US, November 7, 2007 - For months, you've been fawning over jaw dropping screenshots from and rereading adoring articles about Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but that stuff doesn't matter anymore. Sure, you still have to wait about two weeks before you can peel back the plastic and dive into Naughty Dog's latest Sony title, but tomorrow, you get to play part of it for yourself.
That's all we've been doing today, and we think you're going to be pretty pleased.
The demo opens with the familiar scene of Elena and her camera recording Nathan Drake and the inside of a small plane as the duo cruises toward an island in search of Sir Francis Drake's fortune. Then, all hell breaks loose.
One of the engines goes up in flames, the plane starts going down, and our adventurous couple -- although they're not a couple like that
yet -- bails out with a pair of parachutes and land in different leafy places.
Now, we at IGN are lucky. We've seen this and played this section before. We're used to taking Drake through the lush jungle landscapes, scaling mossy rocks and blasting holes in the worst kind of pirates.
Take it from us, this game has never looked this good.
There's still a screen tear here and a texture pop-in there, but when Drake wades through the water, his pant legs get wet. When he goes for a full on swim, he's drenched from head to toe. The sunlight filters in through the trees and creates shadows on the ground; the ancient artifacts you use for cover break up in gunfire; and when Nathan takes damage, the bright, lively colors of the natural environment bleed out to ghostly black and white vision.
You'll get used to the colorless view quickly.
It's not that the villains in Uncharted are that difficult, but they do throw caution to the wind and occasionally -- gasp -- think for themselves. Don't get us wrong, there's still a lot of shooting, crouching and standing up in the exact same spot, but occasionally you'll run into the bad guy that flanks your position while you try and take out a sniper.
.Luckily -- even in this demo -- you're far from unarmed in Uncharted. During the 15 or 20 minutes this game should take you to plow through, you'll come to know your trusty handgun, grenades and a messy shotgun -- when you pick this bad boy up after your second gate kick-in, make sure you get up close and personal with the bad guys for some bloody and brutal blasts.
If the toys weren't enough to get you excited for combat, Uncharted's combo/hand-to-hand attacks should be. Aside from watching Nate throw stiff jabs, you'll be able to link together attacks to have the man finish foes with kicks to the groin, elbows to the face and -- for the wrestling marks out there -- an enziguri.
We could chat all day about our dip in the Uncharted pool, but why ruin your Thursday fun? Until you have your go at the jungle tale, check out today's screens and videos and anxiously await next week's review.
