I still like this game even though it has some obvious flaws and the sequels objectively improved on every single aspect of it. Mainly, I enjoy the setting and the overall art direction and vibe. For one, I have a bit of thing for lush tropical jungles in games. The dark atmosphere of the overgrown 16th centry buildings you encounter in the latter half is also particularly appealing. The soundtrack is appropriately alien and ominous. Additionally, I find that the cast has great chemistry, particularly the actors portraying Nate and Elena. The game has an air of a mid-2000s summer popcorn movie for me, and I mean that in a good way. It's also not necessarily a bad thing that it's not as heavy on set pieces as the sequels, where I feel they almost went too far. This first game is a bit more grounded and that has its own charm.

Gameplaywise, it's fine. It has the basics covered. Probably a bit too basic by todays standard, but third person cover-based shooters were still relatively novel at the time. I recall there being something off about the aiming in the PS3 version - and I don't mean the shaky performance. Either way, it seems to have been fixed in for PS4 as I had little issue pulling off headshots. Playing on hard was actually that hard. It still has some annoying sections however, where there's no good cover available and it a bit of a trial and error until you find a good strategy to not die within 3 seconds of respawning.

Uncharted as a series went on to popularize a more on-rails style platforming, which I don't mind in this kind of game. In this first release, though, I often had issues figuring out which parts of the environment were climbable ledges. In later games they started to highlight the right path with yellow - perhaps a bit immersion-breaking, but I can see why it was necessary. As for the puzzles, I've always thought they could demand a bit more from the player other than making them look up the solution in Nate's diary, but oh well.

Other minor annoyances include very rare and random quick time events that you have no way of anticipating and a mildly frustraing final boss fight.

The PS4 still looks quite good. Apparently, BluePoint did a lot of work on the assets, even if it might not seem that different from the PS3 version at first glance. It was nice replaying it at a stable 60 fps and it even looks surprisingly clean for a 1080p game.

I'd still recommend it, but if it really doesn't agree with you, just skip to the second game which is much improved in all aspects.

I got to the last laser (town) and I think that's where I'll call it quits. I had my fun with it. Up to a point I was able to manage mostly on my own, occasionally checking hints, rather than solutions. Eventually, it got to the point where I needed to look up most every puzzle. Some of those I probably could have figured out by myself with enough patience - others I don't think I would've ever figured out. It doesn't help that most times I sit down to play it's at the end of the day when I'm already tired and my brain is kinda fried. I also made the mistake of thinking I could play it on and off. Doesn't work since you tend to forget the rules for the puzzles.

Last couple of sessions I could feel myself getting tired of the overall concept and just wanting to be done with it. Either way, that's what I expected to eventually happen when I started out, even if at one point it felt like I might at least be able to get to the regular ending. I might change my mind yet and do another sitting, but I'd probably be doing myself a disservice.

Otherwise, game is pretty. It throws a bunch of deep quotes at you. I suspect it's just messing with you, but what do I know, I haven't finished it. I was prepared I might get stuck and I don't regret giving it a go.

Second playthrough on PS5. It was certainly worth it. I enjoyed it better the second time around. I definitely rushed it a bit the first time. My opinion of the game hasn't changed fundametally. The gameplay is servisable. It's the art style and sound design that elevate it. Also, the sotry, or rather the way it's told. It's not all that original, but instead of feeding you exposition, it just leaves you clues and let's you piece things together. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing and just like the art style it reminds me of games like Half-Life 2 and Bioshock Infinite.

A few words on the PS5 version. Information I found online suggested that it was locked at 30 fps and had glitches and issues with the controls. I'm happy to report that it was patched at some point. It's targetting 60 now and ran mostly smooth on PS5 Pro with some minor exceptions. The epilogue area with heavy vegitation dropped to the high forties according to my monitor. I also didn't encounter the glaring glitches I saw in some videos. The default control scheme is not optimal, but it's fully rebindable, so you should be able to come up with something that works alright. There was still some of the weirdness I encountered on PC such as flashing white splotches at the edges of the screen when turning the camera quickly and what seemed like stuttery weapon animations at times. It's still not a super polished game, but I actually had a much better experience compared to my aging laptop.

What's perhaps more interesting is that there were gameplay differences. Items and saving points were placed in different spots. I'd say saving spots were less frequent overall, but I was able to carry more ammo at a time. The level design in one are in particular was actually quite different. I'm not sure which version is more up to date - I'd venture PC. But I couldn't say one was significantly better than the other. It was nice that things were spiced up a bit for my second playthrough.