Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Playstation 3

More than any other game to date, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune seems to define the PlayStation 3. Naughty Dog's 2007 jungle romp starring the one and only Nathan Drake gave gamers a taste of what it would be like to play as an acrobatically-inclined Indiana Jones. With stunning visuals (that still rank amongst the best in gaming today), a fantastically told story, great puzzles and high-octane gunplay, it's easily one of the best titles of this console generation.Now Naughty Dog returns to the spotlight with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Both expectedly and amazingly, Naughty Dog has indeed bested Nate's first adventure and has created a sequel that is not only bigger and better in practically every way, but also packs a multiplayer component that could be released as its own separate, full-priced game and people would stand in line to hand over their cash.Yes, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is fantastic.Click the image to watch our in-depth video review.Trying to remain as spoiler-free as possible, I'll just say that the story starts off about a year or so after the events of the first game and begins with Nate and a few fellow thieves working on finding Marco Polo's lost treasure fleet. Of course, things aren't quite that simple and the cast winds up going on a much grander adventure, one that takes them half-way around the world.That's about as far as I want to go with the storyline, though some of the trailers out there actually reveal a little more than that. The important part here though is that this game doesn't just take place on a single island and instead changes locales a handful of times over the course of the adventure. The result is that the pacing feels better and faster, and even though you're technically doing the same sort of shooting, climbing and puzzle solving throughout the game, the different ways the scenes are presented gives Among Thieves a greater sense of gameplay variety than the original.The great storytelling extends to the character development, which has been turned up a good notch or two. Almost everyone with more than two lines of dialogue has an interesting reason for doing what they're doing (though the main bad guy is just bad), and the way that everyone interacts with one another is realistic and interesting. Almost every character is unpredictable in some way, but not in a forced or unnatural manner.The story itself twists and turns throughout the course of the game, as you might expect, and for the most part it's a solid tale. Nate and his pals go through a lot, so it does a good job of reeling you in and keeping you hooked until the end.While I'd say the story is quite good overall, I wouldn't say that it's perfect. Without giving anything away, while most of the story has solid footing in real-world lore and legend, it does start to veer away from this at some point in a way that could have been handled better. Still, it's told very, very well through the use of fantastic cutscenes and acting, and will keep you guessing at what'll happen until the very end.The graphics. Holy crap... the graphics.As for the gameplay itself, Uncharted 2 -- like the original Drake's Fortune -- tasks you with gunfights, environmental navigation or puzzle solving. While a lot of the mechanics are identical to the first title, everything has been blended together a little better, especially the combat and navigation.This is in large part due to the settings that you'll fight in. Whereas the first game generally had you walk into an area with lots of cover, set up behind a wall and then take guys out as best you could, Uncharted 2 offers a lot more variety and options in how these sequences play out thanks to the fantastic level design. Rather than fighting on flat ground, almost every battle scene features multiple levels and areas to use to your advantage. If you want to stay on the ground and take guys out the old fashioned way, you're more than welcome to. But you can also climb to higher ground and use height to your advantage, or flank the enemy by moving from cover to cover and changing your tactics as the battle unfolds around you. While the game is still very much a linear tale, taking you from point to specific point, you're offered many more options in how you approach and deal with battles.

If you love Hollywood tomb raiding adventures with Jones, Croft, Gates, Pitt, and the guy from all the Mummy movies who's character name escapes me, you're bound to love the charismatic Drake just as much. I know, I know, I hate to sound like I'm pimping the game too. But, wow! I just finished playing it and am still a little overwhelmed. In fact I've already started playing through again in hard difficulty, which so-far is just as fun as normal, only slightly easier to get killed. I generally don't like the perspective of 3rd person shooters (more of a FPS player), but this is without-a-doubt, THE best game I've ever played. The 3rd person shooting is more refined, sophisticated, and flexible than any I've tried. In fact a few guns switch to first person when aimed. For the game, I don't think it could have been done much better. In fact the the gameplay almost feels like a FPS in the sense of freedom to investigate and look around. It is extremely well done.Aside from gunfights, treasure hunting, and some pretty simple problem solving that is just enough of a challenge to still be fun (or rather more fun than challenging), there's a lot of climbing involved. You're going to fall; and to the game designs credit, when you do, you generally restart from the same place you fell; not 10 minutes earlier when you still have to fight through 20 mercenaries to get back to where you left off. But, you rarely have to do anything more than once or twice (in normal difficulty anyway). The game seems to have safeguards that usually keep you from falling due to controller sensitivity mistakes, even when your controller is semi-worn out like mine. Top off the great gameplay with a well-written, wonderfully scripted storyline that's as intriguing and fun as any Hollywood blockbuster and IMHO this game fully merits all the high praise it's been handed.The terrific, exotic, often mysteriously esoteric locales, likable characters, and cute, witty banter (without being excessively crass or vulgar), made for an experience that provoked me to shelve the growing stack of movies I wanted to see for the week, in favor of playing instead. If I could play through the storyline in the short time it takes to watch a movie, I know the game would get a lot of repeat viewings. But, fortunately, I couldn't, even if I wanted. The storyline (or gameplay) is nowhere near that short. In fact, when you think you're nearing the games end, you quickly discover you haven't even reached the best parts. What I thought was the end, was closer to the middle with still loads of fun to be had and I hadn't even sampled the online content yet.Aside from a few moments of over, or just plain sloppy compression in some of the movie sequences, the graphics are about as good as I've seen in videogaming (observation made based on a 100 inch screen size with 1080p projection), despite the game itself being optimized for 720p (come on Sony, it's not 2006 anymore). That said, unlike movies, so far I haven't seen a tremendous difference between 720p vs 1080p gaming. There seems to still be some room for improvement in terms of gaming graphics, which tend to be a little blocky, as games aren't up to animated movie standards yet. I know that many games are designed for multiple console compatibility, but I would think a game built specifically for the PS3/Blu-ray platform should be capable of doing more. That said, the graphics look quit stunning most of the time. Some of the textures (like brick) almost look real. So take my criticism of the graphics with a grain of salt. You won't be disappointed, even if you're playing on a large screen.After playing through its storymode, I did find one bug, as it were, where I backtracked, looking for the escape route, and got trapped behind some fallen debris that was intended to keep me from going back I guess. In fact I did the same thing again the second time through in hard difficulty - got to remember to break the glass! Fortunately, it was right at an automatic checkpoint, so restarting from the last checkpoint, put me right where I needed/wanted to be.I don't know how Uncharted 2 compares to the first adventure. But I ordered a copy of the first as soon as I finished playing thru normal difficulty. By the 3rd chapter I was checking online prices of the first installment, as I already knew I would want to play it, I was having so much fun. I can't wait for future installments. If 3rd person gaming can be this well done, I just may lose interest in first person shooters. The ambitious storyline has already made some of my favorite games seem overly simple, even a little boring. A new, higher bar has been set.