The return of Nathan Drake has been met with some very high praise from critics, and some reviews almost a month early. So I don’t imagine that much of the content of this review will come as much of a shock, but nevertheless below you will find my opinion of what will likely be one of this years game of the year candidates.
Like “Drake’s Fortune”, “Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” presents itself in the same vein as a treasure hunter film does, and in doing so the player is brought on a journey through clues, puzzles, traps, deception, a touch of drama, and like any good action game… a body count… Not without a certain level of cliché, but as any fan of treasure hunter films will tell you, this sort of thing is welcome. The story is compelling, the characters are witty and charming, and told in a way that makes it hard to look away. On top of that, the story told by the camera work alone is great, the same sort of camera-centric story telling that you’d see in films by great directors. This game was one of the most cinematic gaming experience I’ve seen. It felt more like playing a role in a film than a game at times. That said, I sure could have used more of it! My first effort play time was almost exactly 10 hours, I generally want to see at least 12 in my action games, but I’m not sure they could have plugged 2 more hours into the story without making it feel like it was being stretched thin. With any luck I’ll make up some additional time in the co-op and multi-player to calm this disappointment. To summarize, the story given in the time it took, felt perfectly spaced and paced, and it was a fantastic experience.
The action sequences where there are elements in motion, such as the train sequence everyone is so familiar with already, are as advertised, awesome, there are couple other instances like that in the game that create very genuine excitement. Unfortunately, there are other times where it is obvious that it is has been scripted to wait for you to make your jump to the next ledge or rock before crumbling behind you. I think some more consequence for not being fast enough in these scenarios would have gone a long way to the authenticity of the scenario, as the clear delay, literally takes you out of the experience all together.
In terms of controls there were some improvements, melee feels better… there is some ‘counter’ functionality added in to replace the combo-esque type system that existed in the first Uncharted, this is a welcome change but it’s definitely not as cool as the system in “Arkham Asylum”. Stealth kills work, and at times are really necessary… its a lot easier to get through areas if you go undetected, otherwise you also get reinforcements, it was a very nice touch and as I believe was the intention, it made me think a bit before dropping down into a room of baddies. However, what they didn’t seem to improve was the cover system, and more specifically the coming out of cover. I’m constantly sticking or not sticking to the cover that I intended to, luckily the clumsiness not once got me killed on normal difficulty, but I expect it would be different on hard.
The gun combat itself is the same, you plug a guy in the chest over and over and it does little to phase them. Also, head shots when the target is ‘wobbling’ don’t register as head shots, you need to wait for the animation to finish otherwise you’re wasting your ammo. Decent selection of weapons, including a crossbow later on thats pretty fun when you’re sneaking around. As you progress, increasingly armored foes, become more frequent, and head shots become more critical unless you’ve found a cache of grenades, or an RPG or two.
The platforming was really my least favorite aspect of this game, and easily caused me more deaths than any foe I met along the way. The isolated platforming sections are linear, you have 1 way to go and its usually pretty obvious which way that is, and if its not, the optional in-game hints will be available in pretty short order. Its a nice touch to prevent players who really aren’t interested in the problem solving aspect of the platforming from getting frustrated, but the fact that it is optional allows players like myself who’d rather figure it out makes it a great feature whether you use it or not. In combat sequences unfortunately the inconsistency between places where you’re supposed to go, and where you aren’t, aren’t entirely clear. You may see a platform below where you are that seems like a place you can go but its actually off the edge of the map, and you end up dead. There are clearly times where your jump distance is increased to clear a gap that you’re supposed to make, but when you try the same distance somewhere where you’re not necessarily supposed to go you fall to your death. Explorers/Trophy & Treasure Hunters may find this especially frustrating.
The puzzles in “Drake’s Fortune”, were no challenge thanks to Drake’s notebook clearly detailing what has to happen. This remains true in the sequel, particularly early on… there was 1 puzzle towards the end where the solution spanned several pages in the notebook, and although its an easy solve, it wasn’t as obvious as the rest, I’d be happier with more puzzles like that one.
In the end, the game itself isn’t all that big a departure from the original, apart from a couple minor improvements to the combat system, this is more of the same Uncharted. If you were not a fan of the original uncharted for reasons related to game play, I would struggle to recommend this game to you. However, with vastly improved story and presentation, if you had an OK or better time with the first one, you’re going to have a good time with this.
