Everything in life is harder when you’re dating someone. Having a girlfriend or a boyfriend tethers you to another human being in some way, but never the same way twice. Every relationship I’ve had has been different. I’ve had relationships where I was scared and in need of attention and validation, and I’ve had relationships where the need to reaffirm my love felt obnoxious. I’ve cared for girls who didn’t care back, and I’ve cared for girls who didn’t need much attention at all. Each relationship changed the fundamentals of my life, restructuring my habits and routines to include a foundation that integrated another person, one I cared about in some way.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a game that could take the genre of linear action adventure, established by games like Uncharted, and reorient the paradigm around the relationship between two people, but it never achieves that experience in any meaningful way. It follows a man and a woman, Monkey and Trip, as they escape a slaver airship in post-apocalyptic New York city and make their way to destroy the slaver headquarters.

I find a large portion of Enslaved to be similar to the Uncharted series. Enslaved maintains its pace by mixing platforming, puzzles, and combat so that one element never overstays its welcome, analogous to Uncharted, linear to the point where every bit of gameplay is a step to the bait of a new cutscene. The best part of Uncharted’s most recent outing, Uncharted 2, was watching the progression of the relationship between Nathan Drake and his lady friends, Chloe and Elena. Disappointingly, the conceit of Uncharted 2 was that action was paramount; that players would play no actual part in the development of the conflict between Drake and Chloe, or in how Elena and Drake would grow more attached, but instead would spend their time shooting militant Russians, climbing crusty walls and discovering buried treasure while the character interaction took place tangentially around them.


The growing relationship between Monkey and Trip is more evident in Enslaved than the relationships in Uncharted, but the surrounding mechanics are less enjoyable. The result is that the relationship stands as the most interesting thing in Enslaved. Monkey and Trip show quiet signs of budding intimacy and love, and while these become the most rewarding parts of the game, they are often obfuscated by video game tropes and repetitive mechanics.

Mechanically, Enslaved is uninteresting. For combat, there are two attack buttons; one for quicker, lighter hits and one for slower, more painful hits. The only difference in varying between either type of attack is time, so the result is that you may kill someone only slightly more quickly if you’re putting in the effort to pay attention. There are also buttons to block and dodge, and sometimes you’ll be asked to hit both buttons together for a wide attack that gives you more space to fight, though none of those options are ever necessary.

The most fun is in mashing the attack buttons and watching as Monkey whirls his staff, clanking against the metallic enemies. In true video game fashion, you’ll have to repeat this process again and again against faceless mechanised robots, remnants of the apocalypse. It’s fun to bang on them for a while, but without any need for higher-level mastery, the flourish of watching Monkey smack things dies quickly.

The platforming and puzzles in Enslaved are also mostly fuelled by the fun of watching Monkey perform them. Unlike Nathan Drake, Monkey (true to his name) can swing and climb more nimbly and spryly, making gigantic, drawn-out jumps, and the animation is all is wonderfully nuanced. With a little timing, you can jump from handhold to handhold more quickly and fluidly. But, like Uncharted, the platforming in Enslaved is so linear that its only real claim is to show you more pretty parts of the environment. Similarly, the puzzles are less of a puzzle and more of a mathematical problem: the answer to every stumbling point is a matter of the order of operations, figuring out which lever to pull first, which to pull last.


Enslaved is admittedly really pretty to look at - it’s the most lush apocalypse I’ve ever seen - but a game about two people shouldn’t be about its graphics, and it certainly shouldn’t be about the nuances of smashing into robots or the fluidity of scaling a wall. They are mechanical operations that require massive repetition. In Uncharted, these mechanics are also repetitious, but they're mostly kept fresh by the changing context of the environment and the story cutscenes that bookend the snippets of action; in Enslaved, this isn’t enough. Uncharted has the money behind it to make the repetition fun - Enslaved doesn’t, but pretends it does.

Where the mechanics of Enslaved prove most entertaining is when they’re put in the context of Monkey and Trip’s relationship. One of the longest combat sequences is in the chapter where Trip finds her mountain home abandoned and rushes off ahead of Monkey, leaving him to fight waves and waves of mechs. It’s arguably one of the most repetitious parts of the game but also one of the most intense and memorable.

