Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is like that late ‘90s Sunday afternoon movie that was squeezed neatly between the newest episode of Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess that you couldn’t stop watching. You remember it: the hero somehow knows how to accurately fire every weapon known to man, ditto for his sassy female companion; there’s a gruff older friend that loves his cigars and women; there’s an adventure that involves pirates and treasure; and there’s a chase of some sort that involves a lot of close calls and explosions. Maybe it’s your inner pining for a new Indiana Jones, or its seductively European C-grade production values, whatever the case, you quickly found your day being eaten away by Amazonia: The Gold Monkey Skull’s Calling, or somesuch. That’s Uncharted, in a nutshell – a pretty great nutshell, mind you.

Created by Naughty Dog, of a ton of great platformers fame, this latest outing involves the supposed descendant of Sir Francis Drake on a quest for El Dorado. The newest Drake is the kind of hero you would expect in a Sunday afternoon movie: short hair that’s always parted just so, a five o’clock shadow, and a penchant for leaps of faith and heavy gunplay. There is also the female reporter that’s along for the scoop and the old timer – appropriately named Sully – that regales anyone who will hear about that one woman in that one bar in that one place that one time. There is also the supporting villain cast of raggedy pirates, the crazy rival, and the suave rich head honcho with the thick accent. It’s a convenient cast of characters, and it they play their parts just right for this adventure.

In one of the unlockable behind the scenes videos some of the Naughty Dog folk describe the process of making Uncharted and reveal that they took the best bits of some past games and tossed them in with a contemporary take on the old cinema adventure serials. I say that they are all the better for it. For too long game companies have ignored what are great ideas, sometimes in some not so great titles, for fear of being labeled a copycat and unoriginal; but the fact remains that a good idea is a good idea, and Uncharted is filled with good ideas. Take the acrobatic platforming of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, toss in the pacing and sense of adventure of Tomb Raider, pile on some cover-and-shoot gunplay from kill.switch and Gears of War, then put those in some of the biggest set pieces yet for an idea of what’s in store. Naughty Dog just didn’t get these elements right, they often improved upon them with tighter controls, better features, and a cohesiveness that makes everything feel as if it belongs. It’s really impressive.

The sense of scale is just unreal. During several parts that involved scaling the sides of castles or cliffs I would notice that my palms were sweating. It’s one thing to slowly creep along, back against the wall, with a view zoomed up on the character’s body, but it’s something else altogether when the camera zooms out to reveal a 400 foot drop and the character is leaping from vines to crumbling window seals. Keeping in mind that the game is gorgeous, save for the odd plastic look of the characters’ skin, the dilapidated castles, overrun by the jungle, and waves crashing against the rocks below creates a true sense of Indiana Jones-style adventure that makes LucasArts wish that this was the Indiana Jones game they had made. The amount of detail and effects, combined with the smooth animation and the fantastic sound, is impressive; the production value is top notch.

It would be different if the game played great or the game looked and sounded great, but Uncharted has and does it all. The cover-and-fire mechanics are really well done, with blindfiring and aimed shots responsive and sufficiently action movie-like. There is a surprising amount of weapons to use, from M16s to Desert Eagles, and all have the appropriate kick to them. It can be a pain to quickly get off an object when leaning against it, but that snag is far less painful here than it is elsewhere. Rushing from one spot of cover to another is easily handled by jumping over or away from an object with Drake automatically seeking cover at the new location. Similarly, when seeking cover against a wall and walking towards an opening, Drake will actually auto crouch so that he will still be covered while walking. Those kinds of small touches permeate throughout and are often so subtle that they can on unnoticed, but they undoubtedly enhance the experience.

Jumping off of pillars and guard towers is also seamless, thanks to a generous, and often humorous, second or two of gliding. That extra bit of leeway, which I certainly appreciate, and the auto grabbing of ledges make traversing the various obstacles and debris a breeze. It can be tricky to spot the correct path at times, mainly because protruding objects often look like a scratch on the wall, but an optional hint system is in place to smooth many of these parts out. The idea of a hint system might seem to make things too easy, but keep in mind that the locations are obscured by vegetation, old structures, rocks, debris, and all kinds of stuff, so the system is much appreciated as it keeps the adventure going – and do heroes ever get stuck for too long in movies, anyway?

There is one part that stood out that I didn’t particularly enjoy, though. The shootouts on vehicles aren’t bad, but there is a Jet Ski portion that really breaks the spirit of the game as it actually encourages a stop-and-go mentality. Even though Drake will need to seek cover, combat is often really fast and of the go! go! go! Variety while the Jet Ski portions require Drake to stop while Elena fires at barrels floating downstream and pirates popping out of the woodwork. This gets really old, really fast. The second of the two portions handles itself much better, taking advantage of rapids in such a way that made me realize just how underdeveloped and ill used water is in games – fighting the current while seeing the barrels actually bobbing up and down is actually very exciting. It, too, still suffers from having to constantly stop though, once the pirates appear.

The pirates themselves really could’ve done with some variety. After killing the thousandth identical pirate, I was jazzed just to see the eventual generic high-tech mercenary sort make their appearance. The computer can be quite clever though, with flanking maneuvers and seeking cover. Enemies will still do some really ridiculous things, like crouch against a wall facing you, but they can take a lot of pain and aren’t shy with the led. Going the fisticuffs route is strange, since melee is done via a timed button sequence system, which isn’t of the God of War style (there are those, mind you), but more of what is found in the newest generation of Mortal Kombat title. Taking enemies down with the knuckle treatment results in a greater amount of ammo – speaking of which, why must I manually pick up every clip? (ugh) – but I prefer going the gun route. There is something supremely satisfying about showing a saucy pirate the business end of a shotgun after a lengthy exchange of gunfire, generic or not. Just watch out for the grenades: the computer knows how to use them and has a lot of them. Yowch! Luckily, your partners aren’t hurt by grenades – odd, I know, but I’m certain it keeps the frustration level down – but you aren’t so lucky.

Overall: 9/10