14 DAY TRIAL // Playing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, one of the most annoying elements is how little developed the sneaking parts are. There are a few sections where you need to creep around, like in the Istanbul museum, but the player is mainly better served by going in with guns ready to fire and taking out every enemy that threatens their life.
It almost feels like the sneaking sections were an afterthought only meant to provide a quote for the back of the box. But it seems that the decision was made consciously by the developer in order to attract as wider a gaming demographic as possible.
Eurogamer has an interview with Arne Meyer, the community manager for Uncharted 2, and Justin Richmond, the main designer for the multiplayer elements.
On the question of the complexity of stealth, they said that Naughty Dog wanted to create a very accessible experience. Richmond declared that “The big thing for us, gameplay-wise, was wanting to be accessible. What we specifically didn't want to do was turn it into a Splinter Cell where you have guys on patrol and you have to map it out and figure out what's going to happen. What we really wanted to happen was player choice - easy player choice.” They add that making sure no section was too tough is one of the most important things to take into account when actually creating Uncharted 2.
Naughty Dog had the mission to create a blockbuster for the PlayStation 3 and it makes sense for such a game to be as accessible as possible. But Uncharted 2 might actually be taking this one step too far, with the dumbed down stealth mechanic and with the general concept of always making the correct path painfully obvious for the player.