The verdict on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Stephen Gillespie)

It's the moment of truth for Nate, is his game any good?

Uncharted 2, possibly the best PS3 exclusive of the year, is out but is it any good? Hell yes, this is not only the PS3 exclusive of the year but the finest game of the year on any platform. My copy of this game arrived last Wednesday, two days before the official release date, and really the highest praise I can give it is that by late Thursday evening I had finished it. This is not because it is a short game, I got about 9-10 hours out of the sublime single player experience on the normal difficulty but that was just one blast through. The reason why I completed it so quickly was because the gameplay is so addictive; Uncharted 2 is just full of amazing moments that just make you want to keep playing. Every few minutes something so amazing happens or is about to happen and to put the controller down for just a second would just be criminal. The game is not just a cover-based shooter, and an amazing one at that but a fantastic platformer. Nathan Drake’s climbing skills are second only to Altair and Cole McGrath and the platforming sections in Uncharted 2 give it fantastic pacing and keep you playing. It should be noted however that this game is not Assassin’s Creed or inFamous, you play as an acrobatic fellow capable of climbing up walls but it is not every wall. Instead of looking for features on buildings like windows and doors Nathan Drake is happier looking for pointy bricks or obvious footholds. This may not be as deep a climbing mechanic but it fits the game perfectly, this is not an open world game, it is level based and therefore it’s purpose is to keep you moving to the end of the level. So instead of being able to climb up any random building which would make things overly confusing there is usually one main path. The climbing may be simple put planning your ascent is still really fun. You have to look out for ledges and pretty much decide where you’re going before you do it. This makes the climbing a welcome challenge without it becoming to confusing or to linear.

Nathan Drake, midget hater!

Now Uncharted 2 is a cover based shooter but no it is not Gears of War. In Gears of War you play as a fleshy tank in Uncharted you are the agile Nathan Drake and it’s hardly stop and pop because the varied gameplay keeps you moving. You get your usual enemies that you can take out from a distance but then you get enemies that are hard to kill and you need to keep moving to finally fell them. Also the gameplay just keeps changing and keeps getting better. The best example I can think of is the train level. This is one of Uncharted 2’s best moments. You are fighting on a moving train, how cool is that? You jump from carriage to carriage, leap inside, hang off edges to avoid low signs whilst your enemies get some overhanging metal to the face. Also you have to run from helicopters, leap from an exploding carriage shot by the very same helicopter and get in a tank attached to one of the carriages and blow up that damn helicopter alongside some pesky missiles sent your way. That is just one level, and then there’s even more to that level and the ending of that very level is even cooler. That is the essence of Uncharted 2, insane and awesome variety. One minute your gunning down nameless enemies and the next your hanging from a giant statue of a Tibetan ritual dagger, jumping onto massive face sculptures all in order to move some mirrors around in order to get to your next clue to the fabled treasure you seek. Yes it’s another treasure hunt, but come on it’s a treasure hunt that involves jumping from moving truck to moving truck because they keep exploding, that’s one cool treasure hunt. This game really just has so much and everything is just fantastic but really the best bit is the characters. Uncharted 1 had more personality than any game I’ve ever played, the dialogue was superbly executed and every burst of conversation was incredibly natural. This is the same for the second, the characters have some depth to them but mostly they have so much character, which seems obvious but it’s rare in gaming. It is one of the very few games where you watch a cutscene and you think this is actually acting, and damn good acting. The dialogue is snappy and genuinely funny at can get very emotional without ever over doing it.

If you run out of missiles then maybe a hug would tame that damn helicopter!

I mentioned cutscenes second ago so I would like to point out that unlike most games the cutscenes are pretty much just story, all the really cool action you do! You never feel like man that looks so cool but I wish I could do it because you are doing everything, and it looks amazing. The game is just a work of art. It has the finest graphics on the system and the animations are flawless, the hand to hand takedowns are delightfully brutal and every character movement looks spot on. You will constantly find yourself marvelling at the visuals and the best thing is, when Nathan goes swimming he comes out wet, this was in the first game but it’s so awesome it needs mentioning again. Also there is snow in this game and when you roll in it you get snowy, which is so cool.

Trains are awesome!

This game is almost flawless; in fact I only have one complaint. The controls can be unresponsive, apart from that it is perfect in every way. Should you check this out? You need to check this out!

p.s- despite how it looks this game is not just helicopters, infact there may only be two of them. They just look so damn cool and where so awesome, it may sound like I hated them but they were really, really great!