Gameplay

Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure platform online game performed from a third-person view, with the participant in charge of Nathan Drake. Drake is bodily adept and is ready to leap, climb, and scale slender ledges and wall-faces to get between factors. Drake may be outfitted with as much as two firearms – one single-handed and one two-handed – and a restricted provide of grenades. Drake can decide up weapons, mechanically changing the present weapon he was utilizing, and extra ammunition from slain enemies. The participant can direct Drake to take cowl behind corners or low partitions utilizing both aimed or blind-fire to kill his enemies. The participant may have Drake fireplace whereas shifting. If Drake is undetected by his enemies, the participant can try to make use of stealth to take them out, similar to by sneaking up behind them to knock them out with one hit, or by pulling an unsuspecting foe over a ledge from which Drake is hanging.^[5] In most areas, if all the foes patrolling are killed stealthily then different waves that might usually seem don’t. Some areas of the sport require the participant to resolve puzzles with the usage of Drake’s journal, which supplies clues in the direction of the puzzles’ options. When enabled, a touch system supplies gameplay clues, such because the path of the following goal.

All through the sport are 101 particular treasures which may be hidden or in difficult-to-reach locations that the participant can gather. There’s additionally one secret “hidden” relic precisely the identical because the one in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Accumulating these treasures, together with finishing sure feats inside the recreation, is tracked by the awarding of medals, which supplies the participant in-game cash to make use of to unlock additional content material on the disc, together with idea artwork, recreation motion pictures, and recreation cheats similar to weapons with infinite ammunition. A big portion of the in-game medals are used to award trophies.

Multiplayer

Uncharted options each aggressive and co-operative multiplayer. The co-op multiplayer permits a most of three gamers to take the roles of Nathan and two different “hero” companions and options missions involving gunfights, platforming, and teamwork-based targets.^[6] Gamers may help their comrades in the event that they develop into critically injured or if they’re grabbed by an enemy.^[6]

The aggressive multiplayer permits a most of ten gamers to play towards one another in two groups of 5. Six aggressive modes are featured: Deathmatch, Plunder, Elimination, Turf Battle, King of the Hill and Chain Response.^[7] Deathmatch options two groups of 5, with one group performing as heroes and the opposite as villains. Gamers can select their very own applicable character fashions (similar to Nathan, Elena, Sully and new characters Tenzin and Chloe for the heroes group). As gamers accrue factors and rank up, they’ll buy extra skins for each heroes and villains.^[7] Gamers can choose two Enhance talents which help them within the matches.^[7] Plunder is just like the normal seize the flag recreation mode, and sees every group try to seize the treasure from a central level within the map and return it to their base; the participant carrying the treasure is slowed down an ideal deal, and might also select to hurl the treasure away at any level, so as to preserve it out of attain of the enemy, or to move it to a teammate.^[7] Elimination has two groups of 5 gamers towards one another with the target of killing everybody on the opposite group. In Elimination, the gamers don’t respawn. The purpose is to remove the opposite group three out of 5 occasions.

Chain Response is a mode that’s just like Turf Battle. This has the participant capturing posts, however the participant should do them in a selected order – one group works out from their base needing to seize 1 by 5 whereas the opposite group begins out from their house and must snag 5 by 1. King of the Hill has gamers capturing a hill, spawned on the map to attain factors. They need to keep within the hill to attain factors whereas the enemy group tries to do the identical.

Gold Rush is a cooperative mode of play the place 2–3 gamers should group as much as acquire a treasure, which is randomly spawned on the map, and take it again to their base, very like Plunder. Nevertheless, AI enemies attempt to cease the gamers from returning the treasure. If a participant goes down and isn’t revived earlier than the timer goes out, they won’t come again till the following spherical. In every consecutive around the enemies develop into harder to defeat. Survival is the second cooperative mode of play, the place 2–3 gamers should work collectively to defeat a complete of ten waves of enemies, every wave changing into an increasing number of tough. A brand new co-op recreation mode, titled “Siege”, was additionally added, by which 2–3 gamers should group as much as safe a zone whereas holding off waves of enemies.

