So after all this yelling about Uncharted 2, i finally bought it and sat down to play it. You better believe all this positive talk about a game can lift expectations. I like to think mine weren't completely unrealistic, but seriously, this game has some big issues. So much so I'm starting to wonder if it doesn't suffer a bit from the Call of duty syndrome, where scripting and set pieces overshadow the quality of the core gameplay.
 
It's not bad! Christ. Haha I'd be crazy to say it's anywhere near bad. But outside of the sheer spectacle this game is throwing around, i have certainly seen games that do what Uncharted 2 does mechanically better. 
 
I'm aware Naughty Dog are proud of their animation blending, which makes it really odd to see things like Drake suddenly flinging into his stumbling animation while sliding slowly sideways after a small jump. Inverse kinematics go out the window. 
 
This is a cover based shooter, but when you're in the inner elbow of a low L-shaped wall and it's nigh on impossible to shift cover from one inner wall to the other, you know, the one you're technically already up against, without a 90% fail rate that ends with you just standing up dumbly, that cover system needs some work. I like to think I'm not completely motorically challenged, but i still can't figure out exactly how their cover shifting works!
 
Why are nobody pointing out that every character's eyes have two dozen highlights, and that the lack of antialiasing, while really noticeable overall, turn the highlights into clouds of white dots effectively obscuring the pupils? It's hard to emphasize with a glowing-eyed space alien. Do all these characters have a fever? Chloe's face in particular is incredibly hard to look at.
 
Why are nobody pointing out that short of headshots you are emptying clips into dudes who only react when they finally die? There is little to no force to any non-explosive weapon! This was a problem in the first game as well, and it hasn't been remedied. Guns feel "soft".
 
Why, oh why oh why, did Naughty Dog choose to effectively open their game with an unforgiving stealth mission? When you sneak up on someone for a stealth knockout, 50% of the time you get a short sharp blow that lets you get right back into cover. The rest of the time a long strangling takes place. The difference, tactically, is immense. I've pulled off perfect stealth sections only to fail at the very end; bam, restart the section. Oh, and on this restart, you get other animations that take long enough to complete that you fail where you previously succeeded. It's a mess of a section and Naughty Dog should be ashamed. FFS, if you aren't making a stealth game, make stealth optional!
 
This is all mechanical nitpicking of course; As an adventure movie kind of experience, this is exceedingly well done. Mechanically however, it makes me almost desperate to go back to inFAMOUS where everything just works and feels right. I'm not sure I'm totally cool with this script-heavy trend. For every cool edge-of-your-seat moment in this game there's a bit where you repeat the section and the smoke and mirrors go away; Imminent peril will wait until you move to the next trigger. On the PS3, inFAMOUS remains my GOTY 2009. Part of me wishes i hadn't seen all the hype before playing Uncharted 2. I would certainly have been more enamored with it.