Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

[gdf]

Tapping circle twice in quick succession helps, but it's still a bad solution to a weird design problem.

I don't understand the insane critical reception this game has had. It's very polished and successful within its own limited scope, but if this is the benchmark title they'd have you believe I think I'll weep for the future of games.

[Korax]

That's one of the huge caveat of the cover system, but I think forward + circle, then circle again might work.

Yeah, that should work. I was a bit confused because the stealth mission at the beginning gives you the tutorial prompt to round a corner while still in cover, but I think it has to do with the angle of the corner... strange.

[James]

Yeah, I'm really liking this game (even more than the first), but the cover system is still a bit fiddly. There have been several moments where I've sworn at Drake for taking cover in ridiculous places rather than sensible ones, or refusing to take cover somewhere apparently identical to other places where he can.

On the whole it's good, though.

Wish I didn't suck at all games, though.

Dear Santa,

For Christmas all I want is not to suck at all games any more. You don't even have to get me any toys or anything.

Lots of love,

Jake

[Thrik]

You should be able to move around any corner using the 'transition' move taught to you during the first stealth sequence, however I had tremendous difficulty getting it right the first time and I can see many people simply never learning it properly and playing on anyway.

You basically need to move your camera so you can see the surface you want to move round onto, then you hold circle while pointing the movement stick towards that surface.

I've not had any difficulty with it so far and I've been doing this on all sorts of cover types.

[Kos Luftar]

Beat the game a couple of days ago. I really loved it, I think it has the best pacing of any game that I have played. I enjoyed everything except for the last boss battle.

Anyone else finished yet?

We should set up Uncharted Thumbs multiplayer sessions.

[Jake]

You should be able to move around any corner using the 'transition' move taught to you during the first stealth sequence, however I had tremendous difficulty getting it right the first time and I can see many people simply never learning it properly and playing on anyway.

You basically need to move your camera so you can see the surface you want to move round onto, then you hold circle while pointing the movement stick towards that surface.

I've not had any difficulty with it so far and I've been doing this on all sorts of cover types.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

The problem I had is that it's not actually "taught" -- the dialog about how to perform the move comes up once, and I either performed it accidentally or the game didn't care if I performed it or not, and then I could never get that dialog to come up again, couldn't find a controls or help screen in-game, the manual doesn't tell you anything beyond default button binds, and at least at the time none of the FAQs on GameFAQs had a decent controls section beyond a reprint of the manual or a "coming soon." Incredibly frustrating.

Work showed up and prevented me from getting much further, but I'm part way through Ch 3 - Borneo - and liking the game a lot.

[Thrik]

I really loved it, I think it has the best pacing of any game that I have played.

I'm only on like chapter 10, but I'd agree with this so far. With most games of this type I tend to get a bit bored of the environment and whatnot after a while no matter how good the mechanics are, and even the original Uncharted kind of failed in this respect due to the entire game pretty much being the 'Borneo' chapter of Uncharted 2 — hence why it took me 1.5 years to finish it.

But this fucker? Man. It seems to be constantly delivering different themes entirely, all the while owning other games that've attempted similar environments. The lack of asset recycling is remarkable, and the sheer detail lavished upon areas you're through in like 10 seconds is mental.

The set pieces are pretty incredible too. I think what makes them so cool is how seamlessly integrated with the gameplay they are, with the lines between cutscene, on-rails, and regular gameplay very blurry. The city environment has delivered some of the most epic views, encounters, and chases I've ever seen in gaming.

Interestingly though, despite all this variation and shit I still feel like I need to play it the same way I played the original: in short bursts. If I play more than like two or three chapters at a time I start to get a bit disinterested, whereas if I make a habit of putting it down and coming back later or another day I seem to just enjoy it a lot more.

Yeah, good game.

[miffy495]

Just going to throw this out there: I love that you can unlock a "next-gen" graphics filter that turns the whole world brown. I activated it right after the train wreck in the snow, and all the snow started looking like mud. I got a good laugh out of that.

[Psych]

Anyone else finished yet?

We should set up Uncharted Thumbs multiplayer sessions.

Yes, and YES!!

[James]

Just going to throw this out there: I love that you can unlock a "next-gen" graphics filter that turns the whole world brown. I activated it right after the train wreck in the snow, and all the snow started looking like mud. I got a good laugh out of that.

They had a next-gen filter in the original too, except I think it put bloom into overdrive. I may be mis-remembering that.

[Korax]

Anyone else finished yet?

We should set up Uncharted Thumbs multiplayer sessions.

Definitely. I played a good deal over the weekend, and it's a blast.

[miffy495]

Watching the final credits roll right now. Whoever said that the final boss fight was a let down is spot on. So few games get the boss right, it always feels different from the main game to the point of needless irritation. Ugh. Oh well. Everything up to that point was plenty awesome. Well done, game. Well done.

