Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Double Review

From the Vault — originally published October 24, 2009. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.

Uncharted 2 Review
by Scatigno

It’s been a difficult few years for Sony. The sales of the PS3 have been quite disastrous compared to what the PS2 went onto sell. Even in this generation of consoles the PS3 is lagging behind quite significantly to Microsofts Xbox 360 and the sales juggernaut which is the Nintendo Wii. Sales were obviously affected by the Price Point of the PS3 when it was released, and the far superior hardware. It is because the tech inside the machine is so advance that developers have struggled to make games for it. They see that it is far easier to develop games for the 360 first and then quickly port over to the PS3. This has seen a lot of quality 3rd party releases actually being far worse on the PS3 than on the 360. Luckily it seems that when it comes to Exclusive Sony titles, the end products are far much more in line with what the PS3 is actually capable of. Step In Naughty Dog….

Now, let me get one thing clear. I have made no secret of my love for the first Uncharted game. Released in 2007 it became a landmark title for the PS3 and proved that in the hands of the right developers amazing things can happen.

Uncharted Drakes Fortune was released to rave reviews but not the greatest of sales. Naughty Dogs newest character was touted as a modern day Indiana Jones and the male Lara Croft. Indeed the game does include lots of platforming, puzzle solving and gun fights, but it was also a whole lot more.

It introduced the world to Nathan Drake, a likable, witty and down to earth guy. You actually cared about his story, and that of his companions, Elena and Sully. The plot and action set pieces looked liked they were straight out of a Hollywood movie, with some incredible graphics to go with it. The world of Nathan Drake had arrived and it was only going to get better and better.

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves has been one of the most hyped games i have come across in my entire gaming Life. When it was first announced I could not contain my excitement. I have counted down the days and i was finally able to get my hands on it last week.

Uncharted 2 again follows the adventures of Nathan Drake. The story begins around a year after the events of Drakes Fortune.
You do not have to have played Drakes Fortune to enjoy this game, as it is not a continuation of the story. However it helps so you can understand the characters better, their motives and the way they interact each other.

After bumping into 2 old friends and aided by the notes of explorer Marco Polo, Drake is whisked away on a whirlwind adventure in search of an ancient artifact which ultimately leads him and his companions to the lost city of Shambhala, also known as Shangri-La.

Now even though my plot outline may seem a bit vague it’s because I don’t want to include any spoilers. Lets just say that there is a big twist near the beginning of the adventure and if i was to carry on talking about the story it could potentially ruin it. I will say this though, i have to give ND props from introducing us to Chloe. She has proved to be a great addition to the Uncharted series. She is funny, sexy, a total bad-ass and also BRITISH!!!! lol, well at least I think she is, she talks with an English accent.

The story takes place in a number of locations, from the rooftops of Istanbul to the snowy mountains of the Himalayas.

If you have played the first Uncharted game you will be immediately familiar with the game play. Drake can run, swim, climb and fight his way through his adventure. The cover system that was introduced in the first game seems to have been tweaked abit and makes it a lot easier to duck in and out of. Another element that was included in the first game but is incorporated a lot more in this one is that of stealth. In the Istanbul levels at the beginning of the game this becomes immediately apparent as you are trying to infiltrate a museum whilst avoiding the attention of the guards. Stealth kills are the order of the day and if Drake gets caught then the alarm will sound and he will have to start from the last checkpoint. Throughout the rest of the game though you have the choice of using stealth or just to run and gun your way through. I personally like to switch it up a bit. Especially in an area with a lot of enemies, it is easier to use stealth first before you pull out your gun of choice. If you want to earn all of the trophies in the game then you will have to switch is up, as the only way to gain that elusive platinum is to use the whole spectrum of weapons, as you have to get a certain amount of kills for each one. You will also earn trophies for head shots, stealth kills and normal hand to hand combat kills.

Let’s not forget that Drake is a treasure hunter and you will be spending a lot of your time looking for these treasures throughout the game. There are 100 altogether, 101 if you include the secret relic you also have to find. It works in your favor to search every single nook and cranny in the game as treasures lie in the most unlikely of places. Their locations are also not just limited to the ground either. If you want them all you will have to look up high in the trees, statues and buildings. Some you will be able to reach by climbing, but others will have to be actually shot down from the dizzy heights for you to be able to pick up. You will also have to solve puzzles. There wasn’t too many to actually do and they were easy to get through but they prove a nice distraction from all the gunplay.

I think for most people, the graphics are what will take center stage here. They really do have to viewed in person and not just screenshots on the web to be truly appreciated. This is without a doubt the greatest looking game of this generation. forget Gears of War, forget Metal Gear Solid 4 and forget Killzone 2, the visuals in Uncharted 2 blow them all out of the water. If you can help it then do not play this game in Standard Definition. If you want to understand what i’m on about then please play in High Definition. I had so many jaw dropping moments it is unbelievable. I cannot even tell you how many times i died during a huge firefight just because I was more interested in looking out at the Stunning Vistas. For example, I’m sure a lot of you have seen footage of the level where Drake is traveling on the Train. Well about halfway through it the train makes it way up into the snowy mountains and in the distance you can see this waterfall coming down from over the mountain. It looks incredible. The snow is the most realistic ever put into a videogame. Drake leaves his footprints in it, and the snow on the ground actually moves when it has been walked through. It is not static. That is just one example, there are so many more i could talk about, but to do that is to spoil something that you should experience by yourself.

