Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)

This is the game that got me interested in playing the uncharted series in 2024. I had heard so many great things about it, the number of video essays I'd watched that mentioned the opening on the train was nearly uncountable. After being fairly dissappointed with uncharted: Drake's Fortune, I still heald my hopes high for this game, at least partially because I'm a strong believer that in games, the 2nd in a trilogy is usually the best.

Finally getting to play through that train scene opening was a magical experience. It truly didn't disappoint, and most of the rest of the game followed suit. I still don't like the combat much in these games, but I might chalk that up to me not growing up with shooters in general. However, the combat this is certainly better than it's predecessor, and better than it's successor by a bit as well. The platforming however, is not a masterpiece of gameplay, but it's fun and engaging, and captures everything that is great about Uncharted.

The locations in this game spoke to me most of any in the series, and for some reason felt the most relatable to me, as I spend a lot more time irl in the mountains than I do in cities, jungles, or deserts.

I can recommend this game fullheartedly to anyone who enjoyes cheesy action, even a little, it is certinaly worth all the hype.

Considering Uncharted 2 routinely ranks in the top 100 or 200 games of all time, I guess I had high expectations, which might not be fair for a 12 year old game.

The story is fine. The gameplay (imo) is a little less than fine. The cinematography, action scenes are killer and maybe that's what gets it lots of its reputation, but some of these elements are more taken for granted now.

As far as the gameplay, there's just too many times where due to the camera I jump to my death, or I'm pointing right at a rope and I just jump to my death (sometimes clipping through the rope)

Combat isn't tedious, but it isn't fun. Here are some stealth options, but not really. Oops, you pressed the button that triggers 4 actions and it did the wrong one. You're dead now.

And the puzzles are so weird, like you have a journal with clues you never found, that are never discussed, that give you the direct solution to crazy (that you couldn't really solve otherwise). Like, surely that could have been incorporated in the game. Make me decipher some wall paintings or something, so at least the clues seem organic. It is so strange.

Anyway, this isn't meant to be a combative review for people who already love the game. But if you're a late comer like me, maybe expect less? The action scenes that you play through are fun, everything else is kind of...fine.

I really wanted to like this game having enjoyed other Naughty Dog games. Now, the character lines are somewhat cliché and make you feel like you're living through an action B-movie at the start - but the story is in general well developed, and the cinematics are really fantastic for a game over 10 years old.

However ... there is not much else to like about this game having played modern action games. The combat is rather terrible - repetitive, with a minimal range of guns and grenades, and the AI is as dumb as it gets - with the only challenge being that there is an endless army of them around every corner. The riddles and climbing are also not very diverse - the only thing that really changes is the location.

Summarizing it - if you want to know the story for the following parts of this series, you're better off watching a cut-scene flow on YouTube.

Recently, I played the first Uncharted game as was incredibly disappointed. The story telling and dialogue was mediocre to poor, the gameplay a repetitive bore, and the setting grew old fast.

So, keeping this in mind, I entered into Uncharted 2 a bit apprehensive. Pretty quickly my unease was dismissed. Uncharted is Naughty Dog storytelling and dialogue at its best. Drake and his supporting cast shine throughout the story. The settings are gorgeous and varied, in one section you explore the tunnels underneath an ancient museum, another the jungles where ancient ships were wrecked, and still others the icy peaks of the final levels.

The visuals of the maps and ruins themselves were spectacular, making me actually feel like an adventure. In parts, I literally paused to look at the skyscapes being depicted, or the ornated carvings of the ruins.

This level variation, combined with the amazing balancing of puzzles, exploring, and shooting meant that I never grew bored with Uncharted 2 (unliked Uncharted 1).

The gameplay itself is largely fine. It isn't spectacular but has some variation in weapons and options, and some improvements to stealth to allow you to at least partially get through encounters stealthed.

That said, there are a couple of issues in the gameplay, which while not game-breaking, did keep me from giving a 5 star rating.

Stealth still isn't great, with some enemies spotting Drake from far away, while others didn't spot him right next to them. Occasionally I was crouched behind cover, but because of foibles in the system, I would still be frustratingly spotted. Other times I could approach without being in cover at all. Often I would feel great stealth killing 2 enemies, only to have the 3rd spot me no matter what I did.

Cover also was an issue, with Drake frequently grabbing onto terrain during action sequences, when I just wanted him to jump. Popping out of terrain when I instead wanted him to scoot around. Often this wasn't an issue, but occasionally it did lead to my character's death despite my best attempts.

Even with these two minor issues, Uncharted 2 is a great game well worth trying for any fans of action adventure games.

This game is all about set pieces. You can imagine the designers conversing about the situations they want to put Drake in:

"Let's have him jump from truck to truck!" "Let's have him on top of a moving train!"

When this game is at its best, you are executing the gameplay fantasy of navigating these action-movie trope sequences. The game does not execute these situations flawlessly, but it is done with a sense of scale and fidelity that can not be found elsewhere.

The shooting, as in the first game, is fine. Just fine. The dialogue and story is up and down, sometimes it is silly and exhaustive, sometimes it's intriguing. The misogynistic dialogue is a bit disappointing, especially with a female creative director on board. There are a few too many encounters and the final boss battle SUCKS!

That being said, the set pieces are so cool and so much fun that this game is great. You have to pretend that the characters have better written dialogue then they do to enjoy the story but the world is still fun to immerse yourself in.