Uncharted 2: Among Theives- What we know so far

After the amazing success of Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Nathan Drake is back on the Playstation 3 this fall. So the sequel takes place a couple of years after the original, revolving around the story of Marco Polo while he was returning to China in 1292. After spending almost 17 years in the court of the emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo departed with 14 ships and over 600 passengers and crew ? but when he arrived at his destination a year and a half later, only one ship remained, and only 18 of the passengers had survived. Although Marco Polo described almost every other aspect of his journeys in minute detail, he

never revealed what happened to the ships that were lost.The Polos spent the next 17 years in China. Kublai Khan took a liking to Marco, who was an engaging storyteller. He was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Marco carried out diplomatic assignments but also entertained the Kublai Khan with interesting stories and observations about the lands he traveled. Marco reported that apart from entrusting him with diplomatic missions, Kublai Khan also made him governor for three years of the large commercial city of Yangzhou.  An Italian community would actually reside in Yangzhou throughout the 14th century.

Enough of the historical backdrop, now lets talk about Nathan Drake. As we all know that our hero loves treasure hunting and getting himself into trouble more often or not. But this time Nathan’s got a few more moves. The gameplay is truly the evolutionary part that we are going to talk about. Eventhough the sequel has retained the pop and shootout mechanics,

Naughty Dog have introduce some stealth action segments. They have also changed the climbing mechanic to allow free movement over walls. Nathan will now be able to snap himself to the wall and take down enemies in style which is pretty much similar to Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell series. The platforming sections have all been retained in the game. Nathan will have his task cut out jumping from wall to wall, to hoardings , running away from snipers and helicopters and even a scene where he has to make himself run away from train. The action which made the first game so popular looks to be retained the in the sequel as well. There seems to be more happening in the screen now as shown in the live E3 2009

demo. Nathan will have a wide variety of arsenal at his disposal this time, ranging from sub machines guns, RPGs, Sniper rifle , shot guns and grenades.Nathan will not be alone this time.  An Australian woman by the name of Chloe Frazer will be giving her company. As indicated by so many gameplay videos that indeed this character will be a central mechanic to

the gameplay. Returning characters also include Sully and the lovely Elena from the original. A new character named Jeff will be introduced as Elena’s camera man. So thats about the good guys.

Nathan Drake will be going through a lot of different environments this time around, which is actually a very good thing since in the original lack of environments was one of the low points of the game. This time Nathan will be going to Asia specifically Nepal. The city shown in the trailers is shown to be totally destroyed a fitting place to fight the fight. Thereafter you will be taken to undisclosed juungle locations and finally to recover the legendary Cintamani Stone, the wish-fulfilling jewel, in The Himalayas. The stone is described by Marco Polo as a massive raw sapphire which, if it truly exists, would be worth billions of dollars today. These discoveries set Nathan on a new course, following Marco Polo’s 700-year-old trail through a diverse range of exotic environments to find out if the lost city of Shambhala, rumoured to lie deep in the

Himalayas, really exists. The graphics of this game have to be the best of this generation. Character animations in Uncharted 2 looks like they were rendered in a dozen layers because of the power of the Cell microprocessor of the Sony PlayStation 3. Making the immersive world possible was the RSX Reality Synthesizer, the graphics processing unit of the Sony PlayStation 3. Through this hardware it was possible to create real-like lighting models, pixel shaders, dynamic real-time shadowing and advanced water simulation. Moreover, thanks to the immense storage capability of Blu-ray technology, Uncharted 2 looks like it should never ran out of space for the rendering of a multitude of rooms.

The game will also probably have a few decision making moments one which is pretty much depicted in the E3 trailer where Nathan is about to shoot Elena or Chloe Frazer, so it will be pretty interesting to see whether Naughty Dog will implement it or not. The game will also show how Nathan became a theif hence revealing his darker side.One of the additions that was missing in the original was the multiplayer mode. The online modes have been divided in to two types. Competitive and Cooperative. In Co-op you will be taking the role of Nathan, Sully and Chloe and will feature missions involving gunfights, platforming, vehicle and teamwork-based objectives.Players will be able to assist their team mates in various ways like giving ammo, solving puzzles and healing them. Competitive includes two gameplay modes. Plunder and Deathmatch. Deathmatch will have 5 players on either side of Heroes and Villains. Plunder is pretty much similar to Capture the Flag modes found in many online games these days.

Uncharted 2 looks like it will be better than Drakes Fortune. With a absorbing storyline and a great cast of characters, Uncharted 2: Among Theives looks like its gonna make some jaws drop. Look for more as we approach the launch.