Uncharted 2: Afterthoughts

(Right off the bat, since the title of the post says Afterthoughts, I'd like to warn you that there are minor spoilers for U2AT in the text of this post. I promise not to give away any story details, but location and weapon details are inevitable. Therefore, SPOILER ALERT. You've been warned.)

Sorry for not updating the blog during the whole week, I was busy with school, girls, and work, in that order. Horrible timing, as a lot of the time I really wish I was home playing the games I bought this week: NBA 2K10, Brutal Legend, and the holiday season big daddy itself, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

You can all guess which one got the most playing time around here. *smirk*

My brother actually totally stopped playing NBA 2K10, which almost never happens, just to fight through to the end of Nathan Drake's latest adventure. As for me, I bought Brutal Legend, took it home, popped it in the PS3, saw that there was a mandatory 250 MB (!) download right off the fucking bat, rolled my eyes and went right back to playing Uncharted 2. I logged on to PSN two days after it became available in the Philippines and almost my entire friends list was playing it, I've never seen anything like it at all. It's a like a freaking Naughty Dog epidemic!

I mean, obviously U2AT kicks ass, but it's even better than I hoped. They've improved it in every way I thought possible, and then some.

Visuals

The first 5 minutes you spend playing this game, I gurantee you will utter the words "Oh mah gah! Dah ghafics ah ahmazin!" You'll have a little trouble enunciating correctly because as you say that your jaw will be on the motherfucking floor. The lighting is really well done, the animation is extremely fluid, the gameworld is incredibly detailed (Tanzin's village is a standout), and the art direction/camera work is absolutely outstanding. Just watch the camera pull back for dramatic effect as Drake comes across yet another awe-inspiring vista and you'll know that U2AT director Amy Hennig (Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series) is operating at the very top of her game.

Platforming/Exploration

The platforming elements are much improved this time around; the jumping puzzles are much more complex than U1, and are often accompanied by some really spectacular indoor and outdoor eye candy to look at (the temple room in which you climb the blade of the ornamental sword, for instance, is a huge standout, as is the grinding gear segment in Tibet).

Combat

This was also heavily improved upon. The action set pieces are still very impressive and fun gameplay wise, with the cover system upgraded considerably. However, what I really love the most is what they did with the stealth mechanic -- it is for the most part entirely optional, but it is extremely fun to try and take out as many dopes as you can with your ninja-like Tactical Espionage Action before they figure out you're there and the lead starts flying. It allows you to take a more intelligent, tactical approach to each situation without forcing it on you if you don't want to. (Sadly, they still haven't fixed the overpowered hand to hand combat, although they managed to tone it down a bit. Oh well, can't have everything.)

Multiplayer

This was totally absent in Uncharted 1, and it's a welcome addition as the trophies are as easy to get as ever. Helps the game have replay value after you've got the Platinum, and I must say, it's a doozy. The match finding is currently still slow as shit, but once you do get into a game it's very stable (on PLDT at least. Some SMART Bro using friends report that their games can lag quite a bit.) I recently played co-op with a couple of Americans, and we were all on voice chat playing the tower level from Tibet. That was really, REALLY fun, swearing at each other (in good fun), helping each other out and laughing a lot the whole time. Best. Co-op. Mode. Ever. The competitive multi is also quite good, next time I play I'm going to start playing ranked games and flex some skills. Can't wait!

Storyline

As usual, the dialogue is really awesome, with more one-liners than an Evil Dead movie marathon. Also as per usual, the plot failed to keep up, starting off very strong but veering dangerously close to Indiana Jones 4 territory by the end. Still, it's very competent overall and holds your attention enough to keep you wondering what's next.


All in all, that was a truly fantastic game, and would have won GotY in most years; it will probably dominate the 2009 year-end awards. With the only remaining possible challengers being Modern Warfare 2 (the front-runner) and Borderlands (the dark horse), it's looking good for Naughty Dog.

Now.... how about some next generation Jak & Daxter? C'mon ND, let's go! :-)

Updated Impressions: Uncharted 2 Beta

OT: Jesus, the positive reviews (link) for U2AT keep rolling in. Looking at the variety of different sources for the ridiculous 97 aggregate review score (some coming from publications/websites I really trust), it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that this game is going to own, for many different reasons.

One of the reasons is that the multiplayer fucking kicks ASS! :-D

I've been testing the multi on and off these past couple of days, and I gotta say, it was totally worth spending the time downloading this. Just 9 more days of availability to go, if you haven't played this yet you're missing something truly great, I'm telling you.

Happily, there's next to no lag, and it plays as smooth as I could have hoped. True story: My DSL is the shittiest PLDT package (the 1MB deal), and somebody borrowed the laptop from my room so she could use Skype. I was expecting the game to bog down pretty bad, or that I would get kicked/DC'd from the server... but amazingly, even as she started yammering away in the adjacent room there were no hitches whatsoever. That's some very solid netcode, Naughty Dog, bravo.

The deathmatch is pretty damn good, and I've spent most of my time playing that. Straight DM is still the most enjoyable IMHO, but Elimination (the CounterStrike style one life per round mode) is also a blast as long as everybody knows what they're doing. I also really like what they did with the achievement-based money reward system, it really makes you feel good after having an excellent round. Co-op Arena is not as fun, but is still great, and it's a lot more enjoyable than your standard CTF.

The real revelation though, is co-op Objective. I mean, GOD DAMN. I had my first experience with it awhile ago, and it's absolutely amazing! You may need to wait a while to find a game, but it's totally worth it. I so want to give it a try on Crushing just to see how far me and the other two party members would get.

The only beefs I really have with the beta:

* It sometimes takes a really long time to get a game to join, and I've tried during both peak and off-peak hours. Kung minsan it can take ages to get in, especially for the less popular game modes like co-op objective.

* It's way too easy to score cheap kills with grenades. When you're about to die, you just throw a grenade in the general direction of your attacker, and the huge blast radius gives you a pretty good chance of still killing him even though you're pretty much dead yourself. They need to fix this, just a bit.

You know, when I think about it, what really makes me happy about U2ATB is that I'm traditionally a bigger fan of the offline component of videogames; with some notable exceptions (Street Fighter IV, COD4:MW, etc.) I'm much happier playing a solo game by myself or with a bunch of people in the same room. But I'm having so much fun with multi, it blows my mind to think that when I finally plop the U2 disc into my PS3 this October, I'm gonna be getting an expanded version of this fantastic multiplayer suite, in addition to the story mode I've lusted after for so long.

If my expectations for the single-player turn out to be true, it means IGN was right for once: they really did give us two games in one. How about that? Value!

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves MP Demo

So I came home from work today. Walang lakad, so I changed clothes, smoked a couple cigarettes to relax, then fired up the PS3 (I tend to use the PlayStation to surf the net when I just wanna do some light surfing, as that way I don't have to turn on the PC/laptop. Yeah, I'm lazy, I know.) Much to my shock, one of the top stories on Destructoid read:

"Uncharted 2 Demo Available For All"

HOLY SHIIIIIIIIT.

I checked my friends list and sure enough, a LOT of people were playing Uncharted 2 Beta. I promptly logged on to the US PSN account and started the DL. Oh yeah! I'll leave the PS3 on overnight if I have to so I can wake up to a faceful of Uncharted 2 goodness! I'll also post some impressions tommorow... that is, if I can tear myself away from the PS3.

Rhugged and Rox_Ira, if you're reading this, RUNDON'TWALK to your PS3's and download the game data ASAP. In the immortal words of Bruce Buffer.... IT'S TIME! :-)