Truth is I only picked up this game so I can play the multiplayer with one of my best friends (who loves it) and I wasn't that interested in the first one. But when I played this, it completely blew my expectations.
[HEADING=2]Story[/HEADING]
I don't understand what Nathan Drake sees in this job. The game starts in media res ("in the middle" for you high school dropouts) where he wakes up in a train car while bleeding from the stomach and realizing the train car is hanging from a cliff. After a climb to safety, he faints in the snow while clutching a strange dagger and goes into a plot-convienient coma where he has a flashback of just how he got into this situation.
Despite frostbite and blood loss, he still hangs on. There's a good life lesson here
The story involves Drake, along with a former flame Chloe Frazer and Elena from the first game, picking up Marco Polo's trail from china 600 years ago. He left China with 14 ships and 600 passengers yet only 18 passengers and one ship arrived. Drake finds out that they were involved with an ancient city called Shambhala (Shangri-La) tries to stop a power hungry war lord from finding it and using a legendary treasure that can uhh...make him invincible I guess. The story as you can see is pretty borderline adventure movie, but its the progression of the story that makes it stand out. The plot is filled with betrayal, great locales, amazing set pieces, and great characterization and dialogue. The dialogue, if you've heard from the media, is said to be a great selling point of the game, and it is. It's very natural to the situation (drake and chloe's past romance, characterization, and sarcasm) and quite comical at most times, if not a bit juvenile. For eg:
Drake being captured at gunpoint
(character I don't want to spoil): I found the ships, haven't I?
(Drake): You couldn't find your ass with both hands and a map!
Chloe and Drake's meeting in Nepal, they hug
(Chloe) Ohh, is that an ancient tibetan ritual dagger in your pocket?
(Drake) Maybe i'm just happy to see you.
Other than this, the dialogue is again very natural and well-timed. Special mention goes to the character of Chloe as her spunky, hostile, but human qualities make her a good example of a female character in gaming. Drake himself is a memorable character, using sarcasm to hide his feelings of terror. The story is brilliantly told packed with a lot of predictable twists but some very interesting surprises too. Drake hmiself is a memorable character, using sarcasm to hide his feelings of terror.
[HEADING=2]Design and Progression[/HEADING]
Being a cinematic game, the adventure is very linear but that's not a bad thing. There will be some branch off parts for treasures but that's about it. A new addition is that most areas have a more vertical point so you can gain some altitude and attack from above, giving a more dynamic feel. There is more globetrotting as you go through rainforests, mountains, cities, and some pretty interesting locations I don't want to spoil. There is a bigger emphasis on action packed sequences and dangerous environments like a collapsing building. One of the best sequences in gaming I've ever seen is a sequence on a moving train where you have to think quickly while heavily armored behemoths assualt you with shotguns. It's sequences like these that remind me why I prefer linear games over most sandbox games.
You can gaze at the wondrous foliage and warning signs moving past you at 90 km/h (I'm from Canada by the way) while climbing the outside of a train car attempting to grab a mercenary that's also for some reason guarding the roof of a train car while the train goes at an irresponsible speed. The visuals are outstanding with objects moving around from force foliage waving and realistic water continuing the tradition of clthes looking wet after you,ve been swimming. This time snow is the star with it gathering around your feet, and it shifting as you pass through it is magnificaient There are some simple puzzles in the game that allow you to solve them using drake's diary, which causes a bit of a plothole since it contains information on a puzzle with no explanation of how that info was acquired. The puzzles are bigger in scale, taking entire rooms and large mechanisms, but don't require a lot of thought since its simple matching to the picture in the diary.
If you can solve this, you can solve the puzzles in Uncharted 2Despite being linear, this game is a good example of linearity done well. I still think that some of the best games today are linear and Uncharted 2 is one of those games.
[HEADING=2]Gameplay[/HEADING]
Uncharted 2 plays pretty identical to its predessesor. The gameplay is a mix of cover based gunplay, scaling and climbing, and simple puzzles as mentioned above. The gunplay itself works nicely but sometimes doesn't feel right since enemies can take a lot of damage, you can't feel the sway very well (same reasons why i didn't like combat in bioshock and Half Life 2) and most automatic weapons sound like a chain jamming a piston system.
