An action movie where I play the lead role is a perfect description of this game. Not once was I bored nor was I feeling déjà vu for the level
designs. From fighting along a moving train to investigating a sacred temple to escaping a lost city I was in a constant state of "what happens
next?”
Story
The story takes place a few years after Nathan Drake's first story but
playing the first game is not a requirement to play the sequel. Uncharted
2 was my first experience with Nathan's adventures and all the characters
and history are explained using the current story line.
You start the game struggling to escape a train that has obviously crashed
and is dangling above a chasm. This is considered the tutorial and once
you barely make it out of the falling cars you experience a flash back
that gives you the story back up to the point to started the game with.
The grandeur of the story and locations are so large that a movie studio
could not replicate this in the cinema. Even the sweeping camera shots of
The Lord of the Rings pales in comparison the locations and detail
included in this game.
Game Play
Uncharted 2 cannot be classified in one type of game genre. It is a
platformer, first person shooter, semi-quick time event, puzzle, fighting
and stealth. The hand to hand combat is very fluid and intuitive. You
have basically three buttons for fighting: jump, punch and parry. When
you are fighting someone your opponent may grab your arm, that is the time
to parry. The motion will slow down giving you a cliché action shot of
you out-maneuvering your opponent and taking them out in a brutal elbow to
the neck or tossing them out of the way. There are several "finishing
moves" that add to the action theme of the game. The game play takes care
of a lot of the minute technical aspects of fighting. You can then
concentrate on the style and determine the process of how you will get
through your list of attacking enemies.
Moving throughout the environments is also intuitive. There were a few
instances where I was unsure of where to continue on my path. But then I
look upwards a bit and see a drain pipe somewhat close to a billboard and
think "I bet if I climbed up there I could make it to the roof and out of
here" and sure enough that was the way to go. When I wanted to sneak up
on someone to perform a stealth attack there were several ways to maneuver
around to get to them. Not all players will traverse through the game the
same way. Some will want to sneak through as much as they can like Metal
Gear Solid, others will want to bust in guns a blazing. Either way will
lead you to your destination but will provide a different game experience
you can redo on replays.
There are plenty of surprises and disasters to keep you on your toes. You
will experience the "whoa" feeling several times while you navigate
falling building and crashing walkways. You are also introduced to a few
scares while exploring but I will not divulge that information in this
review.
The dialog and motion of the characters were all captured during their
mo-cap sessions like recording a play. This way the game play and facial
expressions match the voices perfectly. The facial expressions were done
quite well and there seems to be a new level of emotion in the character's
faces I have not seen in previous games. The action seems natural and
entertaining during the game as well as the cut scenes. Nathan Drake will
entertain you with his sarcastic comedy throughout the game during the
levels as well as the cut scenes.
Online multiplayer has been added to Uncharted. All the special moves,
from pulling people off of ledges to attack/parry moves are included.
Everything you can do in the single player game you can do in the
multi-player. It also matches you up with opponents that are similar to
your skills based upon your previous game play.
Music
Dramatic music perpetuates throughout the game and changes based upon if
your are dodging gunfire while escaping a museum or exploring a cave. An
example I really enjoyed was while working out an ancient puzzle I had to
climb a few hundred feet and carefully balance on top of a very long and
thin walkway. As I looked down the music changed to a more scary theme
adding to the game play.
Overall
This game is easily one of the better looking ones on the PS3. It is
quite obvious that the development team has harnessed the vast majority of
the PS3's cell power in rendering the images. It is also obvious that it
was a collaborative team effort to make this game rather than coding it,
throwing over to the graphic designers and then to testing. Each aspect
of the game has a level of quality that has been missing from a large
amount of games and that can only be achieved by not allowing blinders to
be placed on each department's view. The result is a huge amount of
detail and color everywhere you look and game play that is constantly fun
and changing from scenario to scenario. If you are a fan of huge action
moves like Indiana Jones I definitely recommend this game.
