Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was – and still is – a good game. In fact, it’s one of the best games on the PS3 so of course the sequel has been greatly anticipated. Well, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is here and Naughty Dog has taken everything good about Drake’s Fortune and dialed it up to 11, resulting in what is so far the best game of the year and a game that every PS3 owner has to own.

Uncharted 2 is nonstop balls-to-the-wall action. The whole game is just one huge explosive climax. This is apparent as soon you boot up the game. Right from the intro we find our hero, Nathan Drake, in a struggle for his own life as the train car he’s in is precariously teetering off the edge of a large mountain. In a short sequence, you play as a severely wounded Nathan as he makes the dangerous climb up the train. A few close calls later and you’re onto solid ground. The game has just started and you, the player, are already out of breath.

This sets the tone for the rest of the game very well. You will quickly come to learn that Uncharted 2 is a very hard game to put down. If you’re like me, it will get to the point where you go through the game in a day or two, only putting the controller down to eat and sleep and loving every second of it. This is doubly true thanks to the engrossing story line.

Nathan Drake is a wise-cracking everyman with a penchant for hunting valuable ancient artifacts. This time, he’s on the search for the truth behind Marco Polo’s journey home from China in 1292 as well as what happened to most of of his ships and crew. Along the way, he gets on the bad side of a ruthless war criminal who has been looking for Marco Polo’s treasure for years. And so the race is on between the two of them in a fashion you would expect from the very greatest Indiana Jones films. What makes the story work is the pervading sense of grand sweeping adventure and mystery that Naughty Dog has injected into the mix. Parallels between Indiana Jones and Uncharted are drawn constantly and for good reason. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the closest we will ever get to playing Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Uncharted 2 isn’t too different from its predecessor in concept. The core shooting and platforming mechanics are all here but the difference lies in the execution. Everything has been shined to an extremely fine polish. One thing criticized about Uncharted 1 was that the ratio of shooting to platforming was too slanted towards the shooting side. Uncharted 2 remedies this with a much evener ratio and not only is there more platforming, but it has been improved quite a bit because it’s far more exciting. There will be many times when you’re platforming and you have to keep much greater watch over your surroundings. Ledges that collapse while you stand on them are nothing new even in the world of Uncharted but there are more of them. Additionally, pipes that you’re climbing will start to tip over under your weight and will fall completely if you don’t hurry. There are more examples but the result is a platforming experience that is much more exciting and far less static.

The shooting has been improved as well. The enemies now act much smarter than they did in Drake’s Fortune. Enemies will flank you while you’re behind cover, they’ll rush you if you sit too long in one spot, and will generally showcase some very impressive tactics. Guns also feel as if they have much more power in them. The sound effects now make it sound like you’re firing an actual gun rather than a pea-shooter as was the case in Uncharted 1. Nathan also visits a larger array of locations than he did in Uncharted 1 and as a result the gunplay is more varied. You will find yourself needing to adapt to the layout of the different locales you travel to and this makes a bigger difference than you would think in how you go about combat.