Uncharted 2: Among Thieves review

Alright, so it's been long enough since Uncharted graced the PS3 in 2007 that we can agree: while solid, it was far from perfect. The gunplay often degenerated into samey stop-and-pop shootouts in impressive but identical jungle locations, protagonist Nathan Drake came off as kind of a smug invincible douchebag, and as one reviewer cleverly pointed out, it sort of feels a bit like propagating the master race. What it does right though, is to seamlessly blend a menagerie of gameplay styles-- platforming, third-person shooting, simple but satisfying puzzles-- and tie it all together into a fun, lighthearted adventure romp. It's like the good version of "National Treasure," though even a smug invincible douchebag comparing favorably to Nicolas Cage isn't exactly a challenge.

So here we are now with "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves," and I'm glad to say it's living proof that some developers are in fact capable of improving and enriching their sequels rather than simply repackaging it and selling it to you again for 60$. It's the rare game that actually manages to be the full package-- some you play for story, some for gameplay, some just because it looks pretty... but Naughty Dog's put all their money on this one, and I'd be lying if I said that they didn't pull it all off with enviable skill and seeming ease.

Granted, the story of "U2" isn't exactly going to change your life-- it's pure unabashed "Indiana Jones" fare, i.e. pulp adventure fiction-- but it's worth acknowledging that a story doesn't need to be meaningful in order to be well told and satisfying. While it's clear that it's following in a rather troubling trend of games that want to be movies, it doesn't interpret this as 'bogging the player down in cutscenes' (see MGS4 and every FF game since '97) but rather in staging massive setpieces that blur the line between interactivity and passive viewing, and many of these (such as fighting soliders as a building crumbles around you, or making your way across the canopies of a military convoy) are truly a marvel to play as well as behold-- not to mention the furious pace that the game throws these at you.

In classic sequel form, the returning characters here are greatly expanded (the most subtle and satisfying of which involves Elena), including Drake himself. Here we see that he does, in fact, have his share of flaws, vulnerabilities, unchecked ego and gets himself beaten to shit more than once. Sure, he's still kind of a wisecracking asshole, but now he really feels like a RELATABLE wisecracking asshole, less a caricature then... well, a person, and it does a great deal to make you both root for him and take satisfaction in his victories over seemingly insurmountable odds. We also get a new femme fatale by the name of Chloe (who is EXACTLY what Lara Croft should have always been), and a villain who's both satisfying to go up against and still gets a touch of development, and while you won't exactly hate him any less it does make him seem, again, more like an actual character than most video game adversaries. He's kind of like... well, Belloq if he'd had a Zuko scar and the might of a Red Army PMC behind him.

Visually, I'll say simply that "U2" has raised the bar. While the move to visual realism that gaming has embraced doesn't always work for some, it definitely works here; it's gorgeous to behold, packed with loving attention to detail in everything from character models to stunning backgrounds and exquisite level design. Most impressive, the framerate never chugs, there's never a single bit of the texture-pop that's more or less a common fact of modern gaming nowadays, and it does it all without a single loading screen. Even when you die, it takes less than a few seconds to pop right back up at the last checkpoint, and while it might SOUND like a small thing the impact on play is actually pretty staggering: it's easy to get sucked into a game for hours on end when you don't have a little loading bar filling up on the bottom of the screen.

Speaking of hours on end, multiplayer will definitely keep you entertained, despite some occasionally long matchmaking times and a rather broken matchmaking system, admittedly. Seriously, don't be surprised if your first time in is spent more eating bullets than feeding them. But it's still a lot of fun, and if fighting your fellow players isn't your speed, then the excellent co-op modes (often featuring nice touches like new cutscenes that make them feel like a part of the actual campaign proper) will certainly do the trick.

"Uncharted 2" performs the rare feat of delivering on the original's promise while also vastly improving it and providing something for nearly every gaming taste. It's not exactly revolutionary, but the fun factor here certainly can't be denied, nor the prospect of more adventures with a truly enjoyable cast of characters. Being 'original' is easy, but being good his harder, and here's hoping that the rest of Nathan Drake's exploits are as good as this.