Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Mike Powell is the current world record holder for long jump in case you didn't know. If Uncharted 2 protagonist would compete in such a track and field event's he would surely be world record holder in no time. Luckily for Mike, Nathan is in to a modern day treasure hunting and probably does't care too much about such things.

Nathan Drake was already after his ancestor Sir Francis Drake's treasure on the first Uncharted game. There was not lot wrong with that game. Only problem I had with it was the strange unnatural story progression. Naughty Dog takes the first game and improves it in every form . 

 Graphics for this game have said to been the best PS3 has to offer. And who am I to disagree with that?  If the first Uncharted had already amazing graphics this has even better. Standing in top of a mountain or tall building the draw distance and the detail is awesome. Each of the location is bright colored and life like. 

Nolan North who does the voice of Nathan does brillian job once again. Claudia Black who also voiced Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins does the voices of lead female character Chloe Frazer who now is my favorite female voice actor. Sorry Aura!  There is no complaints for the other cast either, especially when Odo is doing voices of the German guy. Nathan's personal commentary in occasions is very hilarious. Not to mention taunts from his sidekicks. Guy above you, guy above you. Guy below you, guy below you.. Music follows the grand adventure movie feel as the first game with occasional ethnic instruments and themes. Soundtrack might as well be something from John Williams.

This time around story wise Nathan is after a historical artifact related to Shangri-la and Marco Polo. Story starts of Nathan being quite badly off in a train wreck hanging out of a cliff. Can not remember a game having such epic level of start before. When out of trouble the story is displayed with flashbacks on how Nathan got to this position. We follow a perfect action movie story that has all the required cliche's and twists. In such light-hearted over the top action blast all these are welcomed. One complaints for the first game was the length and it would appear that Naughty Dog has improved on that aspect as well. Despite this the story never feels like its drawn for too long. There is constant action to suit the story perfectly.

Game-play can be categorized as a shooter with action and adventure parts. Also occasional puzzle is included. Nathan's physical abilities is mentioned in the topic is highly on focus again. Game is confined in to a relatively narrow path and as with any good treasure hunter good climbing skills are needed. As mentioned on the title the physical abilities are over the top. Smart thing Naughty Dog has done with jumping is to simplify the timing. Don't need to be 100% on timing the jump as long as the direction is right. There are of course still cases where you end up in bottom of ditch. Main aspect of game surrounds around killing waves of gentlemen with a Eastern European accent. Shooting is very arcade type where both Nathan and enemies can take several hits. Aiming is loose and goes well with games cover mechanism. 

 Length and multiplayer. Uncharted 2 has 5 difficulty levels, from very easy to crushing. This with the games unlockables and secrets give lot of replay after the story is finished. Not only that, there is a Multiplayer part of the game as well. Which is a co-op or standard online shooter fare. Seeing how popular this game the multiplayer part is still very active, despite game being more than 6 months old.

To rate this game, I have no choice but to join the agreeing flock of sheep and give this full score. There isn't simple anything to deduct for.