14 DAY TRIAL // A lot of people talk about how gaming should be a cinematic experience and most of the big games aim to have some of the luster usually reserved for Hollywood-made blockbusters. And while we might not yet have the Citizen Kane of videogaming, we certainly have the Indiana Jones in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the Naughty Dog created and Sony published action adventure released this fall as a PlayStation 3 exclusive.
Protagonist Nathan Drake is again chasing some weird treasure with a new set of companions as he begins to discover that his payday is actually a perfect occasion for a villain to take over the world.
Drake, the lovable scoundrel, needs to try and save it and that implies a lot of jumping, shooting from cover, avoiding grenades, along with some head scratching at puzzles, a bit of stealth movement and some impressive graphics.
Naughty Dog has managed to take advantage of the power of the PS3 in order to create a game where no matter how quick the action is, all the details in any particular scene are crisp and clear. I literally hanged from a pole outside of a hotel, which was under attack just so that I could test how the market and the city below looked under close scrutiny and they actually seemed to be as well put together as the rooms I was running through.
The multiplayer is also pretty interesting, especially when joining up with two other players in order to complete sections of the game cooperatively, mixing some light explorations with explosive fire fights that really emphasize teamwork and mixed weapons load outs.
Had the experience been a bit more open, with more dialogue setting up relations between characters and more options related to how Drake and his buddies approached the various set piece battles in the game, Uncharted 2 would have probably taken up more of my time and gaming energy and might have even toppled the title I see as Game of the Year.