However, the enemies react to wherever they were shot, which makes for some entertainment with kneeshots and face shots. You can now stealthily attack an area which can net you extra ammo but when you've screwed up stealth, it REALLY feels like you fucked up the stealth. However if you can time things right and use cover it shouldn't be too hard to take out at least 3 guys. Melee combat is much more refined, and by refined I mean not frustrating. All you have to do is tap square constantly and countering attacks is simple because time slows down for you to counter, making things pretty patronizingly simple. The coolest thing about melee is that if the enemy is not at your level the melee attack is an instant kill flip over shoulder or roundhouse to the face.
The climbing is very intuitive since Drake will reach out his arms to wherever there is a climbable surface, which is good since you still can't tell where the hell which is the next climbable ledge and which will send me to a cheap death as punishment for my curiosity. Seriously, you'll die alot from either impatience or curiosity. If you take the time to plan your next cover route and check which ledge is climbable you'll have a much less frustrating time.
How can he climb all that without getting frostbiteThe gameplay is very entertaining and rewarding with the new addition of stealth and much better grenade control since there is an auto throw button now, but again the action sequences, pacing and story are more entertaining than the gameplay and you'll be waiting to hear the next sarcastic remark from Drake after each fight.
[HEADING=2]Multiplayer[/HEADING]
The multiplayer component is actually very good. Most of the time multiplayer feels tacked on but not in this game. There are 7 maps based on single player levels, and in these there are classic deathmatch, and capture the flag (treasure in this case). But now there is an addition of coop objectives based on missions from the story, which can earn far mor epoints than any competitive match. There is also coop arena which is basically survive as many rounds as you can, or capture the treasure as many rounds as you can. This adds a new depth and replayability to Uncharted 2. One of the best things about the multiplayer is that every gameplay aspect in single player translates perfectly to multiplayer, and free climbing allows for better exploration and transport on a map (The best climbing maps are village and plaza). In addition, are perks and a leveling up system supposedly taken from COD4 and other games. But what makes these superior over COD4 perks is that all your kills are still based on skill as boosters only give you a SMALL balanced bonus like better sight aiming, faster walking with riot shield or more bullets in clip. The multiplayer has a lot of thought put into it and can almost be its own separate game and stand along with the great.
[HEADING=2]Overall[/HEADING]
I recommend this game to anyone with a PS3. Its a fantastic adventure with a lot of well-executed sequences, good gunplay, great dialogue, amazing graphics and environmental effects and interesting locations. Its unfortunate that it doesn't bring anything of its own. But everything it has is as good or better than in most other games. Basically I can sum up the game in 2 phrases, "most polished" and "more than the sum of its parts". If you want a compelling adventure look no further than Uncharted 2 Among Thieves. This being my own subjective review you may feel different about a few things once you play but even so try it out.
Pros:
-Great characterization
-Natural and humorous dialogue
-Variety of locations
-Satisfying gunplay
-Action-packed
-Great environmental effects and visuals
-Climbing is very fun
-Nice use of explosives
-Astounding competitive multiplayer
-Rewarding coop
-Refined melee and grenades
-No shitty vehicle sections (no vehicle sections at all really)
Cons
-Questionable AI
-Very Linear if that bothers you
-Punishes you for impatience
-Guns can feel fake at times
-Occasional juvenile dialogue
[HEADING=2]Story[/HEADING]
I don't understand what Nathan Drake sees in this job. The game starts in media res ("in the middle" for you high school dropouts) where he wakes up in a train car while bleeding from the stomach and realizing the train car is hanging from a cliff. After a climb to safety, he faints in the snow while clutching a strange dagger and goes into a plot-convienient coma where he has a flashback of just how he got into this situation.
Despite frostbite and blood loss, he still hangs on. There's a good life lesson here
The story involves Drake, along with a former flame Chloe Frazer and Elena from the first game, picking up Marco Polo's trail from china 600 years ago. He left China with 14 ships and 600 passengers yet only 18 passengers and one ship arrived. Drake finds out that they were involved with an ancient city called Shambhala (Shangri-La) tries to stop a power hungry war lord from finding it and using a legendary treasure that can uhh...make him invincible I guess. The story as you can see is pretty borderline adventure movie, but its the progression of the story that makes it stand out. The plot is filled with betrayal, great locales, amazing set pieces, and great characterization and dialogue. The dialogue, if you've heard from the media, is said to be a great selling point of the game, and it is. It's very natural to the situation (drake and chloe's past romance, characterization, and sarcasm) and quite comical at most times, if not a bit juvenile. For eg:
Drake being captured at gunpoint
(character I don't want to spoil): I found the ships, haven't I?
