Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Platinum Edition (PS3)

This game is a necessity for playstation 3 owners. This newly released platinum version weighs in at around half the price of the original title. For what is a really low price you get an absolute amazing game. Graphics and gameplay are second to none and are what you come to expect from the amazing developer "NaughtyDog" mastermind behind the original "Uncharted Drakes Fortune" and "Crash Bandicoot" games. Don't take my word for how good this game is, instead redirect your browser to Metacritic where it was named as the most critically acclaimed game of 2009. It also won Game of the Year awards on IGN, Giant Bomb, AIAS, X-Play, Game Developers Choice Awards and the Spike Video Game Awards for the year 2009. Need I really say more, if your a fan of third-person adventure games than I cant recommend this game highly enough. Look forward to a sequel in the near future.

UNCHARTED 2 is in my opinion one of the greatest games to ever come out for the PS3.

THE GRAPHICS are amazing. There's alot of static objects in the world, and it's not like you can blow down houses Red Faction-style, but when a game looks as pretty as Uncharted 2, it doesn't really matter. I acctually died several times because of the scenery at particular places. Not because of bad design, on the contrary, because it just looks so mind-boggingly beautiful, you're eyes might end up looking at the scenery when you should be looking at the dude shooting at you. The animations are also particularly well done, especially on Drake and during cut-scenes, but because of these great animations, some of the enemy animations in the game might stand out in a bad way, particularly the death animations. They're not bad, in fact, they are really good, they're not just as believable and polished as the rest of the animations. Though, to be fair, the only game acctually pulling of believable death animations that i can think of right now, is Killzone 2, so it's probably something all shooters should work on.

THE GAMEPLAY is a good mix of duck and cover shooting gameplay, climbing around gameplay, and solving environmental puzzles, all stiched together by breath-taking set-pieces. Every aspect of the gameplay has been refined from the first Uncharted-game. The climbing has mainly been improved by all the different locations and objects you climb on, from trains to buildings to statues and the likes. The puzzles are a bit more clever this time around, and you have the possibility to flip through Drake's journal to figure things out, instead of Drake automatically showing you the only page you need for a puzzle like he did in the first game. Still though, the puzzles aren't really that hard, and they never get to the point of being frustrating. Personally, I would welcome even more difficult puzzles. The shooting gameplay is probably what has improved the most. In the first Uncharted you was almost encouraged to just find one piece of cover and stay there, popping out to kill the bad guys who ALWAYS came in two or three waves. In Uncharted 2, a number of things are improved. Firstly, most covers can be blown up, and if not, the enemy is painfully accurate with grenades, and deadly effective with trying to flank you if you don't watch your sides. This means you need to move alot more around the map, finding good coverspots, and sometimes even flanking your enemies. The main cover system has also been tweaked, so it's easier to drop in and out of cover. There's also alot of new weapons and gadgets in this game, like for instance the riot shield, which can be wielded with the pistol of your choice. The best improvement in my opinion though, is the fact that every enemy now have eyes. This means that you can sneak up behind an enemy if he has not spotted you, and perform a stealth kill. In the first game, the enemies just reacted to a trigger when you where close enough, resulting in every shoot-out feeling the same. This time around you can stealth kill your way to a better vantage point, or maybe you're lucky and you're able to stealth kill the enemy soldier with the rocket launcher, suddenly turning the table on whose got the best firepower. In some areas it's even possible to stealth kill every single one, never even needing to draw your guns. The only problem with this, is that the soldiers must have forgotten their glasses at home, because in some areas you can practically stand right beside them without them lifting an eyebrow. The melee fighting is also better, though it's mainly just to bash one button to punch, and then remember to bash another to dodge before the enemy slow-mo punches you back. What sets it all together though, is the set-pieces. Just like in the God of War-series, Uncharted is filled with them. From collapsing building, to collapsing bridges, to jumping from truck to truck to running across a train. There are all these blockbuster moments, or as Cliffy B would have called them, watercooler moments, where something jaw-dropping is happening in front of you. It's like playing in a Hollywood movie, and this is why, as my title says, there's never a dull moment.

THE MUSIC is also great and suits the game perfectly, giving it that treasure hunter vibe. The music plays along with most of the emotions in the game, but adds a little dash of epicness on top, just to make sure the hair on your back won't get to rest for long.

