, Tomb Raider's precise and annoying controls. Again, I will put emphasis on the clever and fantastic level design, it's really what made this game so much fun. And as for the feeling of exploration, it really helps that this game has absolutely fantastic graphics for a console game and the game is really cinematic so it just gives you this really nice feeling I can't quite put in words. The graphics, voice acting and music are all top-notch and while the story and the characters are all but original, the story is interesting because the cutscenes are so well done and the characters have a lot of personality.

The game doesn't really come without flaws though. It's pretty short (took me around 7-8 hours to beat it) and like I told before, very linear. This didn't really bother me though as the game didn't feel too short for me and the linearity wasn't really that apparent, or at least I didn't really think about it during the game. The gunfights can get tedious because there are a lot of them and for majority of the game, you will be fighting the same enemies. I also I think there are a bit too many checkpoints which ultimately make the challenging parts too easy since you have unlimited lives and there's practically no replaying any earlier parts. I'm not someone who wants games to be annoyingly difficult but Uncharted just didn't feel challenging, despite that I died at least a dozen of times and that there were some fairly difficult parts. At least for me, since I'm not used to playing shooters on controllers. Though in Uncharted's defense, I think it's really a game which is about experiencing the world and in that way, I can see the reasoning behind Naughty Dog's decision.

Links:
Gamerankings page
Wikipedia page

Well, this actually turned out to be a bit more similar to a review than I actually meant it to be but oh well. I'm just kinda interested in if anyone else has played it and what they think about it. I think it's one of the best games I have played in a while (would make it to my best games of 2007 list) and if you haven't played it and you have a chance to try it out, you should give it a go.

I just wish Naughty Dog would port it to the 360 beacause there's only about 20 people in the world with a PS3 and they're all playing Madden or waiting for MGS4.

Doesn't Sony own Naughty Dog though?

So does the main character have humorous dialog? His snippet from the commercial was pretty good if that's consistent throughout the game.

Yeah, he has humorous dialog and the dialogue is consistent throughout the whole game.

My favorite part about the game was that it was basically a bad Hollywood movie but you get to play it instead of watch it.

Man, this is such a perfect way to put it.

This game is the shit. Much love naughty dog.

When all the badguys got laser sights the game entered el cheapo mode.  Other than that, everything else was solid.

I really liked it when they started using laser sights, actually. I started moving around a lot more and sniping was fun too.