Unique use of six-axis controller
Amongst the PS3 exclusives on show at this year's Games Convention was Uncharted Drake's Fortune for PS3. At first glance, at second glance and even third glance the game resembles the Tomb Raider series, with deep exploration through jungles, across rivers, up mountains and through ancient ruins. The game is a blend of action, platforming and puzzle solving; only there's just one thing missing, there's no sign of Miss Croft and her silky thighs. Instead she's been replaced by the ruggedly handsome fortune hunter, Nathan Drake who sets off on the hunt for the fabled treasure of El Dorado and stumbles across a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where he discovers he's not alone and amongst the numerous instances of ledge climbing and working out how to open a door to get your next location, you'll need to fend off the threat of mercenaries intent on taking you down.
We didn't spend too long playing Uncharted Drake's Fortune as we had limited time to get around the whole of the PS3 booth, that was also showcasing the likes of Metal Gear Sold 4 and Lair, plus the growing presence of sweat-soaked teenagers was getting too much for our nostrils to bear, but we did play it long enough to see that the game had drawn its main inspirations from the Tomb Raider series. That's not a bad thing, in fact it made the game extremely accessible and familar. There was no HUD to clutter the stunning scenery and within a minute or so we were scaling cliff faces, swinging from one vine to the next and working our way across ledges with minimum difficulty; the only real difficulty was finding the path that we had to follow, but thanks to the look function you can stand in one spot and survey the area without any problem.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThere were a number of things that really made this game different to the exploration that we've become accustomed to in Lara Croft's adventures, including the unique use of the six axis controller. At one section we had to walk across a log that was connecting two cliff ledges, tilting the controller left and right in order to maintain our balance. After 5 minutes of trying to get across the log, failing miserably and then having to frantically tap X to get back upright, we shouted over to one of the staff on the booth to give us a hand. We'd guess that the sensitivity of the controller during this period of interaction still needs some tweaking, because disappointingly the guy who came to give us a hand couldn't get across the log either. The controls appeared far too sensitive, but we still enjoyed the idea and we understand that will be numerous opportunities to use the functionality of the controller throughout the game; we just hope they'll feel more intuitive than this experience.
