Remembering Uncharted 2

I'll admit I talk quite a bit of trash about Naughty Dog compared to everyone else. Its not only from the fact that I don't think their games are as appealing as everybody else does, but also that I have an issue with the vast majority of what comes out of their mouths. I don't hate them, but I'm more open to criticizing them while most sit by quietly twiddling their thumbs, and by comparison I probably look pretty mean about it. I could go on a big list of all the types of lies or sad excuses that come out of their PR department, but honestly that isn't to say they're a bad company either. In fact in terms of pure quality (or fun) the fact is they're among top tier teams. Few devs give us the same lengthy campaigns, thrilling stories, bonus extras, and replay value as Naughty Dog does. I may not love all their games, but I respect a lot of the work put into them. However there is one major exception to my mixed views on their library: Uncharted 2. That was also my first PS3 game. With the collection coming up there was a demo released recounting a part of the mid-game city area, and after replaying it I felt the enthusiasm of that game all over again.... despite a couple quirky hiccups.

I still faintly remember what it was like before, and after, getting my hands on it at the end of 2009. The game released, it was everywhere in the news. Footage was going around blowing my mind on the concept that you could basically pick up and throw what were essentially explosive barrels. Then there was said to be this amazing blockbuster globe-trotting adventure, top notch visuals that went beyond a simply experiencing HD for the first time, and multi-layered gameplay that mixed together puzzle solving, shooting, and stealth. By the way that last bit is a bit exaggerated from the result, but that was the hype, and regardless of how true or false you take it in the result was still a fairly engaging 3rd person shooter adventure. Reviews were sky high, and the boxes proudly printed with "over 25 (or 28?) perfect review scores!". I remember looking hard at the box art in wal-mart, with a stranger beside me just as enthusiastic about it as we both said to each other "this game has to be amazing". I showed my parents the game and said "If I get a PlayStation 3 for Christmas, I need this to be one of the first games I get for it". I was admittedly even more hyped for Killzone 2 in all reality, but this was a close second. By Christmas morning it was in my hands as my first (and in that short moment, the only) PS3 game. I got everything updated, put the disc in, and eventually started it all up in an exciting game where the only problem was trying to figure out gameplay from cut-scene in that famous train crash intro. Later I dabbled into multiplayer, and was overjoyed by the funny santa hats everybody had for the holiday as my team rushed around in the temple for a great round of TDM. The next day, when I was in the middle of the Borneo level, my dad picked up an HDMI cable and when I continued the game in the mountain view, it was just amazing.

Of course, that's just fading memory speaking for my first impressions. The question remains, what made the game so special, and how does it all hold up? How will I remember Uncharted 2, and why? I think its actually pretty simple in the end really. At first glance Uncharted 2 isn't so special. Its a big budget T rated Gears of War game. You have standard base mechanics, a fairly normal video game pattern, and even the story the series is well known for isn't anything fresh considering we've all seen these Hollywood treasure hunter/archeologist hero type set-ups. Still in the same way I love Killzone, Uncharted is a series that gets the small things right and innovates in those areas. I seem to remember Uncharted being one of the first big hits to use grade A motion capturing, it was welcomed for not only high-end graphics but also all the colorful places it used them in, and its gunplay and the adventure were just soooo good. It wasn't just that you were playing another 3rd person shooter with an adventure, it was that we were playing a really damn good one with love put into it all over the place.

The high quality starts with Nathan Drake, one of the first things I'm sure we notice. He's a hero who isn't as average as the devs would like us to think but yet he's still a fully well developed character. He laughs, he tells jokes, he panics, he fusses about his luck, he's a smart alack in one moment and fed up with the adventure in another, etc. He does this constantly, in scenes, and in gameplay, and sometimes even by the player's actions. I'll never forget how funny that scene is where I wanted to see if I could run into a rooftop pool during the middle of the level (its in the collections demo for the record). Upon diving in and playing around, Drake starts calling out "Marco!" and giggles. His friend isn't as amused, since she just wants to finish the job. Its a funny small little moment that you can experience that sort of ties your actions as a playful gamer into the plot. The game recognizes your input, and ties it in with your character, who then drags the NPCs into the scene as well. Its a nice small touch that we probably take for granted today, but back when this was new it was a tiny innovation. The closest thing I can think of before Uncharted where you could have your character actively talk out of linear scripts may have been Metal Gear Solid's Codec talk, but even then you could argue that is its own little isolated piece that works like a hint system. However the attention to detail goes beyond just the character doing things like swearing about grenades or joking with friends. When you roll in snow, it sticks to your clothes. When you swam in water, you came out wet. When you saw an explosive scene break out, it wasn't just a cut-scene, it was a massive scripted sequence that goes with the very game itself. What used to require a pre-rendered cut-scene, or some lifeless game script coming into play was now coming at you in defined detail from within the gameplay itself. Of course this has later been exploited far out of control with other games, and has aspired to many QTE type scenarios, but Uncharted by itself has always kept these set pieces balanced and engaging. Meanwhile when cut-scenes did show up, they obviously had some great quality, and at times you could feel like these people were real enough to touch compared to past game visuals. All of these little details made for an entry into next-gen that was not only a good preview of what was to come, but it stands in Uncharted 2 as one of the best balances and executions you could probably find.

