With Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog have created a game that can be enjoyed both as an experience and a spectacle. It’s as much a joy to watch as it is to play, at least if the friends who’ve sat with me as I’ve played are to be believed. In many ways, it transcends the traditional game experience with a technical flair, wit and panache far beyond the reach of other titles. Both the story and cinematics could easily stand on their own as pieces of entertainment in other forms of media – a novel, film or TV series perhaps – but they just happen to be tied seamlessly together around an excellent action-adventure game.

It’s totally not the sort of thing that looks, to me, like it would be amazing. But I’m hugely intrigued that it seems to be. Please buy me a PlayStation 3 so I can sample for myself. Kthx.

Great review.

I’d say you’re right about the middle sections containing less in the way of the game’s overarching plot elements, but I think in these parts the plot is purposefully taking a step back to focus on the ever-complicating character developments.

I think what gets me is the voluminous gusto of it all. There’s plenty of sequences in the game where you’re moving on objects that are also moving – I don’t know how Naughty Dog’s physics engine works it all out, but it’s always a phenomenal, breathtaking effect that makes my jaw drop.