Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

There is such talent as the ability to tell. That I will reveal America to you - as some torment everyone, even in spite of the colorful story they present - so others will draw the audience and the story of a night trip to get water from the bed to the kitchen (and often also back again). And so it seems to me that in the world of games we are too used to the former, and this is mainly due to the easy recipe to divert attention from the subject. Oh, finally, games defend themselves by playing - interactivity, gameplay. And if so, why overwork?

Specialists from Naughty Dog apparently know the answer, which is: because then you can create a pearl. Well, the recipe may not be that simple, because you also need talent or even genius, but these divine elements of the studio cannot be denied. The team's achievements (at the forefront of the adventures of Jak and Daxter, who did not play, this trumpet) indicates a certain regularity - due to attachment to Sony machines, it changes the conventions of its games every "generation" of equipment. In the case of PlayStation 3, however, you can talk about a real revolution, because then the climate straight from cartoons was abandoned in favor of stylized photorealism. However, the other rule remained unchanged - Naughty Dog hits the second time the most.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is basically another attempt to bite the species whose progenitor is Tomb Raider. The vivisection method can be divided into three basic components of the discussed production: exploration-platform part, murder-shooting and their most peaceful friend - solving puzzles. However, Uncharted 2 should not be shared, as movies about Indiana Jones are not mentioned as cinemas only about beating after the mouths or only about shooting at guests swinging with swords, or only about solving the absurd secrets of ancient artifacts (i.e. you could, but after What?). It's about a magical atmosphere.

It is the same with Uncharted 2. The memory of Dr. Jones is naturally not accidental (yes, the author of the text thinks about in advance) - the game is not so much based on the adventures of Lara Croft, which goes deeper and is even a tribute to the adventures of the famous film an archaeologist or even an 80's action adventure cinema. When asked now (after passing the game) about what I primarily associate the latest work of Naughty Dog with, I would answer - with the characters, dialogues and scenes in which they appear. And it's not because the gameplay itself is not the best or it comes to the background - quite the opposite. It is great, but the revolutionary smooth, light and often unusual intertwining of all Uncharted 2 elements takes this game above levels.

Ending slowly philosophizing - in the game we play the role of Nathan Drake, adventurer and riches lost centuries ago. This time he found the treasure of Marco Polo himself, who in 1292, setting out on his way back after visiting Emperor Kublai Khan with a fleet of 14 units and 600 crew members, reached the destination with only one ship and 18 people. At least, that's what they say to us in the game and for its needs this theme works great - in the end, even the author of the text noticed that the number of ships and people, not to mention their wealth, does not quite agree and has to provide something.

And there, where probably other games would simply send to the place Lara, who, exterminating the local fauna and representatives of a competitive expedition, would achieve the goal - Uncharted 2 begins by familiarizing us with the escapade's facilities. Although this is not so again, because you can see that Naughty Dog is familiar with Hitchcock's golden thought of the earthquake and begins his game with a brilliant scene in which barely a living hero wakes up in a wagon hanging over the Himalayan abyss. And we meet these facilities just in times when Nathan loses consciousness.

The treatment is brilliant. The story itself is predictable insofar as adventure movies are predictable, but how - as the authors play with us, struggling to solve even the most banal threads - is already an example of the talent for the story I wrote in the introduction. And yes - first we wake up in the wagon. After crawling out of it, we lose consciousness to see the first meeting of the package planning the action in our memories. Again, for a moment we return to the wreck of the train to limp a few steps, fall over - and get to the Turkish museum, from which we need to steal a lamp containing a hint of interest (Nathan is not so terrible to act like this). I will not reveal any more chronology, because the very events in the museum surprise with the turnaround they take and their finale.

Considering the above descriptions, know that in Uncharted 2 (unlike its predecessor) a real kaleidoscope of landscapes awaits you. We start in Turkey, for a moment we come to Borneo to continue our journey in Nepal - from the green foothills to the snowy peaks of the mountains. The logical content of events is terribly pleasing - we not only know why we go here and there, but we also stick to the so-called together.

Same fight. Because in search of a mysterious treasure (which of course presents not only material value), we are also racing with the army of war criminal Lazarewicz. And although we cut entire hosts of his minions into the trunk - all of this is within the tolerance of action movie supporters. How many guests send such a Bond (non-craig) to a rigid park in an average movie, and it still seems reasonable? Ha. In any case, Nathan is no worse and his behavior is defended in the same way.

