Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
For Playstation 3

I'll say it now, this is one of the best games I have ever played. Although it's not without its flaws, it overshadows them with a superb single player campaign and a solid multiplayer.

If I were asked to describe it, I would call it a Tomb Raider meets Gears of War meets Indiana Jones. But that wouldn't do I justice, this is uncharted. While it does nothing new or revolutionary, it raises the bar so high, you'd need a step ladder just to see it.



Gameplay is the standard platforming, shooting and shimmying with the occasional puzzle (The notebook makes a welcome return, this time with the ability to flip pages at will, there's some quite fancy stuff here). Stealth kills are back and as great as ever, Hand-to-hand combat is simpler but equally satisfying and the variety of weapons has increased. Friendly and Hostile AI has improved, your groupies will now join the gunfight with you and do some mountain climbing by your side, and the baddies will kill you not matter what (guns not working? they will throw grenades, that not working? they'll send RPG's and snipers at you, stopping in one place will get you killed. What I would like to pick up on is the seamless blur between cutscene and gameplay: there were several moments when I didn't realize that the cutscene had ended and I had control of Drake again, while not a term I am particularly fond of, this really is a cinematic experience.



Story is a thing which many people don't deem important, but I beg to differ, while the story doesn't seem like much at first, it creates an amazing background for Drake to adventure on. The humour in this game is fantastic, I haven't laughed so hard at some jokes since Psychonauts, this is in part, thanks to the characters; Nate is as great as ever, a fantastic protagonist, Elena took a level in Badass since the first game and others like Tenzin, Chloe and Flynn make this one fantastic cast of characters, some of the interactions seem perfectly realistic and funny at the same time. So you have this Roller-coaster of an adventure, with fantastic characters, great humour, brilliant levels and they all come together to form a nice complete package.



Graphics are pretty good, one of the best looking games released, a few set pieces will leave you in awe. The attention to detail on the characters is absolutely stunning. The art direction had a lot of love and labor put in it, as is evident by the unlockable concept art.



Whoops, wrong screenshot.



The music score can only be described as Uncharted 2.0. It uses similar themes to Drake's Fortune, but ramps it up by a lot, going side by side with the intensity happening on screen. The dialogue is well written and spoken as well, it really helps these characters seem real, some quite flawless and memorable performances here.

"YOU WILL NOT STAND IN THE WAY OF DESTINY!"

The Multiplayer component is well thought out, with a huge variety of modes, including Co-op, this should keep players busy for a while. While not as good as the single-player, the multi-player is a worthwhile addition.

In summery: Better than Tomb Raider? Yes. Better than Gears of War? Yes. Better than Indiana Jones? Equal. Is it a worthy sequel? Hell Yes. Is it worth getting a PS3 for? I would say yes, it is much better than it looks, screens and trailers do not do this game justice.



Well, that's too much praise for me to handle, so here are some cons:
--Some gunfights are trial and error, I have heard that death horn hundreds of times, it becomes practice to perfect a strategy again and again and again until it works, it's even worse on the higher difficulties, What I'm saying is, there is less skill involved than blind luck and trail and error.
--The eyes: Good god, why are they so shiny? Yes, the graphics are nice, but everyone has a layer of vaseline over their eyes, it's the only thing keeping the characters in the uncanny valley.
--Platforming is incredibly simple, this makes a lot of it just seem like filler.
--Multiplayer can take an age to connect sometimes.
--Few minor bugs (Game freezing, falling through walls etc. Note that these are a rarity, happening only once or twice.)

Overall Score:

9 Crazy Drakes out of 10