Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

There is no denying that I was waiting with bated breath for Uncharted 2 and in almost every respect it delivered.

The story is quite strong, and really gets you involved with the characters, you end up despising the bad guys and their motives while sympathising with Drake and his allies. No prior knowledge is needed to get into this game, so it is accessible to everyone whether they are newcomers to the series or fans of the previous games. It does help to know the returning characters (all three of them) and their previous interactions but not knowing them in depth does not hurt the experience at all. The semi-non linear story telling does a good job of building suspense early on, but it is ditched fairly quickly just to give you the story…It works really well to suck you in early on.

Where Among Thieves really excels is in its pacing, it is always interspersing action heavy sequences with the much more mellow stealth, platforming and puzzling sections. Add to this that is always changing things up as you go, swapping perspective in platforming sections, and even placing you in the middle of a gunfight in a collapsing building. The set pieces such as these are truly awe inspiring. The gunfights are really intense and the enemies seem so overpowered that even a fight against 4 or 5 foes can get a little overwhelming. This complaint is relatively minor but watching certain enemies taking 3 or 4 headshots before going down, it a little unrealistic and does get frustrating.

The enemies themselves aren't particularly smart, they will 'forget' to avoid grenades thrown right next to them and when far away their only plan of attack is to come towards you. As they get closer the do try to flush you out with grenades and flank you, so often the best course of action is to keep them at arms length and try to pick them off, although this is easier said than done.

The puzzles are generally inventive although none of them will have you thinking for too long, and all the answers are located in your journal, the disappointing thing is that you only need to use it on around 4 occasions. As the Journal could easily been a highlight as the sketches that are included as a bit of colour are generally funny.

The platforming sections are also inventive, with things crumbling under Drake's hands, bars bending, preventing certain routes from being taken. All of the sections are logical in which path to take, although some are better hidden and some sections do leave you wondering if that post is reachable from your current position. Once again this is a minor gripe as there are very few occasions where this happens. Also those that haven't played Uncharted for a while may have a little readjustment period getting used to the platforming controls.

Graphically Uncharted 2 is outstanding. All of the environments are beautiful, and it's not a one trick pony either. Whether it be the lush tropical environments of Borneo or the Himalayas, it looks stunning. The character models are also look outstanding, the cutscenes actually look like you are watching an animated movie, the lip synching is perfect and the faces actually convey emotion rather than appearing as cardboard cut outs. Also as was seen in the first game if Drake enters water his clothes get wet, then gradually dry out and in snow it sticks in Drakes hair and around the hems of his pants, these are all small things but it all demonstrates how much attention has been given to the smallest details.

The acting performances are outstanding too…there is real chemistry between the characters…it actually shows how well a game can be done when the actors are in the same room recording dialogue. All the conversations feel realistic, like they are responding to one another…Add to this the superior animation and you have almost virtual actors, it is not quite there yet but it is getting close.

Also, aside from when you first enter the game there are no load times, all cleverly hidden by cutscenes, but the transition between gameplay and cutscenes and back again is so seamless that you barely notice this, and this all comes with absolutely no installation, which just shows what developers are capable of.

The game has life beyond the first playthrough of the single player. There is always the challenge of finding all 101 treasures which on the whole are much better hidden than the first game and will provide hours of searching fun. Then there are the unlockables to make the game slightly easier, in which money earnt in game will buy things like faster movement speed and one shot kills and the like.

It is hard not to compare the game to its predecessor and it improves on it in almost every respect, gone is the tacked on six-axis functionality, which had me falling from logs regularly and takinf too long to lob a grenade. The weapons while still feeling a little weak, as mentioned above but it is improved over the last game and as a result is much more satisfying.

Add to this the multiplayer, which is extremely fun. There are the standard match variations types of deathmatch, capture the flag among others. These are all balanced well and extremely fun. It is a bit of a twist to most multiplayer games as you can leap out of danger and use the height differences to your advantage.
Additionally there are the co-op modes which are equally fun with the right group. The multiplayer adapts several levels to make them more suitable for 3 players to participate. There is a survival mode also that sends swarms of enemies in your direction and your goal is to, well, survive.
It is a solid addition to the package that many were sceptical about. It works, sure it really is just a distraction from the main story, where all the interest lies but it could have been a poor distraction.

Uncharted 2 is a well rounded game in every regard, it mixes its brand of puzzling, platforming and shooting extremely well in a package that will please almost every fan of action adventure games. I really can't recommend this game highly enough.