This is, without a doubt, the best exclusive PS3 title I have played to date. That’s not saying it is a good game, it’s just better than all the other crap that has been out on the system. It is totally unoriginal and doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done better in other games, but is worth a play through just to see that there may be hope for the system.

The gameplay isn’t anything new. Your character runs around jungle ruins for most of the game making his way up cliffs with conveniently placed ledges or working through incredibly simple puzzles. The basic action is virtually identical to Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia. To the game’s credit, it is more action packed than other exploration games of this type. During the course of the game, you will kill more modern day pirates than can actually exist in any one location of the world without causing an international incident. The game takes about 7-8 hours to complete, which is longer than some but is still too short for my tastes. The long range combat works well enough but close range gun battles can be frustrating since most of the enemies greatly out number, have more health, and are better shots than you. The melee combat is terrible. It works the way it was designed to, but the game is so picky about timing your punches that you will almost never take a guy down on the first try. During most of the game, you are able to approach each gunfight tactically, but at the end of the game you are forced to completely change tactics. The game actually changes genres here and becomes a survival horror game with the introductions of zombie type enemies (no, I didn’t spoil the game for you; it hints at their existence almost right from the beginning). It completely throws the game’s flow off and I personally felt that it was a terrible direction for the game to go. The first three quarters of the game are based completely in reality and it wasn’t fitting at all to switch that far into the game.

The ammo supply is another major annoyance in the game. I don’t mind games that want you to conserve your ammo. I just hate when the same rules don’t apply to everyone else. Let’s say you run into a room and kill an enemy before he fires a shot and he drops 5 bullets. Now reload the game and go back into the room, but this time allow him to shoot at you. He will unload clip after clip at you until you kill him, but will still drop 5 bullets on death. When it take 4 or 5 shots to kill an enemy, it is very easy to run out of ammo in a large gunfight while the enemies continue shooting their unlimited supply at you.

The story itself is very well done, although nothing happens that we haven’t seen before. All of the characters are very likable and I always wanted to see what was going to happen next. I liked that the main character wanted nothing more than to forget about the treasure and escape with his life once the bullets started flying, but gets talked into continuing on. It was a very natural human reaction that doesn’t happen in many games.

The puzzles in the game are fairly disappointing. At the beginning of the game, your character finds Sir Francis Drake’s journal that explains how to find the treasure of El Dorado. Each time you come across a puzzle, the journal basically spoon feeds you the solution. Never once did I have a sense of accomplishment after finishing a puzzle. The game expects you to believe that the only way to find the treasure is by having the journal, but all of the puzzles could be figure out by trial and error. It kills the believability of the story when we are supposed to accept that no one could get to the treasure in the last 400+ years when all of the puzzles leading to it are so incredibly simple.

The graphics for the most part are very impressive. The characters’ faces could use a little more detail but all of the environments look spectacular. Fairly early in the game, you make your way behind a waterfall and look out over the island. Not only does the water look great, but you can also see the mist drifting away from it. The entire scene is photo realistic. Everything else has a very high level of polish on it. Plants are brushed aside as you walk through them. Your character’s shirt folds with your movements far more realistically than any other game. The game is worth playing just to see the amazing scenery and views (although this makes the end of the game more disappointing because the last half takes place in dark, confined spaces).

There is one aspect that very nearly destroyed the game for me (and actually may have, since I have no desire to play it again). It is the fact that no matter where you go in the game, your enemies are already ahead of you. Many of the puzzles have you open doors that haven’t been opened in centuries. As soon as you enter the room, enemies are waiting for you inside. In one scene in particular, there is no other way to proceed other than to climb around in the broken rafters of a church and pull two switches that opens a window for you to continue on. Once the window is open, it stays that way, so you were clearly the first one through. Upon climbing through the window, you come to a cemetery full of enemies. After fighting through the enemies, you enter a mausoleum where your friends who you left in another area at the beginning of the level are waiting. Why the hell did I have to go through the entire level of puzzles and fighting if there was another, far simpler way to get there? The entire game is handled this way. There is only one way for you to proceed and it is clear no one has ever gone that way, but there will always be someone already at your goal. Since the enemies don’t have your journal with all of the puzzle solutions for very long, it makes no sense that they know where to go before you do.

The entire game (other than the storyline itself) is too ridiculous to be taken seriously. It is a fun diversion, but the gameplay has been done much better in many other games. If you own a PS3 I have to say that you should buy this game, but that is only due to a total lack of any other options.