PS3 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves by Sony / NaughtyDog

Style: Third Person Shooter

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the sequel to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This game is similar to Lara Croft's Tomb Raiders series of games in story, but gameplay is a third person free roaming shooter. You are an Indiana Jones kind of character seeking fortune through antiquities.

Gameplay

The game is similar to Drake's Fortune, but they've done away with the timed button press maneuvering system (at least so far). Otherwise, the system is pretty much standard for a shooter. You can move through the various weapons you carry. It is a free form questing kind of system, so you can roam the levels looking for Easter Eggs. Unfortunately, there really aren't enough Easter Eggs to make wandering the levels terribly productive. So, you find yourself not really looking very hard after a while.

Story

The story is that you are seeking a treasure that could lead you to Shangri La / Shambala. So, that's where you are heading. Along the way you run into various people who help or hinder you in that process. Ultimately, everyone needs you because of your knowledge. So, you end up tagging along with everyone even if they don't want you there.

Overall

The game is reasonably long, so the Bang-to-Buck is reasonably high here. Unfortunately, I don't find this game as enthralling as the original game. The character models also don't look as good as I remember from Drake's Fortune. So, it looks like they may have cut some corners to get this one out the door.

The game is reasonably well done, but it's definitely not a must-have game. If you want to play it, buy it. But, I felt that the first Uncharted was better than this one because it was new. This one didn't really improve on Uncharted in any substantial way, so it feels like more of the same.

Score

• Sound: 8/10 (better than average)
• Graphics: 8/10 (characters could have been better)
  
• Gameplay: 8/10 (same as Drake's fortune)
  
• Story: 8/10 (good, but not perfect)
  
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 9/10
  
• Bang-to-buck: 6/10 (reasonably long play value)
  
• Play Value: $15 (rent or buy, probably not a keeper)
  
• Overall: 8/10 (I expected more from this sequel)

Xbox 360 - Clone Wars Republic Heroes

Clone Wars - Republic Heroes by LucasArts

Family Friendly: Yes

LucasArts games are hit-and-miss lately. Republic Heroes is a miss. It fails to understand what Star Wars is about. I understand they were trying to make this game feel like the new 3D comic, but it fails to accomplish this well enough.

Gameplay

This is basically a level based game like Super Mario Sunshine or Sonic 3D. It has a stylistic comic look. It attempts to look like the new Star Wars Clone Wars comics. While it mostly succeeds with this, the gameplay mostly fails.

You play as Anakin with his padawan. The padawan follows you around. You crawl the levels with the light saber killing lots of droids over and over. It becomes pretty repetitive relatively quickly. Like Sonic's Rings or Mario's coins, Anakin has blue orbs to pick up. So, as you run around the levels, this what you will need to pick up throughout.

Later on, you get to switch up and play as a Clone trooper for some unknown reason. The gameplay is identical to playing with Anakin, so there's nothing special here.

Achievements

You can get a lot of achievements fairly rapidly with this one. So, if you're looking for easy achievements, this game has them.

Overall

The game is intended for a young audience who's attention span is reasonably short. I found the game extremely repetitive and underwhelming. The story was mostly not there and the graphics were simply mediocre. There's not much depth to this game, so it's mostly about getting the blue orbs.

Score

• Sound: 7/10 (better than average)
• Graphics: 6/10 (could be much better)
• Gameplay: 5/10 (far too linear, no depth)
• Story: 5/10 (fair)
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 9/10 (best part of the game)
• Bang-to-buck: 1/10 (expensive, not enough to do)
• Play Value: $5 (rent it)
• Overall: 5/10 (could have been much better)

Xbox 360 - Borderlands

Borderlands by 2K games / Gearbox

Borderlands tries to be a semi-comic based roll playing / questing game. It uses an outline 3D model that makes the game look like a cartoon. Combing this with a cartoon image map on the models, it feels like a comic. Unfortunately, while it feels like a comic, I don't like this graphic style as it always feels cheap and unfinished. If they're going to work in a 3D world, then just do the 3D like 3D. Halo 3 is one game that uses a full 3D approach, but still takes a stylistic approach to the 3D models that keeps it from appearing 'realistic'.

Gameplay

You get to pick from four different characters to play. Each of the four characters has their own abilities. I won't spoil that here in case you want to play, but you'll get to see the characters and their abilities within five minutes of beginning the game.

The weapon button system is a bit confusing. So, it will take me a little bit of time to get used to where they are. The movement system is reasonably standard, though. So, getting around the environment is easy. The enemies in the game are all over the place, so you'll have to constantly deal with killing them.

Questing system

In order to level up, you will need to complete quests for various people. As you complete the quests, you get paid back with experience points. The trouble with this game, though, is that I don't see any real benefit to the experience points. I probably haven't played enough through the entire game yet to know if they matter, but it should really be apparent within the first few quests of playing.

Map

There is a map, but it's not that helpful (doesn't show enemies). So, you're pretty much on your own when you need to locate things.

Controls

As I said above, the weapon controls are a bit confusing so I have to reprogram myself into this game. I prefer games that choose to mimic a popular game's button system rather than creating their own. When they choose to create their own system, it takes time for the gamer to learn the system.

Overall

The game is reasonably well done. But, the quests are silly and the game itself doesn't seem to take itself seriously enough either. So, it all seems very tongue-in-cheek. While that can work, I'd prefer they didn't do this here. Questing / Roleplaying games usually suffer from tongue-in-cheek storytelling and this game is no exception.

This game is not a Fallout 3 or Oblivion by any stretch. For a role playing and questing game, it's a good first attempt. However, it needs a lot more work to get near the caliber of Fallout 3 or Oblivion. I'm hoping that 2k / Gearbox can figure this out for a sequel (assuming it does well enough for that).

Score

• Sound: 6/10 (better than average)
• Graphics: 7/10 (low res)
• Gameplay: 7.5/10 (it's hard to like a rail shooter)
• Story: 6/10 (not engaging enough)
• Bugginess: N/A
• Controls: 6.5/10 (learning curve)
• Bang-to-buck: 1/10 (not worth replaying)
• Play Value: $10 (rent it)
• Overall: 6/10 (doesn't grow on you)