Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

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Reknoc
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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Post by Reknoc »

First off let me be honest, I did not care much for the first Uncharted game. Sure it was very pretty, had a decent story and some good characters, but its core gameplay; shooting was pretty awful. Bullet sponge enemies would have no trouble dodging bullets then flanking you before popping you with a few shots and killing you. So I was weary of Uncharted 2 even after being told shooting was much better.

Uncharted 2 comes off as alot more balanced in killing dudes and climbing stuff. Unlike the first game that was set mostly on a single island to show off the games pretty dungeons, Uncharted 2 trys to keep stuff fresh having you sneak around a museum, raid a tomb, kill a bunch of dudes in a jungle, and climb around on a moving train. The story has you moving around quite abit before settling towards the end in some snowy Tibeten mountains, and it's better for it, no environment ever out stays its welcome.

Killing dudes, the games main flavour, has been improved quite abit, there are still some bullet sponge enemies, annoying armoured shotgunners and a terrible final boss, but over all popping out of cover and shooting people just works alot better. If you even want to, the game allows you to take a more stealthy approach rewarding you with bonus guns and ammo if you manage a stealth takedown. Sure some sections are impossible to fully stealth but it's still fun to stalk around and kill a few dudes before they know you're even there.

Of course just killing would be boring. The game also makes sure to have you do impossible barehanded climbing which is fun but still feels abit automatic and sometimes the camera mixed with the graphics make it hard to see climable ledges still. Another gameplay element which was in the first but not much of was puzzles, Uncharted 2 does have a few more than the last game, but don't go in expecting Zelda since Drake has his little cheat sheet notebook which tells you what to do, but to be honest I kinda like that about it, it feels abit like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Sadly there just isn't enough of these puzzle sections for me.

But let's, like the game, quickly go back to killing. This game has multiplayer. Many people's first thoughts would be to dismiss it for being pointless and tacked on, but this is not the case actually. The multiplayer is alot of fun, using all the climbing and shooting from the single player with little (urgh) perks gained with levels, and bought with cash, earned by killing dudes, winning matches, doing multiplayer achievements and even through the singleplayer's trophies.

Story wise it's still pretty good, the games pacing is superb and the characters are all pretty neat and well acted, partly in thanks to Naughty Dogs method of having all the actors in the same room (Snatcher surprisingly being one of the few other games that does this), yes it does take a turn for the supernatural, no I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but whatever who cares? As long as you get to go to mountains and magical chambers under temples what ever. Also Drake's note book adds quite abit with little comments and references to the previous game.

The music is fantastic and so is the sound in general, though I feel the guns come off as sounding abit weak. Ah... I've managed to get this far without mentioning the graphics but... I guess there's no way to now. Yes the graphics are gorgeous the environments are stunning and the characters detailed. The snow which the game hyped on about is pretty good, not perfect but it's probably some of the best snow I've seen in a none fighting game. One problem I do have is the eyes for the females, for some reason they seem way too shiney and somewhat demonic.

Overall Uncharted 2 is a fantastic game, a good 15 or so hour campaign which I've liked so much I've already done it on hard and started on crushing diffculty, with an engaging well paced story, and likable characters, a real reason to actually care about trophies, and a solid multiplayer. Just don't go in expecting not to kill dudes. Also not enough Sully.
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