Without the context of needing to reunite with Trip, the scene would be like most other parts of the game, where the most interesting bit is watching the fight play out through the pretty graphics (which, in this case, are a backdrop of sunrise high in the mountains). It’s admittedly nice to look at, but if it’s beautiful to beat through hordes of robots set against the cream-coloured twilight of morning, isn’t it more beautiful to do it all in the name of someone you love?

As the game begins, the conceit is that Monkey is physically tethered to Trip by a slave headband; straying too far from her will kill Monkey, and additionally, if Trip dies, Monkey dies - it’s fodder to establish the sort of relationship two people grow out of forced physical contact, but the mechanic is never really developed in any interesting way. The combat and platforming that take place at the beginning of the game are as complex and difficult as the combat and platforming at the end of the game. There is no restructuring of basic concepts to include the safety of another person, no acknowledgement for the presence of a loved one. If there’s a relationship growing in Enslaved, there’s certainly no evidence of it in the gameplay.


And so, the best parts remain the unplayable. At the end of the game Monkey and Trip discover (via cutscene) that, the entire time, the slaves they had been trying to free were trapped in an alternate reality, living lifelessly in the real world but thriving in the memories of a single man, the slaver, who had lived before the apocalyptic war and wasn’t actually responsible for the death of Trip’s family. His world is ours, a place where people still get married and where children go to school, where we drive cars and ride horses and see plays and listen to music and pay taxes. Monkey looks into the old world before deciding to destroy it, and finds it overwhelmingly beautiful. Seeing Monkey become engrossed by the alternate reality, Trip destroys the machine powering it, destroying the world and cutting the power, freeing the slaves. As the lights of the complex flicker off, Trip buries herself in Monkey’s arms, looks up at him and quietly asks whether she has done the right thing.

It’s a beautiful note to end on, one more dissolute and licentious than you’re typically fed in a video game. There is almost always a firm end to a video game story; whatever you’ve spent the last ten hours doing is coloured in triumph, validation that all your time spent was worthwhile. In Modern Warfare 2, this came as a dagger to the forehead; in Uncharted 2 it was the evil Russian’s demise; in Pac-Man it’s the flicker of your high score on the leaderboard.

In contrast, the only steps forward in Enslaved come through the relationship between Monkey and Trip as the rest of the world falls apart. Extrinsically, nothing good happens, from Monkey killing hundreds of mechs, to finding Trip’s family dead, to the disintegration of Trip’s relationship with the amatory character Pigsy. The only thing remaining as the curtain falls on Enslaved is Trip and Monkey, holding onto one another in the dark, wondering if it were all even worthwhile.

The image is a strong one, but not one you’ll participate in. The most frustrating thing in video games is the tendency to take control away from the player the moment things start to get heavy with emotion. When it’s time to get emotional, it’s time to put down the controller and watch a cutscene. I don’t want to watch Monkey and Trip hold each other, I want to be the one to recognize that someone I care about is scared and initiate the moment of embrace. When I’m playing Enslaved, I’m whacking robots with sticks. When I’m watching Enslaved, I’m finding two people develop feelings for each other.

In its emphasis on relationships, Enslaved depicts the blossoming of quiet affection that transcends shared hardship. Otherwise, it’s a mechanical and repetitive action brawler and platformer. The latter experience will inevitably wither in relevance while the former may stick in our minds forever. Only when the line blurs between the two does Enslaved stand a chance of becoming something that you might not be ashamed to show to someone you care about.

6/10 [?]

Labels: 2011, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Parker Scott Mortensen, Review, Uncharted, Uncharted 2

What is gaming? What defines a game? According to the The Free Dictionary, a game is "an activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime". To me, that definition seems quite blunt, yet we are constantly being bombarded by the now-clichéd "are games art?" debate. For some time now I have sat, rather bemused, listening to and reading the words of opponents and proponents. Often I will laugh at the arguments put forward, but even more often I will enter into a small state of solitude and contemplate what has been put in front of me.

Before one can deliberate on this however, one must first have a clear idea of what 'art' truly is. According to the Free Dictionary, art is "human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature". Now, you may be thinking that is a clear confirmation that games are art. Before you do that, however, take a few moments to contemplate what art is to you, personally. A definition may give a clear meaning but it cannot gives us the true meaning, and the connotations that each individual person will have. If you took that definition literally, you would have to include trivial tasks such as mowing grass as art. For are you not altering the work of nature when you cut the grass?

