Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of 2009’s most anticipated titles, and for good reason. Its predecessor, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which was released in 2007, went on to become one of the most celebrated PS3 exclusive titles yet released.
With all the hype surrounding the sequel, we were anxious to get some hands-on time with the game at this year’s rAge expo which was held over the weekend.
The first thing that stood out about Uncharted 2 was the visuals. Naughty Dog’s much publicized comments stating that the game uses the full graphics processing capacity of the PS3 became easy to believe after just a few moments of hands-on time with the game. While screen shots are one thing, seeing the game in motion is another, and the animations and textures in particular were eye catching and impressive.
The controls felt similar to those of the original. They took some getting used to, but anyone who loved the way Drake handled in Uncharted will love the way he moves in the sequel, and the animations have clearly been bolstered with added detail and realism.
The rich cut-scenes were admittedly lost amidst the loud and screechy noise being generated by a nearby 12 year old battling his way through ‘Sweet child of mine’ by Guns and Roses in Guitar Hero, not to mention the general noise bouncing around the confines of a very busy Coca-Cola Dome.
However, even in such an unflattering context, the cut-scenes did enough to wet my appetite. The cut-scenes seem to have been developed with a more cinematic direction in mind than most games, and the voice syncing seemed particularly good.
A number of fairly straight forward puzzles inhabited the demo code which was on display, and there was even some shooting which felt particularly good. I was impressed by the manner in which bullets left twisting vapor trails as they hurtle towards enemy targets, and even more so by the detail with which enemies were animated as they fell to the ground.
Rather disappointingly, after about 10 minutes of play time I was asked to move along by a teenager wearing a PS3 shirt who was clearly enjoying the power of being a “stand supervisor” far too much. This was made even more annoying by the fact that there was no one waiting to play. Needless to say, I had seen enough of the game to want to play more.
Uncharted 2 is definitely one of 2009’s must play games, and is scheduled to release on October 16.
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