Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune seems to define the PlayStation 3 more than any other game to date. Naughty Dog’s 2007 jungle adventure starred the one and only Nathan Drake and let players experience what it was like to play as the acrobatic and gifted Indiana Jones. With stunning graphics (still some of the best in gaming today), a fantastically told story, great puzzles and fast-paced shooting, the game is simply one of the best titles of this console generation.

Now, Naughty Dog is back on top with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. As expected, and surprisingly, Naughty Dog has not only surpassed Nate’s first adventure, creating a sequel that is bigger and better in virtually every way, but it also includes a multiplayer component that could be released as its own full-priced game and people will be lining up to spend money on it.

Yes, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is awesome.

I’ll try to give away as few spoilers as possible, but the story begins about a year after the events of the first game, with Nate and a few other bandits trying to find Marco Polo’s lost treasure fleet. Of course, things aren’t that simple, and the cast ends up going on an even bigger adventure that takes them halfway around the globe.

I won’t go into too much more about the story, but some of the trailers that have been released actually give us a bit more detail. The key thing to note here, though, is that the game doesn’t only take place on a single island, but changes settings several times throughout the adventure. The result is that the pacing feels better and faster, and while you’re technically doing the same types of shooting, climbing, and puzzle-solving throughout the game, Among Thieves offers a more diverse feel than the original by presenting scenes in different ways.

The great storytelling also extends to character development, which has been improved a notch or two: almost everyone who has more than two lines of dialogue has an interesting reason for what they do (even if the main villain is just plain evil) and the way everyone interacts with each other is realistic and interesting. Nearly all of the characters are unpredictable in some way, but not in a forced or unnatural way.

The story itself, as you would expect, has a lot of twists and turns throughout the game, and for the most part it’s a solid narrative. Nate and his friends have to go through a lot, so the story draws you in nicely and keeps you hooked until the end.

I think the story overall is pretty good, but I wouldn’t call it perfect. Without giving too much away, the story is mostly based on actual folklore and legends, but it does deviate from that at some points, and that could have been handled better. However, it’s very well told through the use of great cutscenes and acting, and keeps you guessing until the end as to what’s going to happen.

In terms of the gameplay itself, Uncharted 2 has you dealing with gunfire, environmental navigation, or puzzle solving, just like the original Drake’s Fortune. Many of the mechanics are the same as the first title, but everything blends together a bit better, especially combat and navigation.

This is largely down to the fighting setting. Whereas the first game generally required you to get into an area with a lot of cover, take up position behind a wall, and take down enemies as best you can, Uncharted 2 offers a lot more variety and options in how these sequences unfold. To the fantastic level design. Instead of fighting on flat ground, nearly every combat scene features multiple levels and areas that can be used to your advantage. If you want to stay on the ground and take down your enemies the old-fashioned way, you’re more than welcome to do so. But you can also climb to higher ground and use that height to your advantage, or move from cover to cover and change your tactics to flank your enemies as the battle unfolds. The game is still a very linear story that goes from point to point, but you have a lot more options on how you approach and overcome battles.

One aspect plays a big role here: stealth is a much more important element of the game and is actually a very useful tactic that you can use to your advantage in situations. If you want to attack your enemies without them noticing, quietly perform a stealth takedown. You could do something similar in the original game, but the way it’s implemented and the stages are laid out really makes it worthwhile. There were several points in the game where I’d killed four or five enemies before the shooting started, which greatly increased my chances of survival. With no one to call for reinforcements, it’s also possible to avoid large battles entirely if you can just silently clear an area of ​​enemies.

Of course, if you just want to pop a bottle cap during a fight, there’s no need to hide at all. Well, that is except for a sequence early in the game where you have to hide because you’re not allowed to be seen or outright kill anyone. The problem with this is that the path isn’t all that obvious. You only need to kill three or four guys in a room packed with guards, and that’s probably realistically possible. If you don’t do the work in a pretty specific order, you’ll fail and have to start over. The biggest problem is that there are two enemies you can kill in a difficult location. The thing I need to retrieve is something hanging off the side of the banister a little higher than me. It’s too high for me to grab easily. Half the time I jump up to grab the ledge and end up scaring him off. If I knew exactly what I was doing here, this sequence could be completed in a minute or so, but the trial and error nature of it meant I was probably stuck here for 15 or 20 minutes before moving on. .

But fortunately, everything was fine after that. In fact, this is one of those rare games that just gets better as time goes on. The first half felt like a great (if somewhat subtle) improvement in gameplay over the original, but once you hit the halfway mark, things really get going and you start to see some amazing sequences.

However, one frustration I felt in the first game is still present here: you end up in a room full of enemies, with soldiers pouring in on you. From a design and engineering standpoint, this solution makes sense, because if you start in a room with 30 guys already in it, you never have a chance to fight back because you’re constantly under fire. But it’s still a bit annoying to get into a fight, clear a room, and then six more guys come in and start bombarding the place. Perhaps this would feel a bit more realistic if the combat was less focused on individual rooms and you had to keep fighting as you move through the hallways, but it is what it is.

Apart from that, the combat is improved and your climbing skills are put to good use. While the mechanics remain fundamentally unchanged, the parts of the game where you have to climb the environment are now at a higher level. The sequences that focus solely on navigating the world are usually visually stunning, and some even feature moving parts that make you think about where you’re going. It’s hard to explain why it’s better than the original title without saying anything, but suffice it to say that in some of these sections, I was in awe of what was happening and where it was happening, despite essentially doing the same thing as in the previous game. I climbed. That’s awesome.

