Uncharted was a pretty good video game, but it also would have made an excellent summer movie. It really felt like a modern day Indiana Jones flick from start to finish. Main character and Francis Drake descendant Nate had a cocky but likable swagger about him as he performed high-risk stunts, blew away hundreds of evil henchmen, and flirted with the tough but delicate female documentarian who came along for the ride on his latest adventure. Nate also had a wise-cracking older mentor-like sidekick in cigar-puffing Sully and a seedy-acting rival treasure hunter in Eddie. None of these characters ever showed any genuine emotion - fear, anguish, despair - aside from being on a general game-long adrenaline rush. No backstory was given for any pre-existing relationships, and no in-game progression helped develop any of them, either; if this had indeed been a summer action movie, it'd be panned mostly for having flat characters. But then, that'd be fine - people don't see summer action movies for the character relationships! Otherwise there'd be no reason to go see Fast Five tonight, and you can bet your ass I'm going to see Fast Five tonight. And of course, furthermore, this game isn't even a movie - it's a game! The Nathan Drake character has become the butt of plenty of Internet jokes about how lame and stale the current generation of video game heroes is. But it's not as if Mario and Link and Samus - a holy trinity of old school heroes - are fleshed out beyond a few simple generic traits like courage and stoicism. Is Nathan Drake the Dane Cook of video game protagonists? Sure. But that doesn't mean this was a shitty game. It was a great game! It wasn't a flawless game, but the parts that hampered it the most - excessive firefights and very occasional bad camera angles - were flaws in game design rather than in the characters or story. I wish there had been more puzzles and less gun play, but then, I guess I should just go play some more Tomb Raider games. I think most people who both read this blog and have a PS3 have already played this one, but for those of you who haven't, do yourself a favor and check it out. It was relatively short and easy (ten hours, and I never even thought to use a walkthrough) and I've been told the series only gets better in the sequel, which is likely the next game I'll try to remove from my backlog.
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