At the same time, Nathan is the type of hero ever-collecting whips (Bond-craigowy). Virtually a few times we only see him bruised, and probably never once in clean clothes. He often hits his head on the ceiling, footbridges fall under it, etc., etc. He is a superman in the everyday sense, but already in the movie - he is an average hero who is very lucky and always has to tie the shoelace when a sniper is aiming at him. He meets, often limps and most importantly - reacts vividly to events.

I remember words today from the review of the first Tomb Raider (I don't remember the name of the magazine anymore), where its author was delighted that the game had cut-scenes generated on the game engine, when Lara - behaving like a puppet during exploration - came alive and began to think aloud ". To this day it has been many games. Meanwhile, in Uncharted 2, our Nathan continues to wind. The movie atmosphere does not end with videos (also based on the game engine) when the hero is given over to us. Oh no (apart from the ongoing dialogues with NPCs), when he gets in the head - he throws the meat, falls - screams, reaching for the magazine, pinned to the wall with the fire of enemy rifles - he encourages. And this is not a repertoire that we know by heart after a few minutes of playing (like "Sweet!" By Marcus from Gears of War ) - his lyrics are tailored to specific situations that occur once in the game. All the time he feels an unusual relationship with the hero - he spoke to us, we manage his fate. Nice.

Sometimes it's hard to catch the exact moments when a movie ends and a clean game begins. All in all, there is no reason - because the effect obtained in Uncharted 2 works great. And this is not a hassle, which in my opinion is the use of the so-called Quick Time Events, i.e. sequences in which we have to press the buttons shown on the screen to "survive" the video played in the background. In Uncharted 2 QTE there is practically no (well, sometimes they appear during boss fights)!

We are experiencing many amazing actions. For example, a scene on a speeding train or a start in a collapsing building - at some point, we just see that the landscape outside the window begins to tilt, the furniture slides down to one side, and we still have full control over the character! There are a lot of such scenes - the authors have great fun with us, breaking conventions.

E.g. regarding climbing routes. In most games you can clearly see the routes to follow. In Uncharted 2, there are also such, I will add right away - they are quite linear, but like in Assassin's Creed they have been blended into the background and often undergo constant changes. This something breaks off, it is the gutter that we hold on to, contorts - brilliant. Brilliant because we have to respond to these changes.

The consistency of all components of the game did not bypass puzzles. These strictly archaeological are relatively few, but they were really very interesting devised and placed in logical places (temples, catacombs etc.). What's more, the hero is constantly accompanied by a notebook, which in his spare time he complements, like the mentioned Indiana Jones, so we know what the puzzles are and what they relate to.

However, we struggle mainly with logistical tasks for most of the time - how? which way? Get here and here. These sequences are very pleasant, imaginative, interesting and try to surprise us every time. It is also worth mentioning that we rarely move without a companion and often, unraveling any of the aforementioned threats - we must include the person accompanying us.

Fight. In the game, we keep on heels or ruthlessly fall straight into the arms of Lazarewicz's army. This one, in order to be able to find and comb the temples in a certain city in peace, will start even a small war there. Either way - confrontation is inevitable and it's not a game for people who don't like to shoot.

And this was exemplary. So we are dealing with an action game in terms of TPP, in the style of Gears of War - that is, the obligatory hug to the walls. The hero can take a maximum of two guns - the main (rifles, shotguns) and the hand-held (pistols) - as well as four grenades. The choice of weapons is quite large and we will also find here rocket launchers, crossbows or even a popular minigun - but this one restricts movement extremely. We will also play various stationary departments, mounted both in the field and on board vehicles.

In addition, in Uncharted 2 we will use a very well prepared set of punches. In the case of close encounters, we can get into a fight with the chosen adversary - there are no short combos and counterattacks. Lovers of quiet games will be pleased, however, by the fact that many scenes can be passed, taking care of enemies silently. And here, given Nathan's acrobatic ability, our hero is in no way inferior to Mr. Fisher. The use of live shields was not found.

