Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Platform Played On: PlayStation 3
Release Date: October 13, 2009
Date Played: October 2009
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5


Opinion:
Uncharted 1 was a successful game, and everyone knew that it was a matter of time before a sequel would be announced.

What an accomplishment!  All of us were impressed by the storytelling, animations and characters of Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune, and Uncharted 2 is not only impressive, but it blows away with it's cinematic direction, lovable characters, amazing environments and insane (what out to be unplayable) playable cut-scenes.

This story follows the legend of Marco Polo and the fleet, that was transporting the Cintamani Stone (basically a Philosopher's Stone). You are introduced to two new characters, Chloe and Harry Flynn who take Nathan Drake down the road of as much lies and deception as adventure and unbe-freaking-livable near death amazingness.

The textures and animations are even better than the excellently rendered ones in the first game.  The snow looks better than I have ever seen in any game, and Nate is as nimble and quirky as ever. To sum it all up, Uncharted 2 takes you on an amazing adventure, every bit as good as the first game.

All that being said, this great game comes with some flaws.  The biggest one being that as in the first game, they proceed to tell you an epic adventure story, but then as soon as they see a "Crazy Village Left" they take a sharp left turn down that path.  Sure, sure there is plenty of crazy unebelievable stuff in Uncharted, like Drake getting shot 1000 times and seemingly brushing it off.  Like performing insane jumps that no man without superpowers should be capable to pull off. Like the treasures hidden in plain sight for centuries that Drake easily finds. To even the fact that he is solving puzzles in half destroyed temples, using that destroyed geometry, does that mean that when the temple was brand spanking new and there wasnt that half of a wall missing noone ever could possibly get to the keyhole to unlock the amazing treasure?  What about rock platforms that slide in and out of walls and floors with seemingly no machinery or power source?  You know what though... all those things are FINE.  Somehow as a player you are overcome with that Indiana Jones suspense of disbelief. What was that? Sure, why not... why wouldnt he be able to hold on to a submarine while it goes across the Atlantic with the Ark on board? He is Indiana Jones, he does that kind of stuff.

I think they are able to accomplish the same type of suspense of disbelief because Nathan Drake, just like Indiana Jones gets seriously f^kd up by the bad guys.  Half the game you spend either bleeding to death or limping... or both. This somehow (dont ask me how) makes the craziness of Uncharted believable (most of the time), just like in Indiana Jones.  The whole package creates such an atmosphere that you are 100% immersed into it and easily overlook craziness.

But, as soon as the game takes that left turn down to "Crazy Village" (in Uncharted 2's case, big blue Hulk) all that suspense of disbelieve dissolves and you are reminded that, oh.. right... this is a game...  In my opinion they made a mistake by going the mystical route in the first game, and again repeated that mistake in Uncharted 2.

The other flaw of Uncharted 2, and this actually applies to all of them is the fact that there is just too much shooting... the game shines in its story telling, and set pieces.  At times you are on a roll and the story is about to take an interesting twist, then BAM, the momentum is instantaneously halted and you are locked in a courtyard fighting off waves of enemies, who by the way all appear to be professional baseball athletes with how they throw those grenades.

In a grand scope of things Uncharted 2's flaws are all but a spec on a leviathan of amazingness made of pure gold.  Play this game, even if you have to borrow a PS3 and RedBox the game. Do it!