Of course I'd be lying if I tried to sell you on the game by its perfect execution, as it wasn't perfect. It has a sample of some pacing problems within its own gameplay variety. One moment you'll be facing a big action scene, shooting wave after wave of enemies, then something awesome happens where a helicopter or tank is chasing you, and then after you beat it you're suddenly wandering a temple and just climbing for 40 minutes. It'd be one thing if it were nice down time, but it just feels a bit like an oversight to have areas go on for that long only to then make us run a marathon of gun battles afterwards. That being said though, Uncharted 2 was the best in the franchise at still doing its pacing right. That's why most people agree on it being the best, and its one of those cases where I'll have to agree. Uncharted 1 and 3 have some of the same problems where it feels like the balance was flung out in favor of extra gunplay, which is something I normally don't have a problem with, but there's only so much crouching pop & shoot gameplay you can take in one little area. Uncharted 2 kept the movement flowing. You were always moving up when you fire, cleaning up the area, and even approaching some of them differently. You could always find new weapons to use, find a diverse set of enemy types to encounter and think around, and you always left a battle feeling satisfied. There were also trophies for dedicated weapon use, giving me plenty of replay value and some incentive to try using the weapons I didn't like the first time around. Meanwhile Uncharted 1 and 3 have a few areas where you pretty much can only win by bunkering down a position for a while.

Then there was multiplayer. Multiplayer was flawed, but a blast to play regardless. Its weird to call it this, but it had a slice of old school mixed in with something I can only state was obviously uncharted-like. You climbed around things, scaled walls, yanked people off cliffs by their feet, flung treasure off your shoulder so you could get it to your home base, and tried tearing people up from behind cover. Meanwhile you still had this old arcade vibe that 3 totally destroyed. Every match gave you the same starting weapons, with basic drops off to the side as teams ran out of their spawn points. You had to look for an pick up every weapon you wanted, and occasionally you might get lucky and find a serious weapon like the grenade launcher or magnum revolver where the right shot would mean instant death. Between these, the interest in perks, the skin variety, and the interesting envrionments, Uncharted 2 was a great multiplayer experience I cannot completely forget despite discovering so many superior multiplayer games. Its one I kept coming back to periodically, and one I kept taking an interest in. Naughty Dog supported it well and I even occasionally bough some fun and silly DLC stuff like the Killzone skins that let you play as a Helghast, meanwhile I could run in and shoot up Cole from Infamous or infected Nathan Hale from Resistance. While I'm discussing skins, I'll also bring up the humorous dead explorers, cool looking glowing skeletons, the stretched "Doughnut" characters, etc. Basically anything that had a ragdoll or character model was probably a playable character by multiplayer or in-game cheat code standards, and there may even be a goofy secondary version for laughs.

Multiplayer was great

At the end of the day Uncharted 2 remains one of my favorite 3rd person shooters ever, and honestly as my favorite work from Naughty Dog. In theory I should like Last of Us more for its better gunplay and a legit health system, but honestly there's just something Uncharted 2 does right about the flow and feeling of its level design. It doesn't get in my way much with some dramatic story, it doesn't throw too much buddy puzzles, and the slow segments can be overcome easily by chapter selection. Last of Us... just has a different vision that required a different pace I didn't care as much for. When I finished Last of Us, I felt complete and done with an awesome game. When I finished Uncharted 2, I felt like I had completed an awesome game and it was begging me to keep playing it for more fun, and so I did. I returned to the levels blasting through again, trying new weapons, new firing orders, got more practice and better at the small stealthy bits, found just a bit more of the dialogue, kept going into the multiplayer, and several months later I returned yet again and the cycle continued. It just did something right to keep me interested and coming back, enjoying it, and thanking a team I once didn't think much of for so much good effort into such a great game. The extras, the treasures, the cheat codes, the writing, the fun, it was all just there and hits the right notes for a truly fun classic. At least I think it'll be remembered as a classic.

So while I think the re-release is a bit overpriced, don't make any mistake on thinking I look down on it. The 2nd game on its own is a treasure worth hunting for in itself, and the other two are still great as well. Its a shame the multiplayer wasn't carried over though. Still its worth picking it up, and heck it was worth fooling around with the fun demo as well.