Level 1 Uncharted

Here's another video of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Ever since it really got my attention, I went around the Internet searching for it. The video at the bottom of this post is taken from one level of the game.

As I mentioned two posts ago, the graphics look beautiful. Stone walls look old and overgrown with vegetations, looking just like how it would in real life. The lighting looks real, dropping only on certain areas as shadows cover the ground on certain areas covered by trees and buildings. Explosions look different. When a grenade explodes on soft grounds, you'll see earth skyrocketting high towards the sky. When it's on rock solid floor, you'll see little dust flying but a medium size mushroom cloud forming. My favourite thus far from what I see in the video is the blur effect. You make a turn, parts of your surrounding blurs. You enter the shade from the bright lights, the bright areas blur. You get into a large area, the distant area blurs. You get into melee combat, everything blurs but you and your opponent. It's so hollywood! Oh and btw, melee combat looks hot!

Another thing worth noting, you don't get a health bar. When you get shot, blood images show on your screen ala Gears of War style. And when your health is low, the colour on your screen starts to fade. Because of this, you'll see less things on your HUD. Actually, there isn't much of a HUD. Which is great. Then you get to see the environment better.

But, what's the deal with the character animation? It looks good most of the time but when he's jumping from ledges to ledges, it seems so... fake. It looks too fast. I mean, who jumps tenths of ledges and do not get tired? Who jumps ledges to ledges and still get to do it pretty quickly? Tomb Raider's latest adventure did the jumping animations perfectly. I think this game would do good to look at that game. Also, it's not just the jumping animation, the way he walks need some work too. He walks a bit, it looks like he's being pushed. That's old style animation.

Also, I was looking forward to a destructive environment like Heavenly Sword but you don't see it here.

Otherwise, this game looks promising, even despite those little animation problems. Have a look at the video yourself, enjoy and let us know what you think.