Instead of doing more of the same, “Assault Horizon” makes some pretty big deviations from past games in the series.

The changes made to the combat are some of the best things about the game.

For a long time, many of these games suffered from combat that grew stale quickly.

Players would  just fly in big circles and shoot at far away enemies, hoping their missiles connected with the target, then repeat the process over and over again; “Assault Horizon” has created a solution to this problem.

A new dog fighting system allows for more intense and fast-paced one-on-one combat. Once in range of a target, players can trigger the dog fight, which turns into a game of cat and mouse. The player chases their target, trying to keep them in a circle on the screen that allows missiles to lock on.

Counter moves can also be performed at certain times that allow the player being chased to quickly turn the tables on their opponent and become the one doing the chasing.

Once an enemy is eliminated, the player gets to see a very satisfying slow motion view of the enemy plane exploding into pieces and spiraling out of control. The whole system makes the combat feel exhilarating and fresh, something that cannot be said about the combat for most flight-combat games.

Helicopter, turret gunner and AC-130 missions have also been added to the game. These missions aren’t always the most exciting, but they help inject some variation into what the player is doing.

The setting is also different. As opposed to some of the outlandish stories and aircraft in past games, “Assault Horizon” is more grounded in reality, featuring real locations and real countries.

The story is pretty bland though. It isn’t aggressively bad, but there isn’t much reason to care about any of the characters or events taking place.

The multiplayer is decent, but there aren’t many players online right now. There seems to be a small dedicated community of people that are really good at the game, which may make it difficult for new players to be competitive. It can be fun when it works, but more often than not, there just aren’t enough people playing or technical issues get in the way.

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Genre: Shooter, Flight-Combat

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Score: 3 out of 5 stars

One of the first things players will notice is how good this game looks, it’s impossible to ignore. There are very few console games that can compete with the graphical power and atmosphere on display here. From the smallest outpost in the wasteland, to a huge abandoned city, all of the places in “RAGE” feel like they have been lived in and have a nice sense of grittiness.

The characters one will encounter look and animate just as good as the world around them; it’s just too bad that most of the time their personalities do not live up to their colorful design.

The one big problems with the graphics is textures in the world can take a while to load, so if a player walks into a room, it may take a couple seconds to see all of the details.

The game is also a lot of fun to play. “RAGE” has a pretty standard arsenal with guns like the assault rifle, shotgun, rocket-launcher and pistol, but luckily they are still fun to shoot. The sound design really helps make the guns feel powerful, and different ammo types help mix things up.

Different enemies also contribute to a fun shooter experience. There are three basic enemy types to fight, but they don’t just look different, they also have very different tactics.

Going from fighting mutants, which storm the player with sheer numbers and agility, to authority soldiers, who will take cover and fight more strategically, really helps to keep the game feeling fresh.

There are also things the player can do to take a break from the shooting levels. Dune buggy racing is a big part of the game, but doesn’t usually pose much of a challenge. There is also a card game, gambling and several other mini-games one can play.

There is cooperative play available and a multiplayer component that consists of buggy racing. The racing works well enough, but probably won’t have a strong following for very long.

“RAGE” is not for anyone who is tired of shooters, but if someone is looking for a solid game that is all about shooting things, “RAGE” will not disappoint.

Platforms: Xbox360, Playstation 3, PC

Genre: First-Person-Shooter

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Score: 4 out of 5

Fans of “Demon’s Souls” can rest assured that the difficulty has not changed in “Dark Souls.” If that is the good news, then the bad news is the difficultly is not the only thing left unaltered. “Dark Souls” is “Demon’s Souls” in almost every way.

For anyone not familiar with the games, “Dark Souls” is an action RPG that focuses on combat rather than characters or plot.

To be fair, its combat is fantastic and complex. Playing with a shield and spear feels vastly different than using a two-handed sword. Bows can provide much needed range but are inefficient up close, while magic is powerful, but casting leaves you vulnerable.

While “Dark Souls” does have classes to pick from, the only real impact this has on gameplay is starting status and equipment, meaning you can build your character in any way you want. You do this by collecting souls from enemies, which act as the game’s experience points and currency. Souls pay for literally everything, which means it’s not always an easy decision between raising your strength and upgrading your sword.

The catch is that this game is hard. Even basic enemies are honest threats and dying means you lose all your souls. You get one chance to make it back to the spot you died, but enemies respawn and if you fail, you lose them for good.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that boss fights are daunting tasks. The bosses in “Dark Souls” are both wonderfully designed and frustrating. Often times these battles are long and require patience, precision and even a bit of luck. Still, the feeling of killing a dragon three stories tall with just a one-handed sword is extremely rewarding.

