Back in 2007, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune received huge critical acclaim, garnered a bunch of awards and quickly became a key franchise for Sony as it upped the bar in terms of realistic and immersive gameplay and amazing storytelling. Almost two years later, Naughty Dog returns with the sequel and while they brought back most of what they did right back then but they also managed to improve on everything so the player could experience something we rarely see in the video game industry nowadays: a true high-quality sequel of what remains on the greatest games ever created until today.

Gameplay

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes place a few years after the events of the first game. You once again play as Nathan Drake as he embarks on yet another incredible journey, this time to find the mysterious lost fleet of Marco Polo and uncover the secrets of the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala. This little storyline description might sound unimpressive and cliché. Adventurer is after treasure, he cheats death a couple of times, finds the treasure then it ends. To make it actually really more than just a simple adventure, it has to rely heavily on storytelling to get the player’s attention at all times. I won’t spoil the story for you if you haven’t picked up the game yet but let me assure you that your journey will be worth every minute.

In games like this one, moving your character throughout the world is extremely important. Execution on landing jumps or shimmy around a cliff often differentiates a great game from a total letdown. If you have played Drake’s Fortune, controlling Nathan won’t be an issue. And if you haven’t played the first game, you will be amazed movement execution. If you grew tired of the overly demanding precision needed in the Tomb Raider games (especially the last one), you will be reliefed to see the real thing in action here.

Controls aren’t only responsive and flawless but when it’s paired with a great camera system, it pushes the gameplay to another level. Take a game like Ninja Gaiden for example. Even with its dreaded and often frustrating camera view, it does manage to bring you closer to the action. In the case of Uncharted 2, you are completely immersed often making you believe that you are “playing” a movie. Actually, we can thank the smooth transitions between the cinematics and the actual gameplay for that. That being said, the camera work in the game is genius and manages to turn every moment into a “wow” moment.

Gunplay is way more solid this time around. Gone are the days of the clunky and often difficult aiming system of the first game. You can still shoot and/or aim with the R1/L1 buttons while the weapon selection menu remains on the directional pad so there’s no changes in there. The cover system, whether you use it for shooting or pulling stealth attacks, works well but sometimes it may not go as you intended it to be especially if you need to take out enemies without being seen. It doesn’t happen often since you will go guns blazing most of the time. Who wouldn’t?!

On the other side, the hand-to-hand combat has been completely reworked to something more simplistic and in my opinion, far more enjoyable. Instead of pulling combos with different button combinations, combat has been reduced to one button. Chain the square button three times and you will easily take down your enemy. If you get grappled in the middle of combat, you can counter attack by pushing the triangle button and finish him by pushing the square button again. You can vary Nathan’s attacks depending on where or how you are placed. You can do stealth attacks but its way more fun to jump on their backs and snap their necks, run towards them and punch them in the face or go for the slide and kick them in the junk.

When you aren’t battling bad guys or running for your life, there are quieter moments where you will have to solve a few puzzles or try to find your way to get from one point to another. These platforming elements are vital to the gameplay but the most interesting thing about it is that you won’t spend much time thinking. You have a little hint system that tells you where to go if you’ve been running around for a long time but honestly, the level design was built in such a way that you won’t feel like yoiu are running around for nothing. Actually, in most cases, its very intuitive.

Speaking of variety and novelty, Uncharted 2 features online play. Being absent from the first game, I wasn’t expecting it until Naughty Dog made it official. Never thought it was necessary if you ask me. Multiplayer does play a role on the replay value but doesn’t affect it, unless the game is COMPLETELY geared towards multiplayer (you know those games you buy for multiplayer because you know the single player is bad?). Regardless, the online part of Uncharted 2 has Competitive and Cooperative multiplayer modes. If you like adversarial modes, the game has four distinct playlists: Deathmatch (as you know it), Plunder (Capture The Treasure), Elimination (two teams go against each other in a Last Man Standing-like game with no respawns) and Chain Reaction (capture objectives in a specific order). While it’s pretty basic multiplayer, it remains an attractive set of options. The fact that you can unlock taunts, skins or weapon upgrades with the money you win by playing the single player campaign (and multiplayer games as well) do bring something to the table. Now, if you don’t care for adversarial multiplayer, maybe the different cooperative modes will get your attention, especially the Gold Rush mode where you and your partner (up to two) must team up to get a treasure and take it back to your camp. To spice it up, enemies will try to stop you from getting your objective done. We’ve seen lots of these “horde-like” modes in other games recently but in Uncharted 2 it’s feels a bit different. You are trying to stay alive but the fact that you are also carrying a treasure forces you to use more strategy and communication in order to make it out alive.

Graphics & Audio

From the first minutes, you can already tell how great Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks. When we first saw footage of the game, we all wondered if that game would really look like that. If you thought Drake’s Fortune looked amazing, be prepared to be blown away. The character animations really shows its strength, the indoor and outdoor levels are amazing (my favourite being the train level) and all of the other small touches such as movie quality sound effects and the great musical score put the game ahead of the competition. Visually, the game is even more impressive as it never suffers from any slow down whatsoever, even during the most hectic of action scenes.

Do you like characters who banter back and forth in a realistic manner? Then you will enjoy seeing Nathan and the rest of the cast interact with quips and jokes at the right time with story driven dialog pulling you along. The voice acting is simply top notch. Again, if you played Drake’s Fortune, the same audio quality work can found here.

Value

There are very few games that deserve to be sold at their usual $60-$70 price tag. A game where you go to the store and the clerk (that you usually don’t trust) says that you got to play and own this game. This would certainly be the shortest paragraph of the whole review. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of those games that you buy with your eyes closed, enough said. There’s one little detail I do have to mention. Depending at which difficulty you will do your first play through, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves single player campaign should last you around 10-12 hours, which is actually the double of what the first game was. It should not take you longer than 10 hours to complete the game at the Normal difficulty level.

Conclusion

The action-adventure/plat forming genre has been around for years, so most of the game’s main nature won’t come as new to you if you’ve been gaming for a while now. While it may not re-invent anything, Naughty Dog makes it feel like something new thanks to their care for detail and wish to deliver a one-of-a-kind experience. If past PS3 exclusives such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 set a foothold in the Playstation landscape, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves tops everything we’ve seen so far, whether it’s a first or third-party title. I will not go as far to name it “Game of the Century” because it’s a bold statement. However, it does take a spot on the short list of outstanding games that will be often copied but never reproduced. The game breathes awesomeness from the first seconds until the last one and that’s all we really want as a gamer.