[UncleSpaggles]

This is one saucy game, I'm on my second play through - this time on Easy spawning weapons for trophies because it turns out that I am a whore.

[Rez]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

The problem I had is that it's not actually "taught" -- the dialog about how to perform the move comes up once, and I either performed it accidentally or the game didn't care if I performed it or not, and then I could never get that dialog to come up again, couldn't find a controls or help screen in-game, the manual doesn't tell you anything beyond default button binds, and at least at the time none of the FAQs on GameFAQs had a decent controls section beyond a reprint of the manual or a "coming soon." Incredibly frustrating.

Work showed up and prevented me from getting much further, but I'm part way through Ch 3 - Borneo - and liking the game a lot.

Chapter 5 is when the game really picks up. The beginning is fun, but from Chapter 5 on out, the game gets great. In my opinion, anyway.

[Psych]

Watching the final credits roll right now. Whoever said that the final boss fight was a let down is spot on. So few games get the boss right, it always feels different from the main game to the point of needless irritation. Ugh. Oh well. Everything up to that point was plenty awesome. Well done, game. Well done.

The more I think about that last boss the more I think

Lazarevich should just swap places with that guardian that attacked Chloe on the bridge, and we could just forget the whole shooting resin at the tree of life.

It'd have been much more exciting that way.

[Kos Luftar]

Interestingly though, despite all this variation and shit I still feel like I need to play it the same way I played the original: in short bursts. If I play more than like two or three chapters at a time I start to get a bit disinterested, whereas if I make a habit of putting it down and coming back later or another day I seem to just enjoy it a lot more.

Yeah, good game.

I'm totally opposite, I wanted to play more and more, I only stopped because I had to sleep and I had work the next morning, but if I didn't need to work I would have played the game in 1 run, until the boss battle which was annoying because it was different from what I've been doing this whole game.

Definitely. I played a good deal over the weekend, and it's a blast.

Yes, and YES!!

Guys add my PSN (kosluftar), maybe I'll see you guys online.

[Korax]

This is one saucy game, I'm on my second play through - this time on Easy spawning weapons for trophies because it turns out that I am a whore.

Nah, that's almost required. Some of the weapons are rare enough that I sisn't get the trophy for them even after three playthroughs. Or it could just be that I'm a whore, too.

[Kos Luftar]

Nah, that's almost required. Some of the weapons are rare enough that I sisn't get the trophy for them even after three playthroughs. Or it could just be that I'm a whore, too.

I msged you last night to play some MP but you didn't reply.

[Korax]

I msged you last night to play some MP but you didn't reply.

I probably wasn't actually on. I tend to forget about turning my PS3 off...

[flunky]

Holy fuck, this game is fucking hard! I am now playing it on easy but I've still died about 20 times on the village level where the tank is chasing you. I admit I was listening to a podcast at the same time so couldn't hear the sound properly, so couldn't always hear the direction shots were coming at me from, but still, it's fucking difficult, so much for easy mode! I think the guys at Naughty Dog need a fucking dictionary to look up what the word easy means. There is no way that having a tank constantly shooting you with a high-calibre machine gun and shells so that you can't remain behind any piece of cover for more than a few seconds, as well being surrounded 360 degrees by a ridiculous number of snipers and guys with rpgs on distant rooftops so that you are almost always being shot from behind whichever way you turn, as well as having numerous guys well hidden behind cover firing on you with machine guns, as well as having guys running up to you and meleeing you, can ever be described as easy. It's fun but only because the graphics are so good, if the graphics and production values weren't so amazingly good I'd have given up on this game a long time ago because I really don't like being surrounded by 50 snipers, 50 rpg guys and being shelled constantly by a fucking tank, and on top of that regularly being surprised by some guy running up and meleeing me or shotgunning me in the face. I don't really know what else they could do to have the intense combat experience they want. Maybe lose the tank, I think the combat was a lot of fun and nice and intense but also not too difficult before the tank came along. Having the tank just made it a bit too fucking difficult and frustrating because you can never stay behind cover when it is shelling you, even behind indestructible cover it damages you.

Anyway good game but easy isn't easy at all. Or do other people not find it that hard? I admit I got past the tank more easily when I was playing on normal, maybe because I was paying more attention and wasn't listening to a podcast at the same time. But surely the whole point of easy is that you don't have to put the same amount of effort and concentration in? (I know there is a very easy mode but it turns on auto aim and I don't want to play with that as I'm trying to improve my aiming with a controller for when I play multiplayer).

