Uncharted 2: Among Theives Review

[Kenzomatic]

Anyone who likes mixed drinks knows how difficult it can be to get the perfect version of your drink or how difficult it can be to find people who agree with you about who serves the best version of that drink. Uncharted 2 is like a mixed drink in that there is a lot going on in it and could easily have some flavors you might not like. That said for me the game was a 10/10, near flawless for what it is. Does that make it the best game? No I still hold Mass Effect, Bioshock, Fallout 3 and a few more in higher regards but they could have done better in what they set out to do, where Uncharted 2 is near flawless in its execution.



Story wise it is like Ocean’s Twelve mixed with Indiana Jones. Relative to the first uncharted the story is bigger, better, more in-depth and more predictable. The story follows Drake again in another race to the treasure, this time though your going to get a little more set-up to the main plot. You start off the game shot in the stomach and in a train car about to fall off the cliff, there are some good flash back moments and then you get to play up to that point in the story seeing how you ended up there. The whole jumping around in story time could have been bad but it works really well here and make the game more intriguing. The game defiantly feels like a movie and plays out like one. This is one of those game you can have people watch while you play, because it will be entertaining for them too.



The game play work really well and improves in almost every category over the first game. That said there is one complaint I have again you can’t interrupt animation, like reloading a gun, to dodge. Odds are though you will only encounter this problem once during the game. Everything else is great things never got redundant and the balance between gun fights and tomb raiding is perfect. Now early on there is a stealth section where you can’t get caught and have no weapons, some might find this annoying but again the mixed drink metaphor.



The graphics for Uncharted 2 are top notch, and most will probably say the best to date, graphics king, a new standard, blah blah blah. The art direction is where the real beauty is. Where this game hit’s a home run is in creating these beautiful environments that are exotic and amazing visually, just like adventure movies. From Star Wars to Pirates of The Caribbean they all take us to places we would love to see and this game does the same.



Uncharted 2 is a great game that probably just about anyone would enjoy. If only this was the fourth installment maybe more people would have acquired the taste and gave the game a 10 like MGS4 and GTA4. Anyways the game is awesome and I think I’m going to play it again right now.

10

[Mako]

I will have to get this game.

[El Duderino]

Looks like a great game but no game sould get a 10 because A: There is no such thing as perfection B: It leaves you no place to go with a future game that might be even better and C: Even if this game does everything it does perfectly it didn´t invent any of the elements it uses itself and games that really contribute to gameing deserve extra credit for it. So I would never give a game no matter how great a score higher then 9.8... 9.9 would be a matrix like game that solves all of mankinds problems but 10 has to be unachievable because there always has to be room for improvement and innovation... even if we can´t think if it yet... but thats just my personal view... I just think giving a perfect score to any game instantly breaks the system...

[Kenzomatic]

Looks like a great game but no game sould get a 10 because A: There is no such thing as perfection B: It leaves you no place to go with a future game that might be even better and C: Even if this game does everything it does perfectly it didn´t invent any of the elements it uses itself and games that really contribute to gameing deserve extra credit for it. So I would never give a game no matter how great a score higher then 9.8... 9.9 would be a matrix like game that solves all of mankinds problems but 10 has to be unachievable because there always has to be room for improvement and innovation... even if we can´t think if it yet... but thats just my personal view... I just think giving a perfect score to any game instantly breaks the system...

Did I write this at some point?

Well I don't really have a refind system but I always like what Roger Ebert said

When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to Mystic River, you're asking if it's any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then The United States of Leland clocks in at about two.

[El Duderino]

^^ And what are you going to do when Uncharted 3 showes up and is even better then Uncharted 2 ??? Ether you give it a 10 too or you give it an 11... but both options break the review system... its like the spinal tap problem... yes you can put a 11 on you amp but it doesn´t mean you will be louder then anyone else... and you comic movie quote deals with wage terms... if you are dealing with things that are done you can give maximum points since there won´t be anny additions to top it... but if for example if on a scale of one to four you already gave American Beauty a four but you need to integrate Citizen Cane into that scale... or a movie better then American Beauty... then you system is broken...

[Kenzomatic]

I guess.

You know what would be cool a review system based on the bell curve, think about it. Somebody should go re adjust all the numbers from game rankings to fit on a bell curve that would be crazy.

Anyways just as its possible to hand out multiple 10's in professional gymnastics to multiple people (even though nothing is ever truly perfect) I think it possible to hand out 10's to games and movies.

I'm thinking of moving to a 4 star system it is much easier to use as there are only 8 possible rating if you only give half stars vs 100 which means your 9.6 and 9.8 all get rounded up to 4 Stars which makes handing out more 4 star reviews only logical. And is a more fair system as it is more to the point of quality instead of ranking.

[El Duderino]

Well thats all about how anal we really want to be (giggle)... for me personally 4 stars is way to blurry while 0.1 - 9.9 is not blurry enough... but to divide all nuances of games into 8 categories of value seems too minimalistic... I really don´t think anything that has to do with art (including videogames) should be measured in quantifiable terms... if you get 300 points in bowling you know it was a perfect game... but who says what a perfect song, painting or game is ???... giving points or stars or whatever is really only for lazy people who don´t want to read the review... they just want to be able to say its bad or good... but reading these things never tells you if you will like it or not... I´d rather have the last summary of the review be the actuall score and have the score be cryptic... like "Uncharted Two gets 4 booners, one half errect, 2 stars but only half a thumbs up"... but you can´t put that in a graph or compare scores that way... which is what its supposed to be all about...

[Kenzomatic]

You could always make up a word system with like "epic Fail" at the bottom and "must buy" at the top. I mean that a two word summary.

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