The enjoyable main characters, well acted voice lines, and relatively enjoyable (yet derivative) story might make this game appear from a distance as a respectable entry to the Uncharted series, but upon any further examination, these elements do little to paper over the cracks of the repetitive and uninteresting gameplay. While the beginning few chapters manage to get you intrigued in this game and its world, this interest soon wanes as the game succumbs to cover-based shooting sections and "free"-climbing sections, one after another with very little variety. The puzzles in this game mostly amount to looking at your journal and making sure you press buttons in order, and rob the player of any sense of adventure that might immerse them in the role of the titular Nathan Drake.
This is not a long game-currently the average play time for the campaign sits at about 8 hours-and yet, as unvaried as the gameplay is, it feels much longer, and I certainly was hoping for it to end sooner rather than later as I got into the final chapters. There are enjoyable elements to this game too, but what's most frustrating is that what's good isn't always good. For a game released in 2007, the graphics look pretty good in most cases, but in others, textures take a while to load, and during vehicle sections, pop-in is frequent. The music is mostly enjoyable, and is definitely one of the stronger points, but can sometimes be distracting or feel unbalanced.
By far the worst part of the game was the jetski sections, which borderline on unplayable. The controls in these sections are extremely janky, especially the shooting/driving aspects (which are pretty much impossible to do at the same time). There are enjoyable set pieces and action sequences-navigating the church was actually quite enjoyable, as well as the escape from the Nazi base-but they are always followed up with uninteresting combat or generic climbing sections. The uniformity of the game, combined with the tediously high health of enemies, the inconsistent controls, and the seemingly at times random enemy spawn locations, can make it rather unsatisfying to play.
While the story can be fun to follow along with, this is solely off the back of the charismatic and well acted main protagonists; most villains are uninteresting and forgettable. Based off this game alone, it's surprising that a sequel was developed for it at all, let alone that it became a critically acclaimed and widely popular franchise.
This is not a long game-currently the average play time for the campaign sits at about 8 hours-and yet, as unvaried as the gameplay is, it feels much longer, and I certainly was hoping for it to end sooner rather than later as I got into the final chapters. There are enjoyable elements to this game too, but what's most frustrating is that what's good isn't always good. For a game released in 2007, the graphics look pretty good in most cases, but in others, textures take a while to load, and during vehicle sections, pop-in is frequent. The music is mostly enjoyable, and is definitely one of the stronger points, but can sometimes be distracting or feel unbalanced.
By far the worst part of the game was the jetski sections, which borderline on unplayable. The controls in these sections are extremely janky, especially the shooting/driving aspects (which are pretty much impossible to do at the same time). There are enjoyable set pieces and action sequences-navigating the church was actually quite enjoyable, as well as the escape from the Nazi base-but they are always followed up with uninteresting combat or generic climbing sections. The uniformity of the game, combined with the tediously high health of enemies, the inconsistent controls, and the seemingly at times random enemy spawn locations, can make it rather unsatisfying to play.
While the story can be fun to follow along with, this is solely off the back of the charismatic and well acted main protagonists; most villains are uninteresting and forgettable. Based off this game alone, it's surprising that a sequel was developed for it at all, let alone that it became a critically acclaimed and widely popular franchise.