The multiplayer servers of Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves had been terminated on September 3, 2019.^[8]

Plot

Two years after the occasions of the primary recreation, treasure hunter Nathan Drake (Nolan North) is approached by former affiliate Harry Flynn (Steve Valentine) and Flynn’s girlfriend Chloe Frazer (Claudia Black) to assist steal a Mongolian oil lamp linked to Marco Polo’s doomed 1292 voyage from China. The group plans to cheat Flynn’s consumer and take Polo’s treasure for themselves. Unbeknownst to Flynn, Chloe and Nate had labored collectively earlier than, and Chloe plans on blackmailing Flynn and escaping with Nate and no matter treasure they discover.

Nate and Flynn break right into a museum in Istanbul and discover the lamp, which incorporates a map and flammable resin that reveals Polo’s fleet was shipwrecked in Borneo, and was carrying the Cintamani Stone from the fabled metropolis of Shambhala. Flynn double-crosses Nate, leaving him to be arrested.

Three months later, Chloe helps free Nate together with his longtime good friend Victor Sullivan (Richard McGonagle). She reveals that Flynn is working for Zoran Lazarević (Graham McTavish), a Serbian battle legal looking for the stone. In Borneo, Nate and Sully infiltrate Lazarević’s camp, with Chloe as a mole. Nate discovers that the stone by no means left Shambhala, and locates a temple containing the our bodies of Polo’s crew, in addition to a phurba and map detailing that its service will achieve passage to Shambhala by a temple in Nepal. Nate and Sully escape after being cornered by Flynn and his males.

Sully backs out, so Nate and Chloe proceed to Nepal, which has been ravaged by Lazarević’s mercenaries. They encounter Nate’s ex-girlfriend journalist Elena Fisher (Emily Rose) and cameraman Jeff (Gregory Myhre), monitoring Lazarević. On the temple, Nate and Chloe use the phurba to uncover Shambhala’s location within the Himalayas. After Jeff is shot in an ambush, Chloe insists on abandoning him; Nate and Elena assist him however are caught by Lazarević. Chloe switches sides to keep up her cowl whereas Lazarević kills Jeff and obtains Shambhala’s location from Nate, who escapes with Elena.

With Elena’s assist, Nate catches as much as Lazarević’s practice. He fights by it to search out Chloe, however she refuses to depart with him after he compromised their mission to assist Jeff and Elena. Flynn arrives and shoots Nate. Cornered, Nate causes an explosion that derails the practice over a cliff. He escapes the hanging practice automotive, recovers the phurba, and falls unconscious. A Tibetan Sherpa, Tenzin (Pema Dhondup), brings Nate to his village.

Nate reunites with Elena and is launched to German explorer, Karl Schäfer (René Auberjonois). Schäfer sends him and Tenzin after the stays of Schäfer’s failed expedition for the stone a long time in the past. Nate and Tenzin journey by ice caves and struggle off unusual monsters. They uncover that Schäfer was working for the Nazi Ahnenerbe and killed his males to guard the world from the Cintamani Stone. They return to struggle off an assault on the village by Lazarević’s males, however Schäfer is kidnapped, and the phurba stolen. Elena and Nate comply with Lazarević’s convoy to a monastery, the place the mortally-wounded Schäfer warns Nate to destroy the stone earlier than Lazarević can acquire its energy.

After reacquiring the phurba from Chloe, Nate and Elena unlock the key passage to Shambhala beneath the monastery, however Lazarević corners them. With Chloe’s cowl blown, Lazarević forces Nate to open the pathway to Shambala. The monsters assault however are killed by Lazarević, who reveals them as Shambala’s disguised human guardians. After the gate is opened, Shambala’s true guardians assault, permitting Nate, Elena, and Chloe to flee.

After making their means by town, the group discovers that the Cintamani Stone is a big amber derived, together with the flammable resin, from the sap of an historical tree of life. The sap provides the drinker inhuman powers, explaining the guardians and Polo’s doomed crew. Flynn, left for useless by Lazarević, ambushes them in a suicide assault, significantly wounding Elena. Nate leaves her in Chloe’s care and confronts Lazarević on the base of the tree. Lazarević drinks the tree sap, changing into almost invincible. By taking pictures explosive pockets of resin close to Lazarević, Nate defeats him and leaves him to be killed by the guardians. As town crumbles below the collapse of the tree and the exploding resin, Nate and Chloe carry Elena to security.

