Uncharted 2: The Upper Echelon
Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was an impressive experience on many levels, but was much maligned by its timing, small user base, low levels of marketing and publicity. Uncharted 2 in my mind had to go a long way to surpass one of the landmark games of recent times.
What follows may not follow usual review convention and yet I feel it is an apt way to respond to this piece of gaming genius.
The opening menu creates a precedent for everything else that follows. Multi-layered and beautifully recreated, you could easily spend minutes just looking around this introductory screen. The gritty uncharted font returns this time with a new suffix; Among thieves. The depth of field demonstrated subtly with slowly swaying leaves in the foreground closest to the camera being out of focus with a striking stone statue brandishing a dagger dominating the midground and some ledges and edges that lead your eyes towards a softly moving banner in the background.
Above all of this, volumetric lighting flows from a roof just out of view and illuminates particles of dust that slowly drift in the cavernous space.
Just before you click the start button you notice a bird fly into the scene and perch on the statue look around before flying off again. Perfectly animated and believeable.
Hidden in the options is an impressive array of Sound and music options. These options reflect the importance of the score associated with this game and the attempts to equal the most visceral of movie experiences. As there are very few games that grasp the imagination and attention of my entire family, Drakes Fortune was one, Heavenly Sword was another,with the latest Naughty Dog game Uncharted: Among Thieves, falling comfortably into this sub-genre I like to call co-gaming. These games create an emotional connection and create characters that non-gamers and gamers alike buy into and believe in much the same way that movie goers do. To this end Nathan Drake, represents the gaming equivalent of John McClane (Die Hard) not your typical gaming hero, a character who is sometimes daring, sometimes lucky and always fun to watch/play. The funniest moments in the game for me were really unexpected and reinforced my association with the lead. At one stage looking down the irons of an AK47 and pointing my gun at an explosive cannister Drake says in a quiet voice reminiscent of a thought “Boooom”.
Impressive depth of field
POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: Later attempting to separate the carsof a train and targetting the coupling again Nate quips “not even”. What for was so impressive was that at that exact moment I was wondering ‘could I’?
Too right Ant, I experienced the same sort of thing when I was in an epic gun battle within the Tibetan village, as one of my enemies (one of Lazarovic’s soldiers) yelled ’Your Finished’ as I switched my AK-47 to an M4 assult rifle Drake responds ’Hm, We’ll See’. This this in turn lit the fire of the soldier within me as I took out Lazarovic’s soldiers one by one. It’s clear that this game’s character interaction with other characters, objects and even the environments is one of the best the gaming industryhas ever seen. But deeper than than that is the interaction between, Nate the main protagonist and you the gamer. Subtle and rare, but always i my experience accurate these little things challenge what we know and expect from a game. It is almost as if Naughty Dog have attempted to embue Nate with a sprinkle of AI, enabling him to respond to events and scenarios totally independant of the person controlling him.
Also the recent Uncharted 2 update of extra features, including 2 extra maps on co-op mode that have well thought out scenario’s, linked with the main story, for me sends this game in the stratosphere. (and might i add, no extra charge). hopefully NaughtyDog will have more in store for us. Personally I can’t wait for the next chapter for Eye of Indra. How bout you Ant?
