Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – The Good, the Bad, and the Adventure
http://gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/2010/02/uncharted-2-among-thieves-good-bad-and.htmlOk, before anyone starts complaining about things; yes, I know it’s been a while since my last review, yes I know this is for a PS3 game, and yes I know it’s been out for a few months now. I did a little bit of horse trading for my old, useless laptop and ended up with a factory refurbished PS3 and Uncharted 2. I figured, “Why not? Let’s review it!”.
SYNOPSIS
For those arriving late, Nathan Drake is the descendant of Sir Francis Drake, a tomb raider, and a petty thief of antiques. When a simple job gets Drake pinched for robbing a museum our hero ends up on a quest in search of clues for Marco Polo’s lost fleet. With help from old friends and new enemies, Nathan will uncover a mystery hidden at the top of the world for over 400 years.
THE GOOD
First things first, the game-play is like watching a movie. Things that would normally be scripted FMV’s in this game involve player interaction in what is happening. I don’t just mean like quicktime events or dialog trees, but rather actual game play where you need to run, fight, shoot or evade in order to progress with the game. These can be anything from the truck chase scene, to sliding down a collapsing walkway while shooting at an enemy or evading debris in a collapsing building while being shot at by a Hind-D gunship. Included in this is the ability to scale buildings and signs and use them as improvised cover. The game itself is a mix between third-person action shooter and an action adventure platformer with climbing elements. Combat is fast with a good selection of weapons available to the player and with the added feature of stealth take-downs. On the action adventure side players can scale structures, perform movie style ‘leap of faith’ jumps, and solve a variety of puzzles in classic ‘Zelda’ fashion.
The visual landscape of the game borders on the photo realistic. Everything from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the temples of Tibet look like the character stepped into the real world with every detail rendered with life-like accuracy. The highlight of this was the train sequence, a long time problem in video games I might add. I’m not sure how it was done; however, the result was absolutely spectacular with seamless transitions between different environmental areas, terrains, and lighting elements. An interesting step the developers took was to have the voice actors actually act out the scenes in motion capture, so the words and actions are in perfect unison with one another, also adding to the games cinematic feel. Along with this comes the wonderfully witty and well acted work done by those portraying the characters. Again, this wasn’t someone sitting in a booth reading lines, but actors really acting and interacting with one another and it was a joy to watch.
THE BAD
Just a few small gripes here and I really do mean that. Firstly, the puzzles in game seem rather easy. It happens that Drake has a notebook that basically has all the answers you need to solve each puzzle (not to mention some rather eye-brow raising sketches he’s done that make you question his sanity). Secondly, ammunition reserves are rather small, and most enemies require several direct hits to take them down, or are heavily armored and require dead on aiming.
Like I said, only small things.
THE BAD
Nothing really bad, in fact it’s tamer than most games I review. There are some language issues, little bit of innuendo between characters, and some blood, but no worse than most PG-13 movies.
CONCLUSION
A roller coaster ride of a game filled with humor, action, romance and a lot of fun. It shows off the PS3’s real power, but more importantly shows that the system can have an exclusive game that is fun to play. Plus you can get two trophies for playing “Marco, Polo”…seriously.
No, really, you seriously can.
HIGHLY Recommended
