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Name: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the latest game from Naughty Dog, the highly-acclaimed and merited games studio that developed the original Crash Bandicoot games and the Jak series, follows the same formula set by its prequel, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, by mixing platforming and gunplay together, and is set to a thrilling adventure story based in exotic locales. So, what does the sequel do to improve over the original? Everything.

The game begins a number of years after the first, with Nathan Drake dabbling in his true profession. He, along with co-conspirators Harry Flynn and Chloe Frazer, attempt to steal a Mongolian lamp from a Turkish museum that supposedly contains clues to the location of Shambhala, the mythical kingdom that became part of Buddhist folklore, and the Cintamani Stone, an enormous sapphire that supposedly has wish-fulfilling properties. The discoveries made during this raid lead Drake all around Asia in conflict with war criminal Zoran Lazarevic, who seeks the Stone for his own devices. The game has often been compared to a summer blockbuster film, and the plot lends itself to this comparison. It's a fast-paced, gripping thriller that'll hold your attention from start to finish.

Combat follows a template that you'd think the gaming industry was tired of by now: cover-based third-person shooting with recharging health. However, Uncharted 2 makes its own with the focus being placed on moving from cover to cover. Unlike many other games, you can't hole up in one spot, firing pot-shots until there's nothing left to shoot back. Doing this will lead to you being shot from behind or sharing your safe zone with a live grenade. In fact, the game encourages you to get up close and physically beat your opponents down. This is where stealth comes into play. The concept of stealth gameplay in a fast-paced action game is usually enough to send a shiver up the spine of a snowman, yet it has been implemented impeccably. There are particular situations when you can enter combat unseen. This allows you to watch the enemy patrols, and take the right moment to break a neck or push someone off a cliff. Doing so not only leads to an easy kill, but you pick up more ammunition from their weapons as a bonus. If you're seen, combat returns to the normal, enjoyable system.

Platforming involves a lot of climbing and scrambling up dilapidated, ancient walls and war-torn urban settings. It's much smoother this time around, since in the first game, you ended up having to make some leaps of faith, as the way forward wasn't always clear. This isn't often the case in Uncharted 2, since most ledges and outcroppings that you can interact with are highlighted in different colours, making them more apparent. Not that it makes platforming easy, since there are many elaborate constructions that you need to overleap. There are times when the two gameplay types merge together, when obstacles you're trying to get past become your only cover from enemy fire. This is but an example of what really makes Uncharted 2 such a massive success. Throughout the game, new types of gameplay situations are always coming up, keeping the game fresh and interesting even after many hours of play.

Uncharted 2's presentation is simply the most impressive of any title on any console to date. Using incredibly detailed character models, complete with disfigurements, blemishes, freckles and moles, along with motion and facial-capture, these cut-scenes come out blazing with an intensity that simply doesn't exist in many other games. This is in no small part to the delivery of the actors, who really bring a human touch to the digital mass of polygons they represent. Environments are large and expansive, the colour palette is rich and vibrant, and the animation is smooth and adaptable. The sound design is equally superb, with an excellent soundtrack stuffed with emotive compositions, and a plethora of sound effects for any situation, be it hearing an enemies' body tumble off a moving train or the sound of an empty clip clattering off stone.

The multiplayer mode in Uncharted 2 is much better than that of the original Uncharted, in that it actually sports one this time. It includes both competitive and co-operative modes. In Competitive, you can play 5-versus-5 matches in Deathmatch and Objective-based modes, both ranked and unranked, and three players can play co-operatively against AI enemies in all five difficulty modes, either as a linear mission or in an arena-based survival challenge. It's all focused on small, co-operating squads, a demographic that's rather unpopulated on the PS3. There are seven competitive maps, and three co-operative missions - not a lot, but not too little, and it has been indicated that there is to be more content released in a downloadable form. It plays much like the single-player game, even allowing you to scale buildings for more strategic opportunities for efficient killing. In the Plunder mode, essentially Capture the Flag, the capture point can be on a different plane to the gold idol you're carrying, so you'll need to throw the idol to this higher level. This sense of verticality really defines the multiplayer mode of Uncharted 2. You can also customise your character to your play style, choosing from a selection of perks and bonuses. There are other modes, also, such as Machinima Mode, where you are given more control over the finer details of the game, such as the stance of your character, and create custom videos. You can even replace the background with green-screen, and if you speak through a headset, your character will lip-synch to your words. Finally, there is a Cinema Mode that automatically records the last twenty competitive games you played, (you can also Protect the ones you want to keep), and allows you to play them back with an assortment of options. You can control how fast it plays, follow whatever player you choose, and even fly around as a free-cam. This is ideal for taking screenshots, which can be exported and shared amongst your friends, as has been very popular among our Community section. Voice Communication is also of very high quality, something that is hardly guaranteed on most online PS3 games.

Despite all it does really well, Uncharted 2 is not a flawless diamond. there are a few graphical bugs, and the game isn't perfect at figuring out what part of cover your character wants to stick to. Also, the camera doesn't react too well if you make a sudden retreat towards the screen, obscuring your path from view - not ideal when you're under minigun fire. The Cinema Mode, which coming with the aforementioned host of options, leaves out a critical one: a rewind button. If you miss a great opportunity for a screenshot, or want to see the same event from different angles, you have to start the whole cinema from the beginning to see it again. While you are able to upload these videos to the Naughty Dog servers to share with your friends, you can't export them as a video file, meaning you'd have to use a capture card to record everything if you want to move your files to a PC. This is all a real shame, and holds back what could have been a truly enjoyable feature.

Uncharted 2 is an absolute masterwork of good game design. It learns from past experience, and unabashedly takes ideas that worked great for other games, and blends them all together to create its own entity. From the lengthy and superlative single-player experience, to the deep, malleable, customisable multiplayer suite, Uncharted 2 is an essential purchase for everyone and anyone who loves great video games.