[PS3] Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

[AgtFox]

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review

Title: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Platform: PS3
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $59.99
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek

What's Hot: Graphics are amazing; voiceovers well done; better set pieces than original; story well thought out; train sequence is breathtaking if you take the time to look at the landscape; gunplay and flow not as tedious; multiplayer will give you hours more of fun

What's Not: S-word said a lot (thinking of young people that may want to watch/play) for a Teen game; a couple glitches encountered; 3-player co-op limited to three maps; the insatiable need for more games in the series

There probably isn’t much I can say that will keep you away from picking up Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the new game from Naughty Dog and Sony. Simply put, this game replaces the first game as the biggest reason to own a Playstation 3 in my mind. With the system now selling at $299.99, you really don’t have an excuse not to pick up both this and the original game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. For reference, I was shocked by how good the original game was and rated it 5/5 at our old haunting grounds. After playing this game I’ve come to the conclusion that Naughty Dog has really ramped up the experinece many notches.

This time around the game starts with Nathan Drake waking up from unconsciousness. He’s been shot and blood is all over his clothes. He is also on a train hanging from a mountain with a snowy landscape. This is the tutorial that shows you how to play. For the old pros at this game it should be a nice, exciting refresher course. For those that haven’t played the original, get ready for a treat in tight controls. As Nathan maneuvers his way up the train both inside and outside, pieces of the train break and twist adding to the suspense of the situation. The very last part as the train starts to slide down the mountain and Nathan runs to the door and makes the leap of faith to the top of the mountain is exhilarating. Then he stands up and sees the wreckage of the rest of the train and starts gingerly moving toward it, making tracks in the snow as he walks and collecting snow on his boots and jeans; just a hint at the amount of graphical detail Naughty Dog has put in this game.

Soon enough we slide into the first of many, but not overly long or tedious, cutscene where you reminisce about meeting two new characters four months ago: Harry Flynn and Chloe. Nathan obviously knows Flynn from earlier times and this seems to be the first time he’s met Chloe. Flynn has been hired for a job that he feels you would be helpful to complete. His contractor wants him to find an old green Mongolian oil lamp. You realize there must be something more to it than that as you read through the dossier on the job. You soon connect that the contractor is interested in what Marco Polo may have not written about in his 24 year expedition to Asia in the 13th Century. Although I’m not too up on my Marco Polo legend, Nathan talks about that the oil lamp may hold the key to finding the 13 ships and the hundreds that did not come home with Polo. The three agree to raid a temple and steal the oil lamp. Later on we find out that Nathan knows Chloe in the biblical sense and that they’ve had a romance in the past. They rekindle said romance in his room before going out to get the oil lamp.

After that cutscene is done we’re back in the snow and Nathan eventually finds a Phurba dagger, the key to many secrets in the game. The game then transitions to three months earlier as the threesome attempt to get the oil lamp. Here you learn the stealth aspects of the game where Nathan can sneak up on someone and take them out quietly with the square button. They succeed and find a blank map inside the lamp. When Nathan realizes there is resin that can be burned in the lamp, the map becomes visible with the blue hue of the fire. They figure out that it is a possible map to Shambala, the lost city of Shangri-La. Flynn double-crosses Nathan and sounds the temple alarms so that Nathan will be apprehended. He does a good job of getting away from the police and back into the sewer, but is eventually nabbed as he comes out. He spends three months in jail until Sully from the first game comes and bails him out. Sully says he went through the whole Drake fortune gathered in the last game in order to get Nathan out, so once again he is pretty much penniless. He and Sully start looking in Borneo for more to the Polo puzzle and this when, if you’re a new player, you’re introduced to the cover and shooting system.

That’s just the beginning of the game. You’ll travel to different locations like a jungle, an urban city, the aforementioned snowy environment and many others. The gameplay itself is much like the first game. There is the basic Tomb Raider style of jumping onto ledges and maneuvering around to get to the next section. There is also gunplay throughout the game. Using cover whenever possible, you get into a Gears of War style of gunplay. You can aim with your L1 button and fire with your R1 button. There are a variety of weapons you can find and pick up, some of which are new this time around. If you’re not a good shot there is plenty of ammunition or different weapons around since almost every enemy drops something. I was happy to see that the enemies no longer dance when shot at and are far more smart about flanking and taking out Nathan. Many of your enemies have some armor on, so they are more likely to stay out in the open for longer than the ones in the last game. Some of the enemies are even heavily armored and require shots to the head or other means to take out. Melee fighting is still here with the counter move using the triangle button. There are some QTE events, although they are very sparse and usually revolve around bigger enemies you choose to take on hand-to-hand.

