We'll get this out of the way immediately: this is the best looking video game that has been made to date. It's going to be tough to top this one for quite a while I think. Sure Final Fantasy XIII will probably give it a run for its money early next year, and the new Call of Duty is definitely a contenda for best looking game ever made as well. But Uncharted 2 is probably still going to stomp those games faces into the ground just on the basis of its epic locales and sweet ass explosions that happen entirely too frequently (and thats a good thing, by the way). With that being said, the best graphics ever do not a classic game make. There has to be other factors of course, specifically, is it fun, are you enjoying yourself and not annoyed when you play it, are you playing just to see the next cut scene or to see what truly awesome area those crazy folks over at Naughty Dog will throw at you next? Because if you are, then that isn't the makings of an epic game. I'll say this before I get too much further into it: Uncharted 2 has all the makings of a summer blockbuster put into video game form. And what do we usually think of a summer blockbuster? If you are like me or have the mentality that I do, which is to say, that of about an oh, say, 21 year old male who LOVES to watch crap blow up and bullets flying all over the place, not to mention a couple of hot girls to save and a whole mess of people that you have to shoot, punch, kick, maim, definistrate (how many people had to look that word up?), set on fire, etc. along the way, then you are probably first in line to see alot of these summer blockbusters that come along every year. And each year they seem to up the ante on junk blowing up and sweet explosions. I myself am ok with it (I saw Transformers 2 three times in theaters for instance, and I'm not even really sure I liked the movie), but the question that I asked myself as I played through all of Uncharted 2 was, do we need this feeling in a video game?
Well, by the end of Uncharted 2, my answer was a pretty resounding..."well, I guess?" Cuz honestly, is this the game of the year? No. Does it make the top 10? I suppose, but barely. This is the game that many are calling the "system seller" for the PS3. Which, when I think about it, I guess the game equivalent of the summer blockbuster probably WOULD be a system seller, a lot of easily amused people (such as myself) out there. So I guess, since you have obviously figured out that I have some problems with the game, I'll start with the good first. Which is odd for me, because I'm a pessimist drinking my half empty glass of coke as I type this. But anyways, so the obvious first positive this game has is the graphics. That should be readily apparent in the two screenshots I've got here. Everything is incredibly detailed, and the characters are some of the best animated characters I've ever seen. Nathan Drake and the two hotties (well...the blonde is at least, but I LOVE blondes, so my opinion might not even count) that accompany him through most of this adventure really come to life like a character in a movie would - and actually more so than many of the flat (*cough* Megan Fox in the Transformers movies! *cough cough*) one-sided characters that are in most action movies. Nathan's characted, voiced by a dude who does quite a bit of voice overs for main characters in games (he was the Prince in the newest Prince of Persia - which btw, is a better game than this one, and cheaper...just saying, and also the main dude in Shadow Complex, a game a reviewed in summer time) and for good reason, is one of the most likeable characters to ever come along in a video game. He isn't a pussy like Raiden, he isn't a douchebag like Nathan "Rad" Spencer from Bionic Commando, he isn't just a man with a one-track mind on his mission like the protagonists of the Assassins Creed games. He's certainly an action hero and not just your average Joe, but you could compare his persona to an Indiana Jones or a Han Solo (in fact if Harrison Ford was oh, say, 20-30 years younger I'd say that he would be born to play this role when the inevitable movie is made, but instead I'll go with Nathan Fillion...partly cuz the voice actor and Nathan sound very similar, and plus, main characters name is Nathan anyways!), which means, hes very likeable. He's hilarious, too. You will find yourself smiling or even laughing out loud as some of the things he says either to his enemies, the hotties hes with, or just some of the stuff he yells mid fight. He's very entertaining. And it can't go without saying that his main female counterpart, Elena, is very much his equal in this game. Which is great, because we need more tough female roles that don't always need to be rescued by their dashing male heroes, or even sometimes do their own bit of rescuing. I credit the first new James Bond movie (Casino Royale) with creating females like this in movies, but Elena is definitely one of the pioneers in gaming - not because she kicks her own share of ass in games, we've had heroines like that since Lara Croft, but because shes the equal to her male counterpart. That, frankly, is pretty neat. So the characters are great in this game, some of the best I've seen in a video game, and the graphics are top notch, need to be seen to believed. What this all boils down to is something that you probably knew I was getting at: it's like playing a really well-written action movie.
