Uncharted 2 thoughts.

So I've been playing Uncharted 2 since Thursday (it's Sunday now), and man... That game is pretty good. I'd been messing around in the multiplayer beta for a while before launch, but have yet to go back to it. Why? The single player experience is amazingly well crafted; it's the first Uncharted, but better. In every way.

For a start, the graphics. I'm not a graphics whore (or at least I don't admit that I am), but wow. They're quite something. The claims of "best looking game ever" are not true; that's still Crysis in my humble opinion. That said, some of the stuff it does is really impressive; the way Drake gets wet, or covered in snow. The depth of field effect also looks pretty; focusing on something close up, then switching to a far away object can remove one's breath. The character animation is fantastic, too, adding even more personality to the fantastic Nathan Drake.

This is really where the strength of Uncharted lies; Nathaniel (is that his real name?) and his supporting cast. The story is actually pretty good, but it's really a by the numbers swashbuckling tale, and it's the characters that draw you in. The movie like presentation of the whole piece is just done so well; I would say no game has ever told a story this well.

The action is pretty fantastic too, and such a huge improvement over the first game; enemies no longer soak up bullets, but go down "realistically". The number of guns is just about right to give each a different feel, but still has enough that Nathan isn't stuck with one weapon for multiple hours.

Not that he could hang on to them anyway; the game is really about the continuous stream of more and more ridiculous action sequences; running from a helicopter, fighting dudes on a train, or running from a tank. The game doesn't stop (much), and it really is a blast to play.

But hey, I've still got 3 chapters to go, and they might be shit.