4.5/5 ★ – pinksteady's review of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

I loved replaying this, even though I didn’t remember much of it it; has been so long. This franchise has become so great that it was awesome to revisit where it first begun. Even though this was the first one, you can see so many fundamental ingredients being introduced, that were honed and improved on over the coming games. And because of that, when you play this original again, you also feel it’s quirks and areas that aren’t as slick, because you can compare them to the finesse achieved in the latter games. For example, I was surprised how much the balance of combat and exploration was very weighted towards combat. This game was tough! You can totally feel how Naughty Dog have matured and learnt over the years to refine this balance and have fun with the exploration aspect. The over-use of monsters was also apparent - it got quite tiresome near the end, reminding me of the latter stages of the initially-great-but-lost-its-way Far Cry. I loved how the infamous ridiculous jumping ability was already in place, and the little touches such as hidden treasures that were unessential but yielded bonus content when found. I loved the humour and the dynamics between the characters, effectively told via surprisingly good body and facial movements. I loved the cinematic gameplay moments, that when compared to games like Uncharted 4 pale in comparison, but clearly lay the groundwork for that style of experience. And of course I loved the music! The theme tune is so great. I found the story in this particular game a little clumsily told, specifically how after every clue you follow, that takes you to the next hidden room and gets you one step closer to the treasure, the baddies are already there waiting for you. Sure, you are actually following a path whereas they are mindlessly searching everywhere, but after you spend 15 minutes jumping about switching levers etc to open a hidden door no-else knows about, only to go through and find loads more enemies, it deflated the achievement. This too was something I feel Naughty Dog learned from - in fact in Uncharted 4 the baddy actively admits he needs Nate to uncover the secrets so he can follow - that was a far more logical approach to the cat and mouse treasure hunter tale. Overall this was a blinding first entry in the series, and was a great trip down memory lane.