A moderate step up in most areas from Drake's Fortune, the second entry in the Uncharted Series leans into what worked the first time around and tries to go bigger and better. There's definitely more of a focus on action set pieces to change up the gameplay this time around, and they work fairly well. The controls for those can be a bit weird at times and it's immersion breaking when you do die during them, but it's better than the slog of pure combat the first game turned into by the end. Speaking of the combat, it's notably improved. The scenarios you're put in are more varied and feel more like real environments rather than zones designed as a cover shooter first and a visual location second. The gunplay and cover systems are still just passable, but there's a bit more variety in weapons and enemies which helps, even if it was starting to get a bit old again by the end. The last major component of the gameplay is the climbing and puzzle segments, and these feel the least changed going into the sequel, though that's still fine as it was what I wanted more of the most after finishing the first.

The story here is fine, and I won't critique it too hard because it's obviously supposed to feel like a campy action movie, but the new characters and especially the new villain really didn't do much for me. I did like how the game starts with jumping around in the timeline, showing how you got to the intro of the game. It was simple but effective, kind of a shame it was dropped for the second half. That style aided the feeling of variety that comes from this game having a lot more locations than Drake's Fortune, and while they are well done and the variety is welcome, there's something about the location and scale of the first game that I slightly preferred there and was missing a little bit. You're paired up with another character during gameplay much more often this time around, where the first game had you constantly splitting up. This doesn't do much for gameplay besides occasionally having to boost them up to a ledge or hold a door, but it adds a lot more dialogue between Nate and the supporting cast. This is mostly a welcome addition, but I have to complain a little bit that Nate comes across like a real psychopath here. There was the occasional thing in the first game that was a bit awkward, but in Among Thieves he's constantly making jokes and comments with a complete lack of social awareness, sometimes the other characters will react negatively to it and sometimes they act like nothing's wrong. I don't really get the decision to lean into that part of his character, and I guess it's not a big deal but it was just a bit annoying. I'll also say that the "twist" here, if you can even call it one, pales in comparison to what they did before.

Overall Among Thieves was a good time, a step up from Drake's Fortune in most aspects, and while I did like the first game I can see much more with this one how they turned it into a series without it getting old fast. I'm looking forward to continuing it.