Many people are going to say that the second half of this game doesn’t stand up to the first half. My argument is that the second half does a good job of equaling what the first half did, but maybe people were expecting it to exceed the first half. It’s awfully hard to outdo the train scene contained within Chapters 13 and 14 of a 26 Chapter game as the train travels out of a city, into the lush countryside, through a tunnel, and then into the snowy mountains. This is all while you are going in and out of train cars taking out the enemies and trying to miss light overhangs from killing you while on top of the train. There’s not much more adrenaline you can pump into someone than those two chapters. There are times in the second half where you will be surprised by how things play out, especially toward the very end. The final cutscene is also a huge payoff for fans of the series.

The graphics, music, sound and voiceovers are simply excellent. This isn’t a big surprise since the same voice cast is back with Nolan North voicing Nathan being the centerpiece. Claudia Black, from Farscape and Stargate SG-1, lends her voice to Chloe, the new love interest. Some old voices from the first game come back as well, but I’d rather not spoil the possible surprise. This game also adds multiplayer modes in it where you can play a variety of games. The beta many of us played in only scratched the surface of the game types available. The full compliment includes: Deathmatch, Elimination, Plunder, Turf War, King of the Hill, Chain Reaction (where you have to get zones in order), Survival, Gold Rush, Co-op and Machinima. You gain money by killing people and completiting objectives (as well as reaching certain bars in the single-player portion). Eventually once you reach certain levels you can use that money to buy upgrades, extra skins and the like. You’ll find hours of enjoyment in the online component of the game. The funny thing is that they didn’t have to put multiplayer into the game at all, it easily could have stood as just a single-player game. Instead they went that extra mile and added this mode that people will find themselves lost for hours in. The only minus in the multiplayer arena is that there are only three maps available for the 3-person co-op play type online and it is sounding like DLC down the line will not have any more maps for the co-op side, which is unfortunate.

I encountered two minor glitches while playing, both of which you may never see. In the first one I reached a door that one of the NPCs is supposed to open, but said NPC was nowhere to be found. I had to kill Nathan in order to replay the section and then everything worked out. I noticed one graphic glitch as well. I forget where I was, but one of the enemies was clipped into a hay trailer. It was the only graphical oddity I noticed, but given how good the game looks and the fact that there is no loading break as you move in-between the chapters, I have to say these minor glitches can be excused.

It is very obvious that this game is far larger in size and scope than the original. It took me about 11 hours and 30 minutes to finish on Normal and I think it took me about 10 hours to beat the original game. I chose Normal because that is probably how most of you will play the game. I plan on going through Hard down the road to continue attempting to collect all of the 100 hidden treasures (I think I had just over 20 on my one time through; didn’t see a lot of them, then again I wasn’t looking too hard). I will probably also attempt to finish the game at the Crushing difficulty. Those are down the road, but they give credence to how much replay this game has even without counting the multiplayer section.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves stands at the apex of the third-person Action/Adventure genre at this time. Does this mean I find it better than Batman: Arkham Asylum? Yes, but both games are top notch. This game simply has a better story, looks better and keeps you under its power throughout the whole game. This really is almost a nirvana-like time in the genre with Batman, this and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed II. The crew at Naughty Dog is to be commended for making an even better game than the fantastic original. My only question: when is the next Uncharted coming? It can’t come soon enough.

Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs

Loren says, "A must have game for the Playstation 3 just like the original. Graphics, story, music, sound and voiceovers are simply top notch. The multiplayer aspect just builds upon the already great single-player campaign. Pinnacle of the Action/Adventure genre at the moment and just an experience that must be undertaken."

[Dukefrukem]

I noticed a lot of glitches in this game as well. I dont remember seeing ONE in the original game, and I beat Drake's Fortune 4.5 times.

One huge glitch I ran into was on the train level. I jumped to the next car and went through the car and was stuck under the train as it was going...still alive. I had to kill myself with nades to get out. There's a lot of clipping glitches throughout the game.