THE PRESENTATION is probably only matched this generation by METAL GEAR SOLID 4 and is polished so well it makes other great games look as if they were rushed. The cut-scenes are especially well done, with all the little details of hand gestures and facial expressions being awesomely well done, time after time. The camera angles are also great giving you that hollywood feel to it, and is only outmatched by MGS4 and Hideos mastery of the camera.

OVERALL you have probably already bought this game, and if not, it should be because you don't have a Playstation 3 because this game is essential to every PS3 owner. And if you're thinking: that's great and all, but you haven't mentioned anything about trophies, and i can't play a game unless it extends my internet willy, then first of all, you're not really clever, and secondly, the game is packed with trophies from everything like treasure hunting to headshots, to stealth kills and so on. And for you Multiplayer fanatics out there, the multiplayer in Uncharted 2 is also fantastic and not just tacked on. Buy it now, you'll thank me later.

Single-player Review

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves improves on many of the things players have come to love from the first game. The first thing players will notice when they start their journey is that not much has changed in terms of how the game controls which is not necessarily a bad thing since Uncharted: Drake's Fortune had great platforming controls. Those who played the first game will feel right at home with the controls and the subtle detail of Nathan Drake's motion while new players will easily warm up to it after the first few chapters.

Uncharted 2 is a direct sequel to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, continuing the adventures of Nathan Drake, only this time the plot sports more characters, locations and crazy twists. The game centres on the mystery surrounding the convoy of 13th century explorer Marco Polo which will send Nathan on a hunt over a large number of different locations across the globe. While on this journey, Nathan will interact with a wide variety of characters, some new and some familiar. The characters are played out very well and it is very easy to fall in love with them and see what perspectives they are coming from.

While the entire look of the game has not changed much, the detail of the world and character models have been amped up quite significantly and the introduction of motion blur and depth of field has resulted in the game having a much more realistic and grittier finish. Overall this game is just a treat to watch.

This time round combat unfolds much more fluidly with a variety of new weapons and reworked mechanics. Players now use only the square button for melee combos while the triangle button is used for parrying when the enemy tries to fights back. Though simpler, the changes to the melee mechanics gives melee combat a cleaner, more satisfying feel. Grenades no longer need to be equipped before use and the six-axis aiming is replaced with the use of the right-stick. The core gunplay mechanics remain the same as it was in the first game but now you can use the R3 button to zoom-in when aiming which allows for more precise shots. While all weapons have a standard zoomed-in aim, certain weapons have special ones such as the FAL red-dot sight. Players will also find `one-off use' weapons, such as Gatling-guns and riot-shields, and non-mobile turrets which add yet another layer of variety to the combat which helps keep it fresh.

While all the weapons encountered in the game feel unique and have their own pros and cons, a common problem with stronger weapons is that they tend to have a significantly lower ammo cap than those on the weaker ones. This tends to favour the decision to stick with weapons that have a higher ammo cap which often results in the player finding him/herself in a gunfight equipped with weapons that are poorly suited for the situation which can be very taxing especially in the later parts of the game.

Players will experience a large variety of fast paced action-heavy sequences, from large scale gun fights to hopping from one moving truck to another. These sequences are a blast to watch and play through but there are times when it feels like the game controls are not suited for these sequences: like hanging on to a ledge when players meant to run off it without jumping which leaves them in a postion open to enemy fire and potentially death. To make matters worse there are occasions where the game checkpoints feel too far back making you repeat a lot of the same sequences you really should not be doing. The game does offer a save feature but it is ultimately pointless and does not solve the checkpointing issues as the game automatically saves when you try to load an earlier save point while in-game.

Being a visually rich game, it is very easy to get lost in the world of Uncharted 2 in more than one way. While getting lost in the setting and characters is good, getting lost in what to do next is frustrating. The game does have a hint feature which basically tells you where to go next. While this works most of the time, players may sometimes find that the problem is not where the exit is but rather how to make their way towards it, in which case the hint system is rendered useless.

Fortunately, most of the flaws detailed above are only encountered 2-3 times through the entirety of the game making it very easy to have more of a good time playing the game rather than dwelling on its shortcomings.

Overall Uncharted 2: Among Thieves improves on everything you loved from its predecessor: satisfying combat, a beautifully rendered world, great lovable characters and of course a memorable adventure. Definitely check this out if you are a fan of action/adventure games.

Rating: 4.5/5