Uncharted 2
To be fair, most people were expecting Uncharted 2 to be good; they just weren’t expecting it to be as good as it was.
Following the release of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, players had established some pretty reasonable expectations of the Uncharted series moving forward. The games would take them to a certain location, give them a treasure to find, and throw some waves of enemies at them to overcome through cover-based, third-person combat.
And yet, upon getting their hands on Uncharted 2, that all changed.
The sequel saw every aspect of the first game refined and improved. Instead of remaining in one or two identical locations, players were whisked away to several different locales in a globe-spanning hunt for an ancient jewel.
The gameplay was littered with memorable set pieces like fighting enemies on a moving train, and alongside the usual cover-based combat, there were now special enemies and bosses to overcome through more varied and unique approaches.
This was all topped off with a story that was told with the kind of grace and care that would later become Naughty Dog’s staple, establishing Nathan Drake and his comrades as fixtures in the pantheon of memorable video game characters.
Even with later entries further refining the series’ design formula, Uncharted 2 still stands as one of the series’ best entries, and a sequel whose quality is still a happy surprise for those who weren’t expecting it.
