Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a rare game that delivers in spades despite the impossibly high expectations and massive hype train leading up to it. Uncharted 2 easily stands shoulder to shoulder with any other critically acclaimed release, successful release. However, it doesn't do this by introducing some amazing new gameplay mechanics or pushing the envelope for what we expect from a game. Rather, Uncharted 2 is a tightly designed, meticulously constructed game that cranks everything up to 11 and offers absolutely everything that an excellent sequel should.
The single player experience in Uncharted 2 is one of the best you'll find on any console this generation. A number of smart refinements and modifications mean that virtually every aspect of the game is markedly better than the prequel. The occasionally frustrating enemy damage tolerance and sometimes wonky hit detection of the first game have been fixed here, and the result is a truly excellent combat experience. Enemies are much smarter this time around, and are much more proactive in attempting to flank you, flush you out of your hiding spots, and generally make life difficult for you. Despite this, the difficulty curve of the combat is brilliantly paced, and you'll always feel sufficiently challenged without getting the impression that the game is being flat out unfair. The other major component of the single player game is the environment traversal, which generally works brilliantly thanks to subtle use of colors and angles that always nudge you in the right direction without being overbearing or condescending towards you. These 2 elements constitute the majority of the game, but the developers at Naughty Dog also mix things up with some surprisingly well done and mostly optional stealth sections, enhanced melee combat, and some simple but satisfying puzzles. Throughout the single player game, these elements are brought out in carefully calculated measures, resulting in an immaculately paced game where you're never stuck on any one element for too long. On top of all that, the characters are interesting, the voice work is excellent, and the story will give you even more of a reason to hold onto that controller. Combine this all with some memorable setpieces and impressive production values and you're left with a nearly unmatched experience as far as single player games go.
Even though the single player game is the clear star of the show, the multiplayer offers up a surprisingly robust and addictive experience. The competitive aspect of the multiplayer suite offers up a variety of cleverly designed maps in a variety of gameplay modes. Although the objectives don't offer anything we haven't seen before, the combination of cover based shooting and environment traversal offer an interesting experience. The map design offers many opportunities to sneak up on opponents, or experiment with a number of different weapons and combat strategies. The cooperative multiplayer offers up another excellent experience, in which you can take on either objective based games or an increasingly popular horde mode style that will have you taking on increasingly powerful waves of enemies. Due to the game's tight mechanics, this mode actually turns out to be one of the best cooperative modes around, rivalling the likes of Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead. As a nice added bonus, all three game modes offer up a variety of achievements, which are linked to cash rewards and can be exchanged for call of duty style perks, skins, making of features, and interesting little gameplay tweaks for the single player mode such as visual filters or the ability to flip the game world left to right.
Despite offering so much, Uncharted 2 is not an absolutely perfect game. Sometimes your efforts to get behind cover will get a little wonky and you'll wind up in the wrong spot and leave yourself open. Once in a while you'll have to take a few cracks at a traversal segment because a jump might seem doable but isn't, or the right way to go isn't clear. However, these issues really are quite rare, and it's only because everything else in the game is so ingeniously constructed that these flaws are even noticeable in the first place. These minor issues do very little to take anything away from Uncharted 2, and what you're left with in the end is an amazing experience from start to finish that you'd have to be crazy not to enjoy.