Uncharted 2: Play This Game
I received Uncharted 2 for Christmas last year (and gave it to two friends before I had played it based on word of mouth) and like most people who played it I totally loved it. A true sign that I love this game is that I’ve since beat it on Hard difficulty and recently started Crushing difficulty. For hardcore gamers playing on higher difficulties might be no big deal, but I basically NEVER do this. Also, since it’s for PS3 I tried out the multiplayer mode and loved that too. I never played the original Uncharted, but I ended up getting it recently because I wanted more Uncharted even though I understood that in many many ways Uncharted 2 was a much better game experience.
Along the way they encounter uber villain Zoran Lazarevic who is about as bad as they come with his scarred face and how he will casually kill one of his uniformed minions just to prove a point. Also Drake is reunited with his friend Victor Sullivan, a cigar-chomping generally good spirited yet still I’m-getting-too-old-for-this-shit kind of guy, and former love interest Elena Fisher both of which were introduced in the first Uncharted game.
The story is told via frequent cutscenes, but also via character banter that occurs during the gameplay. Basically story and gameplay don’t feel like they’re taking turns. Most games you’ll feel like the sections are very much divided with long stretches before your next bit of story or long stretches of cutscene before your next bit of gameplay.
The way the team at Naughty Dog managed this is a method that I now wish all game developers would adopt for producing their cutscenes. Usually in games there are separate actors who do motion capture and then hiring voice actors. For Uncharted they chose instead to get actors with stage experience and had them act out the cutscenes on a motion capture stage while simultaneously recording their voice. Add in a good director and you get some of the most natural story cutscenes you’re likely to find in a game. The interaction between people is real and the chemistry is all the better for it.
On top of this, the creative director sat the actor for Drake (the prolific Nolan North) down with gameplay footage and had him improvise dialogue that they’d insert. Oftentimes I would find myself thinking something about the terrain or area I was exploring and suddenly Drake would echo my sentiment. There’s also plenty of bumbling “oh shit” moments when Drake makes huge leaps or rolls away from grenades all the while making a variety of panicky interjections or cries of “Oh no no no no no!” The result is a fun, realistic and immersive gameplay experience.
The story has some twists and turns here and there, nothing that is outright shocking or surprising but it doesn’t really matter because the characters are so well fleshed out and fun to watch that just seeing how they deal with situations is fun. I give the game immense props for one of my favorite characters who doesn’t speak English and nothing he says is translated at all. Also this game gets credit for having a love triangle that feels very realistically done which I think is a testament to the writing because it’s not something you see in games without feeling contrived or cheesy. My hat goes off to the writers, director and actors.
Gameplay – The gameplay is a mix of navigating environments through jumping and lots and lots of climbing, and shooting sequences. There’s some light puzzle solving, but it’s never much more complicated than matching diagrams in a journal with some movable objects in a room. It’s not Legend of Zelda puzzle solving or even God of War puzzle solving. That said, it’s still satisfying to see the massive ancient doors open upon completion.
The game is extremely well paced and the types of gameplay are well spread out into their own sections. After a lot of climbing you’ll have some harrowing gunfights that’ll get your blood pumping, and then they’ll let you cool down with some more climbing or puzzle solving and then it repeats. You never feel overwhelmed by gunfights or bored by the traversal. Something I enjoy about the traversal is how things are constantly crumbling and breaking as Drake climbs on them. So many games have environments which rely on ancient mechanisms still working after hundreds if not thousands of years of neglect. This game is probably the best at “What if it actually broke? What would you do then?”
Also this game has some of the most amazing set piece moments I’ve ever seen in a game. We’re starting to see on the PS3 games which cross the line between cutscene type action and gameplay. There are numerous occasions you can scarcely believe you’re still controlling the game as buildings and environments crumble around you while you run or shoot at bad guys trying to kill you. Usually you’ll want to do it all over again because it’s so amazing to experience. The other impressive thing about these sequences is that I never felt the game was unfair and that I was ever dying because of bad design. On normal difficulty I got through these moments on the first try yet I felt just as unsure of myself as Drake probably does in the story.