“Dark Souls” is rare in that its difficulty does not ruin the experience. Everything your character encounters is about as strong as you are, if not stronger. Most enemies can kill you in five or six attacks and it’s not uncommon for bosses to kill you in one, but they never break the combat system.

It’s worth noting that despite being challenging, the enemies in “Dark Souls” are not smart. Often times they can be tricked into walking off a cliff or become stuck on a post. While in this game every advantage helps, it is bad game design to be able to kill a boss just because you caught them in a glitch, or found a location where they couldn’t reach you. This is easier than it should be.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is where “Dark Souls” gets interesting. Players can leave notes for each other to find in the world that act as hints. “Trap ahead” or “The enemy’s weakness is fire” are examples of messages that can save your life.

Because all these messages are left by other players they need to be taken with a grain of salt. If a message promises treasure ahead and points you off a cliff, it may be a leap of faith to a secret area, or it could be a devious gamer trying to trick you into falling to your doom.

If you want to have more direct interactions with players, you can leave a note allowing them to summon you to their world.

If you help them kill a boss, you are both rewarded. Voice support would have been a nice addition, but there is still a strong sense of teamwork in conquering a particularly difficult section with a partner. On the other side, if you’re not feeling cooperative, you can also invade another player’s world, taking the form of a red phantom.

Killing a player in their world grants you souls and items, while ruining their day. It’s an interesting concept that works well and the intricacies of combat hold up beautifully in player-versus-player combat. The advantages and disadvantages of different play styles really stand out when pitted against skilled players instead of the AI. In addition, invading a player’s world does not spawn you right on top of them, it provides you with a chance to lie in wait and plan your attack.

In the end, “Dark Souls” is every bit as deep, challenging and engaging as “Demon’s Souls,” but this is mostly because it is more of the same.

The steep difficulty may turn some off, but if you have the patience to endure the many trials of “Dark Souls,” you will be rewarded with a deep, combat-focused RPG with some of the coolest online elements in the genre.

PS3/Xbox 360

ESRB: M (Mature)

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Players get to choose a brand new mutant created just for the game, with their own back story and motivations. The player then gets to customize the powers they will use throughout the game, along with the suits their mutant will wear. The player also gets to choose if they will align themselves with the X-Men or Magneto’s Brotherhood.

However, a strong concept does not directly translate into a fun game, and “X-Men: Destiny” is evidence of that.

The entire game is basically a series of arenas. The player will go into an area alone or with other mutants and have anywhere from 10 to around 100 enemies thrown at them. After all the enemies have been defeated, the player runs until they reach the next arena, then the process repeats.

This gets to be boring after the first couple hours. It doesn’t help that there isn’t much variety in the enemy types. Smaller enemies can be taken out quickly, while bigger enemies take a little longer. Neither type really present any kind of challenge to the player.

The combat is mostly just hitting one button for a normal attack and then hitting another button for a heavy attack to form basic combos. There are also stronger powers that can be used when the “M-meter” fills up, but they were never really necessary on the normal difficulty.

The combat can actually be fun during the rare times everything works properly. The powers created just for the new characters can look cool, but more often than not, the bland graphics take away from the experience.

The environments are pretty boring as well, with few interesting things to see. The frame rate is also pretty awful, especially when the fighting picks up. Some of the bigger fights during the second half of the game will slow down to an almost comical crawl.

“X-Men: Destiny” has brief glimpses where its potential shines through and when the player gets to fight alongside other mutants to execute large combos that take down a bunch of enemies at once without any dips in the frame rate. Unfortunately, those moments are quickly buried in technical issues and boring missions.

Overall, “X-Men: Destiny” just feels like an unfinished product, and those brief glimpses of a great game just makes it all the more disappointing thinking about what could’ve been.

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii
Genre: Action RPG
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

“Space Marine” takes the standard shooter style and injects a heavy emphasis on melee combat, while also leaving out any kind of cover mechanic. Not being able to take cover and more focus on melee combat means “Space Marine” plays at a faster pace than most popular third-person shooters, like “Gears of War.”

Building on the story lines behind the table-top games and other components of the Warhammer 40K universe, the game puts you in the massive boots of an Ultramarine named Captain Titus, who is tasked with protecting a Forge World from an invading army of Orks.

