Off the Chart (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3))

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Date:	02/11/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best game you will play

Disadvantages: Wee bit too much platforming

'Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' was the PS 3 title I was most looking forward to this year. The original Uncharted game is still one of the best titles on the PS3, despite being 2 years old. Developer, Naughty Dog, said the original only used 30% of the PS3's capabilities and that the sequel will use closer to 100% and more impressively, all of the capacity of a Blu-Ray disc.

It has to be said this was no false claim. This game is visually stunning and the graphics are so much more realistic. This is in every way, from the characters to the explosions, but especially the backgrounds, particularly the snow covered landscapes.

If you haven't played the original, you are a kind of Indiana Jones treasure hunter named Nathan Drake, 'Nate' to his friends. The game manages to combine the odd puzzle, a lot of platform levels and some stunning battle levels (from the third person perspective). For me, the combat is what makes this the game it is. It is so much more sophisticated than its predecessor. You have to think your way round the level rather than just going in with all guns blazing.

This time the game takes you across many different locations which allows large changes in the scenery. You get taken from village settings, to the jungle, to snowy mountains, to deep caves all within the story line. Huge attention to detail has been paid in each location and all appear to be highly authentic.

The story is set two years after the end of the first game. The time line is a bit confusing at the beginning of the game. You actually start halfway through the story mission, with some of the following missions establishing how you got to this point. I thought it was a strange way to do things but it does allow for a spectacular opening cut scene so it was maybe done with this in mind.

Cut scenes are something which feature a lot to progress the story. I am not a huge fan of sitting through long cut scenes and there were a few in this which tried my patience a little. I can appreciate the need for some of them, but felt that there were too many and a lot of them went on for too long. The ones which attempted to inject a bit of humour were fine with me but too many had extended dialogue, which was largely unnecessary.

The game has four difficulty settings, easy, medium, difficult and crushing. Crushing is locked at the beginning and can only be accessed by completing the difficult mode. This means a minimum of completing the game twice if you want to succeed on the highest level. I would say I am no better than average at these games but even on the difficult level I found this to be a fairly easy game to motor through, well, the first three-quarters of it anyway.

By this point I was becoming quite concerned. The best aspect of the game is the combat missions where you face numerous enemies with excellent weapons. Up to three-quarters of the way through there had only really been three or four examples of this from the 18 or so chapters completed. To my mind there was too much platform type gaming in this game. The original did feature a bit of it but it was the correct amount and usually to take you to the next battle. This one has far too much. The episode in the caves particularly suffer from this. It is easy to get lost and you have to wait 'til the hint screen appears, telling you where to go next. These chapters were tedious and not helped by Drake making some impossible jumps (in terms of distance) then failing to make what looks like a shorter one seconds later when you chose the wrong route.

A further frustration was having other characters lead you on your way. This happened on 5 or 6 separate occasions. It is even more pointless copying a platform level than it is working one out!

Thankfully the last quarter of the game more than redresses the balance. Here you encounter some of the best missions you will ever play. You switch from Indiana Jones to John Rambo at this point and have to single handidly take on a small army. Having earlier taken out helicopters you now need to take out tanks, not an easy task with a pistol and an AK47!

The story mission took me a fraction over 15 hours on the difficult level. Replaying it on crushing it is going to easily take me more than double that. Death is almost realistic on the crushing mode. It lives up to its name and guarantees this game will have a minimum of 40 hours play time for most people. Considerably more if you start below difficult.

This time there is an excellent online mode. This is totally different from the game. Here you team up with other online players and are split into two teams. Depending on the rules of the game you may have to kill the other team or complete challenges. This is an excellent addition to the game and there are regularly 15,000 plus players on at any given time.
As with most modern releases there are multiple unlockable things.

There are 100 hidden treasures in the game. These glint in the light and are far from obvious (or accessible) in a lot of cases. I got 24 in the first run through without looking but I can see getting all 100 being very difficult. There are also trophies for numerous achievements within the game. Things such as minimum kills with particular weapons or killing 75 of the enemy without dying yourself etc.

The soundtrack is another thing which adds a lot to this game. It is more like the musical score for a film and is typical of how much attention has been paid to every aspect. Saying that, the music which accompanies your character dying starts to grate when you hear it constantly on the more difficult levels!

This game has been averaging around 97% on lots of reviews. It is easy to see why. It's the best example of getting everything from the PS3 to date. It is hugely enjoyable to play and offers great value for money. The only slight negative is the slightly tedious platform only levels. Shortening these and adding a further battle in its place would have made this the perfect title.

Summary: Excellent