I feel very alone in the world as a man who would list Drake's Deception as his favorite Uncharted game. My only real negative about this game is the nonsensical, Looney Tunes story. There are far too many ridiculous things that happen to be quickly listed here. Suffice to say, it is nonsense, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love this game for a similar reason that I love Resident Evil 4, because it says, 'screw it, let's just make a really fun game.' The set pieces in this game are amazing even ten years later. The gameplay has more memorable moments and overall variety than just about every other Uncharted game combined. I find it fitting that such a ridiculous game have such ridiculous moments. I don't see it as an issue, because this game's drama comes from its characters, not its story.

If you asked me to sum up why this is my favorite game in the series, the exchange would go something like this:

Me: Who is the greatest character in video game history?
You: Karl Heisenberg?
Me: The other one
You: Victor Sullivan
Me: Which Uncharted puts the most focus on him?
You: 3
Me: Any further questions?

The interactions between Nate and Sully in this game have resonated with me so much since I first played the game. I loved seeing them meet, Sully saving Nate, their mature conversations and literally every other scene with Sully in it. His final word to Nate in the story never fails to make me emotional. Altogether, I think that no Uncharted game has more heart, character or charm than this one.

I'll be blunt: I've played the Uncharted games pretty extensively, and I don't think this is the best one.

That isn't to say the game is bad by any means. By the minute you boot up the game, the improvement from the first game is palpable. Better graphics, better writing, more varied gameplay with a much more interesting story and fleshed-out characters. Uncharted 2 is a sequel done right.

I found the first half of the game to be fantastic: the story moved at a brisk pace with varied levels and strong set pieces to mix up the basic gameplay. The first half culminated in the iconic train sequence which was easily the best part of the game, and one of the best sections of any Uncharted game to this day. After a section as amazing as that, you'd probably think it's all downhill from there. Unfortunately, you'd be right.

The variety in levels from the first half of the game is gone going into the second half, I was so sick of snowy mountain levels by the end of the game I wanted to scream. The gameplay also felt noticeably weaker, devolving into repetitive shootout and repetitive climbing section on loop for what felt like hours, and I spent most of it longing to repay Uncharted 3. Throw in a disappointing final boss, and I have to say I barely enjoyed the latter half of the game, but that isn't even my biggest problem: that would be the characters.

They say strong characters can carry a weak story; it doesn't work the other way around. For that reason(and many others), I'll always prefer Uncharted 3 to 2. I may have said the characters were better than in Uncharted 1, but I didn't say they were good. The only two in this game who didn't annoy me were Tenzin and Sully. They were great; they were also barely in the game. Excuse me while I roast the rest of them:

I found Nate to still be a pretty cocky moron in this game: I hardly felt he had grown up since the first game, and I rarely enjoyed the scenes focused on him. I sorta hated Chloe to be honest: Her elegances changed so drastically it was legitimately pretty confusing, she came off as very selfish and short-sighted, and she became completely redundant the minute Elena came back, and the game seemed to know that and wrote her out of most of the rest of it. Elena was fine, but both of her out-of-nowhere appearances in the story were extremely jarring, and I didn't feel like she added much to the story. Karl Schafer is literally only necessary to the story because Tenzin can't speak English, and the game expects us to feel emotional at his death after knowing him for two minutes, just like it did with Jeff, I feel manipulated. Lazarevic is one of the goofiest placeholders for a character I've ever seen, he has very little stage presence, and his boss fight is one of the few parts of this game even diehard fans don't like. I'm amazed the game expects me to take him seriously.

And finally... let's talk about Flynn. Many in the Uncharted community regard Harry Flynn as the best villain in the franchise, and I couldn't disagree more. His motivations make no sense, why is he working for a guy who is obviously going to betray him and kill him? He doesn't even seem surprised when it happens. What was his endgame anyway? Money? That's boring. He needed a more personal motivation, like Rafe, if he was going to be interesting. The scenes with him are annoying, his dialogue isn't great, his death scene is really unsatisfying(yes, I understand that's the point, but it's a lousy point), and I have no idea where his distain for Nate came from. However, my biggest problem is how damn incompetent he is. Nate escapes when Harry has him at gunpoint five times by my count. Lazarevic was right; he hired the wrong guy.

I know I didn't say too many positive things about Among Thieves, but there are a million reviews you can read heralding this game as one of the all-time greats. I'm glad that's what you all think, but I can't relate, I'm mostly just bummed by how underappreciated Uncharted 3 is. I should really re-review that game, I didn't say half the good things I had to say.

Well that was fun: basic, but fun.

The campy tone and self-aware humor of Ape Escape 2 are enjoyable: the varied level design and gadget use spiced the gameplay up enough for me to see the trip through to the end.

However, I grappled with a frustrating camera, questionable control schema, and enough repetitive and unmemorable gameplay to make another playthrough unlikely.

