Phil "Philbart999" Doherty
Thursday, November 5th 2009

4 Comments »

To say that this game is a “much-ballyhooed” title is to make a colossal understatement.  Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if SCEA executives are willing to sell their unborn children into servitude to garner GOTY votes for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  Naughty Dog has taken the PS3 faithful back into the exotic world of Nathan Drake with their third-person action franchise that relies heavily on a cover system, platforming, and puzzle-solving.  In this sequel to Uncharted Drake’s Fortune Naughty Dog have decided to risk an online multiplayer element as well.  Though the predecessor was lauded for great production values and competent gameplay, combat and game length were concerns that many of the Sony faithful wanted addressed.  So, did Naughty Dog listen and act accordingly?

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves is essentially the equivalent of a summer blockbuster movie that happens to be really good as well as really overwhelming with the production values.  Nathan Drake follows the trail of yet more treasure in this follow up.  This time he’s tracking the whereabouts of a certain 13 ships filled with treasure that Marco Polo lost while returning to Europe from the Orient.  Utilizing platforming, very light puzzle solving, and a much improved gun and melee combat system, the player climbs, shoots, and wisecracks through 26 chapters of respectable lengths to a very rewarding finish.

Riddle me this Nathan

As mentioned above, Naughty Dog decided to risk committing resources to an online MP that includes competitive matches along with co-operative “Survival” maps that boil down to a very enjoyable version of “hoard” mode.  Clearly the buzz this game has been getting is pretty positive, and to be honest this is easily one of the best games I have ever played; however, there are a couple of issues that become more glaring when one considers how close to epically great this game could have been.

My primary issues with this game revolve around two main aspects: the puzzles and the cover system.  Let’s be clear these are not game breakers, these aren’t even major flaws, but these still are issues that gamers should be aware of depending on their respective preferences.  Firstly, regarding the puzzles, they are a bit inconsistent in their level of challenge.  As with the first game, Drake has a trusty notebook where all of the clues that the player needs to solve the puzzles are kept.  For the most part the puzzles are almost insultingly easy, go here-push this-pull that, covers the basics and often the player may not even need to consult the notebook as just turning things around a bit might solve a puzzle without even thinking.  This happened to me twice, early on granted, but still.

There are two particular puzzles later on in the game where the difficulty spikes and I was left to wonder at the reason behind this.  It is one thing to dumb down a puzzle element of game to ensure mass appeal, but to introduce slightly deeper levels of analysis later on seems counter-productive to me.  It’s just bad game design.  I would assume that a developer wants the player to commit to finishing the game and while most core gamers wouldn’t find this spike to be prohibitive, casual gamers might find this challenge later in the game to be plain unfair.

Secondly, the cover system simply fucks up sometimes.  Again, this is not a gamebreaker. I can’t imagine the logistics of combining a cover system in an area where the player might jump into melee combat, or might climb a building and shoot from an elevated vantage point, while also maintaining incredible visuals and pretty stellar voice acting.  However, any time the player feels cheated by doing what he/she are told to do by the game, and still get killed, there are going to be broken controllers.  It just happened too many times that I tried to jump roll out of a situation and just happened to be too close to a wall and ended up hanging two feet off the ground while I got shot by the game’s AI.

Note to Naughty Dog: I’m not mentally handicapped kthxbye.

While this feels like nitpicking because it’s an option you can turn off easily, I do feel an obligation to comment of the hint system in the game.  During the game, if you spend too much time in a particular area, the game will give you hints, like “check over here”, “turn this” or the oft-repeated “climb to this window”.  This initially seems like a good way to keep newcomers to gaming from getting hung up, it also is inherently frustrating in a game that rewards the player for exploring areas looking for treasure that can be turned into perks for online play.  So, if you are the type of person that wants to get every last bit of treasure to be found, be sure to turn off “Game Hints” as well as “Tutorial Hints” or you might just scream yourself a few haemorrhoids.

A few other points worth mentioning:

• A new AI type of character is introduced later in the game that is just plain ludicrous.
• the vehicle sections are just too damn easy sometimes
• As sexist as this sounds it demands comment just out of pure technological and creative achievement, Chloe’s ass is arguably the finest ever rendered in a video game. Seriously it’s distracting.
• While there is some attempt to address the morality of the game’s protagonist, it really comes across as half-assed.

So, at the end of the day, the question isn’t whether this is a good or a great game; the question is whether this one of the best games ever made. This is indisputably a great game and it is undeniably the best looking game I have ever played. There is a segment where Drake walks with an AI character through a Tibetan village around Chapter 16 that is just simply breathtaking and I literally stopped playing for a while just to admire the scenery. It’s that gorgeous. Unfortunately the puzzle elements alone prevent it from being one of the best in my opinion.

FYI, here in Canada most triple A titles are selling for $69.00 whereas Uncharted 2 is selling for $59.00, which is an even greater benefit when one considers this game’s respectable 12-14 hour SP length, along with the MP making it an incredible value, on top of everything else.

You Should Play This Game If…

…you have a PS3.  That’s it.  Everyone who has a PS3 should buy this game, it’s the best title on that system.

Final score

A great looking game with a few, mostly ignorable, issues. Parts of the game do feel very easy.

(What does this score mean?)

Tags: Naughty Dog, PS3, SCEA, Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Posted in: Critique, Review