With the coming of a new Screwattack.com comes a whole new me. You’ve all been with me through many reviews of last generation games and now it’s time for me to do my first official review of a current gen console. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am now the proud owner of a 250GB PS3 Slim Uncharted 2 pack. It’s been unpacked for a few weeks now and I’ve been playing the game and the console ever since. For my first review I’ll start with the game, followed by a quick review of the Slim in another blog. So, hold on to your butts everyone, it’s time to say bye bye to Kansas.
Greyarch Entertainment presents
A Puddle Jumper review of:
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The Single Player campaign can be summarized in two words basically. These two words perfectly describe how you feel 90% of the time as you are playing it, seeing everything happen before your very eyes. And these two words would be: Adrenaline Rush. Yes, that is exactly what you feel. I literally drove the people around me insane as I was playing this game. More times than not I would just start shouting out things like: “Oh crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap” as the next big thing came after me or set piece crumbled before my eyes. Or I would just shout: “Oh come on!” when something would happen right after something big happened. This is a good thing of course because a game has to be really awesome to make me shout out at something positive. Negative on the other hand has me kicking and screaming in less than a second.
For me, one of the major selling points of Uncharted 2 was its story. Combining the concept and feel of a lot of movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure, U2 still manages to be fairly unique and witty, creating something that is both familiar as new. The Main story involves Drake being pulled in to the search for a treasure that Marco Polo discovered in a place of legends. As a starting point, Naughty Dog used the mysterious surroundings of Polo’s return to the main land where many of the 600 people with him had perished. A fanatic man today has spent a lot of money and manpower to know everything that he could about Marco Polo and he wants to hire Drake to retrieve an item that he believes will lead him deeper in to the story of Polo.
Besides but a few clever references to the first game, it can be considered to be a stand alone story. For those of you who are familiar with the previous installment in this franchise, these jokes will be pretty amusing whilst for others, it’ll either be a hit or miss. All in all though, the main story arch is done really well and you can tell that a lot of effort is put in to it as they combine fiction with reality all the time.
Now, the individual characters in this game are all very well fleshed out. And, as I said before, you can get to know who they are by this game alone. Recurring characters like Elena Fisher and, my personal favorite, Victor Sullivan, look and act exactly like before whilst the new characters all are full individuals with a past and a future. The fun thing about the characters in this game is that we get to know them not when the developers ram their stories down our collective throat in cut scenes, but rather in on the fly conversations during the actual gameplay. Returning from the previous game, there are now more of them and they are very fun to listen at. You’ll almost want to restart to the nearest checkpoint because the NPC was too far away for you to hear. Using these on the fly conversations, Naughty Dog gives us the history between these characters in a subtle and amusing way that we don’t even have to sit through if we want to. We could just ignore it and move on with our game!
One of the main complaints about Drake’s Fortune was that it was way to short. Well, say goodbye to Mini-me as Doctor Evil comes around. If you don’t understand the reference, GET OF MY INTERNET. Kthxbai
Is he gone yet? No? I can wait … … … … … … … …
No, no, wait! Don’t go! I’ll continue! Look, I’m typing! STOP!
The main story and the characters are both well in to familiar territory but still pretty unique in their own way. We’ve all seen it before but that’s okay this time as Naughty Dog wraps it all in a very unique blanket.
Throughout the game we are also re-introduced to the humor of Drake’s Fortune. It’s back and with a vengeance as you will laugh from start to finish. Some jokes might be a little to subtle or obscure even for some people but all in all there’s still a lot of it and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Graphics wise, the first game was pretty impressive. The water effects were absolutely stunning, the environments were great, but repetitive and the characters themselves looked pretty damned sweet. Not to say that it showed that it was early in the PS3 era.
Now, take Uncharted: Drake’s fortune and pour gallons of awesome sauce over it and PRESTO, you have Uncharted 2. The term awesome sauce applies here perfectly seeing as some sections of Naughty Dog say that if something needs to be improved, they just say that the person needs to make it awesome. Which is exactly what they did.
From the snowy Himalayas to the jungle of Borneo to the streets of Nepal, this game is the best looking game of 2009. I’m so obese from all this eye candy and still I want to go back for seconds. The characters all look so incredible that it’s sometimes hard to say if you’re watching a game or a live action movie of Uncharted. Not only do they look great, but they also interact with their environment so well that the play station 2 would literally explode if it tried that. Crates fall over realistically, things fall like they should, environments crumble or fall down as if it was happening right in front of you and your character will even shield himself from fire when close to it.
If these small things are impressive, then wait till you stand in front of a panorama like on the hotel in Nepal. Absolutely stunning the amount of detail, adversity and distance there is in this game. It’s like they took a picture of the actual place and digitalized every single thing of it as tiny as it may be. There are also major set piece moments that happen in real time and you will swear that you were actually in it. It’s so real and impressive you “splooge in your pants” at the sight of it.
Most importantly however, even with all this beauty, the Playstation Trey never stutters. No framerate, lag or anything of the sorts. It’s amazing. Or nay, awesome.
How does the game sound like? Well I’ll tell you! Obviously… this is a review after all. Voice actors come in all shapes sizes. Usually they’re just sitting in a booth, doing a Krusty. They come in, spew out their lines and get the fuck out as fast as humanly possible before any soul was actually put in to it. Okay, that’s just a rash generalization but the truth is that most voice actors just come in and stand alone in a booth. But in Uncharted 2, everything is done during the Mo-cap. Literally. The voice actors are hoisted in to a mo-cap suit whilst they re-enact their scenes, lines and all to create the best cut scenes that I have ever seen and heard. And Claudia Black in a Mo-cap suit is still Hot, FYI.
For the rest, it all sounds great and very real. There’s so many sounds that you thought that they actually went out and did everything in the game in real life just to get the sounds.
However, there’s one Villain character that sounds amazingly ghey... Iiiiiincoming … *shrugs*
I’ve discussed the story, the graphics and the sound. All that’s left now is the gameplay I guess. If Indiana Jones and National Treasure inspired the story, then you could say that Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider and Gears of War inspired the gameplay.
Platforming is once again a large part of the game as you traverse all territories hanging from a ledge or jumping from one platform to another… flailing your arms like an idiot sometimes but that’s besides the point. Sometimes its hard to tell where you can climb or not but most of the time the game will give you subtle hints as to what to do and where to go. For instance, in an icecave you can’t immediately see what to do whilst standing on a large rock. But there’s only one place you can reach by jumping and one part of that place is different than the rest, which indicates that this is your safest bet. All you need to traverse like the Prince of Persia are three buttons. The analog button, the jump button and the drop button. Hanging from a ledge it can be difficult to have Drake prepare to jump in the right direction but with some help from the six axis, you should do just fine. The one thing that I love about this game is that it incorporates new things to the plat forming all the time. One time you’re hanging and jumping on mountains and the next you’re doing it on a train moving through the jungle.
Moving around is now covered but what about the action. There’s shooting and fighting in this game and they blend together quite nicely without ever feeling like you’re losing maneuverability whilst doing one of the two. Seamlessly you will go from shooting your foe to beating the snot out of him and back again, sometimes even combining the two by using the stealth combat techniques.
Covering in a shooter seems like second nature these days. In First or Third person, covering is a part of the game. Sometimes you’ll pull back to another camera whilst in cover, as seen in Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, whilst other time’s you’ll just go in cover like in Killzone II or Gears of War. Covering is so present these days that you’ll automatically want to do it in older games where its not present. Gears of War is one of the main reason why it’s so present. Naughty Dog took this covering idea, improved it and made it their own. You can move around freely behind cover and your character will automatically adapt to the cover he’s behind. From that cover you can shoot by aiming or by using blind fire, where Drake will just stick out his gun and shoot. Which is now accompanied by a nice crosshair. Lastly, when an enemy is close to your cover, you can point your analog stick towards him and use a stealth attack to quietly put him out of his misery.
Shooting is as easy as breathing in this game as all it takes is the L1 and R1 button. Aiming is fairly easy as the analog stick moves your crosshair fluently and fast if you want it to.
Stealth is a bigger factor in the game than in Drake’s Fortune as you now have a few levels that you can traverse by using stealth alone. Quite nifty if you ask me.
The controls of this game are very simple to get to know and easy to master with some practice. You’ll be monkeying around, shooting enemies without even knowing you pressed the button to do so. It will all come natural after a while as your subconscious will press the button before you even think about doing it. And trust me, this will happen once you are immersed in this game.
There is one thing sticking out like a soar thumb though. Covering might be a pain in the ass sometimes as coming out of it is sometimes too hard to easy. You’ll be covering and move your analog stick the wrong way only to come out of it because of that. Or you’ll be wanting to go out of cover and find yourself unable to do smoothly.
To finish the single player aspect of this game I want to say that the train sequence is my favorite level of any game now. That entire thing is so epic that it still makes me giddy just thinking about it.
Now then, the other aspect of this game is the multiplayer. Where more than one person comes in to a single place in the game to shoot things!
There are several things that you can do in the multiplayer. You have your standard deathmatch, elimination, level based, objective based multiplayer maps and you also have co-op levels that are basically mini campaigns that last half an hour each, adding a few hours of gameplay easily all on its own.
Deathmatch and elimination are self explanatory I think so let’s take a closer look at the objective based maps. You have King of the Hill, two teams and one hill, whoever has it the longest or reaches the goal wins. Chain Reaction, five hills and whoever gets them all in a row wins. Plunder, capture the treasure and bring it to your camp a few times to win. And then there’s another king of the hill where there are five hills all the time instead of just one at a time.
Besides these modes there’s also an all objectives mode that has several deathmatch variations like Snipers and pistoles or grenades and handguns or simply an RPG deathmatch.
Co-op mission are three man missions that exist within contained parts of the single player campaign or maps from the multiplayer, depending on the variation you’re playing.
Co-op objectives take you from point A to point B with an objective. Either its getting a treasure or saving NPC’s, you and two others have to traverse the levels and face off against hordes of NPC’s that even go as far as being vehicles of mass destruction. They’re as much an adrenaline rush as the single player campaign. Done right, you can go through these levels by punching the living shit out of foes alone, if your teammates handle the heavies. I don’t wanna stroke my own ego here (yes I do) but I kick ass at co-op objectives. 60 + kills easily with skilled people next to me and 95+ kills very easily with noobs next to me. Not surprisingly, I get 90+ kills a lot.
Lastly we have Co-op arena. Multiplayer maps where wave after wave of enemy forces is thrown at you and two others, increasing in difficulty with each round. Very exhilarating if you have good people with you where at least one has a mic and takes control. Otherwise … yeah … not happening.
That is the multiplayer at its core. The gameplay is simplified when it comes to hand to hand combat and the sound and looks are basically the same. It’s one of the best multiplayers that I have ever played in my life and I just wish that it wasn’t so … how do I describe this in a politically correct and socially polite manner … : Meh.
Here’s some of the gripes that I’ve experienced whilst playing the game.
Grenades have a will of their own. You can’t cook grenades but they will explode whenever they want and they will have a blast radius of whatever. Usually it’s: you suck and the other guy is better. Your grenade will explode too late and your grenades range is one inch whilst the other guy’s grenade will kill you no matter where you stand. And I swear to god I’ve seen people ROLL OUT OF GRENADE EXPLOSIONS even though they are standing right on top of it when it explodes. What a load o crock.
Next up is the hangman death. You are hanging from a ledge, reaching up and pressing the square button to pull an enemy over the edge. You grab them and they are almost off their feet as suddenly they kick you off, even though that is impossible. The other way around is just as much bullshitty if you ask me. Because they will kick you off from a spot where twice as far as the length of their legs.
Warping is another issue in multiplayer. Not just against other people but in Co-op as well. For instance, you jump over a gap and almost halfway to the other side you warp back to the edge and you get pulled down. Or you jump and you get warped back in the arms of enemy having your next snapped, or you warp back up to the ledge for the enemy to kick you off.
And then there are the boosters. I swear to god some people hack to enhance the effects of their boosters and even add ghost boosters. There’s a booster that allows you to drop a grenade after you die and I’ve seen plenty people drop a grenade without that booster. Down the Irons is supposed to enhance your accuracy but in some case it makes every single shot hit you from whatever distance.
And then there’s the bullet’s paths. You can see bullets whiz by and miss you completely, not hitting you once and yet you die. You can pump ten clips in to an enemy without missing and they will casually turn around and beat you to death in two blows.
I’ve seen people beat me to death in one blow, without being hit before that. And it always takes two.
People, if you’re going to play multiplayer, do it with friends so at least you’ll have some fun. And if you’re doing it alone, play co-op because the worst thing that happens there are people that steal your kills.
As if this single and multiplayer wasn’t enough, Naughty Dog still has some things up their sleeve to lengthen your experience with this game.
In the single player campaign you will be able to collect 101 treasures throughout the entire game that are sometimes hidden so well that you will scratch your head until you bleed brain matter. Fun fact, the Strange Relic makes another appearance, which is a Precursor Orb from the Jak and Daxter series.
Multiplayer is where its at though as you will earn money with every match you play. With that money you will be able to buy new character skins, from both the villain as hero side, booster slots, which are bonuses like added accuracy, co-op weapon upgrades and taunts like making a kissing gesture or flexing your muscles. With this money you can also purchase things for your single player experience like “tweaks” that are basically cheats, skins, guns and more.
Besides all of that you can also buy concept art and bonus movies that are basically a making of Uncharted 2. There are about 9 movies of 5 - 10 minutes.
One interesting feature about the Uncharted 2 Multiplayer is the Cinema feature, which allows you to rewatch a previously played match from any angle, any player, any time. You can take fast forward, rewind and take screenshots. How did someone kill you at that time? How did they do this? Do that? Want to relive what you did that one time? Then do it!
Basically, this game is worth every single cent. Now, as for a rating, I’m going to go with Screwattack’s method from now. So, what should you do? Buy it? Borrow it? Or bounce it? This game is a definite:
Buy!
It’s the game of the year, no doubt about it. It’s a thrill from start to finish and because of the multiplayer, the finish is where you want it to be.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this review. Check out my other stuff and I’ll see you next time!
- Puddle Jumper is also a contributor over at Teh Pwn Shop, go there or be square!
http://tehpwnshop.wordpress.com/
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Part 2
Noooooo, this is not a review of that crappy band with the wannabe celebrity. This is a continuation of my Uncharted 2: Among Thieves review, which can be found at the following location for you loyal readers at Teh Pwn Shop: http://tehpwnshop.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/pjs-uncharted-2-among-thieves-review/
And here if you wish to view it on Screwattack.com: http://screwattack.com/blogs/Greyarch-Entertainment/Uncharted-2-Among-Thieves-review-3
Uncharted 2
Thanksgiving Thieves
For you American folk, Thanksgiving has come and gone. A time for stuffing not only a turkey, but yourself as well. Where you thank what or whoever you need to thank and be jolly that you have something to be thankful for.
I myself, living in Belgium, have never had the pleasure of experiencing a thanksgiving evening myself. But the concept of it is great, even though the origin might not be as honorable.
The greatest videogame developer of all times, Naughty Dog, has recently released a videogame to which they had planned to release DLC on the Thanksgiving weekend. And for free! How awesome is that? Quite awesome, truth be told. The weekend has come and has almost passed and the DLC is now resting peacefully on my hard drive, being the awesomeness that it is.
For the completeness of it all, I hereby present to you my review for the Thanksgiving DLC of Naugty Dog’s: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
First of all, I’d like to warn all of you whose internet connection or subscription isn’t up to snuff. The DLC is over 100 MB. That was quite a shock for me as most certainly I will not be able to do much of anything until the fourteenth December. Which sucks monkeyballs. ((DISCLAIMER: no balls were sucked of people whose username contains the word: Monkey.))
The DLC is all about the Multiplayer and “need to know cosmetic updates”. The two most notable additions are the Leaderboard and the Player Card. The Leaderboard is easy to explain as it is nothing more than a ranking for the game. Which spot you’re in and how you fair compared to your friends. The Player Card has all of your own statistics in a single card so that you can easily keep track of your 1337 skillz.
Then we have the new map: The Fort. Based off of the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune level 13: The Fortress, The Fort is a rectangular map with two levels and a side hallway. It’s the best looking map there is in my honest opinion. Within the confines of The Fort, there are so many details that every time you play it you will see something new. Although you still can’t see climbable things against the wall, you’ll forgive it as it blends with the environment so well, creating a beautiful scenary for you to chew on.
What really made my jaw drop on the ground was the panorama you see when at the side hallway of the map. This view alone warrants the 100 MB plus download as I literally spent five minutes soaking it in as the King of the Hill game unfolded itself behind me. You really have to see it to believe it.
Lastly we have the Thanksgiving event. Doughnut Drake and Doughnut Lazarevic … suuuuuuuuuuuuck. I’ll be glad when this event is over and I can play The Fort for real for once. And then there’s the double cash weekend. That’s fine I guess. For the people that are new to the game this will be a welcome thing but to those who’ve already played it, it’s nice to buy some bonus material or things you didn’t want to buy because you wanted to keep the money for when you need to bail out and fork over 40k.
So here’s my final verdict: Is this DLC worth cashing over 100+ MB for a mandatory update? (Yes, you have to give up Multiplayer altogether if you don’t wish to download it) Yeah. for the view alone.
I mean, the multiplayer is still riddles with bugs and everything I bitched about in my review is still there. But yeah, it’s worth it. Download it!
Naughty Dog might just be dangling pretty keys in front of us whilst our cribs are falling apart but it’s worth it eventually. It would have been nice to have it as a Co-op mission as well, but alas.
DOWNLOAD IT!
This has been Puddle Jumper with my review for the Thanksgiving DLC and event, I’ll see you next time!
Naughty Dog <3
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