Devin Vs Uncharted 2

Having finished Uncharted 2 recently I decided to write a review for it. Worry not, it's spoiler free.

The Good:
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Combat: I have to say, like many people, I was a little disappointed with the shooting mechanic in the first Uncharted.  It wasn't bad, it just felt like every enemy was a bullet sponge.  In the sequel there are bullet sponge enemies, but they take a lot of a hits for a reason.  You can quickly pick out who will take one head shot and who would take a shotgun to the face to take down.  There are time when I felt a little underpowered (mostly towards the end of the game and fighting a particular bad guy) but the experience made it more fun.  The hand to hand combat does feel a little over powered.  I don't think I ever lost a fist fight, the only times I died was when someone shot me while I was trying to take someone down with my fists.

Stealth: Upon hearing there was going to be stealth in Uncharted 2 I was probably one of the few that were excited.  They executed it exactly they way the should have.  It is almost never 100% necessary (only that first mission), but is a lot more satisfying to do so.  I know several times where I opted to use platforming and use the "pull the guy over the ledge and watch him fall to his death" mechanic over running in guns blazing.  The majority of my gun battles started with me sneaking around, killing as many people as I could and then finally busting some caps. 

Story: The story in Uncharted 2 is serviceable.  It gives way more than just a reason to move from place to place.  The constant flashback mechanic isn't as lame as I thought it might be.  I feel like the first game's story was a little more compelling because the main characters it introduces (Sully and Elena) seem way more memorable than this ones (Chloe and Flynn).  The mysteries in the story never felt like true mysteries to me.  As much as I feel like the story was "meh", I can remember every plot point and every character and every awesome moment told in the cutscenes.  I can't say the same for a lot of my favorite stories in games. 

Puzzles: The puzzle quality is much better this time around.  The journal still feels a little bit like a "win" button, but at least there is a bit more thinking that has to go into them.  I'm not sure how many of these style puzzles were in the first game, but I can only remember 3 of them in Uncharted 2. 

The Bad:
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Treasure Hunting:  I remember caring way more about looking for treasure in the first Uncharted.  I think I found about 14 pieces in the second game and I really couldn't care less.  I love the amount of time I think they may have put into adding the treasures, but I never read the summaries or really pay attention to what they look like.  I managed to earn enough money just playing the game to get all the extra movies and that's all I really cared about.  They could just give you access to the movies and extra content based on game progress and trophies.  Adding these really awkwardly placed glowing stars that signal a treasure just seems out of place in the game.

The Overhyped:
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Uncanny Valley: The graphics are great.  But they aren't THAT great.  There is no moment in any of the cut scenes where I doubted whether or not I was playing a game.  The character models still are a little off for me.  Elena still looks slightly mentally handicapped and Chloe just looks off.  For some reason the females' eyes in this game all look overly sparkly.  Up close it looks alright, but from a far they look like little stars. 

The Slightly Annoying:
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Climbing: Naughty Dog meet Sucker Punch.  Steal their tech for climbing.  Thanks k bye.  Somehow the majority of the time I got stuck was because I couldn't find the particular brick or door that I could climb up.  I understand that this would probably force the way they create levels to change completely, but I'd rather not have to spent 10 minutes looking for where I need to climb.

The Great:
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Writing: There are very few game characters that I care about.  I don't really care about Nathan Drake, but he does seem like someone I'd like to hang out with. 

I still haven't touched the multiplayer and I probably won't for the time being.

Overall it's a great game that should be played.