Within the village, Chloe advises Nate to inform Elena that he loves her, earlier than bidding him farewell. Sully leaves a recovering Elena to Nate. The couple pays their respects at a memorial for Schäfer and kiss.

Improvement

First revealed by Recreation Informer in December 2008, the primary teaser trailer confirmed a weary, wounded Nathan Drake marching by a snowstorm to achieve a phurba half-buried within the snow. Lead character artist Richard Diamant remarked that the trailer was rendered in real-time, utilizing the sport’s engine.^[9] A second teaser trailer was launched quickly after, displaying a badly wounded Drake caught within the stays of a wrecked practice hanging precariously over a cliff. The story begins in medias res with this opening. The narrative opens with a quote attributed to Marco Polo: “I didn’t inform half of what I noticed, for I knew I’d not be believed”.

The sport had three important writers: head author Amy Hennig, Neil Druckmann and Josh Scherr.^[10]

Uncharted 2 options an internet multiplayer element; Naughty Canine employed a devoted multiplayer designer in August 2008 to work on this side of the sport.^[11] The beta part of the multiplayer was playable by those that purchased early copies of the sport inFamous.^[12] The beta was additionally accessible by annual subscribers of the PlayStation Community service, Qore, on June 3, to those that had subscribed to Qore by Could 15.^[13] The beta codes from Qore started to be despatched out on Could 8, 2009. Beta codes from inFamous shipped inside the sport’s packaging, on Could 26. In September 15, one other beta was launched and an open beta was launched to the EU and US on September 29 by way of the PSN retailer. Each expired on October 12.^[14] Within the first yr for the reason that recreation’s launch, greater than 125 million matches and 10,500 man-years had been performed on-line.^[15][16]

The event interval was 22 months, with six months of the full spent in pre-production.^[11]

One of many inspirations for the Tibetan village sequence was the 2008 online game The Graveyard by Story of Tales.^[17]

Movement seize

In E3 2009 movies from Naughty Canine confirmed the voice actors of the characters performing the movement captures in a number of the scenes.^[18] The actors act out the scene sporting specifically designed movement seize fits. Their efficiency was used to supply each the movement seize and voice work. The actors would even rehearse collectively in a room and had discussions with the inventive administrators of the sport earlier than finishing up the efficiency to create the extremely sensible and cinematic dialogue all through the sport.^[19]

Graphics and know-how

Naughty Canine supposed to maximise the utilization of the Cell’s SPUs, as their estimates for utilization within the first Uncharted had been solely round 30{ae90547d17d4d74b17007ee836a04674fd006933c139011dc78eb03c100070a7}.^[20] Because of this, the sport has extra sensible environments and animations. Uncharted 2 has 564 in-game cinematic animations compared to 80 in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.^[11]

Uncharted 2 makes use of Naughty Engine 2.0, a revamped and optimized model of the unique engine that has allowed the sport to have real-time shifting environments, extra sensible textures, and animations. The Naughty Canine Recreation Engine 2.0 additionally works in concord with Havok Physics.

Uncharted 2 makes use of between 90 and 100{ae90547d17d4d74b17007ee836a04674fd006933c139011dc78eb03c100070a7} of the Cell’s processor and makes use of all 25GB of a single Blu-ray Disc.^[21] Nevertheless, Evan Wells later identified:

… now it is a minimum of busy 100{ae90547d17d4d74b17007ee836a04674fd006933c139011dc78eb03c100070a7} of the time, nevertheless it’s nonetheless not fully-optimized code. I imply, so as to get to that 100{ae90547d17d4d74b17007ee836a04674fd006933c139011dc78eb03c100070a7}, it was extra about ensuring the pipeline was stuffed, and we weren’t operating into one of many processors changing into idle as a result of there wasn’t a job prepared for it.^[22]

Within the interview, Christophe Balestra additionally identified how necessary it was to ship each system with a tough drive:

The truth that each PlayStation 3 has a tough drive is big for us. It is the mix of Blu-ray and laborious drive. You’ll be able to play the whole recreation with out loading. We do not require an set up. We’re doing all of the post-processing results on the Synergistic Processing Models.