My only real complaint, and this is just me saying this, is that the climbing path is still very linear and as far as I can tell there is only one way through almost every section. If you’re somewhere and there’s no door, you know you have to find something to grab onto to start climbing. It’s a “well I don’t know where this is going to take me, but it’s the only thing I can do” kind of scenario. Again, this isn’t me criticizing the game, but in the future it would be nice to have either multiple ways to get somewhere or a more clever reason to climb whatever rock you happen to be able to climb.

The third piece of the Uncharted puzzle is, well, puzzles. The first title was a good mix of action, climbing and puzzles, and Naughty Dog has once again nailed that formula, although it’s handled differently this time. There are fewer puzzles this time, but the ones that do come up are complex and highly intricate. Instead of sprinkling little interactive quizzes in the game, you’ll encounter rooms with lots of things to solve, many of which are multi-stage puzzles. What’s cool is that this time Nate doesn’t have Sir Francis Drake’s diary, but his own, which he can browse at will. He’ll have to, because some puzzles require clues that span several pages.

One in particular was 4-5 pages into the book so you have to see what’s going on, flip through the book, do some work, then go back to the book. It doesn’t feel forced and the subtlety in it made it feel more fulfilling as you went through them. There’s some great stuff here.

Something I didn’t mention when talking about combat is the AI. If you’ve played the original (and if you haven’t, head to the store ASAP), you know that Nate was up against some very clever opponents. They were good at hiding, made good use of grenades, and were generally fun to fight as a result. For better or worse, things were more of the same this time around. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting any real improvements since it was already so good, so this is more of a compliment than a complaint. However, I have to say that the AI ​​still makes good use of the environment, even if it’s much more complex overall this time around, which is great.

Okay, so the enemy AI was already impressive, but the companion AI is just phenomenal. This time around, you’re almost always with someone, which worried me a little when I first heard this, because the friendly AI almost always gets in your way. Not here, and never will be.

It really feels like they’re with you without getting in your way, thinking for themselves and doing the things that real humans would do. If there is a series of climbs, the computer will move forward quickly or back away and wait for the user to go through first. If there is a firefight, he will take cover, ensure his own safety and not get in your way. Only once during the game did I think the AI ​​was doing something I didn’t like, when we entered a room where two factions were fighting and we wanted to stay hidden and wait for the fight to end. After about 30 seconds of me playing along in silence, Chloe appeared and joined the fight, dragging me along too. That’s it. Of the remaining 10 hours of adventure, 8 of which are spent with someone else, they are always complementary rather than damaging, and sometimes even quite helpful.

You can’t talk about Uncharted 2 without mentioning the graphics. I’ve already mentioned the fantastic presentation of the cutscenes, which have some mind-blowing moments. The world is packed with details that don’t add anything to the gameplay, but really draw you into it and make you feel like this is a real place. The texture detail is amazing, the amount of random stuff everywhere is staggering, the lighting is some of the best I’ve ever seen, and the overall art direction is phenomenal. And of course, we can’t forget to mention the fantastic animations, the killer explosions, and just about every pixel on the screen.

It’s surprising to say this, but the actual gameplay is often better than the cutscenes. This is truly one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen, and I can easily argue that it’s the best overall on the PlayStation 3 (and that’s okay if you compare it to games like Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, so to speak).

That was a rundown of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Or not? Yes, this time Naughty Dog has made a serious effort to include an online component that offers both competitive and cooperative gameplay. To say the multiplayer mode is fun is an understatement. For my money, it’s one of the best multiplayer experiences in the game, and it feels like Naughty Dog gave us an extra game, considering the single-player mode alone is well worth the $60.

The list of options and features is huge. Competitive play offers a variety of different modes, including Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Capture the Flag (Treasure in this case), and Zone Control mode. As you achieve ranks, you’ll be able to buy perks (such as the ability to carry more ammo or reload faster) with the money you earn while playing. The levels here are scenes adapted from the single player game, so you get the same great design elements, with plenty of spots to exploit, places to hide and take cover, and so on.

As for the co-op part, you have a few options. Survival mode is exactly what it sounds like: you and a few friends hole up in one location and keep killing waves of increasingly powerful enemies as long as you can. It’s fun and very challenging, but for my money, it’s the co-op mode that’s the most important. Instead of playing the entire game with a few friends, you throw yourself into certain scenarios where you have to save a few people, loot some treasure, or something simple like that. It’s very different from what you experience in the single player game, though, as enemies don’t just appear in front of you, but come from anywhere quickly and in large numbers. You definitely need to communicate here (using a headset is key to victory) and always be aware of your surroundings to avoid getting shot in the back of the head with a shotgun at close range.

The strategies for each of Uncharted 2’s multiplayer modes vary widely, but they all play out the same way as in single player, so there’s no need to go into detail. This is great news. For a game that relies so heavily on traversing the environment to provide the exact same mechanics when playing online, Naughty Dog has done a great job of tying everything together.

If you like climbing high and stomping on enemies in the single player game, you can do that online. If you like sidling up to enemies and silently taking them down online, you can do that in the single player game too. Multiplayer is a great and natural extension of the single player experience, and the fact that Naughty Dog was able to implement it so seamlessly is commendable.

Verdict

If you’re reading this, chances are you didn’t buy Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on day one. In fact, you just wanted to know how good it was, and the good news is that it is very good. It’s simply one of the best games on the system, combining great presentation and graphics with virtually unparalleled gameplay. And it has a great multiplayer mode that will probably keep you playing until Uncharted 3 comes out. No, Uncharted 2 isn’t perfect, but it comes closer to the ideal than any other game out there right now.