Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the much anticipated much longed for sequel to probably or at least arguably the best game on the PS3 “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.” That mantel will now be passed onto its sequel…without a doubt.

You may not own a PS3 or you are more of a 360 fan but I beg you…nay I implore you to just play for five minutes of Uncharted 2 and you will realise that nothing will ever be the same again.

More than any game I have ever played before Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a true interactive game/movie. It has received amazing scores from reviewers worldwide and is worthy of all its accolades. Its developers Naughty Dog have truly made the game of the current generation. Surely as night follows day other games will come that will play as well, look as good and be even better scripted than “Among Thieves” but for the here and now there is not a game on any platform that can hold a candle to it.

Its greatest strength is probably the story itself, a plausible, thrill a minute ride that if I could be a tad critical follows broadly its predecessor in at least function. That is a search for a lost city. In Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune you were on the prowl for the city of gold El Dorado in Uncharted 2 it’s Shamballah or Shangri La the Utopian city of joy and happiness which according Marco Polo legend is where he hid the Cintamani Stone, a stone that grants desire and wishes according to Google…

The game is told in chapters that initially move back and forward in time showing how Nathan Drake got in the predicament he presently finds himself in…that is covered in a lot of his own blood, in a carriage of a train that’s precariously balanced on the edge of a snowy mountainous range. What follows is just a taste of the stunning visuals the game will bring you. They are crisp, amazingly detailed and beautiful.

It’s hard to describe how good the visuals are by using words so maybe the best way to show how impressive they are is by booting up the game and letting the game speak for you. Depth of field is…breathtakingly panoramic…unbelievable. Images I’ll put on this review don’t do the visuals any justice.

Gameplay runs roughly similar to the original, which for me was a smidgen too much shooting anybody, except “Among Thieves” brings much more of an exploration and puzzle aspect than before. For sure there is a lot of shooting at people and being shot at but its feels much more balanced and the running and covering up aspect is more prevalent. Gone is the all guns blazing rush in where angels fear to tread tactic coz you’ll die too easily.

The dry humour is also back and more sly and more biting one of the best examples of this is in the first twenty minutes where Nathan and Flynn are scrambling over roofs and Flynn warns Nathan “there’s a guard above you, a guard above you” Nathan drags him off the roof and throws him down several storeys to the ground below where upon Flynn quips “there’s a guard below you, a guard below you”.

Combat has been improved slightly so that you don’t have to empty several clips of ammo into everyone you shoot at and in fact head shots are so much more effective as well as body shots. Weapon of choice will vary but the old revolver you begin with is still a trustworthy fall back from say the somewhat awkward handling AK47 with its aggravating recoil.

Combat comes in waves and also set pieces that although you may feel you are in the middle of cuts scenes are very much game play and the ability to run away from advancing trucks, tanks etc while vainly trying to fire back is one heck of a ride. Targeting is again touchy and although damage done by shooting someone is greatly increased targeting remains a frustrating exercise in control because of its finicky nature. It’s nothing that you won’t see in most shooters now where auto targeting is giving way to a more skill based operation.

The old team is back too with Sully an Elena and added to the eclectic mix is another good looking gal Chloe…but all is not what it seems and “Among Thieves” is true to its moniker, that being there is “no honour among thieves’ Lots of double crossing and inferred  double crossing.

The voice acting is spot on with all the main protagonists with the possible exception of the main baddie Zoran Lazarevic who is not entirely the most original megalomaniacal gaming villain. He’s sufficiently loopy and vicious but not unique as you can grab many a villain from many newish games like Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, BioShock etc and Zoran Lazarevic would take a bit from all of them so that was disappointing because villains should be stars of the games I reckon in a antihero kind of way.

Nonetheless I’m being deliberately fussy because as a whole package Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is close to perfection as a video game. It achieves everything it is meant to do and then some. One overseas review said this “Forget Game of The Year. This is one of the greatest games of all time!”

Melodramatic; yes maybe…accurate maybe…but let me give VGNZ’s own ridiculous hyperbole…ahem. “ The only downfall in an otherwise stellar game is that it ends” and that will be about 10 – 12 hours after you first tried to escape from a railway carriage, bloodied and dangling off the side of a snowy mountain.

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