(Drake): You couldn't find your ass with both hands and a map!
Chloe and Drake's meeting in Nepal, they hug
(Chloe) Ohh, is that an ancient tibetan ritual dagger in your pocket?
(Drake) Maybe i'm just happy to see you.
Other than this, the dialogue is again very natural and well-timed. Special mention goes to the character of Chloe as her spunky, hostile, but human qualities make her a good example of a female character in gaming. Drake himself is a memorable character, using sarcasm to hide his feelings of terror. The story is brilliantly told packed with a lot of predictable twists but some very interesting surprises too. Drake hmiself is a memorable character, using sarcasm to hide his feelings of terror.
[HEADING=2]Design and Progression[/HEADING]
Being a cinematic game, the adventure is very linear but that's not a bad thing. There will be some branch off parts for treasures but that's about it. A new addition is that most areas have a more vertical point so you can gain some altitude and attack from above, giving a more dynamic feel. There is more globetrotting as you go through rainforests, mountains, cities, and some pretty interesting locations I don't want to spoil. There is a bigger emphasis on action packed sequences and dangerous environments like a collapsing building. One of the best sequences in gaming I've ever seen is a sequence on a moving train where you have to think quickly while heavily armored behemoths assualt you with shotguns. It's sequences like these that remind me why I prefer linear games over most sandbox games.
If you can solve this, you can solve the puzzles in Uncharted 2
[HEADING=2]Gameplay[/HEADING]
Uncharted 2 plays pretty identical to its predessesor. The gameplay is a mix of cover based gunplay, scaling and climbing, and simple puzzles as mentioned above. The gunplay itself works nicely but sometimes doesn't feel right since enemies can take a lot of damage, you can't feel the sway very well (same reasons why i didn't like combat in bioshock and Half Life 2) and most automatic weapons sound like a chain jamming a piston system.
The climbing is very intuitive since Drake will reach out his arms to wherever there is a climbable surface, which is good since you still can't tell where the hell which is the next climbable ledge and which will send me to a cheap death as punishment for my curiosity. Seriously, you'll die alot from either impatience or curiosity. If you take the time to plan your next cover route and check which ledge is climbable you'll have a much less frustrating time.
How can he climb all that without getting frostbite
[HEADING=2]Multiplayer[/HEADING]
The multiplayer component is actually very good. Most of the time multiplayer feels tacked on but not in this game. There are 7 maps based on single player levels, and in these there are classic deathmatch, and capture the flag (treasure in this case). But now there is an addition of coop objectives based on missions from the story, which can earn far mor epoints than any competitive match. There is also coop arena which is basically survive as many rounds as you can, or capture the treasure as many rounds as you can. This adds a new depth and replayability to Uncharted 2. One of the best things about the multiplayer is that every gameplay aspect in single player translates perfectly to multiplayer, and free climbing allows for better exploration and transport on a map (The best climbing maps are village and plaza). In addition, are perks and a leveling up system supposedly taken from COD4 and other games. But what makes these superior over COD4 perks is that all your kills are still based on skill as boosters only give you a SMALL balanced bonus like better sight aiming, faster walking with riot shield or more bullets in clip. The multiplayer has a lot of thought put into it and can almost be its own separate game and stand along with the great.
[HEADING=2]Overall[/HEADING]
I recommend this game to anyone with a PS3. Its a fantastic adventure with a lot of well-executed sequences, good gunplay, great dialogue, amazing graphics and environmental effects and interesting locations. Its unfortunate that it doesn't bring anything of its own. But everything it has is as good or better than in most other games. Basically I can sum up the game in 2 phrases, "most polished" and "more than the sum of its parts". If you want a compelling adventure look no further than Uncharted 2 Among Thieves. This being my own subjective review you may feel different about a few things once you play but even so try it out.
Pros:
-Great characterization
-Natural and humorous dialogue
-Variety of locations
-Satisfying gunplay
-Action-packed
-Great environmental effects and visuals
-Climbing is very fun
-Nice use of explosives
-Astounding competitive multiplayer
-Rewarding coop
-Refined melee and grenades
-No shitty vehicle sections (no vehicle sections at all really)
Cons
-Questionable AI
-Very Linear if that bothers you
-Punishes you for impatience
-Guns can feel fake at times
-Occasional juvenile dialogue