Our opponents are typical cannon fodder, not counting a few bosses (skirmishes with them are ingenious like the whole game), who as such fulfill their role perfectly. Their behavior is evident in intelligence, but blunted for the needs of our survival (what is the trick to create an enemy who will just lurk and kill us - and certainly - where's the fun?). They climb, maneuver - the environments in which we fight allow for a very non-linear approach to their elimination.

The game is full of great dialogues, not only in the textual layer, but also in terms of craftsmanship of their "playing" by virtual actors. Gesticulation, facial expressions - sometimes the characters' behavior is enough to make us laugh. Face animations present a really high level and after seeing Uncharted 2 the upcoming Heavy Rain doesn't make such an impression anymore.

I used the cool phrase 'virtual actors', but in fact, after being immersed in the game, we have the impression of communing with fantastic, colorful characters. The feisty Nathan, mysterious and eternally flirting with him Chloe, speaking only in warm Tibetan Tenzin, old man Kral Shafer, who was a participant in Himalayan expeditions 70 years ago or pal Nathan Sullivan - are just part of a really memorable group of people.

And now I will reveal that I prepared such a "twist of action in a review" - despite the large repertoire of language versions to choose from, I played Uncharted 2 with Polish dubbing. The reason - it's really great. Maybe I needed a few minutes to get used to it, after all, even in the movies we have subtitles or a voiceover - but after feeling up I didn't feel like switching to the English version. I particularly liked Andrzej Blumenfeld in the role of Sullivan.

It is full of professionalism - you can hear various acoustic phenomena, characters with a nozzle, zip, and generally they express specific situations with their voice. I am really pleasantly surprised by what the localization team gave us. In case of that - the other five soundtracks are waiting (and many more types of captions). However, I was very happy and amused by the text of the hero who after entering the mountain village asked "does anyone speak Polish here?"

In general, the sound of the game is something that deserves a separate paragraph. The characters of the natives speak their native languages in the game - which in times when even Germans and aliens speak English is impressive. Uncharted 2 clearly shows that believing is not only to see but also to hear. The sounds of the jungle, city, caves, ice deserts - all this simply intensifies the experience accompanying us while playing. And its film character is also emphasized by film music.

Naughty Dog are masters of code and what they did on both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 is a true display of the skill of taming console architecture. And to be honest - just like then, it's hard for me now to find a nicer game on PS3. While in terms of pure effects you can see concessions to the strongest PCs (textures, shaders) - so the artistic level of Uncharted 2 is simply unmatched.

The studio made a very risky decision, moving away from the cartoon convention, which - as you know - forgives more in favor of photorealism. The worst thing is that the game's impression is made of things that are hard to show on still frames - fluid framerate and animations of characters and surroundings. You can see the enormity of work put into level designs - there are no signs of making any concessions anywhere. If the ruins - they must be bitten by a tooth of time, holes - through which holes you can see the environment behind them.

And the awareness that all these intricate constructions are often turned into grass. What is the top now - in a moment it will be the bottom: the grounds change their slope, the cornices break off, the walls are pounding. And considering that the hero is interacting with this environment all the time - desperately trying to save his ass - our admiration can only grow.

It also grows due to the fact that the game is relatively long. I needed three days to finish it, which according to the counter translated into ten hours of gameplay. However, looking at the intensity of the whole action - I felt like after a much longer meeting. Anyway, this is not the most important thing anyway, because I also appreciate shorter games, as long as they are compact in composition. And that's how it is with Uncharted 2 .

It would be a stupid situation if you, being the owners of PlayStation 3, did not like such games. It is a must-have item. I will not cross out its value on the scale of our country, because in my opinion both dubbing and translation are milestones in this field.

All in all, it's hard to imagine now a better position of this type - everything I have written so far, it concerns only the single player mode. For which it is worth buying the game. Uncharted 2 is also a multiplayer mode - both competition and cooperative. And from what I was able to check - at least very good.

To sum up, however, the review of the single player mode - if you move it on a 1: 1 scale to the silver screen and release the movie Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - it would be a really successful action movie (much better than the last Indiana Jones). With great characters, dialogues and scenes. And this is, in my opinion, for games that are narrative games still behind movies - probably the best recommendation. None of them was as close yet - while maintaining their "game" identity (MGS tried and failed). Play, play.

Maciej "Von Zay" Makuła

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