Display Area Ambient Occlusion for instance, was carried out utterly on the SPUs.^[21][23]

Put up-release

Particular editions

Naughty Canine’s inventive director Amy Hennig revealed a particular Fortune Hunter version of Uncharted 2 that was not obtainable in shops. The Fortune Hunter version incorporates the sport, a duplicate of the Phurba Dagger artifact and stand, a BradyGames technique information, an artwork ebook, the official soundtrack, and a collector’s case autographed by Naughty Canine. It was additionally mentioned to incorporate numerous downloadable content material.^[24] A collector’s version of Uncharted 2 was not introduced on the market in america.

SCEA advertising supervisor Asad Qizilbash instructed readers of the PlayStation Weblog on the time that the restricted version giveaways happened on that weblog, PlayStation Dwelling, the sport’s multiplayer demo, and some different unnamed locations. Qizilbash additionally talked about that solely residents within the US had been eligible to win. Solely 200 copies had been launched.^[24]

Unique to the PAL area, the Uncharted 2 particular version incorporates the sport, gold variations of the Beretta and AK-47 weapons, two publish playing cards, a PlayStation 3 theme, and multiplayer skins.^[25] The sport comes packaged in a metal case by SteelBook. By no means formally introduced, the Particular Version was found on the sport’s official European launch website, with the one hyperlink for the particular version resulting in one in every of Britain’s main recreation retailers, Recreation.^[26]

A Recreation of the Yr Version was launched October 12, 2010. Amongst different options, this version contains all beforehand launched downloadable content material (except for the Sidekicks Pores and skin Pack),^[15] 4 movement comics, and Pinball Heroes: Uncharted for the PSP.^[27] Apart from being accessible as a person “Best Hits” title, Uncharted 2 and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune have been launched collectively, as a “Best Hits DualPack”, and an “Final Combo Pack” which features a metallic blue DualShock 3 controller.^[28][29]

Downloadable content material

The primary pack of downloadable content material (DLC) was launched on November 27, 2009 and featured a brand new multiplayer map, “The Fort”, from The Fortress chapter in Drake’s Fortune without cost.^[30] It was rapidly adopted by “Uncharted: Eye of Indra Multiplayer Pores and skin Pack” in December, solely for the PAL PlayStation Retailer. It included all 4 components of the movement comedian Uncharted: Eye of Indra and two Uncharted 2 multiplayer skins primarily based on the movement comedian. The pack contained Rika for the heroes and Pinkerton for the villains. The pack was later launched in North America.^[31]

A number of packs had been launched in 2010: “PlayStation Heroes Pores and skin Pack” was launched in January, containing Sev and a Helghast soldier from Killzone 2, Nathan Hale and a Chimera from the Resistance sequence, and Cole (Evil and Good) together with Zeke from inFamous.^[32] An DLC pack that contained two new multiplayer maps, six skins primarily based on Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, 12 PSN Trophies, and 13 medals was launched in February. Skins had been launched as a single buy and the two maps with the 12 PSN Trophies had been launched as a single buy. A bundle of each purchases was additionally launched.^[33] On April 22, the third growth pack, “Siege” was launched. This DLC pack contained a brand new co-op multiplayer mode often known as Siege, two new multiplayer maps, six new character skins and 11 PSN Trophies (10 of that are bronze, one in every of which is silver). Two of the six new skins are from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and the opposite 4 are new and unique to the sport.^[34] The “Sidekick Pores and skin Pack” was launched on August 26, containing 6 alternate appearances of beforehand accessible characters, and a couple of new villain skins, Dillon and Mac.^[35] The “Golden Weapons” DLC was launched on December 12. This DLC pack contained gold skins for the AK-47 and Beretta weapons.^[36]

PlayStation Dwelling

In PlayStation Dwelling, the PlayStation 3’s on-line community-based service, Naughty Canine has launched a themed recreation house for Uncharted 2, developed by Outso.^[37] This makes the second recreation house to be launched from Naughty Canine, the primary being the sport house for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. This house is named “Nepalese Village” and options the mini-games Masks Mayhem, Torch Race, and Lucky Thieves with rewards. There’s additionally an Uncharted 2 Weblog that lets customers entry the Uncharted 2 weblog. It was launched on October 23, 2009 within the European and North American variations of PlayStation Dwelling.^[38] Within the video on the PlayStation weblog, Jack Buser, the director of Dwelling for SCEA, describes the mini-game, Lucky Thieves, as being a “full on, interactive mini-MMO”. The Uncharted sequence is the primary recreation sequence to have a recreation house for each video games of the sequence in Dwelling.

