Uncharted is undoubtedly one of my favourite Playstation 3 games of all time, scoring a stellar score of 9.4, undeniably outstanding for a launch title when compared to others such as Resistance: Fall of Man and Heavenly Sword. Instead of taking the obvious choice of extending their already massively popular Jak & Daxter series, they decided to invest themselves into a completely new series, Uncharted, an action adventure game that completely dwarfed Eidos’ existing Tomb Raider series. There was no hint that Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune would ever get a sequel, but the announcement came out of the blue, accompanied by a cryptic trailer to follow.

          The first most notable point to make about the newest

instalment is that it won’t be set in the jungle temples and sewer network of the first game, this time around you will visit perilous mountains and war-torn cities in your quest to find Marco Polo’s “lost” fleet of ships, where you hope to find the Cintamani stone, a relic that is said to grant its owner a single wish. Of course Drake will return as the game’s protagonist, along with his close friend Victor Sullivan, but the absence of the previous game’s only female character, Elena Fisher, is yet to be announced. What we do know is that the newest installment, dubbed “Among Thieves” will touch on Nathan’s darker side, after all he is a criminal if none of you noticed that in the first game that tomb robbing is a crime.

          The first Uncharted could be played in many ways, you could either run and gun, or instead take a tactical approach to every encounter, but of course it would depend on what difficulty setting you had the game on. This time around Naughty Dog have announced some new features within the gameplay:

. New weapons will feature in the game, with the return of ones used in the previous title too.

. Enemy AI will be “significantly better”, enemies will be quicker, smarter and stronger.

. A entirely new “Stealth” mode will be added to the game, enemies will have to actual have eye sight of Drake before opening fire.

. No online has been announced, but you will be accompanied by an AI partner, Chloe, noticeably smarter than Elena from the original Uncharted.

          A point I mentioned as that the game hasn’t had an

online mode announced yet, we do know that 2 player co-op has been shunned as Naught Dog believe in pouring all their efforts into an outstanding single player experience. However, online competitive modes such as Team Deathmatch etc. Could be a possibility, the game has a gameplay style that could easily be adapted into an online shooter.

          If Uncharted is anything like its predecessor then it is sure to be a big hit, if not surpassing the original. Among Thieves is sure to be a treasury title, and hopefully it won’t be the end for Nathan Drake’s adventures.