The Good: Uncharted 2's vistas were so beautiful as to force me to pause to appreciate every one of them. Its scripted events were so explosive as to literally drop my jaw and leave my mouth gaping again and again. One mission reminded me of Mirror's Edge, while another got me thinking of Pandora Tomorrow; yet Uncharted 2's foremost influence was (needless to say) the original Uncharted, and - in short - everything that was good there is simply great here.
 
The Bad: Although Uncharted 2 built upon all of its predecessor's strengths, it also retained all of its weaknesses. As with the original Uncharted, the story's villains are mismanaged, the bad guys can withstand an insane amount of punishment, and the whole experience peaks at about the halfway point. Plus, every once in a while, I just had to laugh at how much Nate sounds (and even looks) like Nathan Fillion, a man with whom he furthermore shares a name!
 
The Stand-Out Moment: Climbing for dear life up a wrecked train hanging over the edge of a cliff.
 
The Final Verdict: 9.5 (out of 10)
 
Had Arkham Asylum not dropped during the same year, I could've seen myself crowning Uncharted 2 as my GOTY for 2009!