Uncharted 2 is the epic sequel to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You can tell they had a lot of fun making, writing and developing the first Uncharted, so if they did the same for this one, it's already going to be pretty good. But they outdid themselves and really took the series to the next level. Almost so much so that I don't know how they're expected to follow this title.
During both games, you play as Nathan Drake, a witty treasure hunter who is always getting himself in hairy situations and escaping by the skin of his teeth. The game has elements of platformer, puzzle-solving and action/adventure games, but most people classify it as a 3rd-person shooter.
Gameplay: 9.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
I compared the first Uncharted to Tomb Raider, and I guess this one can still be compared to that. Tomb Raider set the standard when it came to 3rd-person platformer/shooter games, but Tomb Raider pales in comparison to the refined, full product that is Uncharted.
Uncharted 1 suffered from being monotonous, offering very little reward or varity in combat. Most of the game was "shoot guys, climb stuff, shoot guys, climb stuff". While Uncharted 2 doesn't stray much from that mold, they make those steps a lot more entertaining.
Uncharted 2's combat is pretty straightforward. It's a cover-based combat system so a lot of it can come down to superior positioning, which I usually find kind of boring, but this game does it pretty well. Enemies won't let you sit in one place via perfectly thrown grenades forcing you out of your position.
One thing I did find interesting is their transition between stealth and action. You can choose to be as stealthy as possible on a number of occasions, but if you blow it, it doesn't matter (except in one part of the game). There are also a variety of stealth combat moves that you can use which are pretty fun.
Best of all, there are virtually no driving sequences in Uncharted 2, which was the worst part of Uncharted 1. Uncharted 1 had terrible controls and really not very fun sequences where you're expected to drive a watercraft up a river or something, with explosives floating near you, enemies shooting you, and you have to both drive, shoot and mangle your controller due to terrible handling.. it was a mess.
Uncharted 2 is a story-based game, and they do a really great job of integrating real-time action, such as climbable scenery breaking, or an entire action sequence on a moving train with interactive objects both on the train and on the ground changing gameplay constantly. In fact, nearly the entire game is very thrilling. Their craft when making exciting gameplay moments and sequences is top-notch, and it's unlike anything I've seen before because it doesn't feel simulated.
My biggest complaint is that toward the end of the game they introduce unnecessarily powerful enemies, and completely change the gameplay you've adjusted to. They had something good going for them, and like a lot of games that seem to appeal more to casual gamers, they completely change it and becomes a lot less fun than the majority of the game. I can understand introducing it for an element of challenge, but challenge should not cancel out fun. Besides, a difficulty setting in a game like this should dictate what kind of challenge they want, instead of throwing enemies at the player that are nearly impossible to beat on a standard difficulty when you've been having no problems thus far.
And considering this is a platformer with realistic scenery, you can have plenty of "where do I go?" kinds of moments that can get annoying. At least they have hints to tell you where to go if you stand around long enough, but they could do better with their camera angles and indicators to show you where you need to go when you might be confused.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Uncharted 2 looks phenomenal, top to bottom. Their scenery is unusually good, almost story-book like, and their character models, animations... everything is excellent.
Theatrics: 10.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
One interesting thing about their cut-scenes is that they film actors acting out these cut-scenes, audio and everything, and digitize it to put the right faces and bodies on the actors. It adds a life to cut-scenes that is desperately needed to move a story in a lot of games. Not to mention, the tempo of conversation and wit thrown in is a lot easier to pull off when real actors are acting out the entire scene.
Like Uncharted 1, the actual story of the game is a bit of nonsense (or at least sounds like it) but because they tell it so well, it's something you have to pay attention to and are interested in knowing what happens.
Controls: 9.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Uncharted 2's controls are better than it's predecessor, and particularly so considering they eliminated all of the points of the game, control-wise, that were frustrating in Uncharted 1.
Sometimes the platforming can have bad or awkward controls considering climbing walls or anything is something that is difficult to capture in a game. However, it's almost always a couple-second hindrance instead of a game-long struggle.
I do really hate it when cover-based games have a button that needs to be pressed to enter/exit combat that also does other things. This game does it decently, but you can feel like you're getting stuck to cover when trying to run by it.
Replay Value: 6.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Uncharted 2 has both a campaign mode, which is pretty fun but I won't go out of my way to play again, and multiplayer. The multiplayer is as much of an extension of the campaign as possible. Typical game modes like deathmatch and capture-the-flag exist. But I personally don't find a ton of value in multiplayer, cover-based shooter games, so I didn't spend much time playing it.
Fun: 9.0
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
Most of the game is a lot of fun. The action is great, and the interactivity with scenery and enemies in real-time is crazy, but you always feel like you're in control. It's basically a good action movie turned into a game, so it works really well.
But the last hour or so of the game is by far the least fun part of the game, and I pushed through it only to see what would happen at the end of the game. I did lower my difficulty to the easiest setting during the ending sequence, because fighting on the normal or hard difficulty at the end is suicide.
My Overall Rating: 9.2
Complexity Level: Moderate. Most people that have played video games in a 3D environment should be able to pick this up, at least on the easiest setting, and play it pretty well without many problems. Some of the concepts within the game are a bit advanced, and may take novice players a few tries to get past, whereas an experienced player would make it look easy.
