Uncharted 2 Among Thieves

When I used to think of the word “Uncharted” it would conjure for me images of unknown islands hidden in the vast Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. In this day of satellite imagery and GPS, is it possible that there are still such places out there? Or maybe there are secret lonely archipelagos that only a select few know exist… forbidden retreats that the secret rulers of our world keep off the charts, far from shipping lanes and blinded from space. That’s what used to come to my mind. I suspect, however, that the word will from here on in also recall a certain video game for me… a quaint little title called Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which has the honor of being the first of my reviewed games to score a perfect 10/10 across all categories. “Kitty Got Wet” indeed!

Plotting Points by Tan(x)
Video Game Reviews by a Very Busy Math Teacher

Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Platform: PS3
Played For: 16 hours

The last time we went adventuring with Drake, he and his friends were busy tracking down El Dorado in South America. This time Drake switches focus to another classic Place of Mystery: Shambhala, better known as Shangri-La. Drake’s quest takes him from Borneo to Nepal and into the Himalayas, where this venerable Utopian secret city has oft been thought to exist (by the way, check out the classic movie Lost Horizon for another exciting quest for this Buddhist paradise.) Each location Drake visits is presented in lavish detail with gorgeous graphics and design… demonstrating a real love of Far Eastern cultures. Drake is guided by a mishmash of weird history, including the far-ranging journeys of Marco Polo and the quality crazy of the Theosophists and Nicholas Roerich in particular.

There are two primary tricks to writing weird historical fiction, and the authors of Uncharted use them both. The first is to choose a recognizable reference for which the specific historical details remain clouded. You want a subject people can latch on to, but to keep from sounding silly you try to avoid contradicting well-known documented truths.

The journeys of Marco Polo fit this condition nicely, as practically everything we know of Mr. Polo comes from what the Britannica calls one of the most contentious bodies of work in history. Sure, Marco managed to get around, and he was probably an influential member of Khubla Khan’s empire. It also seems likely that Polo returned to Europe with a small flotilla of Chinese ships, escorting a Mongolian princess in tow.

It turns out, there are no known actual records of Marco Polo in Asia (there may be references to him under an adopted Chinese name, but we don’t know what that name would be.) What we do know of him comes from his own book, which he narrated while imprisoned at the end of his life. The book was a huge success, and as these were the days before the printing press, many different versions arose from the need to translate it into different languages. These transcriptions often abridged or added material liberally, making all 140 surviving copies a differing, contradictory lot. The original book was lost, obscuring the actual history of Polo’s adventures. The remaining translation allow lots of wriggle room for historical interpretation. One unpopular theory even claims that Polo never traveled to China at all, although this seems even less likely than Uncharted’s assertion that he found Shangri-La during his journey home.

The second trick to writing good fiction of this sort is to draw inspiration from the crazies… the conspiracy theorists, the cults and the just plain bug-nuts. Thank goodness for Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophists, who drew wild connections between Shambhala, alien visitations, and a Buddhist version of the Holy Grail known as the Chintamani Stone (it also grants eternal life… is it the Grail itself, or an alien artifact?) The famous painter and defender of Eastern culture Nicholas Roerich was thought to have hand-delivered the Chintamani Stone to Shambhala… look for the reference to his name in Drake’s journal during the game.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an incredibly well-realized game. You want some quality voice acting? Have the very competent team from the first game joined by Farscape fan favorite Claudia Black. How about a few trophies? Uncharted 2 has tons of achieve… er, trophies to claim, not the least of which are for finding the 100 hidden treasures spread across the single player campaign (I feel bad for Drake’s companions, who were often left alone in danger as I piloted Drake off into the corners of the map questing for Shiny Things. Each treasure has a lovely 3D graphic that really inspires you to “catch ‘em all.”) Make sure to have Drake jump into any pool of water you encounter along the way… as a general rule of thumb, hilarity and trophies are sure to follow.

A little multiplayer, perhaps? Uncharted has at least three cooperative multiplayer modes and a bunch of competitive ones to boot, along with a vast multiplayer store and a medal and leveling up system similar to that in Resistance 2. My erstwhile cousin CotangentX and I gave the various Co-Op modes a spin, and found ourselves clobbered by one of the campaign modes on Easy. Luckily, we discovered that friendly fire exists in the harder difficulty settings, allowing us to spend most of Co-Op fighting shooting each other rather than making progress. I guess we could have played versus, but somehow it felt so enjoyably wrong to stab each other in the back when we were supposed to be cooperating.

Uncharted 2 plays out with a satisfying combination of fighting and silly stealth… Drake’s idea of sneaking up on someone is rather like playing a game of Red Light Green Light with a bunch of narcoleptic deaf and near-sighted monkeys than actual sneakery. Unrealistic, but it works pretty well… the game avoids getting bogged down in Metal Gear Solid style hiding in closets or brown paper bags or the like. Drake does spend an awful lot of the game crouching around… the poor guy is bound to have some major back problems if he ever reaches old age. That aside, action sequences that require some quick thinking occasionally punctuate the shoot-em-up action, and manage to feel much more natural than the “hit the triangle button at the right time” of Resident Evil or God of War. Plus, watching the ever-affable Drake take a few lumps from falling out of, say, an exploding apartment building, proves to be a winning comedy routine… the game is nothing if not cinematic fun.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Uncharted has it all. I mean, good grief, it even has Facebook and Twitter! You can twit your progress through the game if that’s the kind of thing you like to do. Maybe I should have twitted in this review in small 140 character bursts. The single player campaign is long and satisfying. The multiplayer options appear endless. There are, like, five difficulty levels to everything. And if you’re like me, the story provides a perfect launching point for internet research on theosophy, Tibetan magic, Marco Polo, you name it. What’s more valuable than that?

In the final analysis, Uncharted 2 is not only one of the best games of the year, but it may very well qualify as one of the best media of 2009. I can’t think of a recent action movie as well-plotted, exciting and inventive as this game manages to be. Between the elaborate set pieces and the thrilling action sequences, I found myself completely absorbed in Drake’s quest from the first moment to the last… and that doesn’t happen with a lot of Hollywood offerings these days. Uncharted 2 is a must-have for anyone who owns a PS3, and a powerful draw for anyone eyeing the newly cheaper system as a Holiday gift. With this game our friend Drake truly finds himself “among thieves” if you add his name to this list… Sly Cooper, Garrett, and Lara.