Reviews// Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Clearly, a game such as Uncharted 2 doesn't have levels as such, and there's no noticeable loading between sections of the environment, though these parts are often handled by a cut scene that utilises the game engine, making the whole experience smooth and seamless. The word that leaps to mind, in fact, is cinematic. But without levels, there are no end of level bosses… nowhere to put them, see!? Except there are, they are not at the end of levels, of course… but they are there. At first it's helicopters, but as the game progresses Boss battles can be against tanks and even particularly tough opponent characters. There's one set-piece in a speeding train (the one that we know is about to crash, since we have crawled forward in real time from our flash back) where you fight an enemy who is seemingly impervious to grenade damage, and gunfire even close up to the head.

During the game, you occasionally pair up with and get separated from non-playable characters. When they are there with you they provide much needed additional firepower support during battles; sometimes invaluable when you are pinned down. But they always leave the key action to the player. These partings are often key developments in the storyline. They often revolve around betrayals or apparent betrayals between the characters, most of whom have complex and conniving motivations, with the possible exception of Elena who returns from the first game along with Sully. 

As with the previous Uncharted game, there is some puzzling to be done - possibly more in Among Thieves - but as with the previous game, the puzzling doesn't take MENSA levels of mental prowess, not even GCSE C grade to be honest. This is one of the reasons that I believe some of the hoopla surrounding (and some of the scores awarded to) Uncharted 2 are undeserved. The game is superbly paced, the learning curve is smooth, taking players undetectably from easy battles to challenging ones without any noticeable or annoying sticking points. But the balance between puzzling and combat is, for this player, too biased to the latter. 

It's still just plain wrong in a game that features puzzles, that the lead character should somewhat propitiously be carrying a note book that has (pretty much) the solutions to most of the puzzles you encounter enclosed within it.

One of very few issues I have with the game, though, is that sometimes the NPCs can get in the way. This is particularly obvious in one extended combat sequence with a tank, where your companion, Tenzin (not obviously named for the Sherpa who assisted Edmund Hillary to the top of Everest at all) can easily get in your way as you try to escape. When he does, he does not make any attempt to get out of your way, and there is no option but to back off and go around, which can expose you to additional enemy fire in one of the trickiest parts of the game. The irony of this is that in other, less critical, parts of the game, the NPCs jump out of your way as soon as you go near them.

Other problems I spotted were: on one occasion when I made a jump where and when Elena's NPC wanted to make a jump, and her body intersected quite horribly with Drake's for a few seconds; and one time when I needed to move a cart to get a step up to a higher level, and the circle button simply would not activate the action - I had to quit back to the last checkpoint, which was annoying mainly because it interrupted the suspension of disbelief - the checkpoint itself was not too far back, as they never are in Uncharted 2.