I played through Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as part of the
Nathan Drake Collection on the PS4, so please note that my notes refer to that
version of the game and completely ignore the multiplayer functionality on the
PS3 release. I felt it had been long enough since my playthrough of the first
game to give this one a go, and here’s what I, er, charted…
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| My hands were sweating in this bit... |
Uncharted 2 is one of those rare games that surpasses its
predecessor in one way: The story. Mechanically, there’s not much in Among
Thieves that wasn’t in Drake’s Fortune; there are a few new weapons here and
there, but other than that it’s functionally identical. And on the surface, it
appears to carry a similar story – a search for treasure, exploring forgotten
tombs, betrayal, car chases, train rides, the discovery of an ancient power
best left forgotten, and even a couple of things that weren’t taken from the
Indiana Jones franchise!
*MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH*
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In case it wasn't blatantly obvious
where this was going... |
But it’s the characters that make the story this time, as
they are well written and performed, and really bring the tale to life by
developing along the way. Nathan Drake’s dialogue is performed by the
always-excellent Nolan North, who improvised a lot of the lines for a more
organic performance. The primary antagonist, Lazarevic, is as “tropey” as they
come, but builds up a maniacal desperation that makes all the difference.
Harry, the double-crosser, betrays Drake early in the plot, and while he won’t
admit he was wrong to do this, it becomes increasingly obvious in every
encounter you have with him that Harry is in way over his head without his old
friend. Chloe, the sultry femme fatale sidekick, is a better Catwoman than most
interpretations of Catwoman I’ve seen – ostensibly friendly, but you’re never
quite sure of her motivations or whose side she’s on until right at the end.
And it would have been far too easy to create a jealous love triangle between Chloe
and Elena from the previous game, but this never really happens – the two girls
bond over Drake’s insufferable narcissism and lack of forward planning. Elena,
for her part, keeps the heroes on the moral high ground when they’re at their
lowest point and ready to give up. This does a fine job of keeping the stakes
high, which is particularly relevant in those set-pieces where Drake is running
from a rapidly-crumbling bridge or train, getting himself into situations which
no one should be able to survive – but he does, because the story is presented
in a way that gives him something to live for.
*SPOILERS OVER*
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| A beautiful mess. |
Uncharted 2 is absolutely gorgeous for a 7
th-generation
game, with particular care gone into the scenery. Considering that you
experience comparatively little of the scenery presented to you in the game, a
lot of attention to detail went into making the places you visit look alive.
The sound design is bang on point, with high praise for the voice / mocap
actors in particular, and the gameplay is on par with the first Uncharted game.
This brings with it a few niggles – I still don’t know why the grenades are mapped
to L1 by default. Gun battles are telegraphed by going into areas littered with
strategically placed chest-high walls, and the game has a habit of providing
the situational weapons at precisely the point you need them: sniper rifles for
long-range battles, rocket launchers for heavily armoured enemies etc. This
isn’t really a bad thing, as not having access to these weapons at the point
you need them would mean backtracking at best and de-railing
the game at worst, but it breaks immersion somewhat!
Ultimately, though, Uncharted 2 is a very competently
designed game that is well worth at least one play through. It’s a curious
situation for me: I liked it better than the first game purely for the story,
but is that an appropriate benchmark for a successful game? Given that, unlike
the first game, I’d love to come back and play Uncharted 2 again at some point
in the future, I reckon it is.
Final Score: 4/5: Great game.
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