Drake's Fortune - hands-on

Uncharted is much more than just a shooter, of course; aside from pirates, your main enemy is the jungle itself. The demo level was filled with enough jumping and climbing puzzles to make any Tomb Raider fan happy, as well as a few tense log-crossing sequences during which you'll need to tilt the Sixaxis controller to keep your balance. There were even a few points where we'd come to an intimidatingly wide gap, only to see Drake successfully jump it with the help of a "dramatic" slow-motion camera angle.

Honestly, though, these platform-hopping sequences were a little stiff. The controls in the demo didn't feel fine-tuned enough for the rigors of creeping along precarious ledges and jumping to grab just-out-of-reach handholds, so it often felt like the game was compensating by giving us a little context-sensitive push to get where we needed to go. Whether this is a quick fix for an unfinished demo or a feature intended to make the game more accessible remains to be seen.

Either way, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune looks hot. The demo had its problems, but the game is still far from finished, and we're eager to see what it'll be like with a little more work.

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.