When I played the original Uncharted, I was impressed. It was a really good blend of platforming and cover-based shooter mechanics, all wrapped up in a stellar presentation and story fit for cinema. So it was hard to believe that Naughty Dog could strike gold again with a sequel, making a game that was as good as Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.

Well, in short, they didn't.

They made it better.

Nathan Drake, the quintessential every-man adventurer-explorer-hero is back, and with him comes the platforming and shooting that were in the first title. The platforming element is a lot more dominant in this game, with fairly long stretches of gameplay dedicated to jumping across ravines, climbing up crumbling walls, and struggling to not plummet to your death. This is a part of the game that has flaws. You see, the environments look spectacular and full of detail. Too much detail, in fact, to the point where it's sometimes really tough to figure out where you can actually climb to. The developers did a fairly decent job of rectifying this by using bright colors to have platforms and ledges stand out visually, but there were still moments where running around a single area searching for the handholds I was to use to get higher was all I could do for a quarter of an hour. There were a few times when I wanted to get it over with and just get back to the gunplay, but that's less of a problem with the platforming and more of a recommendation of the run-and-gun gameplay that fills the rest of the title.

The cover shooting is what really makes the Uncharted games as fun as they are. Typically, I don't like cover shooters. When I've played them I always find them plodding, slow-paced experiences that just involve sitting behind an invincible stone wall while I wait for enemies to pop their heads up, like a visceral game of whack-a-mole. But Uncharted doesn't do this. It emphasizes movement, motion, and speed. Sitting still with get you a grenade at your feet, and since you can't exactly carry a whole arsenal of weapons and ammo, you need to run around to pick up fallen guns as well. Drake's Fortune made it a fun style of play, and Among Thieves refines it even more.

Many of the gripes I had with the original Uncharted have been completely fixed. For one, the crummy grenade aiming system in the first game, which used the Six Axis controller in a very clumsy way, has been dropped. In its place is an efficient and easy way for tossing grenades onto opponents. There are also additions of riot shields, which allow a type of movable cover, and a new weapon type called the GAU, a giant gatling gun that doesn't take any weapon space, but that is heavy as all hell and slow to move around with. There are also a bevy of new traditional weapons, such as the pistole pistol shotgun, crossbow, and the RPG. And to complement these new weapons are new ways for Drake to get around his environments, Melee attacks have also been reworked: though brutal combos have been removed, now you must pay attention to the combat in order to break out of any holds your opponent places you in, or risk getting a beat-down.

And of course, there's the stealth addition into the gameplay. Now, when someone mentions "stealth in an action game", generally you'll get a few cringes from the audience, since these genres generally don't go well together. Among Thieves blends the two together quite successfully, however. Whereas in the first title, there were few opportunities to take your opponents by surprise (generally the bad guys already knew you were coming), Uncharted 2 makes stealth a viable, useful option. In addition to simply sneaking up from behind an enemy to take them out, you can now pull them over ledges, smash them from around corners, or use cover to pull them over and take them out, all without anyone else seeing. The rewards for this, in addition to not having to deal with a wave of reinforcements, are extra ammo and supplies from your fallen foe. The system works really well, blending the movement and platforming that the game is famous for with a sneaky approach to nearly every situation.