Uncharted 2 released in 2009 and is a direct sequel to the PlayStation hit Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The game starts off immediately with a train wreck and an injured Nate, barely alive having to climb up the train as it dangles over an icy cliff. Shortly into the climb to safety, the game takes you back sometime before and are introduced to the new characters. Nate meets up with Flynn, a sarcastic, humorous type just like Nate, Chloe also so shows up, a tough and adventurous type, also like Nate! The trio set out to look for the Cintimani Stone and Shangri-la.
Along the way, Nate links up again with our favourites Sully and Elena. Sadly, Sully doesn't feature a lot in this game, but there's a lot of Elena and Chloe, they're great enough to fill the void left by Sully. Prior, you and your buddy Flynn attempt a heist to steal an oil lamp. Classic robbery, black suits and gloves, hiding from security and using takedowns and stun guns to get through stealthily. The conversations between both are so believable, they seem like real people and are hilarious together. The writers for Uncharted are brilliant and do a great job with the exposition during gameplay. It turns out they're not the only ones looking for the Cintimani Stone, Zoran Lazarevic, a Russian warlord is on the path too, armed with a military unit to aid him. Lazarevic is a much improved villian over the first one in Drake's Fortune and is portrayed excellently by Graham McTavish.
Halfway into the story, there is an excellent train sequence, where you make your way to the front, whether you are inside the carriages or on the trains roof. You're surrounded by enemies, but when you get a moment you can just watch the train go through some wonderful sights, the game takes you around the world, so sometimes you should take in the scenery, the developers did a great job and created a beautiful environment. You also get to traverse through snowy mountains, they look so real and it looks like you'd freeze to death if you were there, the game looks fantastic. Improved graphics with seemingly more facial detail and more real looking environments, much different to the grassy jungle and ruins from the first.
Gameplay is as good as ever and there's more stealth options too, it's mostly gun fights, but it's nice being able to take some enemies out quietly. Also some great new weapons dropped by the enemies, giving you more of a choice to disperse those pesky villains. I genuinely think this game shines in the moments you're just exploring and having conversations with those around you. They are always interesting, funny and develop the story. You can roll over and pick up ammo as you do it, this is extremely handy for dodging bullets and refilling your own when still surrounded. You can quick throw grenades now and even reverse enemy attacks when in hand-to-hand combat. Something that's always handy is being able to switch your shoulder aim, sometimes it's more useful to shoot from your other side.
There were some issues, not a lot. If you entered combat it was difficult to get out of, if another enemy was around and was shooting you as you were fighting, this caused a couple of deaths. As with platforming games, jumping to the wrong climbable object or even jumping to your death came naturally, one day a game will perfect jumping and climbing safely. While trying to stealth around a group of enemies, Chloe walked ahead of me and got caught, which automatically meant I was discovered too, not good when you're trying to play on hard difficulty, which is challenging enough, cheers Chloe, mate.
All in all, an improvement on what was already a stellar game. New fantastic characters and a brilliant villian, all portrayed excellently, this really is a sequel better than the original. The humor is too good, Nate's handbook that's filled with clues and information, even has funny drawings and quotes, yet the game is serious as well, it just gels perfectly. Well done Naughty Dog, you've proved countless times you can make a good game and a good series of games. Also, thanks for including the theme from the first, the music is excellent. I'm pretty sure every PlayStation gamer has played this, but play it again, it really deserves it.
9.1/10
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