During both games, you play as Nathan Drake, a witty treasure hunter who is always getting himself in hairy situations and escaping by the skin of his teeth. The game has elements of platformer, puzzle-solving and action/adventure games, but most people classify it as a 3rd-person shooter.
Gameplay: 9.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
I compared the first Uncharted to Tomb Raider, and I guess this one can still be compared to that. Tomb Raider set the standard when it came to 3rd-person platformer/shooter games, but Tomb Raider pales in comparison to the refined, full product that is Uncharted.
Uncharted 1 suffered from being monotonous, offering very little reward or varity in combat. Most of the game was "shoot guys, climb stuff, shoot guys, climb stuff". While Uncharted 2 doesn't stray much from that mold, they make those steps a lot more entertaining.
Uncharted 2's combat is pretty straightforward. It's a cover-based combat system so a lot of it can come down to superior positioning, which I usually find kind of boring, but this game does it pretty well. Enemies won't let you sit in one place via perfectly thrown grenades forcing you out of your position.
One thing I did find interesting is their transition between stealth and action. You can choose to be as stealthy as possible on a number of occasions, but if you blow it, it doesn't matter (except in one part of the game). There are also a variety of stealth combat moves that you can use which are pretty fun.
Best of all, there are virtually no driving sequences in Uncharted 2, which was the worst part of Uncharted 1. Uncharted 1 had terrible controls and really not very fun sequences where you're expected to drive a watercraft up a river or something, with explosives floating near you, enemies shooting you, and you have to both drive, shoot and mangle your controller due to terrible handling.. it was a mess.
Uncharted 2 is a story-based game, and they do a really great job of integrating real-time action, such as climbable scenery breaking, or an entire action sequence on a moving train with interactive objects both on the train and on the ground changing gameplay constantly. In fact, nearly the entire game is very thrilling. Their craft when making exciting gameplay moments and sequences is top-notch, and it's unlike anything I've seen before because it doesn't feel simulated.
My biggest complaint is that toward the end of the game they introduce unnecessarily powerful enemies, and completely change the gameplay you've adjusted to. They had something good going for them, and like a lot of games that seem to appeal more to casual gamers, they completely change it and becomes a lot less fun than the majority of the game. I can understand introducing it for an element of challenge, but challenge should not cancel out fun. Besides, a difficulty setting in a game like this should dictate what kind of challenge they want, instead of throwing enemies at the player that are nearly impossible to beat on a standard difficulty when you've been having no problems thus far.
And considering this is a platformer with realistic scenery, you can have plenty of "where do I go?" kinds of moments that can get annoying. At least they have hints to tell you where to go if you stand around long enough, but they could do better with their camera angles and indicators to show you where you need to go when you might be confused.
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Uncharted 2 looks phenomenal, top to bottom. Their scenery is unusually good, almost story-book like, and their character models, animations... everything is excellent.
Theatrics: 10.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
One interesting thing about their cut-scenes is that they film actors acting out these cut-scenes, audio and everything, and digitize it to put the right faces and bodies on the actors. It adds a life to cut-scenes that is desperately needed to move a story in a lot of games. Not to mention, the tempo of conversation and wit thrown in is a lot easier to pull off when real actors are acting out the entire scene.
Like Uncharted 1, the actual story of the game is a bit of nonsense (or at least sounds like it) but because they tell it so well, it's something you have to pay attention to and are interested in knowing what happens.
Controls: 9.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Uncharted 2's controls are better than it's predecessor, and particularly so considering they eliminated all of the points of the game, control-wise, that were frustrating in Uncharted 1.
Sometimes the platforming can have bad or awkward controls considering climbing walls or anything is something that is difficult to capture in a game. However, it's almost always a couple-second hindrance instead of a game-long struggle.
I do really hate it when cover-based games have a button that needs to be pressed to enter/exit combat that also does other things. This game does it decently, but you can feel like you're getting stuck to cover when trying to run by it.
Replay Value: 6.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Uncharted 2 has both a campaign mode, which is pretty fun but I won't go out of my way to play again, and multiplayer. The multiplayer is as much of an extension of the campaign as possible. Typical game modes like deathmatch and capture-the-flag exist. But I personally don't find a ton of value in multiplayer, cover-based shooter games, so I didn't spend much time playing it.
Fun: 9.0
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
Most of the game is a lot of fun. The action is great, and the interactivity with scenery and enemies in real-time is crazy, but you always feel like you're in control. It's basically a good action movie turned into a game, so it works really well.
But the last hour or so of the game is by far the least fun part of the game, and I pushed through it only to see what would happen at the end of the game. I did lower my difficulty to the easiest setting during the ending sequence, because fighting on the normal or hard difficulty at the end is suicide.
My Overall Rating: 9.2
Complexity Level: Moderate. Most people that have played video games in a 3D environment should be able to pick this up, at least on the easiest setting, and play it pretty well without many problems. Some of the concepts within the game are a bit advanced, and may take novice players a few tries to get past, whereas an experienced player would make it look easy.
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