You know a game is doing something right when you find yourself spontaneously creating new save game files for the sole purpose of replaying memorable scenes. I did that a lot in Resident Evil 4. In the 2005 GameCube game, a heart-pounding, well-choreographed  set-piece was just around the next corner.

By the time I conquered Uncharted 2, I found I had a grand total of sixteen save points- for precisely the same reason. It turned out that I needn’t have bothered, because developers Naughty Dog were way ahead of me: I later discovered that the game lets you replay chapters as you complete them.

But I digress. What I really wanted to open this review with is by saying that I have a confession to make. Despite being one of the PlayStation 3’s most acclaimed titles, I never took the opportunity to sample Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. I don’t generally make a habit of skipping the first part in a story before experiencing the second- and I fully expected Among Thieves, Drake’s second adventure, to be all but incomprehensible to a series newbie.

It was with some surprise, then, that from the stunning opening cliffhanger (literally) to the dazzling finale, Uncharted 2 grabbed my attention and held it in a way that few games have ever done.

Much has been made of Uncharted 2’s visual prowess- and it is the game’s sheer beauty that allows it to sink its hooks into you within moments of booting up the Blu-Ray. Even the most cursory of glances at Naughty Dog’s sequel demonstrates the utter mastery that the developer has over the PlayStation 3 architecture. Where so many developers have struggled to get the console’s tricksy SPUs to work in tandem in a way that outclasses the Xbox 360, Naughty Dog have clearly cracked the code, creating a game engine as silky smooth as it is visually stunning- lush, detailed environments, beautifully animated character models, and a uniformly cinematic feel to the experience makes this one of the very best looking- if not the best- videogame I’ve ever played. But there’s so much more to Uncharted 2’s technical wizardry than pretty vistas to gawp it.

The way that cut-scenes naturally morph into real-time play; the naturalism and the versatility of the animation-Drake’s ability to traverse just about any climbable surface is mightily impressive- and the consistent, rock-solid framerate all demonstrate the solidity of Naughty Dog’s engine.

Uncharted 2’s visual bar-raising is aptly illustrated by a level which takes place atop a speeding train. The beautiful Tibetan countryside whizzes by-  villages, lakes, rivers, bridges, gorges, jungle. And it continues to go by- with no apparent duplication of environment or looping of the same assets. Surely, Naughty Dog didn’t go to the effort of designing countless miles of non-interactive environments- random generation and other clever techniques are presumably being used- but the illusion of a living, breathing world is quite a sight to behold.

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