Over all: These are the best graphics I have ever seen in a video game. They are on par with most of the high end rendering cut scenes from the previous generation of gaming. This is a system seller. When you see it on a good hd tv, it is simply amazing. The textures, the design, architecture, the characters, the water, the water, the ruins, the rusty ships, the leaves. WOW. This is very realistic. When drake gets out of the water, you can tell he is still wet. The game is also very colorful, not dark and grey like most of the games on the market today. It’s not a cute kiddy kind of game. When you start scaling the walls it can make you go vertigo, I’m not kidding. This game nails it, let me see, pitfall, tomb raider, gears of war, resident evil mixed with the story telling of something like romancing the stone meets raiders of the lost ark. For novices it can be difficult, but for veteran game player you will hop right in with no problem. I didn’t find the game that hard at all. I loved playing every minute of it, it plays like an old resident evil game, but the controls and camera are spot on 100%. Add that stop and pop style of gears of war into it, then throw a little assassin’s creed wall climbing(a tad), and then that resident evil 4 over the shoulder gun aiming and you get Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

I only had one tiny complaint. It’s a little on the short side. I wish it had 4 more hours of gameplay, that would of been perfect. It took me about 9 hours to beat the game on the default difficulty setting. I don’t like giving away the story, or the levels to much. So i’m going to talk about the animation, everything is smooth and perfect, when you walk through weeds or brush, the plants move realistically. The way the trees seem so alive, the water looks amazing, and moves as it should. The animations of the characters are astounding, The bad guys will react to where you shoot them. Head shots are great fun. More than anything, I noticed myself paying attention to drake when he start taking fire, when he is behind cover, as the bullets hit what he hides behind, you will see his face get angry. If you shoot near a bad guy’s head and miss, the bad guys will animate like it barely missed them and start moving as such. Very cool. There is so much detail. This is a living breathing world, and no game up till now has come as far as Uncharted in this regard. The AI is decent as well, the bad guys come out and move and react if they are being shot at in a very realistic way. They will jump out of cover and move and bob in many different ways, so you cannot just play it cheap and set your cross airs in one place and wait for them to pass in front of it.

The voice acting is good. The sound is great. The Presentation, everything. But graphics don’t mean a thing if the game doesn’t play well. Guess what? It does and then some. I really get into jumping from one place to another, and hanging on by the tips of your fingers. The animation and controls are great, i rarely miss fired on jumps like i used to constantly in games like tomb raider. This is perfect. From the gun play, to the plat-forming, it makes you want to play it, i played it with out stopping. It possessed me. Everything just moves right, and controls right. Also: you have to play defensively. You cannot just run in and start gunning without taking cover. You will die fast.

This is a must have. If you like shooters, this is spot on. You will acquire many types of guns in this game. All of them work really well. The sniper rifle, the missile gun, and the 44 were my favorites. If you like plat-forming, this is right for you. If you hate plat-forming don’t worry, you will love it this time, it’s that good. This game is gorgeous and epic.

9.0 Presentation
The story, acting, cut scenes, some of the best out there right now. The good thing is it has the perfect balance, the cut scenes are perfect, they don’t ruin the game like in some other games.

9.8 Visuals
I noticed no hiccups really, it would tear very very rarely, and pop ups almost never happen. I read some people being hard on this in other reviews. Pure stupidity on their part. This is the prettiest game currently. Not even heavenly sword or call of duty 4 can touch this as far as the graphics go.

9.5 Audio
Perfect, everything sits perfectly, the voice acting is great, the music is moody, and fits with this game perfectly.

9.5 Game Mechanics
My Favorite this year. It feels solid, it’s responsive, and you can tell they spent a lot of time tweaking the animation and how it controls. This is what sets this game apart from anything in this genre, the control. From the plat-forming, to the shooting. It’s all exactly how it should be.

7.0 Replay
I put this the same as heavenly sword, since it is like playing a good movie, it’s like any good movie deserves, more than one viewing. I’ll play this 2 or 3 times through.

9.8 Total Score.
(out of 10 / not an average)

I have not had this much fun with a video game for a long long time. This made my thanksgiving day perfect. Ignore the family and play games. I am putting this in my top 5 as of now. I like this as much as resident evil 4. And that was my #2 favorite game of all time. Just below my #1, final fantasy 7. So i have this tied with my #2 favorite game of all time. I was not expecting to like this game as much as i did. I thought it would be just another bad tomb raider game. Boy was i wrong.. This game is gorgeously amazing. If you don’t own a ps3, this is the best reason out there now to buy one. Hell they are cheaper now, so go get one and play the most epic video games on the market. 360 gives you that pc style first person game play, the ps3 gives you epic console games that feel like movie experiences. This game proves it. Click here to buy.

Music Listened to while writing this review: The Maria Dimension - The Legendary Pink Dots.