So here maybe even Nathan is thinking, does it all work? Well, for me, yes and no. So now we get to the gameplay. In some parts, the answer to this question is a resounding yes, absolutely. There's one chapter on a moving train that is quite honestly incredible. Not only do you have constantly changing scenery the whole time you are on this moving train (and I seriously just let the game run for ten minutes one time and never saw anything that repeated), but you are fighting for your life the entire time. There's another scene pretty late in the game where you are jumping from truck to truck while shooting all kinds of other vehicles. It's completely insane and over the top, just like a good action movie should be. Perhaps the most mind-blowing part of the game is where you are fighting through this village that is completely under seige, in particular by a big ass tank that is gunning for you more than anyone else (of course, we wouldn't want it any other way). All of this is definitely awesome. However, I guess just like most action movies, there are definitely some low points as well. Unfortunately, a lot of these low points come toward the end of the game - and actually, for me, the entire beginning scene was a miss too. Some people - certainly most critics - would say I'm nuts for saying this. But frankly the game starts out trying WAY too hard to grab you and say "pay attention, this is awesome, I promise!" by having you climb up this train car that is about to fall off a mountain. Sounds awesome, right? It isn't handled properly and you essentially just keep mashing x hoping he'll hop to the next spot. Like I said, trying too hard. And the end falls into the same pitfall that everyone bashed the first one for (although thats still a good game, too) - waaaay too many gunfights that essentially just feel like the developers threw in to extend the length of the game. Uncharted 2 doesn't have the problem with length that the first one did, so this is an odd choice - whereas you could probably blow through the first one in 7-8 hours, this one will probably take you about 10-12. Which is fine for an action game in my opinion. So why add another hour or so of pointless gunfights? Especially toward the end of the game, where everything is coming to a head?
I don't even think this is a picture of in game graphics, I just wanted to have a decent picture of Elena for the review, since shes basically Nathan's equal. But anyways, so the gameplay never really falls apart, it just gets...annoying in some parts. Which leads me to another problem with this game - the difficulty. This game is HARD. Like, STUPID hard in some parts. Which is fine - for some games where you expect it to be hard because the game itself has eased you into the fact that you are going to get your ass kicked repeatedly (Valkirya Chronicles comes to mind). But Uncharted 2 has parts that are stupid hard for no freaking reason at all. It just becomes ridiculous in some parts. Again, this is mostly towards the end, although there are some parts in the game that just spring up on you that are insane. Half the time these come after a really cool platforming scene or cool part of the story, so you are all the more pissed off when they come up. It's another odd design choice that pulls you away from the experience. You may have seen those commercials (that were admitedly hilarious) about the guy who is talking about how his girlfriend thinks they are actually watching an action movie and she won't believe its a game? I used to yell at the TV when those came up after I beat the game. I'd yell "oh hey, mr. ps3 representative? What about those super gay parts where you keep dying over and over again because the game engine for some reason becomes ridiculous? How about the parts where 950,000 dudes keep pouring out for you to shoot for no reason? Pretty sure she'd figure out it was just a video game then!" So yes, I think I've established that the difficulty is idiotic in some parts. It isn't all bad though, just like the gameplay - we'll say about 75% of this game is pretty much smooth sailing. It's just the other 25% that keep this from being one of the best games ever made.So I think that just about covers it. I hope I've established why this game doesn't deserve game of the year in my book. The game of the year for ME is Blazblue, but thats because I'm a fighting game freak. When I spent two months of playing that game exclusively, I knew it wasn't going to be topped this year. It hasn't been. The game of the year as far as everyone else goes, and a title that it deserves, is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. That's whats up next for me to review, but this is not to say that Uncharted 2 is a bad game that shouldn't be played by anyone. If you own a PS3, get it. Is it a reason to buy a PS3, a "system seller" if you will? Nope. Metal Gear Solid 4 already had that covered last summer. But Uncharted 2 isn't so completely mind-blowing that you need to run out and get your hands on the closest PS3, punching and kicking kids out of the way or whatever you must do to get there. It's good, its even great, but it isn't a classic for the ages. To the scores!
Graphics - 11/10. The best you have ever seen, and probably will see for quite a while. Incredible. Mind-blowing. Other descriptive words that mean cool.
Sound - 10/10. Fantastic presentation. The characters have some of the best voice overs ever done in video games, and rival many characters in action movies. The sound effects are top notch, things blow up real good, guns sound real, atmospheric, epic music kicks in sometimes on some great scenes, and basically, everything sounds like it should. Right up there with the graphics.
Challenge - 10/10. This 10 isn't a good thing. It's stupid and ridiculous sometimes, and you WILL get pissed off. And not in a good way, like with a game that's really testing your abilities. In a bad way, where the game is just being hard just to be hard. Where the difficulty is increased not because of good programming, but because you have to mow down 6,000 dudes just to get to the next part. It's dumb, its pointless, and it drags the game down quite a bit.
Fun - 7/10. Definitely where the game takes a hit. Yeah you'll have a good time through some of it, even an incredible time in some parts (particularly those scenes I mentioned up in the review), but for almost every one of those epic parts, theres a part that will piss you off for no good reason. It's a bummer, and what truly keeps this game from greatness.
Overall - 8/10. Yeah yeah, if you average out the scores, it probably would deserve a 9. But that 10 in challenge isn't really a good thing, and I suppose shows the weakness of numbered scores sometimes, if you are going by how unfair and pointless the difficultly can become in some parts, it'd deserve about a 5/10. So yes, the best graphics and sound you will probably see and hear in a game, incredible, top notch stuff. A great story that will keep you as riveted, if not more so, than any well-written action movie. But the stupid hard difficultly and the pointless inclusions of too many gunfights make true greatness just out of reach for this game.
So here's the first time where I've really disagreed with critics. This is not the game of the year. The Clevman has SPOKEN!
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