Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the most cinematic video games I have ever played. The story is movie quality, along the lines of Indiana Jones or National Treasure, and the gameplay is fun and challenging. I only played the first one briefly so this review will offer no comparisons.

The game begins with you waking up inside a train car that is dangling over the edge of a cliff after some kind of catastrophic wreck. You have to climb out before it falls, then you get into a shootout with a bunch of soldiers as you make your way through the wreckage. Upon finding a treasure in the snow, you flashback a bit to explain what happened. This story is about finding Shangri-La, and you are in a race against a wicked group of mercenaries as well as some fellow explorers. Along the way you’ll explore jungles, ancient underground temples, mountain top monasteries, and more.

I completed the single player campaign in about 12.5 hours, which is pretty solid for a game like this. Most single player games only take 8-10 hours, so you get a little more for your money here. There is also a multiplayer portion that lets you do online battles, but I found the single player part to be superior. Usually, it’s the other way around.

This game is played using a third person view and about half of it is shooting and combat while the rest is acrobatics and a little bit of puzzle solving. The shooting parts of the game are quite fun and you have the option to be stealthy or just charge in Rambo style and start blowing people away. You have a wide variety of weapons to choose from and also have hand grenades, and you are encouraged to use cover when engaged. The acrobatic parts involve lots of jumping and climbing, and it’s a lot like the Assassin’s Creed games in that regard. As for puzzles, there are only a few major ones and I was able to figure them out without much trouble. If you need help, there’s always YouTube.

Even though you can jump and climb, this is not a sandbox game. This can be frustrating at times because you are expected to jump to a certain place and it allows that, yet at other times you simply can’t jump to other places when they should be within reach. I had a few falling deaths while trying to explore, because there is hidden treasure all throughout the game and you will get PS3 trophies for every 10thone you find.

I found the difficulty to be perfectly balanced. Never once did I have to struggle through any portions, though sometimes it took a couple of tries to figure out what I was supposed to do. Sometimes you have to run away and sometimes you have to fight, and the enemy AI isn’t all that smart so you can be patient and let them come to you. The game is designed so that you benefit greatly from using stealth and waiting a few seconds for the right moment to strike.

This has some of the best character graphics I have ever seen on the PS3. Not only are the character movements very realistic, but the texture and detail of the faces was very well done. The main character, Nathan Drake, was extremely well animated with how his facial expressions would change depending on the situation or who he was interacting with. Since you visit so many different locations, you will see a wide variety of scenery ranging from snowy mountains to wet jungles where you splash through puddles and swing from vines. My wife said that watching me play the game was like watching a movie.

Keeping with the cinematic quality of this game, the voice acting is superb and features many familiar voices from TV, movies, and other games. The main character is voiced by Nolan North, and he has done voice work on pretty much every major game released in the past several years, plus lots of TV shows and cartoons. The two female leads are voiced by Emily Rose (TV’s Haven) and Claudia Black of Farscape and many others, including the Morrigan character from Dragon Age: Origins. The orchestral soundtrack is absolutely wonderful, and it’s from the same composer who did the music for Joss Whedon’s Firefly. The sound effects are excellent, too.

In the end, I was very pleased with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Everything from the story to the gameplay, as well as the graphics and sound, was all perfectly done. This is one of the must-play titles for the PS3.

Recommended: Yes