To illustrate how important melee combat is throughout the game, there is only one way to replenish your health. You must stun an enemy and then perform a vicious up-close finishing move on them, which often covers Titus in the blood of his enemy.

One quick note, if you do not care for blood in video games, avoid “Space Marine.” There is a copious amount of bloodshed during the fighting, and some pretty brutal finishing moves.

The fundamental game play of both the campaign and multiplayer is really fun. The shooting works well and even the weakest guns still feel powerful. The same includes melee weapons like the chainsword.

The majority of the campaign will have you facing off against hordes of Orks; some of them will use melee weapons while others can shoot guns. The combat begins to feel almost rhythmic as you seamlessly alternate between shooting to slashing, trying to find the best balance between melee and ranged combat for a given situation.

The multiplayer is pretty bare bones when compared to other games, but it is still fun to play.

There are only two modes to choose from, team deathmatch and a king-of-the-hill-style game where each team is trying to capture locations on the map. The two modes are enjoyable, but a little more variety would have been nice.

According to the game’s website, a cooperative survival mode will be released as downloadable content sometime in October, though it’s a little strange that the mode wasn’t included at launch.

The environments aren’t great to look at. You will see a lot of factory and stone settings, but most of the time you won’t be looking at the environment anyway; you’ll be too focused on the simplistic fun of slashing and shooting your way through crowds of enemies.

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Genre: Third-Person Shooter

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Luckily, the game carries out that task wonderfully. “Resistance 3″ has you playing as a new protagonist named Joseph Capelli, once again fighting against the Chimeran invasion. Rather than an all-out war against the aliens, the humans are now in a desperate struggle just to avoid extinction.

It becomes Capelli’s mission to travel to New York and destroy a Chimeran wormhole that threatens human existence. While making his way toward New York, Capelli makes several stops, allowing the player to see a variety of different settings.

The graphics help to immerse the player in a world that seems desolate and lonely. The lighting, weather and particle effects go a long way to enhance the immersive atmosphere of each location. There were times when I caught myself standing still at some points, just admiring the falling snow, or the beams of light cutting through cracks in the ceiling. Abandoned towns and cities have the feel of being places that were lived in at one time but have been empty for years.

The game plays well too, thanks to the solid handling, unique weapons and various enemy types.

The weapon wheel is back, allowing the player to carry every weapon at once by the end of the game. The weapons also help separate “Resistance” from other shooters, with weapons like the Atomizer, which shoots beams of electricity and can also shoot an orb that sucks enemies in, or the Auger, which can shoot through walls or deploy a shield. Every weapon has a unique secondary fire, even the standard Magnum has rounds that can explode when triggered.

Weapons will level up through the campaign as well, making them more powerful and adding things like incendiary rounds or better scopes.

The campaign also features cooperative play if you don’t like going solo.

I haven’t mentioned multiplayer yet, and that’s because it’s pretty bland. It has the level progression, perks and modes that have become the status quo in multiplayer shooters, but nothing to separate itself from the pack. Sure it still has the cool weapons, but that won’t be enough to tear most people away from the likes of “Call of Duty” or “Battlefield.” I also experienced a hefty amount of lag during my time online.

Overall, “Resistance 3″ offers a fantastic and flat-out fun campaign, but falters when it comes to the online multiplayer.

Platform: Playstation 3

Genre: First Person Shooter/Sci-fi

ESRB rating: M (Mature)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The fourth installment of the “Killzone” saga means well and plays well, but its throwaway characters and plot detract from what could have been an otherwise fantastic, albeit incredibly short (five hour campaign!?) experience.

However, to say the game is without accomplishment would be a grievous disservice to the well-done elements within.

It is set on the planet Helghan, home of the Helghast who, for whatever reason, are bent on ruling the universe. The game picks up right where “Killzone 2” left off.

With the death of Helghast leader Visari, good-guy troops begin to evacuate the planet while members of the Helghan senate engage in a political struggle to fill the resulting power vacuum.

Players will be continually force-fed a paper-thin plot that does little more than break up the game’s constant, in-your-face action. That doesn’t mean the cut scenes aren’t pretty to look at, but it’s hard to care about bad guys bickering about leadership when you know you’re minutes away from mutilating more of the red-eyed Helghast.

Combat is where “Killzone 3” really shines – the pacing is spot-on, battles are blisteringly fast and the gunplay is better than the average shooter. Each weapon has a satisfying heft, instilling a sense of weight and power within every gun.

