LogFAQs > #898859718

62. Uncharted 2
Original Release: 2008
Developer: Naughty Dog
Platform: PS3

Everything about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves screams big budget, and Naughty Dog succeeded in that regard. This franchise is basically the video game equivalent of a modernized Indiana Jones. It's the slow, more gamey parts of the game that annoyed me enough to get me to drop the game. First is the combat, which is decent enough but you're constantly swarmed by endless mercenaries and you're constantly needing to take cover. The areas, or should I call them arenas, where you're involved in a shootout are very large and sometimes it's hard to find where to go exactly. Meanwhile you're being shot at from all directions, and grenades are being lobbed at you faster than you can breathe. A few shots will kill you, so you need to run for cover as much as possible and regenerate. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a less fun Gears of War or another action heavy game during these parts except without the co-op.

Other times the game slows to a halt and wants you to solve a puzzle in a large room. It'll drop hints here and there, but the riddles can be irritating to solve. Especially when the rooms are big and there's no clear hint as to what you need to do exactly. I remember being stuck in that chamber in one of the earlier chapters, underneath Borneo was it? Can't remember. The game will ask you to go fetch an item, place it in a receptacle, then solve a riddle, or vice versa etc. and it really isn't fun. Sometimes it'll throw dudes at you to shoot while trying to do these riddles. I mean, the trailers for this game were fantastic, with Drake hanging off a near fallen train. But when the game drags along with these annoying but necessary sections, it shows its faults.

That didn't stop me from purchasing The Last of Us and Uncharted 4, however. Even though those games essentially use the same formula, I still found Uncharted 2 enjoyable. What it does well is the stuff you saw in the trailers -- a sprint through a moving train that spans multiple chapters, trying to escape from the falling train, escaping a helicopter across some rooftops, this stuff is fun and exciting. It's all the in-between fluff that wore me out.

FYI - I'm switching the placement of #61 and #60. #61 being switched to #60 and thus the last game in this tier would feel rather...cathartic and edgy. That, and I remember much more of it than I do of the other one.