Personally, I would not consider mowing the grass as art.

We have a problem. My whole argument is based on the definitions I provided, but I have also subsequently argued against one. Does that make all the definitions open to discussion? Could we not change the definition of art, or the definition of gaming, for that matter? That's often the problem with debates and discussions. One small, insignificant fact can topple your argument like a house of cards. I have seen this happen many times in the Games vs Art debate.


Mediterean Landscape by Pablo Picasso

Therefore, how does one decide whether games are art? That is a question to which I don't know the answer, probably never will. As far as I am aware it will take general consensus for games to be considered art but fortunately art does not rely on general consensus. Therefore, whether games are art is, in fact, a decision that you can only make as an individual.

Personally, I'm undecided as to whether games are art. I consider many things to be art, but I am on the fence when the term is applied to videogames. Look to other forms of expression and you'll see that not everything is considered art. George Orwell's 1984, for example, is considered to be a masterpiece by many, but the same could be said for the work of Steinback, Dickens, Tolkein, Austen, Dickinson, Yeats, Shakespeare or Wordsworth. Not everyone will consider their work art, but some will and do. There are also those who will vehemently oppose any notion of these being called art. The very same is seen in painting and sculpture. I love abstract art but there are many people who don't understand abstract art and will not count it as art.

As you may have noticed, a trend is appearing. Whenever someone has a piece of art, there is someone there to oppose any notion of it being art. To apply this to games and gaming in general, if I had to choose a game to be considered art, there are in fact very few that I would bestow with such a privilege. Games are still in their infancy and they're still trying to adjust and settle into their stride. The likes of Shadow of the Colossus, Portal, Heavy Rain, Bioshock and Uncharted are, perhaps, some that I would consider giving the term 'art' to. Why would I choose these few games? Fantastic graphics? Well-written story? Or is it more likely that they hold a mirror up to the world, and present us with something out of the ordinary, a triumph of human effort? I would very much prefer if it was the latter.


The Shadow of the Colossus: a modern masterpiece?

Are games art, or are they something completely different? I very much hope that you will go away and refuse to accept both ideas. What I do hope is that you go away feeling either amused or angry at my ramblings, but also open-minded in the future. I hope that you will look upon the 'Games vs Art' debate in future and know that both sides are right and wrong, as everyone has their own definition of what they consider to be art. Some might not consider games 'art' in its purest sense, but could concede that games are an art of some form.

I know there are some reading this that are getting ready to dissect my arguments and theories and argue passionately why games are not art and never will be art. I will do as before and remain on the fence, but I will not support anyone putting forward one theory as superior to the other. Art is like beauty: it is in the eye of the beholder.

Labels: 2011, Art, Bioshock 2, Cathal Geoghegan, Debate, Games, Games vs Art, Heavy Rain, Picasso, Portal, shadow of the colossus, Uncharted 2

This past week, Naughty Dog revealed the multiplayer component of their much-anticipated Uncharted 3, and it appears to be a massive expansion of the multiplayer in Uncharted 2. While the second Uncharted's multiplayer was surprisingly robust and lasting (around 40,000 players still play daily, a year on from release), it mostly conformed to our expectations for what a multiplayer game should be.

Based on Naughty Dog's reveal of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, it looks as if they're aiming to really add some new ideas to the conventional multiplayer experience. This is still a cops-and-robbers shooter, but with some new ideas that may prove to preserve onward in multiplayer experiences to come.

Before perusing the nuances of Uncharted 3's multiplayer, make sure you watch Naughty Dog's reveal video to get a good snapshot of all the additions.

1: Three Team Deathmatch and the 'buddy system'

Along with the tried-and-true Team Deathmatch, Uncharted 3 puts an emphasis on tight-knit team play with Three Team Deathmatch, a game mode which pits three teams of two against each one another. By constraining the size of the teams, players are forced to cooperate with one another, resulting in a 'buddy system' style of play, which is further encouraged by the ability to spawn on your teammate so long as they're not in the middle of combat. Team play has always been the quickest route to winning in multiplayer games, but in most games it's hard to communicate with a large team, even using voice chat. The 'buddy system' could do wonders for keeping players coordinated, partied or not.