The weighting is similar to that found in “Killzone 2,” but the developers have done a great job of adjusting the overall experience so it feels less like lag and more like you’re actually carrying a rather large weapon that has some substance and stopping power.

If mowing down enemies from a distance isn’t quite your style, a variety of brutal melee attacks can be executed — many of which involve shoving fingers or sharp objects into the glowing goggles of your enemies.

If you’re looking for immersion, it’s easy to quickly get sucked into the visually stunning world of Helghan. Immense detail populates every single environment and texture, making this one of the best looking games I’ve ever seen on the PS3.

It’s unfortunate the quality of graphics had to be toned down for the multiplayer portion of the game, which is a blast in its own right.

Players can create turrets as an engineer, revive fallen teammates as a medic or use stealth as an infiltrator. As per most online shooters, experience points are rewarded for high scores, netting online veterans unlockable equipment and skills.

The game certainly has its merits: it’s fun, engaging and beautiful to behold.

However, it’s plagued with a tired “stop the bad guys from destroying the world” plot, a short campaign and characters who have little to offer in terms of personality. Not to mention an atrociously abrupt ending.

But, hey — shooters are all about action. In that regard, “Killzone 3” is second to none.

And while several eagerly awaited titles (“Starcraft 2,” “God of War III”) were pushed back from release this year, there are still enough Triple-A titles on their way to thoroughly lighten any wallet.

Here’s a brief on nine games that are just begging to adorn your wish list:

Modern Warfare 2 (PC, PS3, X360)
First-person shooter
Competitive multiplayer
M for Mature
Releases Nov. 10

“Modern Warfare 2” is the direct followup to Infinity Ward’s 2007 first person shooter masterpiece “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.”

It will put players in the boots of several soldiers involved in the fight against a terrorist regime inspired by today’s headlines.

The distinctively cinematic shooting gameplay the “Call of Duty” series is known for looks to be fully intact.

The diverse actions undertaken for each mission — which range from ice climbing to pulling out from an exploding building by a rope attached to a passing helicopter — will push gamers to their limits.

One of the few challengers to the Xbox Live domination of “Halo 3,” the distinct multiplayer is even more in-depth with several new modes and customizations.

“That one, I’m really looking forward to,” Reading sophomore Blake Jackson said.

Jackson said he is playing through the first “Modern Warfare” to get ready for the second.

"Left 4 Dead 2"

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC, X360)
First-person shooter
Cooperative/competitive multiplayer
M for Mature
Releases Nov. 17

The sequel to last year’s campy cooperative zombie shooter is promising to deliver a new setting, a more cohesive narrative, new weapons and more freakish ghouls to kill or be killed by.

Four new characters will be forced to stick together or get torn to bits as they make their way across the infected Deep South from Savannah, Georgia, to New Orleans.

“I like that they’re adding a lot of different melee weapons,” Jackson said.

The new melee combat will feature cricket bats, frying pans and the chainsaw.

While the basic structure of blitzing from safe house to safe house through zombie hordes is unchanged, new elements such as moving crescendo events and more cooperation between special infected old and new (the “boss” creatures) will keep players on their toes.

"Assassin's Creed 2"

Assassin’s Creed 2 (PS3, X360)
Action-adventure
Single player
M for Mature
Releases Nov. 17

Desmond Miles’ story of historical cloak-and-daggery continues in “Assassin’s Creed 2.”

In this iteration, Desmond, the main character, once again enters the Animus to relive another ancestor’s life as an assassin, this time as a noble in renaissance era Venice and Florence, Italy.

The first game’s intuitive but repetitive combat has been thoroughly reworked. Sword duels, as well as stealthy assassinations, were made more rewarding and more intuitively controlled.

Leonardo Da Vinci assists throughout the game as sort of Renaissance version of James Bond’s “Q,” providing wondrous gadgets and mechanisms to aid with the assassin’s quest.

“The graphics look good — what they do in the game looks good. It’s more open (and there’s) a lot more to do,” said Washington Township Victor Curtis.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)

"New Super Mario Bros. Wii"

Platformer
Cooperative multiplayer
E for Everyone
Releases Nov. 15

Mario and his platforming pals go back to their roots in the sequel to 2006’s “New Super Mario Bros.” for Nintendo DS with a strong dose of competitive cooperation.

The “2.5d” (3D characters and levels on a side scrolling plane) environment move from left to right just like in the 1980s days of Super Mario Bros. Many homages are made to the gaming touchstone, but it also has several new features to draw in new and old fans alike.

