G l i t c h y G o b l i n !

I’ve crawled back from the jungle to bring you this week’s review of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  The PS3 exclusive Uncharted series is a step-up in the third-person adventure style that Tomb Raider started.  The first game evolved the genre so much, ripe with great storytelling and phenomenal platforming control, that it’s unfortunate in some ways the sequel takes a step back.

PROS:

It’s still great storytelling. I believe the story is even better this time.  There’s still superb voice acting and great, lovable characters.  Nathan Drake is still hilarious.

It looks stunning. The game was released toward the end of last year, and it is only second best behind the recent God of War III in terms of graphics.  The detail in the environments is staggering to say the least.

The train sequence is epic. Stretching across a couple of chapters, the sequence on the train is probably one of my favorite levels among the plethora of games that I’ve played in my life.  The environment whizzing by and gradually changing just adds to it.

Finally, the final boss is finally fun, finally. It’s no telling how long it has been since I’ve been impressed with a final boss fight.  Most games are either cliché, boring, out-of-place, or non-existent in the department of having a final boss fight.  The fight feels frantic and fast-paced even though you’re basically doing the same thing over and over.

If you liked the first one, you’ll probably want to buy this one as well. It’s worth the money if you like the series.  With the added multiplayer, you’ll play this one more than the first.

CONS:

I died way too much. OK, I put the game on easy so that I could kick back and enjoy the story without the hassle of trying too hard.  Instead I still died constantly from grenades landing perfectly on my shoulder, enemies spawning behind me, snipers one-hit killing me, and the controls throwing me off ledges when I didn’t want to do any such thing.  It really put me in a bad mood for the next couple of days.

In addition to the above, some gunfights were way too long. It was on easy, so there shouldn’t have been more and more enemies constantly streaming in for 10-20 minutes in some places.  This really threw off the flow of the action.

The level design doesn’t flow as well. Both games have excellent level design, but unlike the first game this one had me constantly wondering where to go next.  Sometimes I would have to wait for a hint because I would search the place and still not be able to progress.  I loved how in the first game I would automatically survey my surroundings and say to myself, “Ah, I could climb up over there.”  Not in this one.

The beginning of the game has you stealthin’ about. Why must games include stealth missions?  Even though this one wasn’t too hard, it still wasn’t a very good way to start out a game.  I guess it did make me learn hand-to-hand combat, a feature I barely used in the first game.

The multiplayer isn’t anything to write home about. It’s basically a Gears of War rip-off with the match recording system of Halo 3.  Gears of War plays better and Halo 3 has more options of the recording.  Anyway, it sports basic deathmatch, capture the flag, and other types.  It ranks you up as you do more stuff, as the trend is with today’s multiplayer games.

Anyway, I was hoping for a better experience than what I received, especially when it was IGN’s Game of the Year 2009.  Assassin’s Creed II still wins in my book.  Next week I’ll have a No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle review.