Uncharted territory
Name: ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’Console: Playstation 3Price: $49.99Rating: A
Through a compelling story, life-like graphics and rewarding game play, every aspect of ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ is polished to near-perfection, from start to finish.
‘Uncharted 2’ corrects many of the mistakes of its predecessor ‘Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.’ Gone are the sloppy SIXAXIS controls for grenade throws and enemies who seem to eat hundreds of bullets before dying.
In their place are tight grenade controls that don’t involve you awkwardly moving the Playstation 3 controller around like a Wii-mote and instead just require you to hold the L2 button. Meanwhile, the enemies are still able to eat hundreds of bullets before they die. What provides a sense of realism to this game is that the enemies replace their tank tops for full suits of body armor.
Sony and Naughty Dog, the developers of the game, could have been happy with just having one of the best single-player experiences in any game to date but instead decided to include a multiplayer option. When this option was announced, gamers feared that it would take away from the single-player story.
However, Naughty Dog made the multiplayer element an enjoyable experience. The team death match levels stay true to the adventurous spirit of the game while still providing a solid experience on par with games like ‘Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’ and ‘Halo 3.’
In the opening chapter you are reintroduced to the hero from the first game, Nathan Drake.He is beaten up, bloody and hanging from a train that is about to fall over a cliff. Normally the player would have to sit idly by and watch the main character escape certain doom, yet in this game you are in control of Nathan Drake the entire time.
Naughty Dog uses this train sequence as a tutorial to teach the player the climbing and shooting mechanics of the game. By combining the stunning nature of CGI with the game play, the game accomplishes a seemingly elusive aspect of third-person shooters.
The storyline is just as impressive because of its believable characters and their interactions.
The impressive voice acting, headed by Nolan North as Drake, enhances the story of Marco Polo’s lost treasure. North and Emily Rose breathe life into characters Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher, respectively. The complexity and believability of their characters causes the player to feel the emotions.
The story alone can make this game above average, but in the case of ‘Uncharted 2,’ it is an amazing supplement to the incredible game play.The entire game handles well and always keeps you on your toes. The game’s vertical nature allows you to climb almost anything, and the real-time cinematic story elements add a sense of captivation to the overall feeling of the game.
‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ raises the bar for future games and is reason alone for owning a Playstation 3.
Published on November 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm
