Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Back in 1996 Tomb Raider became a massive hit, sporting fiendish puzzles mixed with slightly wonky gunplay. Now, or I should say back in 2009, Lara is back in action with short hair, no boobs, a dick and has changed her name to Nathan.

That's all the Uncharted series really is, it's the Americanized version of Tomb Raider. It's also the better playing version of Tomb Raider. While you could say that it was the product of a different gaming generation, and you'd be right, Tomb Raider began as a stiff, unmanageable platformer and stayed like that all the way up to Legend in 2006.

Story was never really Tomb Raider's strong point, which is a tradition that continues in Uncharted as it's story is about as strong as a vegetarian who has given up eating his greens for Lent. The basic premise is that an evil war criminal is looking for Shambhala, an ancient Tibetan holy land where the people live long and everyone is happy. He probably just wants a nice holiday and who are we to say no? Oh yeah, he has a big scar on his face so he must be super evil. Quick, someone arrest Carlos Tevez before he starts looking for Shangri La.

Anyway, the game begins with you hanging off a cliff in a train. You've been shot and you need to get the hell out of there. It's a great start to the game, but merely serves as a tutorial for the climbing and platforming mechanics.

The game then begins proper, by way of flashback, to a meeting between our hero, Drake, his supposedly good buddy Flynn and some broad Chloe. There's apparently some back story between Drake and Chloe, which I never paid any attention too because every time she was on screen I kept thinking "Jesus, what's wrong with your face?". They obviously tried to make her look ethnically attractive, even though she's only Australian, but it looks like she's taken a shovel to the face.

It becomes clear that Flynn's client is after an artefact that could lead to Shambhala, in a very indirect way, so they all decide to screw him over and go after it themselves. This then leads to the strangest betrayal I've ever seen. Flynn, supposedly Drakes friend, leaves him to take the rap for the heist they just pulled on some museum, which only employs deaf, dumb and blind security guards judging by how inept they are at spotting two fully grown men in bright lights.

It's never really explained why this happens. From the banter between the two before and after the event it seems like it's born through mere jealousy. What a crappy reason to shoot someone and leave them dangling over a cliff on a train. Although, to be honest, Drake is such a smarmy git I'd probably shoot him too.

While the game starts with some great puzzle solving and few firefights, it did seem as though the game descended into a straight up third person shooter toward the end. There was still some climbing and jumping around, but it just knit one encounter to another with no real purpose.

Some parts earlier on in the game are truly fantastic. The level that takes place on the train just before you reach the part where the game started is a wonderful mix of climbing, platforming and shooting. The only part where I can even begin to criticize is the unnecessary mini-boss fight half way through. One of Lazarevic's men is somehow more impervious to bullets while wearing half as much armour as all the other hired goons.

However, other instances of gameplay are not so great. At one point you're tasked with defending a Tibetan village from a tank. It wasn't that this part wasn't as good as the others, it was just straight up bad. There was no direction other than "find an RPG", too much running around in plain sight and trying to fight off shotgun wielding goons. It was messy, uncoordinated and probably not needed at all. Also, how did the tank even get to a mountaintop village in Tibet? Maybe Lazarevic hired... the A-Team.

After that, the game continues on it's formula of:

• Get to location
• Climb tall building
• See destination
• Spend 2 hours fighting bad guys
• Arrive at destination
  
• Puzzle indicating next location
  

While the formula is simple, the variety of gameplay locations adds unique changes to each set piece.

This continues on, unerring, until the crew finally reach the fabled Shambhala. Now, there seems to be a slight problem with this part of the storyline, especially in the age we live in.

It would seem as if the entirety of the game is a complete waste of everyone's time. If anybody had a smartphone on them, they could locate Shambhala in a few minutes. In fact it would have been found years ago.

In any case, you manage to reach Shambhala after being forced to by the bad guy. I can't really say that the finale to the game and the final showdown between Drake and Lazarevic is either good or bad. What I can state is that, in regards to earlier in the game, it's a touch anticlimactic.

Lazarevic has drunk the sap from the Tree of Life (yeah, I know), which has seemingly turned him into Wolverine, giving him regenerative health and super strength. Then after all that he gets killed by the Blue Man Group.

Uncharted 2 is a rainy day film of a game. It's not got the greatest story ever told, but in some places it tells it really well, others not so well. I wouldn't recommend jumping into this one before playing through the first, as I rather stupidly did, but I would recommend getting them both.

Hrm, the second good PS3 exclusive in a row. The world must be about to end.