This was a pretty good foundation for such a successful series. Looks very good for a game from 2007. The endearing characters help drive forward the story, which does enough to keep my attention, despite the lack of threat from a compelling villain (I can't even remember the dude's name). The soundtrack is excellent and adds to the ambience and atmosphere.

The cover-shooting gameplay was repetitive at times, but there are still a fair amount of mechanics to keep it from getting boring such as semi-destructible environments and being able to shoot while hanging off of ledges. Though the weapons functioned fairly similarly, I liked the variety and strategy in weapon selection such as picking up a weaker weapon that has more ammunition than a stronger counterpart when you know there's a big fight coming up. Being low on ammunition means you're constantly picking up new weapons. The enemy A.I is also fairly advanced, they can flank, blind-fire and even go prone. All of these factors allow the gunfights to have a good level of intrigue and challenge, especially towards the end, some of those were tough as nails. Meaning I had to strategise and think about my next move rather than go guns-blazing.

In contrast, the climbing is severely underbaked. This tedious exercise seems to have been implemented to show off the nice graphics and set pieces rather than serve the gameplay. Every mechanic involved with climbing is introduced within the first few chapters meaning it stagnates fast. What you can and cannot interact with within the environment is not easily communicated, leading to a lot of meandering and/or ragdolling down into a pit. Drake struggles to jump vertically but can do so horizontally like a superhuman.

Strangely, exploration seems to have taken a backseat as this is a very linear experience. Some more secret areas and puzzles would have been appreciated. I'm normally not one for collectables but I found myself eagerly searching for the treasures in each chapter despite offering no in-game benefit. Although I was through, I still missed 24 of the things.

I was disappointed to be limited to the uncharted island for the vast majority of the game. Although the variety of areas such as the jungle, castle, monastery and underground facility did alleviate this issue somewhat. There was also a complete absence of enemy variety, I must've killed around 500 pirates before a Wendigo showed up. They were a cool addition and functioned very differently from the pirates but came into play a little too late in the story.

The Jetski sections were terrible.

Though I have been quite negative, I did have fun with this game and presented just the right amount of challenge for me which I found very rewarding. I am excited to try out the more acclaimed sequels in the future.

Shadow of the cutscene.

I really wanted to like this. But the more I played, the more I was struggling to convince myself that the tedium was worth it. This really does play exactly like a PS2 game. I think that having 0 nostalgic connection to this game really hindered my enjoyment.

The biggest problem for me is the open-world. Possibly the most boring, lifeless, washed-out world I’ve ever experienced. It has virtually no reason to be this expansive when there is nothing to see or do. It looked horrible and was even more horrible to traverse on that stupid-ass horse. If they were going for atmosphere, it was completely lost on me.

The gameplay is extremely repetitive, which is obviously by design, but that does not make it fun. Your average fight against a colossus is 50% watching a cutscene and travelling to where it’s hanging out, 40% figuring out its weak point, and only 10% actually fighting the thing. In which the fighting is essentially a glorified QTE sequence.

I finally gave up on this game upon fighting the 10th colossus, the big ol’ snake. Which you HAVE to fight on the horse. I fucking hate the horse. Every other fight using the horse has been optional or it’s unavailable. The horse A.I is so unbearable and clunky that after a couple of attempts I could stomach it no longer.

Naturally, this game does an excellent job with its presentation and style, which it manages to maintain for its entirety. There is a good variety of new mechanics introduced to keep the gameplay fresh. Some of the puzzles are real head-scratchers, so it can be rewarding to figure it out. It does make you feel somewhat stupid when you are unable to notice something obvious immediately, resulting in some chuckle-worthy moments. Though, much like the death animations, these puzzles can be brutally difficult, particularly in the last few chapters. These require such precise timing and often very little time to register the information in front of you. As a result, I would struggle to say that I fully enjoyed this experience, though it certainly had its moments and I am glad I saw it through. You can see a lot of DNA utilised and polished in INSIDE (2016). I look forward to what this developer does next.