Uncharted 2

Tibet, Borneo and Turkey – sounds like the making of a fantastic holiday? Well there’s certainly no sunbathing on the agenda in Uncharted 2; as you follow Nathan Drake and his Indiana Jones-esque, globetrotting expedition to find the lost underground city of Shambala and the elusive Chintamani jewel stone.

Featuring remarkable graphics, astonishingly detailed environments and realistic animation it’s hard not to feel like you’re alongside Drake as you wing from limb to ledge. Like its predecessor, the sound work is also nothing short of spectacular, with well-realised characters taking you through an excellent script full of adventure, betrayal and love.

Aside from the overhauled, silky smooth shooting mechanics, the puzzle sections are superb, letting you scale shrines of gargantuan size. Control issues do rear their head occasionally as you find yourself dropping off a cliff instead of crouching behind cover like you wanted, but on a whole they work pretty well.

Aside from the single player which takes around 10 hours to complete on Normal, there’s also a fully fleshed out multiplayer mode featuring Deathmatch, Elimination and Objective competitive playlists. The Co-op Arena, a take on Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, pits you and your friends against an onslaught of enemies which get progressively harder as each wave finishes.

Uncharted 2 raises the bar for storytelling in video games and provides a memorable, vibrant journey that will have you on the edge of your seat. [Tom Hillman]