Developed by Naughty Dog, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the sequel to
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Throughout the course of the game, the player
assumes the role of Nathan Drake as he adventures across the world in search of
a fabled treasure, shooting and climbing all the while. The game could be
classified as an action, adventure, or even third-person shooter title since it
dips into all of the genres. If you need a frame of reference, some of the games
it is most comparable to include entries from the Metal Gear Solid and Tomb
Raider series, and the similarities between these shall be touched on later.
More important than any other comparisons that can be made, Uncharted 2 plays
like an Indiana Jones, National Treasure, or Mummy movie come to life, for all
the good and bad that entails.
One of the finest aspects of Uncharted 2 is its cinematic nature. Much of
Uncharted 2 unfolds with such flourishes that it looks like a scene straight
out of an action movie – a refreshing change of pace from other games which
just look dull in action outside of a few key scenes. One of the greatest boons
this lends to the game is that it is just plain fun to watch. Whether Nate is
scaling an ancient temple or shooting at some enemies further down the way in
the snow, Uncharted 2 goes to great lengths to make the animations smooth and
realistic. Everything from the facial expressions to the explosions to the
rubble and smoke falling off a damaged car bears the fruit of extensive detail
and care put into it. However, many other games look pretty in stills or in a
few key places, but they often do so at the cost of being bland or uninteresting
otherwise. Not so with Uncharted 2: at no point does the game stop looking
anything short of appropriate, detailed, and fluid throughout its 26 chapters.
Looking good obviously is not everything, though. Obviously, the point of a
video game is to be fun to play, otherwise it may as well be a movie.
This is where Uncharted 2 compares to Metal Gear Solid 4. Both of these
games sought to offer a cinematic experience through the medium of a
third-person shooting game, bringing an enthralling tale that is both fun to
watch and play. To some, Metal Gear Solid 4 failed in this regard because it
spent excessive amounts of time in non-interactive cutscenes that stretched on
for too long. While Uncharted 2's cutscenes are indeed also non-interactive,
they are much shorter than those found in the Metal Gear Solid games. Not only
this, but unlike Metal Gear Solid – which told its story almost exclusively
through cutscenes – Uncharted 2 develops its characters and unfolds some of
the plot through dialogue dispersed throughout regular gameplay. The flow from a
normal shootout to a mad dash to get away from a tank is seamless and feels
natural, unlike the clunky feeling of being cut to a scene then thrust back into
the action in a different area that many games try to pull.
Speaking of running from tanks, there are many such moments throughout the
game where the player will do much more than simply run, gun, duck for cover,
reload, dash for the next area, repeat. In fact, there are hardly any parts of
the game where this archaic formulaic approach is utilized. Much more often, the
player will be climbing all sorts of odd structures, meleeing some grunts to
snatch up their ammo, dashing and gunning, ducking behind anything that can pose
as cover, and etc. There is hardly a dull moment or a repetitive sequence thanks
to the game's tendency to throw in new things frequently along with the
constantly developing plot.
Back to that climbing bit, Uncharted 2 features a lot of platforming in
addition to its gunner elements that make it easy to draw the comparison to the
Tomb Raider games. The differences are obvious enough right from the get go,
considering that Uncharted 2 is not using sex appeal as a large draw to it. The
platforming also feels quite a bit different; it has a more natural flow to it.
This is perhaps in part because these sections are easier, since the path to go
down is usually fairly obvious. Uncharted 2 does not seek to frustrate the
player with finding the right route, but rather how best to go about traveling
down that route, or even which route to take considering they are rarely
enemy-free. Most of the game's difficulty instead comes from the combat and the
puzzles. Mostly the former, considering the puzzles in the game are fairly
infrequent and often not really changing either.
Combat in Uncharted 2 is simple to learn, but more difficult to master and
fun throughout. The basic idea is that Nate can carry two guns: a smaller
handgun – usually some sort of pistol – and a larger, more powerful
gun – anything from a rifle or shotgun to an RPG. In addition to these, the
character can hold up to four grenades. All guns can be fired multiple ways.
First, the player can fire from the hip without aiming by simply pressing the
fire button. This is obviously not as accurate as firing while aiming, but it is
handy in that this can be done while running and an approximating reticle
appears to help your sloppy fire reach its mark. Similarly, while the player can
press the aim button to poke out from behind cover and fire, the opportunity is
also present to simply press the fire button and blindfire by holding the gun
above the cover and firing without jumping out from behind the safety of
whatever Drake is hiding behind. The larger, less accurate reticle once again
makes its appearance and helps guide the player's fire. These features, the
blindfire and running fire, in particular stood out to me as implemented
spectacularly as they are both handy and intuitive.
Up to this point, all that has been talked about is getting through the
single-player campaign. To be fair, if one simply turned on the game and wanted
to go from beginning to end of the campaign, the game does not take long to
complete. Two or three days are enough time for even a novice at video games in
general to complete the game on the normal difficulty setting. But there is more
to the game than just getting to the end. For instance, there are plenty
treasures scattered throughout the many areas of the game often hidden in
not-so-obvious places. These treasures do little for the single-player
experience except unlock trophies, but the money they grant also entitles the
player to some benefits of the multiplayer portion of the game. The multiplayer
aspect of Uncharted 2 is quite a boon considering the game's combat lends
itself fairly readily to multiplayer. It takes little time to find a game, and
I have yet to encounter any lag or hear anyone complain of it despite myself
having a fairly slow connection, admittedly.
To put it simply, Uncharted 2's only striking flaw is that the single-player
campaign is somewhat short. While it does last, however, it is brilliant. The
characters all exude a life of their own that makes it easy to cozy up to them.
The plot does not attempt to throw the player for a loop with twists every five
minutes, but that does not mean it is predictable and bland. The combat is easy
to use and especially fun considering the cinematic moments of the game have
been injected into it and the platforming bits with grace. In the end, this game
is simply a great experience and hopefully paves the way for others in the
future.