2: Two-part maps

Dynamic maps are not a new idea, and Uncharted 2 even had its own few map fluctuations, such as aeroplanes swooping down and knocking off large strips of cover from the map, or helicopters coming in to attack both teams. But Uncharted 3 takes this idea and jumps ten steps ahead; in the above video, players are shown fighting on an airstrip between accelerating convoys and an aeroplane, pre-take off, and then later at a more traditional, cover-based airbase-hangar arena. These two maps are actually connected. After the plane sequence (lasting presumably about half the match), all players are transported to the hangar and the match continues.

This two-part map system really spices up the traditional multiplayer formula, making it something more cinematic and more exciting, hopefully whilst still retaining the balance between team advantage. If the timing between the shift in gameplay environments is reasonably predictable, perhaps players can use the switch strategically, giving dynamic gameplay environments much more bearing on gameplay than we've previously seen.

3: Emblems

If there's one thing video games have proven in this era of multiplayer, it's that players love validation. They want to know when they're doing well, and they want everyone else to know it, too. Emblem editors can be found in games like Call of Duty and Halo: Reach, where you can design your own insignia to be shown on your character, or to pop up alongside other players when you've killed them. The new take on emblems in Uncharted 3 is to display the top player's emblem in the playable, natural environment, smacking the map with personality.

You can see this in action at about 45 seconds into the mutliplayer trailer, where a custom emblem is embellished onto the hangar map. Presumably, these emblems can change as the map goes on, meaning the top player will dominate the map aesthetically, as well as putting bullets into your skull.

4: Medal Kickbacks

At first glance, Medal Kickbacks seem like the equivalent of killstreaks, the ubiquitous multiplayer mechanic pioneered by Call of Duty that rewards a string of successive kills with more killing power. In reality, Uncharted 3's Medal Kickbacks are a more refined version of this killstreak mechanic. Instead of rewarding players for racking up as many kills as they can, Medal Kickbacks reward players for specific types of kills, such as kills on opponents who are currently attacking one of your teammates, perhaps kills with an unconventional firearm, or maybe headshot kills.

In the above video, you can see Drake activating a Medal Kickback to use an RPG at the most opportune moment. Fine-tuning the criteria for killstreaks discourages the 'kill as many as possible as quickly as possible' mentality, and instead rewards more finesse with a bigger payoff. Hopefully, the mechanic will discourage techniques that focus on getting the most kills with the least effort, such as camping near spawn points or 'spamming' quick-kill weapons.

5) Power Plays and Overtime

Power Plays kick into gear when one team is grossly dominating the other. What they are exactly isn't yet defined, but we do know that they give the losing team a chance to close the gap and the winning team a chance to close the game. If you've ever played multiplayer of any kind, you'll know the experience isn't all that enjoyable when there's a big disparity between the teams, no matter if you're on the winning or the losing side. It may feel good for the winners to steamroll another team, but after a while, domination gets stale. Power Plays work to prevent this snooze-fest from occurring.

Similarly, it's pretty frustrating when both teams are neck and neck but the match suddenly ends due to something that's happening on the other side of the map, irrelevant to you. Kicking things into overtime for ridiculously close matches helps ascertain the true victors.

6: YouTube and Facebook Integration

Facebook is integrated with nearly every service available in 2011, but it's rarely been done successfully in a video game. Both PSN and Xbox Live allow social networking in some form (be that Twitter or Facebook), but neither are particularly quick or presented in an interesting way. In Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog included the ability to tweet whenever players levelled up or completed a campaign chapter, and the result was pretty annoying.

This time around, Naughty Dog has really gone the extra mile to make sure Facebook integration with Uncharted 3 is done in a compelling and tasteful way. From the Uncharted 3 multiplayer menu, you can see which of your Facebook friends are online, what they're playing, and what media they've uploaded, all of which is viewable from your console.

Similarly, YouTube integration lets users edit and upload videos seamlessly from their console. It's a small step, but the effect is a much smoother, more encouraged experience.

7: Uncharted TV

Possibly the most interesting addition to multiplayer is Uncharted TV. The best clips and images will be selected by Naughty Dog and broadcasted over Uncharted TV, a small reel of clips playing the corner of the screen between matches in multiplayer. It seems innocuous, but the logic behind it is actually pretty ingenious.

"If you watch a football game, you talk about it the next day because everyone watched the same game," says Christophe Balestra, co-president of Naughty Dog. "This is (to) get people who play to have a better experience."

