Those 20 minutes are considered by many to be among the best Uncharted as a series and Naughty Dog have ever delivered, and it’s easy to see why. The train set piece is, in many ways, a microcosm of Uncharted 2 as a whole. A good set-piece can truly elevate a game to a whole new level of quality, and Uncharted 2 was brimming with these moments.įrom the game’s cold open with an injured Nate attempting to climb out of the wrecks of a train crash, to the collapsing building in Nepal, to the mother of all set-pieces- the train.
The set pieces.īlockbuster set piece moments that deliver memorable and thrilling moments of high-octane action are almost a necessity for action games in today’s day and age, and while Uncharted 2 was by no means the first game to have that, it was definitely the one that showed the industry and the audiences that these moments were far more important than we’d given them credit for. Even when you were playing the game, the action felt just as meticulously handcrafted and polished as it would during a completely scripted sequence where the player had no control- which brings us to the second core element of Uncharted 2 that we’re examining here today. The fact that one look at such games is enough to instantly show us what game they’re taking cues from should tell you something about just how good and influential Uncharted 2 was, and still remains.īut it’s not just during cutscenes that Uncharted 2 showcased its trademark flair and explosiveness. Even to this day, we’re getting games that try to deliver the sort of linear, handcrafted, guided, and cinematic experiences that Naughty Dog popularized back in 2009- it’s become an important part of the industry, of storytelling in games, and of single player games as a whole. That, and the incredible performances given by Nolan North and co as the leading characters of the game, backed up by writing that did justice to all these characters and the banter and relationships between them, lent the game a cinematic quality that was unprecedented at the time. But just as important was the excellent motion capture work done by Naughty Dog in the game, at a time when motion capture was far, far less commonly used in video games than it is now. Other than the game’s strength in cinematography, its visuals also deserve a lot of credit for this, which was an area where Uncharted 2 was second to none when in first came out. Naughty Dog have a knack for directing cutscenes in their games in truly cinematic fashion, and Uncharted 2 was when they really hit their stride. To say that it all started in earnest with Uncharted 2 would not be an exaggeration. Cinematicism in games is easily found these days, and experiences that evoke the biggest Hollywood blockbusters in terms of their panache and flair are becoming more and more common.
And the first element, as you would have probably guessed, is the cinematic quality of the game.įor years, video gams as a medium have been negotiating with technological restrains to establish themselves as a proper storytelling medium, and as technology has grown, so too has games’ ability to tell great stories, and tell them well. That’s what they did with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and in this feature, we’ll be talking about the core elements that, in our opinion, made the game the masterpiece that it was. But Naughty Dog knew they were onto something special, that if they persisted, honed their craft, and doubled down on everything that made the first game good, they could deliver something truly spectacular. But it lacked polish, it lacked that iconic flair that the series came to be known for in later years, and coming right after Gears of War, its cover-based third person shooter combat was deemed by many to be a bit too derivative. We’ve already spoken about The Last of Us and what made it an excellent game in a recent feature, and here, we’ll be turning back the clock to 2009, going all the way back to the game that made the entire industry sit up and take notice of Naughty Dog as one of the all-time greats- Uncharted 2, the game that put Uncharted, Naughty Dog, and Sony as a first party publisher well and truly on the map.Ģ007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a good game, and even back then, it had the ingredients to become something special.
Seeing the Naughty Dog logo on a disc is almost a guarantee of quality these days, and that can be attributed two two games- The Last of Us and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. They’ve always been considered as great developers, making their name with Crash Bandicoot and then building up their reputation with Jak and Daxter, but over the last ten years or so, they’ve ascended from being a great developer to flat-out being among the most talented, trusted, and beloved studios in the industry. Naughty Dog have seen a meteoric rise in popularity and stature over the last decade.