Review – Uncharted 2 0

by Adam Blue • Reviews

I bought the PS3 originally for Uncharted, and it did not disappoint. I still consider it the best game of this gaming generation. I guess you can say that would be hard to beat a second time around, wouldn’t you say? Uncharted 2 lives up to the hype, but if you can be as awesome as possible, it’s hard to be any awesomer. That’s Uncharted 2. Oh, and minor spoilers below. Nothing drastic though, because as you will find out, there’s not much to spoil.

The graphics are still as good as the first Uncharted, which is saying a lot. I do believe Batman: Arkham Asylum now holds that title though. One thing though that I notice on PS3 games are rough edges. Most people (including Sean) call me crazy, but look at both Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2, and while the graphics are fucking incredible, there’s no anti-aliasing (or something else that creates that blurred/rough edge look)! This can be debated for some time, but bottom line is I can tell if a game is a PS3 game because of this. And while it’s present here in Uncharted, Uncharted still looks great. The colors are what really stand out for me.

The gameplay is another unchanged element. You have your platforming, shooting, and mele combat. Nothing more to see here. I think now you have more stealth moves than the original, which is actually fun to use if you want to get by all the enemies without them noticing you. The sound is top-notch too. DTS has never sounded better, especially with character chatter going on around you. The character dialog is great; voice-acting is superb and the story is wonderful. Though, as good as the story is, it’s not as good as the first, and not as exciting. I guess I let myself down by hoping for a twist, but IMO, there’s not much of a twist here. It’s more like, ‘we’re going to do this’, ‘ok we’re here’, ‘stop bad guys’, ‘ok we’re done’. Yeah.

One complaint I had in the game had to do with movement. For some reason all of this only became an issue during the second half of the game, but it was frustrating. Jumping around to find ledges, what looked like ledges weren’t. But, they were if you were supposed to use it. This made the game too linear when it gave the impression of not being. Even if it didn’t get me to somewhere in the end, I would have liked to be able to climb around. One time I saw a treasure piece on the side of a wall that was against a lake. Now, this lake is dangerous and one touch takes away the ability to swim. I had two options, from what I could see: Climb up the wall from the back side, or drop down onto the hanging ledge above the water. Because too many times in the game I grabbed ledges when I was really trying to jump down. So, I decide to drop, but that section did not allow me to grab the edge, so I fall into the magical water. That kind of ruined the immersion of the world for me. Also be sure to stay away from your invincible AI buddies. Since they know they are immortal, they kind of forgot you’re not. So when a grenade gets thrown at you and you try to dodge away, you’ll run into their immortal wall-hard bodies and get blowed up. They then scream as if they are shocked you died from a grenade blast.

Those complaints made the end half feel a bit unpolished. I didn’t remember having this problem with the first game, and that along with the weak story makes this just as awesome as the first, but not better. Maybe it’s hard to make a better game? They added some fun multiplayer, which consists of capture-the-treasure or deathmatch. With the controls and platforming, it really does become a lot of fun. You are awarded with cash along the way to buy upgrades which adds some re-playability to the game.

In the end, this game is a must-play. Immediately. The multiplayer is good enough to consider this a purchase, but if not, rent or borrow now.

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