Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Posted by Kevin in Featured, Sony | 3 comments

A year after the events of the original Uncharted, we pick up where we left off. Nathan Drake is chilling out before very quickly being swooped off to find treasure related to Marco Polo.

…and that’s how I begin my review. Because as hastily as I started this, the action began in Uncharted.

One major change from this movie game compared to the last iteration is that the environments feel bigger, better and more robust. Climbing and platforming is the same as it was, which gives a fun but albeit linear experience in that regard. Though I will admit to occasionally looking around for a few minutes trying to find that one obvious hanging rope or ledge to drop onto in order to progress through levels.

It actualy looks better in game

Shootouts are far more fun now. It was my biggest gripe with the first game, but no longer are there endless waves of enemies constantly spawning with ridiculous iteration. Instead, the scripted events are far less predictable, and more fun to play. Also, you can use the environment to it’s best use in each fight. Rather then just ducking behind cover and shooting over it Gears of War style, you can now utilise Drake’s climbing abilities. Enemies will pop out from behind nooks and crannies above, below, behind and in front of you, so you have to keep your wits about you. In one instance you’re advised to conduct an entire fight from behind signs – while you’re up on a pole that houses these billboard hoardings.

On top of this, CQC is far more refined here. Again, you’re really just button-mashing the square button on your controller to punch and kick your way out of trouble, but the triangle will block enemy moves, and a combo will deliver a deathly-blow to your often-weak foes. Another refinement in this area comes from stealth attacks, where you press square when behind unyielding enemies to take them down silently, and efficiently. This animation looks a lot like Sold Snake in action, but is often far more satisfying as it can be done in a variety of scenarios, like dangling from a ledge and pulling an enemy over it, quietly.

Sticking with environmental changes, a huge new element is dynamic environments on particular levels. One level that will stick with you after playing is the epic train level, where you must move from carriage-to-carriage fighting off enemy troops, platforming over obstacles and eventually fighting off a helicopter or two. This train sequence becomes the linchpin for the whole story set-up and demise and introduces us to the wonderfully rendered snowy-tundra. This snow, by the way, will be this years water effect. In the same way everyone was undoubtedly impressed by Drake’s ability to go into incredibly rendered water, get wet exactly where he was splashed and then dry out again, people will be amazed at leaving snow tracks behind while getting your clothes wet from the snow itself.

There are puzzles in this game. It feels like there may be less then previously, but these are certainly more rewarding. One perfect example of a good puzzle is the instance to match a huge statues arm-configurations by twisting them around so that the statue is posed in the same way that it is in a doodle in your little handbook. Once you complete the puzzle the story can move on.

Throughout the game the dialog and animations are mind-blowing. This is what they meant when they said “next gen” a few years ago. Simple things like randomly jumping into swimming pools throughout different levels not only gain you cheeky amounts of money and trophies, but your often-female companion will scoff and remark at how childish you are – sometimes while Drake makes childish remarks like “Marco… Polo!”.

Scenes in this game are beautifully rendered, and the transition from FMV to gameplay is flawless with no interruptions, even between chapters. You could almost play the entire 26 chapters from start to finish without interruption and notice one loading screen. It makes you wonder what Kojima was up to with his epic loading and installation screens.

Another new addition to this game is online multiplayer and co-op. Versus modes are your typical affair with deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture-the-treasure, etc. Nothing new here except it’s done in an over-the-shoulder game type with lots of beautiful surroundings to tear apart. The added bonus here is that you can climb, jump and cajole your way through levels in the same way you can in the single player mode, meaning with good skill and knowledge of those rooftop locations and pipes to climb, you can get a serious advantage in a round.

Co-op is not a full playthrough of the single player campaign. Rather, it’s a series of set-pieces that you can play with a buddies over PSN. Co-op gameplay is quite difficult, which makes it more fun and gives you more of a challenge compared to the single player campaign.

In conclusion, single player will give you 10+ hours of glorious fun which far out-plays anything this generation has offered so far in terms of unanimous good-times among the gaming community. Online modes are very well conceived and don’t feel like a last-minute addition to the game, but rather is a fully realised section of code. This offers endless re-playability alongside the co-op modes. Frankly, you’d be absolutely mad not to own this game, as long as you have a PS3.