UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES

Every month we celebrate the most important, innovative, or just plain great games from PlayStation’s past. This month we hop aboard the most exciting sequel in PlayStation history courtesy of Nathan Drake.

Now, this is what we call trainspotting. Forget fawning over timetables for the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Inverness or Ewan McGregor flushing himself down the loo; when it comes to electrifying choochoo antics, Nathan Drake’s first sequel is king. From an instantly iconic opening where Nate scampers up a suspended carriage to an astonishing locomotive shootout, Naughty Dog serves up all the train thrills.

Thanks to these riveting railway sections and another dozen incredible set-pieces, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has a strong claim to being the best action adventure of all time. Following Nathan and a ragtag band of scoundrels – including the acid-tongued, awesome Chloe Fisher – as the fortune hunter searches for the mystic city of Shangri-La, this sequel set an impossibly high bar no subsequent PS3 game could quite vault over.

Not only does Drake’s Nepalese thrill-ride boast the tightest pacing of any entry in the swashbuckling series, it serves up a chapter so exciting, not even Uncharted 4’s most epic action sequences can match it. You may have a soft spot for Nate and Sully’s mad-dash jeep chase through King’s Bay, but even that bombastic joy ride can’t compete with Among Thieves’ 13th chapter.

With ‘Locomotion’, Naughty Dog arguably created the most exciting level in PlayStation history. If that statement makes it sound like we’ve just boarded the Hyperbole Express, we’re fine with it. A breathless, sustained firefight that sees Drake battling gun-toting goons across the carriage roofs of the world’s longest locomotive, it plays out like an interactive version of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade’s first ten minutes… minus the deadly pythons.

Uncharted 2 is more than one iconic set-piece, though. Over the course of

DRAKE’S NEPALESE THRILL RIDE HAS THE TIGHTEST PACING OF ANY UNCHARTED.

12 to 14 hours, Naughty Dog takes you on an amazing globe-hopping adventure. Be it battling pirates in the sweltering jungles of Peru with Sully in tow to crack wise (“You brought a hooker to church?”), barely surviving as Drake enters into a cat-and-mouse chase with a brassed-off tank, or fighting feral yetis with new pal Tenzin, Among Thieves has more killer moments than any other PlayStation title we can name.

Want a perfect example of the series’ intoxicating blend of bantering moments followed by ludicrous set-pieces? Just take a couple of early chapters that see Nate and Chloe sauntering and shooting their way through a war-torn Nepalese city. One second they’re flirting among the wreckage, prayer flags fluttering overhead, the next they’re scrambling across balconies and falling through crumbling buildings trying to escape a homicidally committed helicopter. The moment after that? Why, they’re playing Marco Polo in a hotel’s rooftop swimming pool. Obviously. When it comes to subversive, constantly playful pacing, Naughty Dog is the master.

KING OF THIEVES

Though the series would continue to deliver even grander set-pieces – Uncharted 3’s cargo plane fight, anyone? – Among Thieves remains Nathan Drake’s finest moment. Combining an exhilarating singleplayer campaign with addictive online shootouts, Uncharted 2 might just be the most perfectly balanced package in PlayStation history. Can The Last Of Us Part II dethrone it as Naughty Dog’s best game? Cross everything.

From that first exciting scene, the thrills just keep coming. Among Thieves is arguably Naughty Dog’s best game.

Is there a better opening level on PS3? Hell no. Nate and Chloe make quite the sarky, sexy duo. Ten years on, the train shootout is still incredible.