Uncharted 2: Among Theives

Nathan Drake is back in a whole new adventure.   The original Uncharted got rave reviews and it was among the few great PS3 exclusives.  It was for every person who ever dreamed of finding a secret treasure, following clues, having close calls with booby traps, basically being Indiana Jones in his finest.  The power of the PS3 was shown for the first time in the game, with stunning graphics, and physics to make you think that you were watching a movie.  Clothes drying after being out of water for a while, shock waves from explosions, and great dialogue throughout the game.  Most praised the game, however there were a few things that seemed to be missing.  Uncharted 2 fills in all the gaps, and makes a perfect reason for going out and buying a new PS3.

The goal of naughtydog studios is to make Uncharted a stand alone series and they have done it almost perfectly.  You don’t have to play the first Uncharted before this one, which opens up the market a little, and I suggest anyone who hasn’t played either, to pick them both up you won’t be disappointed.  Uncharted 2 starts out in one of the most dramatic fashions possible.  Drake wakes up in a train bleeding badly, as he is trying to figure out why he is bleeding, and where he is, the train suddenly starts to move.  However it isn’t going forward but instead is dangling off a cliff and is starting to slip.  You take control of Drake and move up the train trying to get to the top before the train falls.  He makes a last second jump and scrambles up the cliff only to pass out again.  You get a flashback 4 months before the train accident and get a little background information.  Nate is approached by his old friend Harry Flynn and his old girlfriend Chloe Frazer.  They explain they have been hired by an individual to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from an Istanbol museum.  Why? Because the light of Khan will show the way to the lost 13.  This is according to a piece of parchment written by Marco Polo, who left China with over 600 passengers on 14 ships loaded with gold and treasure.  But Marco Polo arrived home with only 1 ship and 18 passengers, and never talked about what happened to the other 13 ships. 

A very intense beginning to the game, and it never seems to stop.  The game is full of twists and turns that keep you coming back for more.  The story line is just as good as the first one, and the first Uncharted’s storyline was phenomenal.  The story never lags, and although it is usually serious, as in the first Uncharted, Nate throws one liners into the action that make you laugh.  The thing that makes this game stand above other games is the graphics.  The havok engine that Naughtydog uses is incredible.  Ever little thing has detail, and it never seems to repeat itself.  Just like the first Uncharted, if a character wades through water, their cloths will appear wet for a while and then will dry over time.  However one of the most impressive parts of Uncharted 2 was a snow scene, where after a while in the snow Nate would have a dusting on snow in his hair, but if you got close to fire it would melt.  Aside from the physics in water drying, the game is more stunning than any game I have ever played.  There are a couple scenes where you just stop at a cliff and look over the land.  They did a fantastic job with everything.  Gun play is easy to use, but still offers a challenge to the best of gamers.  There are a couple new features added to Uncharted 2.  Newer weapons, and a better melee system help with the action parts of the game.  Newer animations for Nates climbing and jumping squences help keep the realism.  Multiplayer adds a whole new dimension to the game, which keeps the replay value really high.  The more you play in multiplayer the more perks you can unlock along with weapon sets. 

Overall this is the best game I have reviewed in a long time.  Everything blends together perfectly, from solving puzzles, to full blown action sequences, to running for your life as a bridge starts to collapse.  The action starts from the very beginning and doesn’t stop till the very end.  You don’t want to turn off the game for anything.  We can only hope that Naughtydog can create another Nathan Drake adventure as good as this one, and according to Amy Hennig the game’s Director “[Uncharted 2] doesn’t conclude the story at all. The expectation with Uncharted is that it can be an ongoing franchise as long as people want more of it. All these stories are self-contained. You don’t have to play the last one to play this one. Obviously, you’re going to get a little bit more out of it if you have. But [Nathan Drake]’s going to have a lot of adventures, thank god.”

Publisher:Naughtydog
For People Who Liked: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Platforms: PS3
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