Last year I played through the first Gears of War game. I was morbidly curious about how the most iconic franchise of 7th gen cover shooting would hold up and if there was any artistic or game design merit to my eyes after more than 10 years since I'd last played it. It was not a pleasant experience. The original PC port was falling apart in real time, and as the campaign progressed into neverending and indistinguishable dark caves I gradually started losing interest in the game. But I could clearly see Epic understanding the core tenets of the game's design that they'd stuck to since. It's the co-op gimmicks that got ripped off by pretty much every game that followed in its footsteps, and it's the combat fundamentals making for exciting firefights with the few elements Gears 1 has to offer. I could see the fun here and why this franchise was allowed to grow and build upon itself to further success.
Uncharted here is different. It's probably the most offensively mid seventh gen AAA title that I've personally played. It's an adventure platforming title with no memorable set pieces, a Tomb Raider clone with puzzles the solutions of which are just given to you in writing straight away. But most importantly, it's a cover shooter that is 80% combat, and it does not have good fundamentals. Guns feel weak, enemies take way more bullets to the chest than they ought to, and there's little variety present in both combat scenarios and enemy types. You'd think that having a daring acrobat protagonist would lead to some fun mobility options, but no, it would take them three more games to get there. The combat is just okay for the few hours the first playthrough will take you. In retrospect, it's fascinating how Tomb Raider Legend (the game Crystal Dynamics had refused to let Amy Hennig work on), having come out just a year prior to this, managed to avoid the cover shooter plague and ended up a far more fun and varied title despite some of its shortcomings.
But Drake's Fortune has a very particular charm to it that I can't ignore. It's your favorite early 00s jungle adventure B movie that never happened, one that would have Johnny Knoxville of all people play the main role. One that has an absurd plot involving mummies and ancient curses and twists so thin you could filter coffee through them. It is so blatantly cartoonish it's hard not to share in its earnest trashy glow. Even outside of the main story and (admittedly good) comedic character interactions the game never really lifts the shroud of shlock. I mean, there's a level in which you navigate a jet ski upriver dodging exploding red barrels which are sent your way by a lone henchman who is picking them up from a giant stack. This is a Looney Tunes gag, a classic Crash Bandicoot level concept, and the rest of the game just follows the trajectory of "what would happen if we'd given a charismatic mascot character guns". And it's a fun concept, just one that Naughty Dog could not realize in a compelling way.
(The remaster's added Brutal difficulty is hilariously broken. Bumping half a star for this video alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54dAYkSbwo)
Uncharted here is different. It's probably the most offensively mid seventh gen AAA title that I've personally played. It's an adventure platforming title with no memorable set pieces, a Tomb Raider clone with puzzles the solutions of which are just given to you in writing straight away. But most importantly, it's a cover shooter that is 80% combat, and it does not have good fundamentals. Guns feel weak, enemies take way more bullets to the chest than they ought to, and there's little variety present in both combat scenarios and enemy types. You'd think that having a daring acrobat protagonist would lead to some fun mobility options, but no, it would take them three more games to get there. The combat is just okay for the few hours the first playthrough will take you. In retrospect, it's fascinating how Tomb Raider Legend (the game Crystal Dynamics had refused to let Amy Hennig work on), having come out just a year prior to this, managed to avoid the cover shooter plague and ended up a far more fun and varied title despite some of its shortcomings.
But Drake's Fortune has a very particular charm to it that I can't ignore. It's your favorite early 00s jungle adventure B movie that never happened, one that would have Johnny Knoxville of all people play the main role. One that has an absurd plot involving mummies and ancient curses and twists so thin you could filter coffee through them. It is so blatantly cartoonish it's hard not to share in its earnest trashy glow. Even outside of the main story and (admittedly good) comedic character interactions the game never really lifts the shroud of shlock. I mean, there's a level in which you navigate a jet ski upriver dodging exploding red barrels which are sent your way by a lone henchman who is picking them up from a giant stack. This is a Looney Tunes gag, a classic Crash Bandicoot level concept, and the rest of the game just follows the trajectory of "what would happen if we'd given a charismatic mascot character guns". And it's a fun concept, just one that Naughty Dog could not realize in a compelling way.
(The remaster's added Brutal difficulty is hilariously broken. Bumping half a star for this video alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54dAYkSbwo)