[AgtFox]

Yeah, the one clipping issue I noticed is the only one I saw on playthrough. There could have been more. The door opening glitch could have been caused by the NPC getting into a clip. I wasn't about to slowly walk all the way back to see if they were still in the last place, just decided to kill myself and restart.

I think many people are going to have different instances of glitches, I just noted what I saw. The train sequence is an awful lot of graphics flying by at one time, so I'm not too surprised you saw that type of glitch. The original didn't have any sort of set piece as long or fast moving as that one.

[Dukefrukem]

My favorite part of your review;

the insatiable need for more games in the series

Couldn't be more true. We need more Drake... badly. Also can't wait for production of the movie to start.

[Grifter]

I know it sounds a bit like hyperbole but the I feel the PS3 is worth the price of admission for the two Uncharted games alone. I really, really enjoyed the first one and so far part 2 is even better.

[Dukefrukem]

Originally Posted by Grifter

I know it sounds a bit like hyperbole but the I feel the PS3 is worth the price of admission for the two Uncharted games alone. I really, really enjoyed the first one and so far part 2 is even better.

I'd totally endorse this. I've been saying that Drake's Fortune was the best action adventure game I'd ever played... it's now Among Thieves.

[Gorvi]

I think I only have something like 28 treasures of the 100 so far, and I'm on Chapter 22. They did a much better job of hiding them this time around, that's for damn sure. And I've been looking.......

[AniAko]

Now I just need to have it rain PS3's one day so I can enjoy the Uncharted series. I just hope I don't have an over-hyped expectation, something tells me I don't though...

[Kelegacy]

I need this game but I fear it will have to wait a couple more weeks maybe.

I haven't played it but by all accounts this is GotY across all platforms.

[menage]

It took some geting used to the first time I played it. But now I can't understand how I actually doubted the game. This stuff is legendary.

[Cyndair]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

I think I only have something like 28 treasures of the 100 so far, and I'm on Chapter 22. They did a much better job of hiding them this time around, that's for damn sure. And I've been looking.......

OK, I'm glad it isn't just me. I was starting to get frustrated because I've been actively searching and have only found a handful of the game's treasures. The first time I played through the original I found all but 2 of them.

In any case, this game rocks. I haven't tried out the multiplayer yet but the game doesn't even need it to be great (as Agtfox said). Can't recommend it enough.

[menage]

Multiplayer is actually something I'm going to stick with. And I rarely play online. It's great fun.

[Troggles]

I also had the door glitch. Fortunately, it's right at the beginning of the checkpoint so if you just start it over the NPC will be there and open the door immediately.

[DangerousDaze]

Originally Posted by Troggles

I also had the door glitch. Fortunately, it's right at the beginning of the checkpoint so if you just start it over the NPC will be there and open the door immediately.

And speaking of checkpoints, how cool is it that it tells you how long ago the checkpoint happened? This really helps when you're forced, screaming, to put down the controller and get some sleep because you can double check whether the save you just did caught all the important stuff you've just done.

It also gets around that annoying way some games pop up a "Saving" message, which may as well read "There's a hard bit coming up" and giving the game away.

[Yeti2005]

Originally Posted by DangerousDaze

And speaking of checkpoints, how cool is it that it tells you how long ago the checkpoint happened?

Hmm, I haven't seen that. Where do you find that info?

[Dukefrukem]

Originally Posted by Yeti2005

Hmm, I haven't seen that. Where do you find that info?

I haven't seen it either...

[Troggles]

Originally Posted by Yeti2005

Hmm, I haven't seen that. Where do you find that info?

When you highlight the "Restart Checkpoint" option it will tell you when that last checkpoint was.

[Yeti2005]

Originally Posted by Troggles

When you highlight the "Restart Checkpoint" option it will tell you when that last checkpoint was.

Thanks. That good to know.

Quick question, I haven't played multiplayer yet. Does it allow you to do split screen multiplayer so I can play with a friend locally with people online?

[Troggles]

Originally Posted by Yeti2005

Thanks. That good to know.

Quick question, I haven't played multiplayer yet. Does it allow you to do split screen multiplayer so I can play with a friend locally with people online?

No. Everyone has to have their own game.

[Psykoboy2]

Be mindful of a persistent glitch in Chapter 25. As I understand it, the PS3 just runs out of memory at that point given the amount they are streaming off the disc....if it does lock, just restart and you'll be back at the checkpoint ready to continue and you won't have to deal with that part again.