I found the...again? Uncharted 2: Among Theives Review

Once again the barter happened where one individual needed a ride to the bus stop and another happily agreed with payment in the form a PS3 babysitting session. Wouldn't want that thing to get cold sitting in the house all alone, right? This dude bought another game I had been itching to play, so here we go.

This time it's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, if you have been following the blog, which I know we have readers in the teens-*fingers crossed*-or more closer to 3 but anyways, I reviewed the first Uncharted. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Nathan Drake, the everyman with a cross between Lara Croft, Indiana Jones and Jack T. Colton. Look the last one up if you have to, he is pretty close to Drake.

Refresher. Drake is the great, great, great,...grandson of Sir Francis Drake, the explorer. Nathan Drake is a explorer as well in the sense of exploring for artifacts to increase his bank account, a fortune hunter. Last game he was searching for the treasure of Drake expeditions and the city of El Dorado. His old pal Sully and gal pal Elena a photojournalist go on an amazing adventure together. Sounds like fun right?

Among thieves. This time Drake is approached by an old friend, Harry Flynn, wasn't any really back story to this guy, kinda sad cause it sounded if they had a lot of history. Then we meet Chloe Frazer who's in on the job by anonymous benefactor. Come to find out she is also an old friend in more sense of the word. They are tasked in stealing a Mongolian oil lamp from a Turkish Museum, very well guarded, that was originally belonging to Marco Polo.

Story goes a Marco Polo left China with 600 men and 14 ships when he returned home with only one ship and 18 passengers. Drake travels to Turkey, Borneo and finally Nepal looking for the legendary Shambhala or Shangri-la. The benefactor is evil, a hardened war criminal who wants more power and chases the myths that Shambhala holds great power. Overall this story runs at a cinematic pace, movie like cut scenes and the pace is fast and tense with it's proper dips "to take it all in" moments. There are some real subtle moments that, while a little predictable, really engage the player in a WTF moment.

Gone. Thank you Naughty Dog (developers). Did you know these are the same group who did Crash Bandicoot??? Huh? I digress. Gone, are the missions where the enemy miraculously appears on the other side of the door that you just spent 15 minutes getting. There was none of that. True, enemies did appear, but it was believable it wasn't just though the locked door. The game play of jumping like a monkey returned but it was reserved this time around and not as predominant as a game play element. More or less, shoot people, do some jumping, solve a puzzle do some jumping, solve a puzzle, shoot people. The puzzles were really not that challenging except for one son-of-a that took me 20 minutes to try to understand what they wanted me to do. This time, you get help, which was a nice change of pace, and, they actually kill people and not shoot blindly into the fray. Harry, Chloe, Sully and eventually Elena returns to help the cause. Nice gun battles in large areas and even enemies fighting enemies leads to some epic battles.

Once again Uncharted is a beautiful game. Dense jungles, snowy mountains and ruins, you know, they do ruins exceptionally well, since every level has'em, crazy right? Everything is crazy detailed, which I appreciated. I've been playing since Atari's Pong, so anything with superb graphics gives me funny feelings.

Overall I loved this game, take the first one, improve upon its formula and BAM! The story slowed down a bit in the later chapters and you spend a lot of time in Nepal. Snow, snow everywhere. Good story. I think I like the first one a little more, because I think this one slowed down too much at the end. Game play elements are solid except for the minor hiccups that you get from jumping around like a monkey all the time. Nathan some times doesn't make the right decisions when you tell him to jump to that ledge...AAAAAaahhhhhhhhh, thud. It gets annoying. Fix this Naughty Dog and 5 Inus for you. This time 4.5 Inus. Can't wait until Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Let's hope I win the Powerball Jackpot Lottery tonight and I can afford my own other system and the Uncharted series.

P.S. If I do win, I'll have to fund the first annual SWS BBQ this summer and you are all invited. So like July? July sound good? Maybe August?