Exquisite cinematic cut-scenes, elegant gameplay, and balls to the wall one of the best PS3 games to date; are all extraordinary features created for the player to grasp into this detailed game and jump into a breath-taking mindset. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves™ is the direct sequel to the best-selling PS3 game Uncharted: Drakes Fortune™. Mostly set in the Asian theatre of the world, it is most certainly an adventure to love. Uncharted 2 doesn’t necessarily pick up where the first one left off. New players to the series will not need to play the first title to savor and interpret this sequel, in which will make all players blissful to know. Nathan Drake is back and is ready to start another one of his insane adventures, but with more help then before. Chloe Frazer is Nate’s love interest in the game, in which she plays as a double-agent in the game’s story line. The game features many twist and turns that will push you over the cliff awaiting for what is to come and unfold. No other game has captured the movie experience like Uncharted 2 has — all of the cutscenes are “glued” together creating a movie with a game.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has the cut-scenes of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the gameplay of a mix between Tomb Raider and Gears of War. Even though the game has some elements of the mentioned games, it still holds as a original title that almost everyone would not want to put the controller down. The player will immerse and connect to the characters, which you will ultimately feel as if you become one of the characters in the story. Voice acting is top-notch — hell of a lot better than 95% of translated Japanese Role-Playing Games out there in the market — and is detailed with emotions.

The graphics side of things is spectacular. Everything is very detailed, and I mean everything. The fire in the game is the most unbelievable. We would think there would never be anything as close to the realism as this game gets this generation. Sure, people will say Killzone 2 is more graphically intense then Uncharted 2, but this game is the “mac daddy” of graphics. All the physics in this game is rendered in real time. The hotel chapter show at E309 when the hotel floor collapses with the boxes, chairs, and tables flying around while you run around on the tilting hotel as it is being pulling straight to hell. That is the amazing and outstanding feel to the game that makes it realistic. Even the Train level the whole world witnessed at TGS09, when the player tries to waltz across the train when it moves in real time in breath-taking scenery.

During your campaign through the adventures with Nate and company, you will no doubt stop and listen. Explosions will sound so vibrant and the birds chirping as you saw down enemies will be awe-inspiring. The soundtrack of the game feels as if a modern mozart created this genuine track. The music fits the games style and mood if it perfectly. Those who have surround speakers around their living room with 7:1 or 5:1 will have the orgasm of 10 million woman.

The multiplayer portion of this game is simply the best experience that has hit the Playstation Network since Killzone. Naughty Dog decided to step up their game and put in cooperative and competitive gameplay worthy of it’s own game. For competitive, gamers will be able to compete against each other in the usual generic game modes, including Deathmatch variants, Capture the Flag (or treasure in this case), and zone capture. As each player achieves certain objectives, like kills or captures, they will earn experience to level and in turn unlock perks that can do things like increase the amount of ammo you can hold or reload your weapon much faster. For those of you that prefer being on a team and facing the AI, cooperative mode brings some nice features to the table. The first game type is what has now become a mainstay in multiplayer games: Survival mode. Call it what you will, but it is essentially Gears of War’s Horde or Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight wearing an Uncharted skin. Players battle off wave after wave of increasingly tougher enemies.

The real meat of the coop is found in the small missions. These usually consist of a group of you and your friends working together to find a treasure or reach an objective. Enemies spawn constantly and in all directions, so in this intense mode communication is key. Both the competitive and cooperative modes take place on gorgeous maps straight out of the single player campaign, and it truly is a thrill to battle it out in these amazing locales. In the end, a multiplayer mode is just frosting on the cake to a game as perfect as Uncharted 2, but I’d like to think of it as a main course all on it’s own.

In conclusion Uncharted 2 is simply fantastic, it is an amazing experience and sets a new standard for the shooter genre. It is easily the best game on the PS3 and I see no reason why it couldn’t be Game of The Year.

Pros & Cons

• Pros:
  • Lovely Cinematics.
  • Best real time physics in game.
  • Addictive Multiplayer with lots of replay value.
  • Lengthy story mode.
• Cons:
  • Load times are fairly long.
  • Needs more Cooperative Multiplayer maps.
• Random Fact:
  • Uncharted 2 uses 100% of the Cell’s processor and uses 25GB of a single Blu-ray Disk.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was developed by Naughty Dog Interactive, published by Sony Computer Entertainment of America and was released on October 13, 2009

Multiplayer portion of this review by Brandon.