Up to four players can join the game at any time and work together to overcome the stage’s obstacles, while competing to have the most lives and coins at the end of each level.

“It takes you back to the old days, then they upgraded what they had back then,” Curtis said.

"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves"

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
Action-adventure, 3rd person shooter
Competetive, cooperative multiplayer
M for mature
Now Available

One of the biggest action thrillers of this holiday season cannot be seen in theaters — even though it’s already on Blu-ray disc.

It also happens to be the sequel to 2007’s hit game “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.” Improvements to the control scheme and addictive multiplayer make this title not only an improvement on its predecessor, but also a must-have for any PS3 owner.

In a refreshing change from many other shoot-‘em-ups, the globetrotting narrative traverses diverse locales and highlights several well written and likable characters,

An effective and intuitive cover system, combined with high-flying platforming, make the game seem at times like a child of “Gears of War” and “Assassin’s Creed,” taking the best elements of both while maintaining a fast-paced and intriguing story.

"Brütal Legend"

Brütal Legend (PS3, X360)
Action-adventure, car combat, real time strategy
Competitive multiplayer
M for Mature
Now Available

For those that think games these days just aren’t nearly metal enough, Tim Schafer (the co-creator of gaming classics such as “The Secret of Monkey Island” and “Grim Fandango”) has the solution.

Brütal Legend is a mash-up of several different gaming genres — the protagonist (voiced by Jack Black) brawls like “God of War’s” Ares, drives like Sweet Tooth from “Twisted Metal” and commands his legions like Nod in “Command & Conquer.”

The game features more than a hundred classic metal tracks hand-picked by Schafer, as well as a star studded voice lineup enlisted to spout his notoriously hilarious witticisms including Tim Curry, Lemmy Kilmister and Ozzy Osbourne.

Don’t let this one slip by like another “Psychonauts.”

"Dragon Age Origins"

Dragon Age Origins (PC, PS3, X360)
Role-playing game
Single player
M for Mature
Now Available

The vaunted developers of classic swords-and-sorcery RPGs, as well as science fiction hits such as “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Mass Effect,” is going back to its roots in “Dragon Age Origins.”

While “Dragon Age” is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Bioware’s Dungeons and Dragons based “Baldur’s Gate” series, it also employs several new themes the developer has explored since its maturation.

The game’s brutal and gritty world is full of lust, wrath and greed, and the decisions the player makes both when creating his or her character and during the game will have widespread consequences.

The combat system uses a classic pause-and-play tactical element, allowing the player to coordinate the attacks of party members from either a top-down or behind the shoulder perspective.

"Forza Motorsport 3"

Forza Motorsport 3 (X360)
Racing
Competitive multiplayer
E for Everyone
Now Available

“Forza” is the Xbox 360’s “Gran Turismo,” as well as one of the top contenders for simulation racing action.

The third edition looks to retain the series’ emphasis on performance tuning and customization while incorporating more than 400 cars, 100 tracks, and many newbie friendly features.

“I loved (“Forza Motorsport 2”) because you could customize the cars,” Jackson said.

The newly reworked season mode will automatically present the player with competitions based on previous performance and car choice.

Some of the new player concessions include automatic braking, as well as a replay feature which allows the player to “rewind” at any point and retry a botched turn or avoid a crash.

"Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City"

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (X360)

Action-adventure
Competitive multiplayer
M for Mature
Now Available

For those who wanted more adventures in Liberty City after they parted ways with “Grand Theft Auto IV,” Rockstar has assembled its Xbox Live exclusive downloadable content on one disc for $39.

The game contains the previously released “The Lost and the Damned,” which focuses on the biker gangs of Liberty, and the new “The Ballad of Gay Tony,” an exaggerated look into the jet set of the faux New York and the bizarre tasks its members ask of the player in order to maintain their lifestyles.

A copy of GTA IV is not required, though its protagonist, Niko Bellic, does make an appearance in the episodes as they interweave with his story.

The game also includes new multiplayer modes from both episodes, which encapsulate motorcycle gang wars as well as outrageous sky diving, rocket launching mayhem.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii have been competing for gamers since the November 2005 release of the Xbox 360 and November 2006 release of the Playstation 3 and Wii.

According to vgchartz.com, the Nintendo Wii has the most console sales worldwide with an estimated 54.99 million systems sold. The Xbox 360 is next with 32.78 million, then the Playstation 3 with 25.74 million.

