Uncharted 2: Why I love it

So I finished Uncharted 2 a little more than a week ago. As I'm sure you have heard, it's great. The thing is, I disliked the first game. In fact, I almost hated the first game. The second game however really fixes everything, like everything. Overall it was a great game, but let us explore just why I enjoyed it so much despite my hatred of the first.

The Combat
In the first game the combat sucked. It had all the mechanics that it should have but the difficulty of them and the execution wasn't the best. First off, the enemies never died. Those guys could take so many hits without even being fazed. And the ones that could get knocked around a bit seemed to be able to take even more bullets before dropping.

Along with this, you ended up having to use a LOT of bullets, bullets that can't do much damage, bullets that need to be picked up off of fallen enemies. You can see the problem. Countless times I wasted several clips on a group of enemies to end up finding myself having to run into the group to pick up some more. Leading to an easy death.

This brings up the idea of the hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't very good too. The only time you ever wanted to use the melee attacks was when there was only one man remaining. If you do it with a few guys around, they will kill you before you're doing beating the first guy down. What ruined it was the very precise timing you needed to have when hitting the square and triangle buttons. Don't get me wrong, needing a sense of timing isn't bad, but needing that precise of it when being rained down on by gun fire is very hard.

Difficulty
So you might be thinking that I just sucked at the game and should have changed to an easier difficulty. Well the thing is, I was playing on easy throughout the whole game. I choose this off the bat since I had heard how good the second game was and needed to finally start the first. I had to get through it quite so I could experience it and know the story and characters.

So you can see why I had become so frustrated with the game when I was losing so much on what should have been easy, at least the choice of difficulties lead me to believe this.

The Platforming
This was the only part I enjoyed about the first game. It had some really good landscapes and made you scale some really crazy towers. The issue with this was that there wasn't enough. After around five minutes of climbing and traversing the environment, you had to go into another gun fight. The whole game was just moving from one gun fight into another. This really made me notice how short the one aspect of the game I enjoyed was and ended up ruining for me.

If Uncharted: Drakes Fortune had less of a focus on the gun-play, it would have been much better.

So what did the second game do that made me love it so much? I'm glad you asked.

The Combat
Fixed. Enemies now don't take ALL the bullets to go down. I can stay in one spot and shoot out people easily. This makes the gun fights last significantly shorter. One bad thing is that picking up ammo is the same but with the ability to actually kill the guys when you need to makes this not as bad.

The hand-to-hand combat is also much, much better. Instead of needing the exact timing when hitting the guy, you can just mash the square button until he is dead. They even add in a counter attack mechanic. This allows you to fight back whenever one of the enemies grabs you or blocks one of your punches. Much better.

Difficulty
Also fixed. I was able to go through the whole game on Normal and find it easier than the first one on Easy. With the enemies actually dying after a realistic number of bullets I found myself having a much better time and even enjoying the gu fights. The only downside was near the end when you have to fight these incredibly over powered enemies. They can kill you in about two hits from either their melee attacks or their crossbows. Thankfully this was only for about one or two chapters at the end.

The Platforming
Great. I enjoyed it in the first game but the way they set it up in this one was much better. They last so much longer, the gun fights don't take away from the traversing and the camera alone both helps point you in the right direction and forces you to look at how gorgeous the environment they created is. In fact, the movements of the camera are one of my favorite parts of the game. The quite cuts and ideal slow motion moments make seeing Nathan Drake jump from a collapsing building better than ever.

The Set Pieces
This is where Uncharted 2 really shines. Not only did it fix everything from the first game, but it managed to make some incredible lasting impressions by making you play incredibly one time moments again and again. Whether this be running down a city street while a tank follows close behind trying to blow you up, climbing out of a train dangling off the end of a cliff with a bullet in your gut or even fighting enemies in a tower that is falling over and making you jump through a window in order to live, everything was amazing. These moments - along with countless others - are what gives me such a good lasting appeal about the game and make it a hard one to forget.

What I am currently playing:

I know I could just update the side bar section specifically for this, but I'm playing a lot and felt it deserved its own post.

• A Boy and his Blob: So far this game is spectacular. The art is fantastic and the overall feel of the game is wonderfully cute. This is definitely one of my favorite games of this year.
  
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii: What can I say, it's Mario, so you know it's good. The multiplayer aspect is as good as it sounds and brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the standard side-scrolling platformer.
  
• Bit. Trip Void: I have yet to get into this but it is downloaded and waiting.
  
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: I didn't like the first game but this is already starting (I'm on chapter 7) to change my mind. Much more on this later.
  
• Dragon Age: Origins: So far I have only created my character and been through the very first dialogue tree. I have not played enough yet.
  
• Call of Duty: Classic: The only reason I got this was because someone gave me their download code since they only cared for MW2.
  
• The Maw: I have always been interested in this game but not enough to spend the full 800 on. It became xbox's deal of the week today so I picked it up for half price. I have yet to play it.
  
• Uno Rush: Once again, I always wanted it, but not for full price. It became one of xbox's holiday deals of the day, so I grabbed it for 50% off. This game is crazy, very hectic and very fun.
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: So far I am loving the game despite not reaching a dungeon yet.
  

That's quite a bit, and if I choose to hang on to Assassin's Creed Bloodline then that rounds the count up to ten. For the most part I will be talking more about each of these games later, if not during Game of the Year stuff.

E309: Notable Mention Traliers Pt. 2

Here is the last batch of trailers I enjoyed from E3 2009.


Final Fantasy XIV
Not sure if I will play this because it's an online Final Fantasy game, but any new numbered Final Fantasy will get me excited.



Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Game Footage)
I haven't played the first one but I hear it was good. I will play it one day for sure.



Final Fantasy XIII
This is really more one of the trailers I really liked, but it's nothing on my for-sure-getting list.