Its about time. I’ve been meaning to play this for ages & I’ve finally managed to get round to it. Was it worth the wait? Well for the most part, yes. I can easily say it’s the best game I've played on the PS3 so far. But its not without its disappointments & problems.

First the good stuff. What is immediately apparent as soon as you start playing is that the graphics are sublime. Even these days it manages to hold its own against the very best looking games. The colours are strong & vibrant with the forestation looking incredibly real & deep, the water effects are the best I’ve seen since Bioshock & the ruined buildings all look realistic & have stunning architecture. They look stunning. You really can believe the setting as this is exactly what you’d expect an island that’s hiding treasure & has been deserted for the most part to look. The character models are also great & move with fluid & stunning animation. Until you get to some stairs anyway & suddenly Drake – your character – starts to hobble like he’s dropped a log in his trousers.

The story is really well played out too. Sure its predictable & clichéd – going to find some treasure & some bad stuff happens blah, blah, blah - but its told in such a great way you don’t really mind & the characters are surprisingly well played & believable with good voice acting. Although it does go sci-fi in the last part of the game which does ruin the package somewhat.

The games real strength though is its platforming. It’s a cross between Prince of Persia & Tomb Raider & is a joy to play. Tackling the scenery is a real gaming pleasure. Whether climbing up castle walls with the sun shining off the ocean in the background or working your way through underground caves, its varied & constantly enjoyable. Drake moves with great fluidity, jumping from ledge to ledge & responds well to your input. Think of any game where you’ve ever seen huge area in front of you & just loved figuring out how to get from one place to another or from the bottom of an area to the top & then found the process of getting there satisfying & fun, this will match or even surpass it.

The combat is also done to a really high standard. Taking more than a page from the Gears of War handbook, the cover system copies & works better than in most other games that have taken that style of gameplay. Headshots are rewarded, weapons are satisfying – especially the shotgun which sends enemies flying backwards - & the AI is surprisingly efficient in how they flank & choose to rush & overwhelm you. With covering fire provided by some enemies while ones with shotguns slowly make their way to your position to blow you away. Its great to see & can even be almost be too good, with some areas being incredibly tricky even on normal difficulty.

This is where the problems start creeping in though. Not long into the game the combat becomes the main focus of the game for some reason. & while its enjoyable it isn’t the games main strength & does become quite tiresome. Especially since most enemies can take what seems like a thousand bullets before dieing if you fail to line up headshots every time. It’s a real shame that it degenerates into ‘walk to this open area & kill everything, move on & repeat’. Rather than taking on the great environment, this will start making up most of the game time. Made even worse when the sci-fi part kicks in & the excellent cover system is just thrown away for a more standard, brainless, run & gun affair due to a new enemy type.

There’s also a couple of ill advised vehicle sections. The jet ski in particular standing out. It handles like a turd floating on top of the water. It just doesn’t feel right & really isn’t much fun to use. Luckily these sections are few & far between. They also don’t last long & are quite easy so not as big a problem as they could have been.

Don’t let any of this put you off though. It’s a truly great game overall & the sections of the game where you’re discovering & exploring new environments & climbing the stunning scenery more than make playing through the more tedious combat sections completely worth it & it still remains entirely playable & enjoyable up to the very end. & at 7-8 hours long, it never really has a chance for the combat to grate that much. Its just a shame that this could have easily been a classic if the emphasis on shooting stuff was toned down & the game world built more on its real platforming strengths.