The sale differential is a direct reflection of the consoles’ prices. Best-selling Nintendo Wii also is the cheapest system at a retail price of $199.99, followed by the Xbox 360 at $299.99 and the Playstation 3, which recently had a $100 price drop to $299.99.

Student perspective

Students have their own ideas on who is winning the video game console battle.

Ferndale sophomore Kyle Funk said one of the best things about the Nintendo Wii is its general appeal for the masses, especially since it is
the first console to support a motion-sensitive controller.

“I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo,” Funk said. “I’d say for hardcore gamers, you should get a 360 or PS3, but a classic gamer or a casual gamer should get a Wii.”

Though the Nintendo Wii has the most sales worldwide, Techumseh freshman Christopher Berges said he thinks the Xbox 360 is what gamers are looking for.

Berges said the first-person shooter series Halo and the Xbox Live online components are what attracted him to the Xbox 360.

“It seems like the online play is more competitive than on the PS3 and Wii,” he said. “I like the Halo series, and I heard some bad stuff about the PS3 about it not working, so I chose to get a 360.”

Game Traders employee and Royal Oak junior Justin Sczechowski said the Xbox 360 seems to be the most popular platform.

“A lot of people seem to really like the Xbox 360,” Sczechowski said. “Probably because it was cheaper when it first came out, and I feel there is a better selection of inexpensive games for it. That seems to be our biggest new shelf.”

Hardware difficulties

Sczechowski said even though the Xbox seems to be a gamer favorite, he sees people having many technical problems with the Xbox 360.

“I am actually looking into getting a PS3 just because I hear so many problems about Xbox’s like, ‘My tray won’t open,’ and, ‘It’s giving my games the ring of death,’” Sczechowski said. “That’s all I used to hear about Xbox and I hear it more now that I work here, so I’d rather get a PS3.”

The “ring of death” is a notorious general hardware failure in which three of the Xbox 360’s four lights circling the power button flash red. The error is typically unrepairable.

Lifelong gamer and Brighton sophomore Adam Marth said the Playstation 3 is all about the future.

“I think every other gaming system is inadequate for top quality game usage,” he said.

It is simply the best action game to be released since 2007’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” and is destined be remembered as one of this console generation’s all-time classics.

It’s often the case that games so exuberantly proclaimed as any given system’s “Killer App” fail to live up to their hype, but in this case, all expectations that weren’t met were exceeded.

Naughty Dog, the developers of the “Uncharted” series, as well as the PS2’s “Jak and Daxter” games, have produced a complete package.

“Uncharted 2” delivers adrenalin-pumping cover-based gunplay, breathtaking exploration through beautiful and varied environs and witty,
clever storytelling that follows an interesting pulp adventure inspired narrative.

The stories of most action games provide little more than flimsy explanations of why the characters move from one shooting gallery to the
next. Most of those characters are meat-headed gun racks with about as much personality as a wet sock.

But the people who the treasure-hunting protagonist Nathan Drake encounters during his harrowing pursuit of the “Cintamani Stone” are captivating. His allies are likable and fairly original, and the bad guys are treacherous and appropriately ruthless.

The interactions between Drake and these people are a highlight of the game. The script has several genuinely funny lines that won’t necessarily leave the player gasping for air, but do serve to amuse and endear him or her to the story.

The shooting mechanics have been improved from the previous game’s, and rightfully so, since fire fight segments are a common element.

The controls are tight and allow Drake to fluidly move from firing behind cover, to running and shooting and finally to taking down opponents barehanded with a variety of satisfying combos.

There are also more options than were previously available to eliminate enemy forces. Several instances occur wherein it’s possible to use cover and timing to quietly take down enemies one by one, whether by sneaking up behind them, pulling them off a ledge to their demise or yanking them around a corner and silencing them.

The best parts of the game combine both approaches with the series’ distinctive verticality, allowing an impressive degree of freedom to scale many surfaces, find new vantage points and generally progress through combat however the player wishes.

The game’s multiplayer is brilliant, and without a doubt the best online experience currently available on PS3. All of the tactics and high-
flying dramatics available in single player are not only present but are actually useful to boot.

What the game loses from the lack of cinematic storytelling in multiplayer, it makes up for in the thrill of matching wits and trigger fingers with other gamers nationwide.

In particular, the co-op and “Chain Reaction” modes produced moments just as memorable and exciting as in the main game.

Naughty Dog has done exactly what it needed to do to make the somewhat flawed but promising “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” into a true action masterpiece.

Don’t let this treasure slip you by.

5/5 stars