Review: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Format – PS3
Developer – Naughty Dog
Publisher – Sony Computer Entertainment
Best Price Online – PS3

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is Naughty Dog’s new PS3 exclusive that picks up about a year after the first one ended. Strictly speaking it starts in the future and you go back: it’s hard to explain. Not to worry though, Naughty Dog haven’t gone completely insane and given Nathan Drake the power of time travel, they have just gone slightly insane and made the first half of the game a living flash back. What was I saying? Oh yes, Uncharted 2. Basically it is a 3^rd person cover-based shooter with platforming and puzzling elements, which make the game feel very varied. Uncharted 2 follows Nathan Drake on a journey to find the hidden treasure of Shambala, where he’s competing against Zoran Lazarević, a crazy Serbian criminal who is determined to get there first and claim the reward. Confused? Let me break it down.

You start off the game, after waking up confused, in a train, bleeding. This is a great start as straight away it shows you how astonishing this game looks. The game starts you in the snow which is where this game looks the most realistic. The snow sticks to your clothes, your feet disappear in the deep snow and it sounds exactly like snow. After you get over how great the snow in this game is (about half an hour rolling in the snow will do) you take a look at your surroundings. A train wreck, a fairly severe one too. That also looks perfect, with flames and debris everywhere. Not much of the amazing gameplay to experience here but you do get a good handle on the climbing early on. It is shortly after this that you first fire a gun: The shooting feels exactly the same as it did on Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, but it was great then, so why change it? Another great thing which makes the game feel more realistic is the commentary from Nate, and others, whilst you are playing. Not really ground-breaking, but it certainly adds to the atmosphere of the game. This also happens a lot later in the game, when you have ‘friends’. They will interact with each other in realistic and genuinely humorous ways, made great because of the voice acting. Playing this game and watching the cutscenes is like an interactive movie!

The parts in which you have company were definitely my favorite. Not just because the enemies had someone else to shoot at besides me, but because the game really comes alive with two (or more) players, even when those additional players are AI. This is the main reason I love the online co-op mode. It has side missions that are completely different to the story missions, which, in turn, means this game can live on long after completing the story, with friends. I couldn’t think of anything better. These co-operative missions also include teamwork aspects, an example being where one player climbs up to a room and throws down a bookshelf for the others to climb up. There are also the standard gameplay aspects like shooting and climbing. Competitive online multiplayer is included, with Deathmatch and Plunder (a variant of Capture the Flag). Both of these modes give the game a much bigger lifespan and are great fun.

Uncharted 2 controls just like you would want it to. Running, jumping and fighting all feel fluid and accurate. Jumping between ledges seems a bit sticky, meaning Nate will seem to click into position when you jump at slightly the wrong angle.

Now I want to talk about the story for a bit. No, no! Come back! I’m not posting spoilers here but I found it a bit dull. Despite me saying that it was like an interactive movie, the story was a bit dry. Around every corner there is a cliché, and around every cliché there is a rather dull (but very movie-like) cutscene. There are some truly spectacular moments in this game, but none of them affect the story that heavily. To me, this game is great because of the action and the way it looks, not because of the story.

Another thing I find annoying with this game is the puzzles. Granted, there aren’t too many in the game, but the ones they do throw at you are annoying but gave a good break away from the gun battles and the climbing, which believe it or not can get repetitive, but if I start finding a game repetitive, I turn it off. I don’t need some boring puzzle to try and keep me playing the game. Nice touch, but no thanks.

Overall this game is a lot of fun whilst you are playing it but it can get boring whilst you’re not. Also, the puzzles let it down. It’s well worth the money if you’re going to play online; otherwise I suggest just renting it.

What’s good:

• Amazing gun fights
• Great looks
• Lots to do past the single player

What’s not so good:

• Not much lifespan if you don’t play online

8/10

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