No trust, no loyalty, no honor among thieves.
Nathan Drake has returned, and this time, he's through various Asian locales, in search of the Lost city of Shambhala, and the fabled Cintimani Stone before a group on Serbian (Yugoslavian?) mercenaries lead by war criminal Zoran Lazarevic. He is joined once again by Elena Fisher and Victor "Sully" Sullivan, as well as new faces Chloe Frazer, Harry Flynn, Tenzin, and Karl Schafer. Unfortunately, Victor Sullivan didn't have much of a role here since he only appeared in one level and in the end cutscene. Zoran Lazarevic is so over-the-top evil that he becomes extremely enjoyable to watch. His ruthlessness leads to many badass moments and arguably the best boss battle in the entire franchise. Harry Flynn is also an interesting and likeable antagonist. However, it should be noted that I feel that his character wasn't fully utilized and that he could've been fleshed out more in feature installments, instead of having him die towards the end.
With amazing graphics for the time that still hold up, great voice acting, plenty of humorous dialogue (especially the banter between Nate and Chloe), lots of treasures to find and collect (it's worth surveying the area as usual), quick time events removed, and, once again, top-notch voice acting from the entire cast, the first of the sequels to Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, is mysterious and cool. A new multiplayer component was also added in; however, as of now, the multiplayer's servers were shut down.
The set pieces are insane! You've got the train sequence, a convoy, a collapsing building, etc. In fact the train sequence at the beginning and in the middle is one of the most iconic scenes in video game history. Its execution shows that Naughty Dog has nailed the cinematic experience, and they're not so naughty. The game is a fair bit longer than the first game, being around double the length. It does seem to reuse some situations from the previous game, like how you have to wait for an elevator and whilst doing so you have to fight off what seems to be unkillable enemies. In addition the difficulty is more balanced, and gunfights are nowhere near as long as before. New to the series is a Very Easy mode if you just want a compelling story without the stress of combat.
Speaking of, combat is just as action-packed as the previous game, though not as draining as last time. You can now stealth kill groups of enemies as well to reduce their numbers before a gunfight kicks off. Throwing grenades is a lot better as there is no SIXAXIS this time, instead being mapped to L2. The brutal combo, however, is no longer present in this game.
At the most inappropriate moments, platforming can be a little finicky. What also really annoys me and bothers me is that there is a bug that freezes the whole game in Chapter 25 before you try to go up the stairs after killing enemies! This isn't exactly game-breaking as the autosave will restart you right in front of the stairs and will allow you to continue playing the game normally. Thankfully, this was fixed in the PS4 remaster. Also, if Shambhala has an open sky, then how has nobody ever seen it from above and what was the point of entering from underground?
This is what sequels are really made of.
