Does Uncharted play as good as it looks?
You probably read about and watched the incredible video for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune earlier today, but we're going to take a more critical look at the actual gameplay from a demo released to some individuals, like IGN. This side of the story isn't all roses and chocolate boxes, we're afraid. While the game looks gorgeous and fluid, there seems to be an issue with some mechanics. Luckily, combat is saucy and fun, the AI is boasted as being smart and difficult, so those aren't a concern.
What was IGN complaining about? Some pretty important stuff, if you ask us. While the demo they played was an early, but polished graphically, build, there are a few concerns worth noting. First, they mentioned a strange sort of linearity in a jungle. Sure, it's probably made that way on purpose for demo reasons, but we hope there isn't a linear "jungle path" you have to stay on, or invisible walls will nudge you along. Grabbing onto things was hit or miss, and Drake had difficulty judging which action to take when two objects of different sizes were close to one another. Also, timing your jumps isn't a problem, but the game often did the wrong thing and allowed Drake to plummet to his doom.
It sounds like pain, we know, we wanted this game to be perfect, too. But that's why it's an early build and these kinks can be ironed out with ease. Hopefully we'll be back in another month with more hands-on impressions about how the game has turned itself around and everything works beautifully.
