I prefer the term "treasure hunter!"
In Nathan Drake’s second Playstation 3 outing by Naughty Dog, the treasure hunter/thief/explore/war criminal is hot on the trail of Shambhala, an ancient city home to the Cintamani stone. Said to grant wishes and to have fueled the most powerful leaders in history, you can be sure that Drake isn’t the only one after the precious gem. Drake’s journey takes you from a museum heist in Instabul, to the war torn streets of Nepal, the cavernous ice caves of the Tibetan mountains, and all the way to Shambhala itself.
On this journey, Drake is joined by Harry Flynn and Chloe Frazer, two thieves with questionable morals and a hot tip on an ancient Mongolian oil lamp that will lead them to the lost ships of Marco Polo. Some old friends like Sully and Elena return, and some twists and turns in the story mean that Drake begins to develop some serious trust issues. Rounding out the cast is the Serbian lunatic Zoran Lasarevic, a beefy dude with burn scars and a small army for Drake to annihilate in the race to the Cintamani stone. The chemistry between this cast of misfits and miscreants is strong, and some of the banter and back and forth is golden. I particularly appreciated the love triangle that forms between Drake, Chloe, and Elena and how that whole thing resolves itself by the end of the adventure.
Uncharted 2 is a huge game. It’s not that the world size is particularly open or anything, as the game is still a linear trek down what are essentially narrow corridors filled with baddies and jumping puzzles. But the way the game does set pieces makes it larger than life – some of the scenes, like the opening scramble up a train car that’s hanging over a cliff, and the ascent, and subsequent “descent,” up a Nepalese hotel, are breathtaking and unlike pretty much anything else in the genre. For a lot of these set pieces, you are in control, which makes the filmic quality of some events more satiating of an interactive experience. I didn’t always ace things the first time through.
Like the first Uncharted, gameplay is balanced between platforming and guns, with some light puzzle solving in between. While I found the platforming to be better and tighter than it previously was, I still had issues with Drake not attaching to surfaces he easily should’ve connected with. It’s frustrating, but the game is almost overly generous with auto-saves, and any pit diving you do will be quickly remedied by subsequent attempts. Drake does a lot of running and jumping in the game, making for fast and furious set pieces, with top notch animation and voice acting.
The gunplay is improved, featuring tighter aiming, a greater variety of weapons, and more opportunities for stealth kills that allow you to bypass waves of enemies. Grenade throwing is much faster now, and there are gas tanks littered throughout the world that you can throw into a group of enemies and perform a quick shot that explodes the tank and sends enemies flying. Some of the enemies are more bullet spongy this time around, with big armored dudes carrying assault rifles and shotguns that are downright unfun to fight unless you have a grenade launcher handy. Riot shield enemies appear and are easy to take down once you blast em in the feet and then rush them to perform an instant kill. I ended up using melee a lot more often in this game – it’s fluidity and the quickness makes it an easy solution to knocking out the last few enemies in a group.
For puzzles, Drake makes use of his journal, wherein he draws funny pictures and helpful diagrams on how to solve what are basically just switch-flipping puzzles with some window dressing. Admittedly, most of the window dressing is really fucking cool. The sequence involving mirrors and the lowering of a ten story dagger into a keyhole is brilliant to play through. I really liked that you could flip through Drake’s journal and find fluff entries and graphs on how scary Sully’s mustache is in relation to an elephant demon. It’s totally an in character hint guide and it just works. Drake’s a pretty good artist as well.
My favorite level in the game was also the most frustrating for me – the train level. Taking you from humid jungles to frigid mountains, this explosive train ride is directed brilliantly. You fight enemies inside and on top of train cars, dodge obstacles, escape and destroy an attack chopper, and stealthily chuck baddies from the train. This all looks fantastic as the scenery rushes by and changes climates. The frustration comes from how janky the platforming is- sometimes I would make a perfectly innocent leap from one train car to the next only to catapult myself off a bridge or into a tree. I can handle the spongy enemies, but when I rely on Drake’s ability to snap to certain ledges and surfaces, I expect it to work all the time, and it’s insanely frustrating when it doesn’t. That said, as much trouble as I had with this level, I still think it’s an outstanding sequence, and its catastrophic conclusion leads up to how the game begins.
The story this time around is layered and interesting. I’ve expressed my appreciation for the characters already, but I also enjoyed the way the mystical, magical realism story connects to historical figures and locales. The locations are varied and interesting, and they all look great thanks to the scale of what the engine renders. Sure you’re limited to close-quarter alleyways and fire escapes, but it sure as hell feels like you’re in Nepal. As light-hearted as a lot of the game is, the story takes some dark turns, making me want to use the phrase “dark middle chapter,” but the game ends on such a satisfyingly light moment that it’s hardly an Empire Strikes Back. I really enjoyed Lasarevic calling out Drake for being a mass murderer, as it seems like this game is a little more self-aware than the last. That doesn’t necessarily make it right, but hey – video games. Uncharted is an action series, not an adventure game, so of course loads of baddies have to be righteously gunned down.
The grand scope and sheer scale of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is rarely seen in video games. It manages to take everything good from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and amp it up to eleven. Though it’s a shame the platforming niggles weren’t sussed out as much as I would’ve liked, I find it hard to say that some frustration entirely deflates the sense of adventure furnished throughout the game.
