Indian Jones 4^th movie installment of the film got you down? Have a Playstation 3 and have nothing to play except the newest Blu-Ray movies? Here comes the male version of Tomb Raider to the rescue.

Never fear, as Naughty Dog has one of the finest games on the system and is easily overlooked. Most games these days sell on being a sports game or a first person shooter. Uncharted is a 3^rd person action adventure that involves a lot of exploring and killing. Sure the game resembles Tomb Raider without the rack, but I do believe the polish of the system more than makes up for his loss of feminine attributes.

The basic ways of killing someone are all here. Punching someone to death always has its moments, but there is nothing like jumping onto someone’s back and putting them to sleep. You also have your basic assortment of handguns like the standard issue 9mm to the 44 revolver that basically shoots holes through people. The game also has some grenade launchers and who doesn’t like gunning down someone with a gun turret.

There are other activities in the game like driving a watercraft and a jeep. The driving mechanics in the game are actually pretty good and you won’t be in those situations where you actually want to skip those sections like in other games.

You do have a couple companions throughout the game. What this does is allow you to flank your enemies as they are preoccupied with taking out your buddies. Your friendly AI won’t exactly clean out a room for you, but will allow you to stay alive long enough to get to the next ammo stash.

The music and graphics in the game do look very nice on my 720 LCD. I would highly recommend you take off any type of auto correcting brightness features on your TV. Since there are so many bright and dark sections in the game my TV had a hard time switching through those transitions and actually got me sick. After I took off this auto correct feature on my TV I felt much better. Since there are shadows all over the place, walking through the jungle could be sickening. I have never had this issue in any other game on the PS3. Visual hints can be turned on and off which does help pace the game. There are times I didn’t know where to go and a hint would pop up and tell me to look at a certain area. This is a nice feature to keep the game moving yet not so much that it is holding your hand.

The controls in the game are of your basic first person shooter. Yes, there are head shots. There are achievements in the game and this is one of the few older games that will enable trophies for those who have updated their PS3. A welcome feature in the game is being able to fire your weapon without aiming. You might think this is unwise as ammo is at times scares but when you’re running for your life spraying and praying with your shotgun. The demo of the game has an instance where you are to walk across a falling tree and keeping your balance is determined by how you balance your sixaxis controller. There aren’t as many situations like these in the main game. Be prepared for a lot of climbing and jumping across gorges and with a sprinkling of swinging on vines like Tarzan.

The story is pretty good but I wouldn’t say it’s anything above and beyond you have seen in any run of the mill movie. Certain twists do happen but really shouldn’t catch any gamer off guard. The pacing of the story is good and the voice acting is superb. The main character is extremely likable and he reacts to situations like most would react.

So what exactly is missing or what would be nice in the next installment? There could be some co-op play in the game. Since most of the game you do have a companion it would have been nice to have and would make puzzles more elaborate. The game is a bit on the short side as I was able to beat it under 10 hours. There wasn’t much use for me to replay it unless I wanted to get some trophies or find more treasures. Sure there are in game achievements like getting 10 head shots but that won’t really get me to play it again.

Overall the game was very enjoyable. It plays out like a very long movie instead of a game that places needless levels to extend the game play. The polish of the game took me by surprise and being able to shoot a grenade launcher at someone and see them fly sure does bring a smile to my face. Yes, you can actually shoot an enemy who is climbing down a rope. Sure it’s dirty, but shooting someone in the back makes the game more realistic. At times it seems like there are way too many enemy waves as it seems like your more like Rambo versus an entire village, but at least there are plenty of ammo clips to keep you running and gunning. Oh, you will die frequently and you seems to have the power of healing as if you get shot in the chest all you need to do is wait in a corner and heal up.

Great game and worth a run for any PS3 owner.

4 out of 4 Stars