Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Introduction

When the Playstation 3 first came out, it suffered from the same issue that most new consoles face: A lack of quality launch titles. Even worse, the system exclusives were weak. God of War II had recently come out…for the PS2. For a system that cost three times the amount of the other new kid on the block, the Nintendo Wii, the PS3 was in a very perilous position. Sony did eventually turn their fortunes around, in large part thanks to a little action adventure game called Uncharted. The game, in which you played treasure hunter Nathan Drake on a quest to find El Dorado, was the biggest hit the system had at the time, selling over 3.5 million copies and becoming the first must have exclusive for the next gen system. However, the game didn’t quite live up the hype, being fairly short and often repetitive. Despite this, the amount of time and detail that went into the game was evident, and even if it wasn’t spectacular, the characters were endearing and the atmosphere was stunning. So when developer Naughty Dog announced a sequel, anticipation was high.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Uncharted 2 has one of the greatest openings in video game history. You discover Nathan, wounded and disoriented, hanging off the end of a train that has derailed and is dangling off the side of a mountain. From the first moments, you know that this game is going to be a cut above the last one. As you climb up the ruined train cars towards a snowy hilltop, you flash back to the events that got you into this perilous position. To make a long story short, you’re hired to recover an ancient artifact, get double-crossed, and end up going after a vicious warlord who’s looking to use the artifact to gain unimaginable power. You know, the basic Indiana Jones style set up. What works here isn’t the story, which is serviceable but nothing special, but rather the characters. Drake himself is a charming rogue, cut from the same cloth as the aforementioned Dr. Jones. However, he has his own personality, coming off kind of like Castle star Nathan Fillion (who is the only good choice to play Drake in the on-again, off-again movie adaptation). His interplay with the various characters, his confidant Sully, his sometimes love interests Elena and Chloe, and his nemesis Harry Flynn, are all top notch. The writing is sharp, the performances lively, the backdrops are gorgeous. In a way, Uncharted feels more like an interactive film than a video game. And while for most games that would sound like an insult, in this case it’s a compliment.

The gameplay doesn’t diverge too much from the first game (which took its cues from the Tomb Raider franchise), but tweaks things to make the whole experience more pleasurable. And boy does it show. The game employs a cover-based gun fight system, which is pretty standard for third party shooters of this type. The levels in Uncharted 2 are all designed to make maximum use of this style. You do have to take cover to survive, but the amount of options you have to finish a fight are impressive. For one thing, there’s an incredible variety of weapons, all with different strengths and weaknesses, and as you take down enemies, they pile up all over the battlefield. Many times you could choose to take down each villain with a different weapon if you were really determined. The shooting mechanics are smooth and finely honed. I was popping off more head shots than I could count within minutes of picking up the controller.

Of course, a game like this isn’t all about gunplay. Drake is amazingly agile, able to climb onto, over, and through most anything, and often does. You cannot pass a single level of Uncharted 2 without climbing up walls, jumping across chasms, or scaling massive ancient constructions. A few of these sequences in the first game were extraordinarily frustrating, demanding the right combination of buttons at the exact right moment. Thankfully, the controls are more lenient this time around, but the developers do throw in some surprises to keep you on your toes. You will absolutely not be bored with the platforming on display. The other main section are puzzles, which are generally intuitive and don’t require more than a few moments of contemplation (and then a generous helping of said platforming) to solve. The big twist here is that Drake keeps a running journal of everything he learns, and in order to complete these puzzles, you’ll need to reference sketches or bits of information Drake has squirreled away. And, even more interestingly, you have to go through and find the information for yourself. It’s not highlighted; you won’t find any big neon arrows pointing at the answers. This makes you feel like more of a participant in solving the puzzle, as opposed to the person just pressing the buttons. In fact, the whole game goes out of its way to make you feel like you’re taking control, even if you’re doing exactly what the developers wanted you to do.

And if you can’t get enough, the game also offers cooperative and competitive multiplayer. The cooperative feels underdeveloped, with you and up to two other players facing off against hordes of enemies to reach an ultimate goal. It gets tiring quickly and wasn’t a feature I was eager to revisit. On the other hand, the competitive multiplayer lets you match wits against other human opponents, and the game’s combat system really shines. The real fun here comes in how quickly things can change owing to the characters’ agility. You can use the level’s topography to your advantage, planning escape routes and using the multilayered areas to get the drop on opponents. It’s really exhilarating.