Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Playstation 3
Developed: Naughty Dog
Published: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: October 13, 2009

This is a review of the single-player experience.  For insightful analysis of multiplayer, consult your reputable mainstream game journalism web site.  What, why are you laughing?

Fifteen years ago, many believed live-action movie games were the future of the industry.  We paid dearly.  Sewer Shark.  Night Trap.  Today, I now know why they believed such things.

Overwhelming praise compelled me to try Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  Wow, incredible, amazing, pick your word.  It is the genetic manchild of Tomb Raider and Metal Gear Solid, a fusion of action, stealth, and platforming with few equals.  This game should destroy any doubt in whether Naughty Dog is one of the planet’s best game developers.

The game revolves around Nathan Drake’s endeavor to obtain the legendary Chintamani Stone, which Wikipedia describes as “pretty awesome lol”.  While the action and directing will draw inevitable, Playstation 3-related comparisons to Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted 2 lacks what is best known as “Hideo Kojima’s Acid Trip”.  The game cuts the bullshit out: You want the stone, military nutjob disagrees, bullets fly.  There’s no doubt the characters are interesting and they say interesting things.  The lone fault is one plot twist too many, but it can’t bring down a story that is perfect for the medium.

It’s all hoisted atop a technical marvel, incredible environments that wouldn’t be possible in the era before Far Cry and God of War.  The interaction of environment and gameplay is so seamless you will be numb to it.  The commercial wasn’t kidding: You are playing a movie.  When you are riding a chunk of an ancient ruin down a jungle hill, enemies firing at you, supporting characters spouting dialogue, you will know what I mean.  In previous generations, this integration of cinematics and gameplay would mar a title’s playability.  This time, they’re a course of events that constantly leave you wondering how you’ll make your next escape.

Spoilers: Uncharted 2 is awesome.

And the gameplay?  Uncharted 2 succeeds wildly because it preys on every frustration you’ve experienced in a bad action-platformer.  You keep waiting for the moment where crappy controls send you plummeting to the bottom, the errant jump that forces you to restart at the base of the mountain, the moment where artificial intelligence sends your teammate running into a hail of bullets.  It rarely comes.  When it does, the liberal use of checkpoints ensure you’re not punished because the game failed you.

In the absence of frustration, tension is generated by leaps of faith and an army of soldiers that want you really damn dead.  Shooting is built around a cover system and is surrounded by great level design and enough enemy diversity to make players think tactically about their next move.  You have the option of stealth, firearms, and thanks to enemies that react to where they think you are, a combination of both.  And even with a weapon system that relies on the “one primary, one secondary” concept I dread, it fits within the context of a game where enemies do their best to flank and snuff you out from positions you’ve taken.

Yes, Modern Warfare 2 will be the people’s Game of the Year, but I expect Playstation 3 fans will have objections.  Uncharted 2 will go down as one of the greatest games of the decade and it is very possible, should Sony ever regain its throne, that the game will be acknowledged as a turning point in the company’s misfortune.

***** of *****

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am and is filed under Reviews, Uncharted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.