Simply by creating a common feed of content, Naughty Dog is looking to tie the community together in a more meaningful way than a common set of mechanics. This way, players can commentate outside the game to their friends about what they've seen online, which pushes the Uncharted multiplayer experience out of the living room and into conversation.

8: Crotch Kicking

The benefit of this addition is self-evident.


Are you one of the many eagerly anticipating Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception's release? Have you lost sleep due to sitting up until unholy hours, looking at screenshots and videos? Do you simply love the way Drake can climb a building? Give us all your thoughts in the comments section below.

Labels: 2011, Feature, List, Multiplayer, Naughty Dog, Parker Scott Mortensen, Trailer, Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, Video

Damn, do I love Uncharted. It's like some wonderful, God-given genius took those brilliant and (in retrospect) pretty creepy Willard Price books and made them playable. Action, adventure, shootouts and standoffs; hidden treasures deep in secluded jungles, marvellous puzzles epic in scale, Arctic caves filled with dangerous monsters, beautiful damsels in distress and fiendish villains out for vengeance. Gaming doesn't get much better than swinging from ancient ropes to crumbling ruins, the thrill of the unexplored pushing you forward.

Except, Uncharted 2 disgusts me. The gameplay is sheer awesome, no doubt about it. It can get testing when the same old shotgun-totting bad guy takes four clips to finally bring down, but it's a speck in a snow-covered plain of excellency. No: the trouble lies with the plot. Most notably, a somewhat celebrated 'hero' by the name of...

Drake. Nathan Drake.

"But he's so charming!" Fans swoon and weaken at the knees as they gaze upon his gel-ridden hair and five o'clock shadow. He's got all the trappings of a modern day American Bond - the witty comments, the boyish charm, the sexual appeal and the acrobatic prowess of a dastardly, attractive mountain goat. How can anyone possibly hate him?

Simple.

He's a mass-murdering butcher.

"Kitty got wet!" he triumphantly boasts, as he throws a man two hundred feet from a clifftop to be dashed on the rocks below. That man had a family. Judith, his loving wife, and their beautiful baby daughter (Gertrude) were expecting him home in just a few weeks. He had a life; he was full of cares and dreams, hopes and ambitions. He only joined the private military to earn money so he could send his child to school - he'd never actually kill anyone! But then, Nathan Drake waltzes along, all skin-tight jeans and smug grin, and pulls him off a ledge to his death. And then makes a funny remark.

What the hell does "kitty got wet" even mean?! Who is the kitty? Why did they get wet? Don't you mean "Man just got thrown off ledge TO HIS DEATH"?

Take one of the first missions: a night-time theft in Istanbul. What jolly japes will Drake and co. get up to this time, gallivanting about the globe? Oh look, it's the mass murder of Turkish innocents! You may laugh, but think about it. Drake wants a map. The map is an a jug-type-thing in Turkey. So, naturally, Nate sneaks in, disables the security systems and kills guards by throwing them off ledges or cracking their necks. Those that he doesn't kill, he gives severe brain damage to by choking them. If someone did that in real life, it would be an immeasurably monstrous act; a selfish desire leading to the murder of several, totally innocent civilians, only doing their job. How is this man a hero? How can any player get behind a character who is perfectly content to cut lives short for his own petty gains?

Not personal enough for you? Then remember Jeff, the quiet yet diligent cameraman for Elena's documentary. He's only in Nepal because this is his job. Who knows; maybe he has a crush on Elena, and is building up the courage to ask her out, or maybe he has a family back home. He's an innocent passenger in the Drake whirlwind. And, of course, he gets shot. In the face. With bullets. One could easily blame Drake for bringing the soldiers to their hiding place, and getting them into the mess in the first place, but let's be kind and forget that. Jeff gets shot. Drake and Elena run away. And, I kid you not, a mere minute later, she asks Drake whether he's OK. 'Nothing that won't heal', he responds. They share a giggle.

Seriously? Jeff literally just died! Are you over it that quickly? Does death not matter to Drake? This morally corrupted and viscously lethal man is meant to be the hero here; he's the one supposed to stand up to evil, protect the good of the people and saving others. Yet all he does is kill, kill, and then makes jokes about killing. At this point in the game, Lazarevic has killed a total of two people. Drake has killed well into the hundreds, possibly thousands. Now, from those figures, who do you think the audience should be routing for?

