Here it is, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. When the game arrived on our doorstep I literally shit a brick, it was that exciting. Nathan Drake's first adventure on the Playstation 3 still ranks among the best the system has to offer, three years after the fact, so the question now is: how does Naughty Dog's second foray into the adventures of Nathan Drake compare?

As soon as Uncharted 2 kicks off you're thrown into an epic globe-trotting adventure that will take you from the swamps of Borneo to the war-torn streets and snowy mountaintops of Nepal in search of the lost fleet of Marco Polo. Naughty Dog did a mighty good job making sure Uncharted 2 didn't feel like a rehash of scenery from the first game. Also different this time around are the motivations for Nathan Drake. Where the first Uncharted was all about Drake and Sully just trying to discover the lost treasure of El goddamn Dorado, Uncharted 2 is more a revenge story for Drake. But don't get me wrong, Uncharted 2 still takes just as much influence from properties such as Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider, it just also injects a little bit of Richard Stark's Parker novel "The Hunter," and a pinch of Mission: Impossible to the game's narrative.

In comparison to the first Uncharted, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves' story definitely surpasses the previous offering. Not only does it build on all the great character development set up by the first game, making you love these characters even more, but Uncharted 2 also tells a story with a much grander scale and far higher stakes. This isn't just a story about Drake hitting pay-dirt, if Drake fails here it could mean the end of the world.  

For those who've played the original Uncharted, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will feel very familiar, although there are two significant tweaks to the formula; one in the puzzle solving department and the other in gameplay. Let's start with the puzzles which are far more complex and require a bit more thought than they did in the first game. This is in due part to the hints in Drake's journal not being so blatantly obvious this time around, thus requiring a little bit of brain power to solve.

As much as I enjoy sucking from the teat of Naughty Dog, as my friends can attest, I have to be honest and say the new gameplay mechanic added to Uncharted 2 doesn't perform as well as I would have hoped. Early on in the game you're tasked with infiltrating a museum to steal a piece of Marco Polo's coveted treasure and must sneak through the museum without killing any of the patrolling guards. While Uncharted 2 features much better silent take-downs than the first game did (they actually work this time), Uncharted isn't a series designed to be played like Splinter Cell, with sections where the only option is to go unnoticed and the penalty for being spotted is a forced checkpoint restart. It was just frustrating to have to restart a section a number of times because your silent take-down animations take you out of cover just long enough to be spotted by another guard. Next thing you know the game is loading a previous save point. While by no means a deal-breaker, the museum infiltration remains a slight blight on an overall fantastic gameplay experience.