Uncharted: Drakes Fortune is one of the best games to grace the PS3. Naturally a sequel had to be in the works.
I won’t delve into the story to much as I wouldn’t want to spoil what’s in store for Nathan Drake. But the story is great and it's set against some stunning back-drops, you’ll be traveling around the world, through Jungle, Snow, a war torn town and yes plenty of temples/ruins. Fantastic cut scenes also guide you through with great camera shots and angles along with the terrific acting of the characters. The gameplay probably has a little less gunplay than Drake’s Fortune, with stealth playing a greater part if you want it to, with puzzles, exploration and a lot of traversal around the sizeable levels. The shooting has been kicked up a notch with amazing set pieces that take place through the chapters. In other games you would expect to be watching said set pieces unfold but in Uncharted 2 you actually control Nathan Drake - as they happen.
Being Among Thieves Drake has to use weapons a lot, and the gunplay itself feels improved with the different weapons aiming just right, and dealing a believable and varied amount of damage. Naughty Dog even seem to have made picking up dropped weapons better, which feels much easier as the game is less fussy about your positioning this time.The cover mechanics are still spot on, Drake will dodge, duck, dive and umm... dodge around and into cover with just a tap of the circle button. From cover you can blind fire, vault over or around to more cover or simply move into the open. Stealth take-downs work extremely smoothly; you can sneak right up behind someone and tap square to knock them out or if you wait just around a corner and time it right Nate will grab them and slam them head-first into the wall. If you’re hanging from a ledge below an enemy Nate will drag the enemy over the edge, often to a spectacular demise. Close-quarters hand-to-hand combat has been improved and it is animated slickly and is fun to break up the action with; instead of the old ‘normal’ and ‘heavy’ attack style Drake now has just ‘punch’ (square) and ‘counter attack’ (triangle). It’s also context-sensitive so if you’re near a ledge Drake will just push him off – it works so well and looks and feels extremely cool, all enhanced by the slick animation and perfect ragdoll physics.
The puzzles in the game are simplistic but do a good job of bringing the pace of the game down for a breather from what is frequently intense action. Drake’s got the ability to climb and hang off most things which allows for some great death-defying Tomb Raider-style climbs up and along cliffs and buildings but also lets you to flank enemies or gain high vantage points (this is most noticeable in the multiplayer portion of the game).
Ah yes, along with a great single player experience, Uncharted 2 also has a full-featured multiplayer matchmaking experience. Team deathmatch, capture the treasure, capture points, versions of pretty much all of the classic multiplayer game types feature here along with co-op missions. The 5 vs. 5 adversarial games play brilliantly, having Drake’s full move set allows levels to be vertical, being able to climb to get weapons or just to get the jump on someone in cover is great fun. It features a full leveling system with unlockable ‘boosts’ that give you small advantages like better blind fire accuracy or even the old Call of Duty favorite perk, ‘Martyrdom’ which allows you to drop a grenade on death, hopefully taking your killer with you! The co-op modes are 3-player mini-missions played over cut-down sections from the story mode with a ton more bad guys and objectives thrown in; these are particularly good fun with friends and communication really is key as you’ll get some tough enemies coming at you that require some suppressive fire or distraction and sneaky flanking to take them all down.
This game is just stunning to look at, everything looks great and the characters are perfectly animated. The environments must be the most detailed in a game yet - there’s just 'stuff' everywhere, the war torn town looks as you’d imagine, just debris-strewn streets and the jungles have thick foliage as far as the eye can see, that seems to have real depth. When something explodes the screen is just filled with stuff flying all around realistically thanks to Havok™ physics. Snow, water, textures, lighting all look amazing. It all keeps a consistent frame rate too which just makes the game look solid and almost constantly impresses the eye. Along with the spectacular looks come an equally impressive voice cast, soundtrack and sound effects. All the dialogue feels so natural, Drake’s little comments throughout put a genuine smile on my face, and he cracks less of the corny one-liners that eventually became tiresome in Drake’s Fortune. All of the ambient sounds add to the experience too, sounding particularly impressive in surround sound, backed up by a superb, reactive orchestral score that wouldn't be out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster.
Among Thieves is an awesome single player game with a great multiplayer component that looks, sounds and plays... well... just... amazing. The single player adventure throws thrill after thrill at you with a great story and great cast. The multiplayer is a great alternative to Killzone 2 and has lots of depth. I really struggle to find anything wrong with this game, and that makes it a Must Buy!
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