There are a wide variety of guns from pistols, shotguns, rifles, sniper rifles and semi-automatic guns to choose from. Also grenades come in handy along with the occasional gas canister you can throw and explode in front of your hapless enemies. Enemies can be headshot, but otherwise don’t take up a ton of damage before dying. Uncharted has a regenerating health system for you so if you’re hit you have to wait behind cover in order to heal. My favorite thing to do though is stealth kills which can be done with a push of the square button provided you sneak up on the enemy. Several sequences in this game I did my best to stealth kill as many people as possible. It’s a testament to how fun this game is that I didn’t mind trying it over and over and over again until I got it right.
Also there’s a built in achievements system separate from the game’s trophies that rewards you with money which you can use to purchase extras, character skins and stuff for multiplayer that I’ll discuss a bit later.
Graphics – This game is gorgeous. Seriously. The game is very fast and encourages you to move on quickly, but I seriously felt guilty going too fast in this game. Whether it was the detail in a damaged urban environment or a vast landscape stretching into the distance I wanted to just stop and soak in all that I could before moving on. In the DVD extras for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, the designer Richard Taylor mentioned how on their costumes they’d put stuff like elvish inscriptions on the INSIDE of the armor where the camera would never ever see it just to make it more authentic.
Looking at this game I believe that the designers must’ve done stuff like this because it’s astonishing the fidelity and dedication it must’ve taken to create these environments. I felt it was my obligation to stop and look at the crumbled bricks or chipped paint because I knew it took hours, days or weeks of work to accomplish.
There are a lot of special effects that I know without being a programmer I can’t fully appreciate, but to me are still very impressive. The way the water moves and how Drake’s clothes get wet and shiny after being in the water. New in this game are the snowy environments where ankle deep snow deforms as Drake walks through it and gets on his pants and hair. Then there’s the amazing lighting whether it’s the sun shining through venetian blinds, jungle foliage or an explosion blowing out your eyes for a split second. I’d say the only beef I have with the graphics were Chloe’s eyes which were so shiny it looked kind of scary at times. I think if they dialed it down it would’ve looked more natural.
Also worthy of mention is the great animation. I’d say Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed have got it down for smooth and fluid animation where it’s either very hard or impossible to see the transitions between animations. Plus the sheer volume of context specific animations like Drake holding his arm in front of him when he’s near a fire. There’s seriously so much animation in this, and it makes the game that much more realistic because of it.
Multiplayer – This game would be worth the $50 for the single player alone, but there’s also a great multiplayer mode that’s not at all shoe-horned in. There are several modes which are variants on deathmatch, capture the flag, horde mode from Gears of War where you face wave after wave of enemies and also a cooperative mode that lets you replay sections of the game but retooled for three players. I just wish there were more coop objective missions because they actually have additional dialogue specific to these sections and playing these levels is a lot of fun even if you don’t have friends to play with.
I’m not a big online multiplayer, but since it’s free on PS3 I thought I’d give it a shot. I got seriously addicted to the multiplayer for a while because of its fun and rewarding level up system. For different actions like stealth kills, killing streaks or helping out team mates you receive small rewards that can be used to purchase slight character upgrades, new skins and upgraded weapons. Out of the box there are 4-5 different maps and since release there have been four more maps released which you can purchase off PSN. During holidays they do fun little things like during Christmas all good guys were replaced with Drake wearing a Santa hat and Flynn wearing an elf hat.
Final Thoughts – Just like playing the game I almost don’t want to finish this review because I feel like I could gush about it forever about the minutiae of what makes it such an outstanding game. Just thinking about it makes me want to play it again. From a movie/TV perspective games like this are like a movie that you sit down and can watch very quickly whereas an RPG is more like a series. The difference being that a movie takes 2 hours to watch and a game like Uncharted 2 takes 10-12 hours to finish. But playing this game doesn’t feel like it’s that long because it’s so much damn fun and the story offers so much to enjoy with its often funny dialogue and relatable characters.
Overall Uncharted 2 is an incredible package of stuff with its single player, multiplayer and also a healthy dose of documentary extras on the making of the game and galleries of concept art. I wish there were even more documentaries because when I really like something I want to know more about how it was made. There’s a great series of interviews with the actors that Sony posted on their Youtube page which you can see here.
If you have a Playstation 3 and you don’t own this game you owe it to yourself to get it. Trust me. Really, just trust me.