It is always so obvious and easy how to catch certain monkeys and progress that the gadget variety doesn't add much; The levels look nice, but feel empty and go by too quickly to leave much of an impact; And the optional collectibles are satisfying, but putting the coins into the machine and running it over and over again makes it not worth it to get them given how long that can take.

Most importantly of all: If you do play this game, I must insist on playing the PS4 version. Otherwise, you'll be listening to Ash and Misty the whole time: That is a hard no for me.

I've played some amazing sequels in my day; this is not one of them.

Strap in yall, this one is going to be long.

Part two is a step backwards in every conceivable way. The fascinating themes, implicit characterization, haunting atmosphere, sharp writing, subtle worldbuilding, and air-tight cohesion of the first game is mostly, if not completely gone. The sad thing is that many of Bioshock 2's ideas are good, many of its characters have promise, and many of the changes made to gameplay were for the better. Hell, the game fixed my two biggest issues with the previous game(the pipe minigame and the binary endings). I feel like these ideas would have worked brilliantly in a different game, but they don't fit here.

Sophia Lamb could have been a strong antagonist, but she doesn't fit the world of Bioshock at all; she feels more like a Harry Potter villain than a Bioshock villain, and she could never compare to Andrew Ryan in terms of dialogue, presence, or ideology. Some changes to gameplay were improvements, but they take away from the atmosphere just as much as they add to the fun. It is hard to be scared when I'm this overpowered and the enemies need to be this ludicrous in order to pose a challenge. I played the game on the highest difficulty and rarely felt in any danger. I also feel the emotional connection between Elanor and Delta could have been very strong, but the two needed more time together for it to resonate, and the game's structure didn't allow for that. And, both as a follow-up to Bioshock 1, and as a story on its own, this game has far too many plot holes.

The next paragraph is just plot holes

How is the city still habitable with all those leaks from the first game? Why were Lamb, Alexander, or Sinclair never mentioned in the first game? How did all these non-splicer characters survive in Rapture for ten years? Why is Delta the only Big Daddy who can use plasmids!? How was Elanor able to revive Delta and why did she wait ten years to do it!?! How are there still so many splicers in the city eight years after Jack left!!?!! If Lamb could sever Delta and Elanor's bond by temporarily stopping her heart WHY DIDN'T SHE DO IT SOONER!!!!!? Why don't the splicers attack the little sister I take control of when I use her to gather ADAM? THEY ATTACKED EVERY OTHER TIME, AND SHE'S RIGHT THERE!!! Why... in her great wisdom... did Elanor choose to revive Delta ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CITY!!!!!!!!?!!!!!!!! You could have brought me back at the chamber right outside your room! THANKS FOR NOT SAVING ME A TRIP ELANOR.

So, it sounds like I'm not the biggest fan of this game... I'm not. You may ask the question, 'why recommend it at all? Why a score as high as even a seven?' A valid question, the answer: Minerva's Den.

This DLC campaign is everything the main game should have been. It's a bit shorter obviously, but most of Bioshock 2 felt like filler anyway, so a more concise game was a nice change of pace. Minerva's Den brings back the atmosphere and sophisticated storytelling from the first game, as well also having a plot twist that, while it certainly wouldn't rival that of the first game's plot twist, is still gripping and well-deserved reveal. Minerva's Den is also a blast to play, adding so many new weapons and plasmids to make it really stand out from the main campaign. This is honestly one of the best DLCs out there, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the main game. The protector trials were fun too.

I must recommend this game, just to experience Minerva's Den. Play the main campaign if you want.

A detailed, captivating world rich with deep lore, interesting characters, useful collectables and perilous enemies. The intricate, cohesive world of Hollow Knight begs to be explored. The massive, sprawling land of Hollownest lures the player in, many hours spent filling out a huge map, never feeling frustrated in doing so on account of how compact and reasonable the game's exploration is, featuring a streamlined badge an upgrade system which gives weight to every decision the player makes. This game boasts a huge amount of content outside of the plentiful DLC, which adds even more character, lore and replay value to this powerhouse of an experience.

Also, the best Boss roster in the history of video games. Just saying.

Spider-Man's ex-girlfriend shows up after not seeing him for years, tells him she has a son, and strongly implies that it's his; he then treats this like a strong possibility... I'm bringing this up because it's the only thing from this DLC that left any sort of impression on me.

The City that Never Sleeps is the worst kind of DLC in my opinion: the kind that just feels like a side-quest from the main game they couldn't find room for, and Spider-Man PS4 didn't have the best side-quests to begin with. This package doesn't expand the main game in any meaningful way: the map is the same, the characters are mostly the same, the combat and gadgets are the same, and the story is nothing special. I have no meaningful takeaways from the whole experience; It's honestly one of those games where I'm struggling to remember what happened minutes after putting down the controller: Our responsible Neighborhood Spider-Man had unprotected sex with a cat burglar, that's all I got.

If you love the main game's gameplay and this comes with it for free, you can try it out; if you have to pay extra for it, don't bother.