Uncharted 2 is enjoying stellar reviews, riding high with a 96 average on Metacritic and standing tall as the critical darling of 2009. In fact, the lowest score a critic could muster was an impressive 9, meaning Uncharted 2 must be damn-near perfect in every way. Unfortunately, my experience with Uncharted 2, which I played to completion, was not that of a 9-10 rated game. Quite the contrary.
Before I launch an attack on Uncharted 2, allow me to proclaim some praise where it is due.
Lush, Detailed Graphics
Uncharted 2 is one of the most beautiful-looking games you’ve ever seen. The attention to detail, set design, and tons of little touches all conspire to push the PS3 to its maximum capability. The artists and level designers truly delivered something fantastic.
Great Voice-Acting
99% of videogames have horrendous voice-acting by 5th-rate talent that would be better served by abandoning the acting and relying solely on subtitles. Not so with Uncharted 2. Here the acting is solid and lines are delivered with something akin to emotion, which is nice to hear.
That’s pretty much it for my positives. Now on with the show.
Great Graphics Do Not Make a Great Game
Graphics in gaming is like special-effects in movies: special-effects cannot save what is an otherwise terrible movie. You need look no further than Transformers 2 or just about every other special-effects heavy movie ever released.
Fortunately, your average movie critic is wise enough to not give a movie a passing grade just because the special-effects are superb. Such is not the case in typical videogame reviews. It’s as if graphics have a +9 modifier to game ratings, all other elements be damned.
While it is true Uncharted looks beautiful, it is also true that those awesome graphics are in the service of poor gameplay, which brings me to:
Uncharted 2: The Ledge and Jumping Simulator
Playing the first 15 minutes of Uncharted 2 offers you just about every gameplay experience you’ll encounter through the entirety of the game. It boils down to traversing endless mountain ledges, walls, pillars, iron bars and countless jumps interspersed with simplistic combat sequences.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
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Wow this guy is retarded, he states that you do everything in the first 15 minutes that is the same for any shooter. You do get better combos and new guns though. He says there is only one route so it feels like it is on rails, but that is not true at all you can climb and use roof tops or what have you. He then calls it a dumbed down version of Tomb Raider, but it surpasses Tomb Raider in every conceivable way. I guess you will do what ever it takes to get hits on this hack of a site.
dont know who u think u r to burn this game something tells me that u rushed through the game skipped the cut scenes and most likely hated this game b4 it even got to the main menu first off this game has an amazing story great gameplay, great chacters, ur most likely a xbox fan boy who at the start of ur so called review by saying the graphics r “lush and detailled” and go on to say cliffs r annoying honestly u and this second rate site can go to hell
I dont agree! With anything except the the graphics are great!
The game is set up as that style of game always is, if you dont like it, then you dont like it, not all games are meant to challange the way you play them.
The characters are believable and charming, the story is rather straight forward but its still entertaining, but i guess your little write up got you a lot of traffic on the site.
So basically…
You don’t like platforming action games with good graphics…?
If yes, then why review Uncharted 2?
[...] Uncharted 2: Critics Blinded by Beauty? [...]
Graphics in games are not like special effects in movies. It’s like cinematography, visual art. It’s not about looking ‘good’ or ‘bad’, the visuals are the most important output that a game has to tell a story, set a scene and put itself in context. Graphics are the language that the game uses to connect to the player. It’s about style, it’s about art, it’s about what they evoke.
The clue is in the name, video game.
Thank You for this excellent review, I just wish I had read it earlier…
When playing this through I too felt bored, way too much repetition! Cliches I can take but not that often as it happens in UC2.
Single player experience was still nice, very beautiful and good lines sometimes between the characters. Multiplayer isn’t my favourite, it’s ridicculous how much hits can these guys take before falling. And yes I admit I really suck in this online mode!
Maybe I’m too old for this fairy tale…
Oh and thumbs up for the motion comic they’re putting out, the first issue was nice.