Take one final, crushing example. The Tibetan village. Remember? You could pet the Yaks, play football with the kids and greet the locals. It was peaceful, pulchritudinous (good word, no?), and idyllic. The people were happy, engaged in simple arable labour. Everyone had a smile on their face.

Then Drake struts in. A quick hike in the mountains later, and the place has burnt to the ground. You even join in the fight, to see your handiwork; dead bodies strewn about the place as mounted guns slice through the harmonious community. Brilliant work, Nathan, leading tanks and soldiers straight into one of the most amazing villages we've ever come across. Thanks for that.

And what is this all for? A secret city, inhabited by blue people. What does Drake do? He kills the blue people and blows up the city. It's just stupid. Nathan Drake has a killcount in the thousands; some innocent, some aggressors. He's led his mortal enemy to the secret city of Shambhala, where Lazarevic becomes semi-invincible. Drake has to kill him, and in doing so destroys the city forever. Drake has come all that way, spilt all that blood, only in order to demolish what he was after.

There was an uproar over the use of the word 'Taliban' in Medal of Honor. People worried that Grand Theft Auto IV might promote violence. Yet no one said a word when Drake started his rampage, teaching people all over the world that 'Hey, it's fine so long as you get what you want in the end! Or destroy it!'. I'm not the sort of person to cry 'Think of the children!' every time someone shoots a gun in gaming, but what baffles me is that Nathan Drake is portrayed as an absolute hero, an idol to the player. I could understand if he were a anti-hero of sorts; one who kills, but for a utilitarian purpose (here's to you, John Marston), but Drake has an unquenchable thirst for blood, and nothing will stop him from killing. Then laughing about it.

Do we want this character as a figurehead of gaming? Celebrated as an invention of narrative genius? Put your thoughts in the comments below, and follow our Twitter for more awesome sauce, every single day.

Labels: Chris Hawke, Discuss, Nathan Drake, PS3, Sony, Uncharted 2

Game Information


Basic information
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.
Publisher: Sony
Released: October 2009

Platforms
PlayStation 3

Genres
Action-adventure
Shooter
Platformer

Certification
BBFC: 15
PEGI: 16+
OFLC: MA15+
ESRB: T
CERO: C

Once in a while, there comes along a game that makes you glad to be a gamer. The type of game that you want to tell all of your friends about and that you can't stop thinking about when you have to part yourself from the screen. For me, and many others, the most recent example of one of these games is Uncharted 2. A sequel to 2007's critically acclaimed shooter/platformer hybrid, Uncharted 2 succeeds in encapsulating everything that made the first game so great, and expanding almost every aspect.

From the get go, Uncharted 2 is a non-stop thrill ride. After a brief cutscene, players will find themselves climbing for their lives from a train dangling over the edge of a snowy cliff. This scene sets the stage perfectly for what is to come. From car chases to shootouts, the action in Uncharted 2 starts high and refuses to let up. Players will find themselves the subject of constant set pieces, such as the aforementioned train climb, which gives off the impression that the game was lovingly and thoughtfully crafted. When playing the game, I found myself constantly striving to find out what was going to happen next, and what the game designers were going to do to impress me.

Taking the role of Nathan Drake, the wise cracking treasure hunter from the first game, players will run, jump, climb, and shoot their way through stunning atmospheres. The controls in Uncharted 2 are extremely intuitive, and make for an immersive experience that isn't clouded by having to struggle with buttons. The shooting has been tweaked slightly since the first game, allowing enemies to be taken out faster and more accurately. Equally as important as the shooting are the platforming elements of Uncharted 2. The controls continue to impress, which makes guiding Drake through various vertical environments an absolute joy. In addition, there are also several stealth sections in the game. Being a fan of the stealth genre, I found these sections quite fun and exhilarating, but the enemies seem a little too unattentive, making these portions a little too easy.

The story in Uncharted 2, while entertaining and a good motivation, takes a backseat to the action elements of the game. Avoiding as many spoilers as possible, the narrative revolves around Nathan and his companions, which includes characters from the last game as well as some fresh faces, trying to find the treasure of Marco Polo. Of course, that is only a brief outline of the story in Uncharted 2, and it is filled with surprises and tense moments. While not Oscar-worthy, the story in Uncharted 2 succeeds in giving personality to the characters and keeps the player interested between the intense gameplay and can easily be considered one of best narratives in an action game.

