Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

As this represents my first backlog, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Keith Sheffer and although I feel quite honored to be invited to this secret society with no less prestige than the Stone Cutters, the main theme of my life is apathy and as such, it tends to take me weeks to watch the movies I buy, months to beat the video games I buy, and years to read the books I buy. However, I hope this post represents a change in my life for the better. Despite not being anywhere near Catholic, for Lent, I have decided to give up my apathetic ways. Gone are the days in which I dick around on the computer instead of watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gone are the days in which I blast Air Supply while I lay on my bed and stare blankly at the ceiling instead of reading Pirate Latitudes.

To prove my change in commitment, I would like to take a look at the timeline of events that led to me decreasing my backlog by one. When I found out about this game around July or so, I was incredibly excited as its predecessor was easily my favorite game on PS3. I decided then that I would buy it to reassure myself that my PS3 was not just a glorified Blu-ray player. I bought the game in November with all the Gamestop credit I had accumulated from ditching a bunch of crap games like Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I popped it into my PS3 and played the first 3 chapters (out of 26) with some excitement. That represented the last day I played it until around finals week in early December. I played 5 more chapters in one sitting with the intent on beating it in California on winter break. Well, winter break came and went with me never plugging in my PS3. The beginning of the new semester came and went and was just as unproductive. Finally, on Sunday, February 20^th, 2010 with the encouragement of my friends and family and the mean-spirited goading of a heartless bastard who will remain nameless (Webber), I sat down and beat the game in two sittings. I consider that day to be the first day of the rest of my life. With that being said, let’s take a look at the first game I have beaten in 2010: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Uncharted 2 begins right where the first Uncharted left off. Again, we follow our hero Nathan Drake on a crazy adventure through Nepal, Borneo, the Himalayas, Shambala and like twenty other previous Survivor locations in search of some treasure left behind by a famous explorer. This time around, instead of Sir Francis Drake (exploring is in Nathan’s blood!), we have Marco Polo to thank. Drake, along with his trusty sidekick/father figure Sully, soon sets off on an adventure to recover the Cintamani Stone (grants wishes!) from Shambala (Marco Polo and his crew, on an expedition to China in 1292, were believed to have found this powerful stone only to lose it days later in the Shambala). Although this task sounds easy enough, especially for someone with the skill set of Nathan Drake, there are two complicating factors. For one, Shambala is a lost city. No one can be sure that it actually exists (no one except for Drake of course). On top of that, Lazarevic, an evil man who wants nothing more than world domination, is also in hot pursuit of the stone. With money and henchmen at his disposal, Lazarevic seems destined to beat Drake to the stone. I won’t give anything else away (Drake finds Shambala and eventually wins) as I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone.

Although the story was engaging enough, this game kept my attention (eventually) through its amazing game play and action sequences. It felt more like an action movie than a video game in many respects. In fact, I spent about 1/9 of the game negotiating the top of a high-speed moving train and another 1/9 of the game jumping from speeding jeep to speeding jeep while mowing down henchman driver after henchman driver in the process (easily the two best action sequences I have ever played in a video game). Action sequences aside, the game play is a not-so-delicate balance between cover-system shooting (ala Gears of War) and jumping/climbing buildings and structures (ala Prince of Persia? Assassin’s Creed?). Still, I can’t imagine that any game does climbing quite like Uncharted 2. To make some of the jumps he makes, Drake undoubtedly has the strongest forearms in the history of mankind. He also has unparalleled precision with his firearms. Long story short, he is the biggest badass you will ever encounter.

Overall, though this game seems to be a two-trick pony (climbing and shooting), it does those two things better than pretty much any game I have encountered. In fact, despite seemingly borrowing game play elements from other titles, it feels undeniably unique. Furthermore, this game is so goddamned fun. It’s nine hours of constant fun. With that being said, I can’t recommend it enough.