Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was released in North America on October 12 to high acclaim. I’m not one normally given to being taken in by all the hype and I wasn’t this time either. Still, after playing the game all the way through, much of its praise is indeed well deserved. Uncharted 2 is a solid sequel that doesn’t suffer from the much documented flaws of its predecessor. I don’t know that I would rush out and give Uncharted 2 a 10 out of 10 or call it the best game of the year, but that could just be due to the fact that the main character, Nathan Drake, looks like an awfully lot like Nick Lachey to me. However, even that doesn’t stop this game from being a great experience.

There cinematic nature of the game jumped out at me right from the beginning. Uncharted 2 is highly cinematic and it really does play like a motion picture. Apart from the Start menu and the initial game load, there are no load screens. Let me say that again, there are no load screens. The game jumps from cinematic cutscene to action and back again seamlessly. In fact, the were a few moments in the game where this is so seamless you wonder why Drake isn’t moving onscreen only to find out that this is because you are not moving him. The consistency in the game’s graphics between the cutscenes and regular game play is amazing. There litterally is no difference in the graphics styles at all.

The camera and controls are well done and rarely feel clunkly, contrived, or non-intuitive. The story was solid and flows very well from plot-point to the next. Even the transistions from climbing on the walls to to a heated gun battle are blurred as you wind up doing both at the same time more that once. The voice acting and the dialog between characters was also amazing. The entire cast did a stellar job, the writing was solid and I want to give a special mention to Claudia Black for her voicing of Chloe. Honestly, there is very little about this game to complain about, and what you can complain about is largely stylistic and not related to the game mechanics at all.

At the risk of sounding like a petulant whiner, I will note a few things that I didn’t like. One, of course, is that the the main charachter looks like Jessica Simpson’s ex-husband. Eeew. Two, the second female lead looks like Marsha Brady. I just want to ask Naughty Dog, “Can’t we leave the 70’s dead and buried? Please?” And finally, there were some points in the game where the action and the cinematics transitioned so flawlessly that I just died standing there after the switch, not realizing what I was supposed to do next. But, like I said before, these were all minor compliants. Some might say too minor.

All told, if you haven’t played this game, go play it. Rent it, buy it, borrow it from a friend, but don’t let the year end without playing it. Uncharted 2 is probably one of the 2 or 3 most highly polished and put-together games that has come out for the PS3 this year. It is definitely on par with Batman: Arkham Asylum and I just wish there a ton more games that shared Uncharted 2’s extremely high production values. And if I had to give it a grade, I’d probably give it an A or 9.66 out of 10.