Uncharted 2 also includes a mode not present in the first game; multiplayer. The multiplayer in Uncharted 2 is fairly standard as far as shooters go, including team deathmatch, capture the flag, and a few other genre staples. While enjoyable, and with an experience system in vain of Call of Duty, the multiplayer comes off as an afterthought to the fantastic single player game. The gun combat feels loose and not accurate, and there is a slight pause between when a player takes a hit and when they die. This causes annoying moments when two players start to shoot at each other and both of the players die. The multiplayer in Uncharted 2 can be entertaining for a little while, but most players will find themselves having more fun with a multiplayer centric shooter, such as Halo or Call of Duty.

Minor complaints aside, Uncharted 2 is one of, if not the, greatest Playstation 3 exclusive title released so far. Most video game fans will find something to enjoy in this title, whether it's the exciting shootouts or tense climbing areas. While lacking in the multiplayer department, Uncharted 2 has an outstanding single player with interesting characters and non-stop action. Amongst the horde of games being released this winter, Uncharted 2 shines through as something special, and is a game that any PS3 owner would be foolish to overlook.

Uncharted 2 images

9/10

Tyson

Labels: PS3, Review, Tyson, Tyson Breen, Uncharted 2

A recent post on Neogaf has shown yet another gaming comparison: this time, it's Uncharted. Cleverly, the poster has shown the original Uncharted video, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The images speak for themselves so I'll move over and let them.

Linky

Jacques

Labels: Jacques Hulme, Uncharted 2

A getaway through hostile territory isn't what you might call the most original of all gaming situations. However, it is one which definitely pleases if done correctly. Enter new Uncharted 2 footage.

The footage shows our main protagonist, Nathan Drake, alongside feisty females Elena and Chloe, helping a friend to safety. However, mutiny among the ranks threaten the group's chances of getting out of a very bad situation alive. Take a look and see what you think.

You can also take a look at a narrated version, kind courtesy of 1up. I still reckon it looks oh so awesome. We'll be on hand for any news Uncharted 2 related, so keep an eye on GGTL.

Linford

Labels: Linford Butler, Uncharted 2

The people at Naughty Dog are really making their upcoming sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Theives, look even more impressive. A recently released video has revealed a previously unknown-of feature of the online mode, the Mulitplayer Camera Tool. The video, released on GameTrailers, shows a recorded match which is played back for all the players to watch. You may think this sounds a bit old, but heres the interesting bit: editing software.

Each recorded match can be easily edited using a veriety of tools including chase cam, free roam and slow mo. This system is an exiting prospect, especially if you're going to be able to save it to your hard drive and make an epic movie to post on *Enter favourite video site here*. I can't wait to pause a perfect shot, zoom in on my detruction and ultimately increase my bragging rights.

I'll leave you with another video from Naughty Dog's latest, showing off some of the single player campaign.

Jacques

Labels: Jacques Hulme, New Features, Uncharted 2

Labels: Beta Impressions, Jacques Hulme, Uncharted 2

The Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Multiplayer Beta has been out for almost a week now and reviews are coming in thick and fast, most of which seem to show the current multiplayer gameplay in a good light. However, with these reviews have come two new videos which show some of the maps in play, online.

Plaza Showdown, the first of the maps shown in these new videos, seems to be set in a darkened courtyard. With broken walls, upturned cars and sandbags there is plenty of cover in this map. From what I can gather, the map is quite big and seems to include several side streets which all lead to the central courtyard. There also seems to be several floors to the level which will provide good spots for snipers. This map looks very promising and, if all of the maps are as highly polished as this, Naughty Dog shouldn't have anything to worry about.



The second video showcases a map named Village Firefight. Set in a village, this small map seems to fit in well with the feel of Uncharted 2 as, like the Plaza map, it also contains a lot of cover. Again, this map also seems to provide a vast expanse to roam and hide away in. The war-torn atmosphere to the map creates a dead and lifeless feel, with only the odd splatter of colour; usually provided by the fire. This map is also shaping up to impress and dazzle the fans.



Jacques

Labels: Beta, Jacques Hulme, Trailer, Uncharted 2, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Video