When I reviewed the first game I talked about how good the audio was, well Uncharted 2 is no different. The score is beautiful and epic, and it makes you will like you are watching a Hollywood film. Also the actors who voiced the characters to in the first game have returned and it is some of the best in game voice acting I have ever heard. The way the actors bounce off each other and the chemistry between them is just something that you do not always see in videogames, and it shows that Naughty Dog have gone out of their way to make this game the best it could be.

The length of the single player campaign will clock in at around 10-12 hours, depending on how fast you run through it. There is alot of replay value to be had though. There are 5 difficulties in all. Very Easy, Easy, Normal and Hard, and then after you have finished Hard mode it unlocks the last difficulty which is Crushing. I am coming to the end of playing through the game on Hard and in all honesty it’s not actually a difficult game. Sure some parts can be a bit frustrating, but I think because the pace of the game is so quick the game needs to be fairly easy to get through so it can keep that momentum going. Playing this game actually feels like you are in a big blockbuster film and if the game slows down to a crawl and you are constanly struggling to get past a certain part, you are going to get bored. The developers need to keep that pace going which is why you may feel the game is fairly easy, even on the hardest setting. Along with the treasures to collect and trophies to gain it gives you a quite significant amount of reason to keep coming back to it.

Then………. say hello to UNCHARTED 2 MULTIPLAYER!!!

I’m not going to lie to you, when I first heard about them incorporating multiplayer into the game i was really worried. I thought that with so much time going into the online modes then the single player is going to take a back seat, and in the end the multiplayer wouldn’t even be that good. Well I couldn’t have been more wrong. Naughty Dog announced that they were launching a Multiplayer beta and i was able to get into it. It was alot of fun. It took the same great gameplay found in the single player and added ranks and perks to your character of choice. It feels like Uncharted meets Gears of War and Call of Duty.

If I’m totally honest i have not really played much of Multiplayer since the full version of the game was released. I have been concentrating on the campaign, but i will get round to it, once i have all the trophies.

There are both competitive and co-operative modes. Both are lots of fun. I found in my experience that even though the multiplayer is good when playing with random people online, it is nothing when compared to playing with your friends. The levels of fun just go through the roof (RPG’s ONLY ANYONE?)

Naughty Dog have announced that they will be supporting the game with Downloaded Content which will consist of new maps for the competitve modes. Unfortunately no DLC has been announced as of yet for Co-Op.

I know it seems like i have laid a crazy amount of praise upon this game, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, i did find some flaws. First of all in regards of story, without any spoilers, let me just say that someone i was hoping to be in the game alot was actually only in it a tiny bit, which for me was a major disappointment. I also ran into some technical issues along the way, nothing major but little things. First one was literally right at the beginning of the game, where you have to scale the train wreck in only what i can describe as the greatest tutorial level ever created. Anyway, as i was making my way up the underside of the train Drake actually got stuck between the inside of the train and the outside environment it took about 2 minutes for the game to sort it’s self out, so luckily I didn’t have to reset the game.

Another example was when i was slowly making my way across a very narrow walkway that connected two buildings up in the mountains and Elena was behind me but instead of her AI telling her to walk slowly behind she just ran straight past me and ended up knocking me off. This happened twice. It does take you out of the experience.
I have also heard, although it hasn’t happened on me that the game freezes at certain points in the game. A full freeze which has required the entire PS3 to be restarted. It is not just an isolated incident as alot of people have had the problem. In a game that has so much going on and features so much detail it can be forgiven a few hiccups, maybe Naughty Dog will take note of these issues and release a patch, but it remains to be seen. In the games defense though i am nearing the end of my 2nd play through and I have not experienced one bit of slowdown or pop in. A tremendous accomplishment when you think about the insane amount of things going on at once.

Another complaint i have about Uncharted 2 is that I have never played a game where floors are constantly collapsing from underneath you. I am being serious, in the whole of the games 26 chapters there was near enough a floor or ceiling that gave way in each one of them. At first it was great but the more the game progressed the more predictable these scenes became. At times i felt like the developers had run out of ideas on how to give each chapter an exciting moment. It would have been nice to have a bit more variety or just less floor breaking. It’s not a deal breaker by any means, and some people may not even care, but for me it just got a bit irritating.

I would also just like to say one more thing about the multiplayer. Yes it is great, and I’m very happy that Naughty Dog included it in the game, however, i do not think it is going to be able to compete with Modern Warfare 2’s online modes. If Infinity Ward can build upon what they created with the first Modern Warfare then in my opinion it will be the greatest multiplayer ever.

Come launch day i think Uncharted 2 will lose alot of the multiplayer audience and will take a back seat from there on. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes that’s just the way it has to go.

I think this is a game that needs to be experienced by everyone. If you were one of those people who were holding out on buying a PS3 well now is the perfect time. Sony has finally cut the price of their system and this is the game to buy. The PS3’s Killa App has finally arrived. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Uncharted 2 not only lived up to the hype and my own expectations, but surpassed them in every single way.

It fully deserves all the praise that has been lavished upon it, and I can applaud Naughty Dog for their accomplishment.
To me it is not only the game of the year, so far, but it is the greatest game of this generation and is right up there with the greatest games of all time.

The game is not without it’s flaws but they are so minuscule that it pains me to even mention them, but I have tried to make this review as unbiased as I could. I have looked for the negatives, and i have pointed them out, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in every way.

You owe it to yourself as a gamer to play Uncharted 2 Among Thieves.