Between the hours of 8 am PT on November 5 and 12 pm PT on November 6, there was a contest within the North American Dwelling (by which solely U.S. residents may take part), the place customers may win the Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves – Fortune Hunter Version. Between these occasions, customers went to the Uncharted 2 house and performed the “Masks Mayhem” mini-game. The consumer who positioned first on the Uncharted 2 house’s chief board gained a duplicate of the Fortune Hunter Version.^[39] Customers had one other likelihood to win the Fortune Hunter Version within the Uncharted 2 house between the occasions of 8 am PT November 20 and 12 pm PT November 21. Between these occasions, customers needed to attempt to get in first place on the “Lucky Thieves” mini-game chief board to win the Fortune Hunter Version.^[40] The consumer who positioned first on the Lucky Thieves chief board gained the Fortune Hunter Version. Customers had one remaining likelihood to win the Fortune Hunter Version from 8 am PT December 18 to 12 pm PT December 21. Customers needed to play the “Torch Race” mini-game and be first on its chief board within the Uncharted 2 house.^[41]

An Uncharted condo was launched in Could 6, 2010 for European and North American variations of PlayStation Dwelling known as the “Uncharted Fortune Hunter’s Condo”.^[42] Uncharted themed costumes have additionally been launched in Dwelling. The condo was launched on Could 27 within the Asian model.

Reception

Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves acquired common acclaim, being praised as top-of-the-line video video games of all time, and incomes quite a few “Recreation of the Yr” awards, together with Spike’s Video Recreation Awards.^[63] The sport obtained 41 excellent assessment scores,^[64] receiving a Metacritic rating of 96 out of 100,^[43] making it probably the most critically acclaimed recreation of 2009.^[65]

The primary publication to assessment Uncharted 2 was the French version of PSM3. Of their assessment, they known as the sport “lengthy, visually gorgeous, deep and explosive, Uncharted 2 combines all of the qualities you could find in a videogame, and extra! A brand new milestone has been reached within the videogame historical past”. The journal awarded the sport 21/20, a rating that was reached 5 years prior by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.^[60] PlayStation: The Official Journal awarded the sport an ideal rating. Of their assessment, they said: “Overlook Recreation of The Yr. This is likely one of the best video games of all time!”^[57] The UK version of the journal additionally gave the sport an ideal rating,^[58] named it the 2nd greatest PS3 recreation of all time,^[62] whereas readers of the identical journal voted it the best PlayStation title launched.^[66]

Hiawatha Bray of The Boston Globe mentioned:

… no online game has ever carried out a greater job of capturing the model and rhythm of the flicks. The motion sequences in Uncharted 2 look as in the event that they had been shot by a group of cinematographers, then edited right into a coherent and thrilling narrative. The sport’s storyline is trite, however a first-rate forged of voice-over actors carry it off with aptitude.^[67]

The Los Angeles Occasions assessment prompt the sport would “match higher on a giant display in some multiplex”, and likewise added that “Uncharted 2 is ridiculously immersive, a lot so that you simply neglect you’re controlling the actions of treasure hunter Nathan Drake … every part is completed proper”.^[68] In a assessment for The New York Occasions, Seth Schiesel described it as “maybe the best-looking recreation on any system, and no recreation but has supplied a extra genuinely cinematic leisure expertise”.^[69]

Uncharted 2 additionally acquired reward from different builders. Battlefield: Unhealthy Firm 2 producer Gordon Van Dyke mentioned that “Uncharted 2 is an amazing-looking recreation. However we’re reaching that degree of high quality. It’ll be laborious for any recreation to have the ability to make a declare that they appear higher … to even be shut, to me is sort of an honour as a developer. The one factor I did was, once I checked out their recreation I used to be like, rattling them! What have they carried out to the remainder of us? I used to be in search of one thing the place I may say, okay, that we’re doing higher”.^[70]