Edited October 22, 2009 by flunky

[juv3nal]

The tank part isn't too hard once you realise there are certain bits of cover (walls, mostly) that the tank can't shoot through. It can suck though when you kill an rpg dude and the rpg drops off the ledge he was on meaning you'd have to expose yourself to tank fire to grab it. I died every time that happened.

edit: on reading closer, notice you mention still getting damaged while behind indestructible cover. It's true, you take some damage from rpgs and tank cannon, but they have pretty long intervals between firing and shouldn't really be able to kill you (on easy) as long as you take out the rpg guy quickly.

Edited October 22, 2009 by juv3nal

[Kos Luftar]

Holy fuck, this game is fucking hard! I am now playing it on easy but I've still died about 20 times on the village level where the tank is chasing you. I admit I was listening to a podcast at the same time so couldn't hear the sound properly, so couldn't always hear the direction shots were coming at me from, but still, it's fucking difficult, so much for easy mode! I think the guys at Naughty Dog need a fucking dictionary to look up what the word easy means. There is no way that having a tank constantly shooting you with a high-calibre machine gun and shells so that you can't remain behind any piece of cover for more than a few seconds, as well being surrounded 360 degrees by a ridiculous number of snipers and guys with rpgs on distant rooftops so that you are almost always being shot from behind whichever way you turn, as well as having numerous guys well hidden behind cover firing on you with machine guns, as well as having guys running up to you and meleeing you, can ever be described as easy. It's fun but only because the graphics are so good, if the graphics and production values weren't so amazingly good I'd have given up on this game a long time ago because I really don't like being surrounded by 50 snipers, 50 rpg guys and being shelled constantly by a fucking tank, and on top of that regularly being surprised by some guy running up and meleeing me or shotgunning me in the face. I don't really know what else they could do to have the intense combat experience they want. Maybe lose the tank, I think the combat was a lot of fun and nice and intense but also not too difficult before the tank came along. Having the tank just made it a bit too fucking difficult and frustrating because you can never stay behind cover when it is shelling you, even behind indestructible cover it damages you.

Anyway good game but easy isn't easy at all. Or do other people not find it that hard? I admit I got past the tank more easily when I was playing on normal, maybe because I was paying more attention and wasn't listening to a podcast at the same time. But surely the whole point of easy is that you don't have to put the same amount of effort and concentration in? (I know there is a very easy mode but it turns on auto aim and I don't want to play with that as I'm trying to improve my aiming with a controller for when I play multiplayer).

Did you not play Uncharted 1?

I beat the game on hard, and sure the tank area is pretty hard, but once you learn where these guys show up from, just take them out quickly (especially the rpg guys) and keep moving. Keep moving up through the buildings because the tank scene is quite long. Don't try and stay behind cover if the tank is shooting the cover because it won't help. Only attack the tank, when you get an RPG (usually from killing the guys shooting at you with RPGs).

I played Uncharted 1 a couple of time so I was used to Uncharted 2 combat, that is why I found hard pretty easy. The only hard time I had was on the last couple of levels because of crazy bullet spunges.

[Kos Luftar]

I probably wasn't actually on. I tend to forget about turning my PS3 off...

Failure.

[Lu]

The tank killed me quite a few times as well. It's so linear in what it wants you to do, that sometimes it can be frustrating if you don't really know what it wants of you.

I don't mind this kind of linearity, I get absorbed into stories quite easily and just go with the flow. This might also be why I had absolutely no trouble whatsoever with Chapter 2; I knew what it wanted of me and I did just that. I was actually kind of surprised when I read about the grief it was causing quite a few people.

The moments where you're put into this arena where you can silently take down enemies, one by one, felt very satisfying to me. Those moments are kind of laid out like puzzles where you try to find the right enemy to take down -- at the right time. I noticed that if you take out everyone through stealth, there is no one left to trigger reinforcements. A nice reward.

Frustrating to me were the moments where I didn't exactly do the thing it wants me to and I just die over and over. It really pulls you out of the experience.

The bit at the end where you have to shoot the Yeti off Chloe, for instance. I was completely in the game up until that point; where I tried and failed 6 times in a row... It had me do the same exact thing over and over again until I got it right.

Really pulled me out of it, which was a damn shame, because it killed the momentum the game had going for it.

Most memorable moment of the entire game, for me, is the bit where

, after Nate wakes up, you take a stroll through the Tibetan village. Nate petting some yaks, kicking the ball, making a face at a couple of giggling, hiding kids and nobody who knows how to speak English.

Uncharted 2 would be a game of the year contender for me, followed closely by Batman. I can't think of any other games, that came out this year, that gave me this kind of memorable experience. I love these characters and their adventures; hopefully we'll see many more.

[miffy495]

I beat Uncharted twice, and still died about 280 times on my playthrough of Uncharted 2 on Easy. So yeah, it can be a challenge. Never got frustrated by it up until the boss fight though.