IGN gave the sport a 9.5 out of 10, praising its “gorgeous visuals” and saying that “Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves is incredible”, and calling the multiplayer mode “top-of-the-line multiplayer experiences that you will discover in any recreation round … it nearly seems like Naughty Canine has given us an additional recreation without cost”.^[56] X-Play’s Adam Sessler gave the sport a 5 out of 5, saying that “Uncharted 2 has the perfect single-player I’ve ever performed”.^[71]

The sport was criticized for some unfavorable points, similar to lapses within the management system. The New York Occasions famous that “… its finicky controls can frustrate at occasions”.^[69] Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer discovered that “there are … a couple of events the place the platforming permits you to down … regardless of the sensation you had been leaping in the suitable path”.^[47] IGN described sure repetitive gunfight sequences as “just a little aggravating” and complained in regards to the “very linear” climbing sections, but calling it a compelled criticism.^[56]

The sport was positioned nineteenth in Dengeki on-line’s reader ballot of the perfect video games of 2009, making it the one non-Japanese recreation within the checklist.^[72]

Gross sales

NPD Group’s gross sales information present that Uncharted 2 was the top-selling recreation in america for October 2009, at about 537,000 models bought,^[73] whereas Media Create’s gross sales information has Uncharted 2 promoting 47,000 models for its first day in Japan.^[74] Phil Rosenberg of SCE says the sport has crossed the a million bought mark on November 12, 2009.^[75] In line with gaming analyst Jesse Divnich, Uncharted 2 is the third first-party title on the PlayStation 3 to promote over 1 million models in North America.^[73][76] As of February 2010, the sport has bought over 3.5 million copies worldwide, changing into the quickest promoting first-party title on any PlayStation platform.^[77] Uncharted 2 is now a part of Sony’s choice of Best Hits.^[78] Naughty Canine mentioned that the title bought 3.8 million worldwide in September 2010.^[79] By December 2011, over 5 million copies of the sport had been bought.^[80] As of March 2015, Uncharted 2 has bought 6.5 million copies.^[81]

Awards

Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves acquired over 300 trade awards together with over 200 Recreation of the Yr awards and has been known as top-of-the-line video video games of all time for its set items, graphics, movement seize performing, unique characters and performances, in addition to the story and multiplayer.^[82][83] On the 2009 Spike Video Recreation Awards, it earned a file eight award nominations, profitable three, together with Recreation of the Yr.^[84] IGN, amongst quite a few different video gaming web sites and publications awarded Uncharted 2 their total Recreation of the Yr award.^[85] The sport additionally gained ten AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards together with Recreation of the Yr.^[86]

Honor	Awards	Offered by	Date
Greatest Console Recreation	Gamescom Awards 2009[87]	Gamescom	Aug 28, 2009
Recreation of the Yr	2009 Video Recreation Awards[88]	Spike Video Recreation Awards	Dec 12, 2009
Greatest PS3 Recreation
Greatest Graphics
Recreation of the Yr	thirteenth Annual Interactive Achievement Awards[89]	Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences	Feb 18, 2010
Excellent Achievement in Recreation Path
Journey Recreation of the Yr
Excellent Achievement in Animation
Excellent Achievement in Visible Engineering
Excellent Achievement in Artwork Path
Excellent Achievement in Authentic Story
Excellent Achievement in Authentic Music Composition
Excellent Achievement in Gameplay Engineering
Excellent Achievement in Sound Design
Videogame Writing	Writers Guild of America Awards 2009[90]	Writers Guild of America	Feb 20, 2010
Recreation of The Yr	tenth Annual Recreation Builders Alternative Awards[91]	Worldwide Recreation Builders Affiliation	March 11, 2010
Greatest Writing
Greatest Know-how
Greatest Visible Arts
Greatest Audio
Story	2010 GAME British Academy Video Video games Awards[92]	British Academy of Movie and Tv Arts	March 19, 2010
Motion
Use of Audio
Authentic Rating