Call Of Duty: Black Ops

 

On February 25, 1968, SAD/SOG operative Alex Mason is strapped to a chair in an interrogation room. Unaware of his whereabouts, he is bombarded with questions by his unseen captors about the location of a numbers station. Most of the missions in the game are presented as the flashbacks of Mason between 1961 and 1968.
In 1961, Mason, Woods, and Bowman attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as a part of Operation 40. Mason apparently succeeds in the assassination, but their exfiltration goes awry, with Mason staying behind to protect the extraction plane. He is captured by the real Castro, having shot a double. Because of an alliance with the Soviet Union, Castro hands Mason over to General Nikita Dragovich. Mason is then held captive at Vorkuta Gulag for two years. During his imprisonment, Mason befriends Viktor Reznov, a former Red Army soldier. Reznov recounts to Mason the identities of those involved in Mason’s torture: Dragovich, Lev Kravchenko (his right-hand man) and Friedrich Steiner, an ex-Nazi scientist who defected to the Soviet Union. All three share a connection to Reznov: in October 1945, Reznov, Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Dimitri Petrenko were a part of a unit sent to locate Steiner, hiding with a unit of the SS in the Arctic Circle. During the operation, Reznov was betrayed by Dragovich, who used Steiner's creation, a nerve agent known as "Nova-6" on Petrenko. Reznov was spared the same fate when British commandos attacked the Russians. During the confusion, he destroys Nova-6. However, it was later recreated by Steiner and a British scientist named Daniel Clarke for the Soviets. Shortly afterward, Reznov is imprisoned in Vorkuta. Mason and Reznov spark a prisoner uprising to escape the gulag, but only Mason escapes.
One month later, President John F. Kennedy authorizes the assassination of Dragovich.
In November 1963, Mason, Woods, Bowman and Weaver are dispatched to Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR to disrupt the Soviet space program and eliminate members of the Soviet Ascension program, Nazis who had been given sanctuary in Russia in exchange for their knowledge. At the start of the operation, Weaver is captured and Mason sees Kravchenko torture him, stabbing his left eye, but Mason and his team later rescue him, while still destroying the Soyuz spacecraft as well. Dragovich eludes assassination, prompting Mason to search for him over the next five years. By 1968, the MACV-SOG was established in Vietnam to investigate the Soviets' presence. After defending Khe Sanh, the SOG is deployed to Hue during the Tet Offensive to recover a dossier with information on Dragovich from a Russian defector. The team recovers the dossier, while Mason encounters Reznov, who is revealed to be the defector. The SOG then penetrates Laos to recover a Nova-6 shipment from a downed Soviet plane. At the crash site, they are overwhelmed by waves of Viet Cong and Spetznaz soldiers, eventually getting captured. Mason and Reznov escape, but Bowman is executed and Woods dies while killing Kravchenko.
Meanwhile, Hudson and Weaver interrogate Dr. Daniel Clarke, the engineer who stabilized Nova-6, in Kowloon. Clarke identifies Steiner as part of the conspiracy, and reveals the location of a hidden facility in Mount Yamantau before being killed by Dragovich's men. Hudson and Weaver head to Mount Yamantau to destroy the facility and apprehend Steiner. During the mission, Hudson receives a transmission from Steiner requesting to meet him at Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea to learn how to halt a numbers broadcast that would send instructions to sleeper agents to release Nova-6 gas in American cities. Mason and Reznov head to Rebirth Island to assassinate Steiner. In the present, Mason is adamant that Reznov executed Steiner, but Hudson had witnessed Mason carrying out the deed. At this point, Hudson and Weaver are revealed as Mason's interrogators. Hudson realizes that Dragovich brainwashed Mason to understand the numbers broadcasts, effectively becoming a Soviet sleeper agent. Out of options, Hudson deliberately sets Mason free in order to follow him. It is revealed that the real Reznov died during the Vorkuta break out, and Mason’s visions of Reznov are a result of a dissociative disorder caused by the traumatic brainwashing program. Reznov had, in fact, reprogrammed Mason to assassinate Dragovich, Kravchenko and Steiner instead of President Kennedy prior to the Vorkuta breakout. Hudson plays the numbers recording for Mason a final time, prompting him to remember the location of the Russian cargo ship Rusalka off the coast of Cuba.
By dawn, the team launches an assault on the Rusalka, with Mason and Hudson infiltrating an underwater broadcast station protected by the ship, a Soviet submarine station intended to be used as a staging point for US invasion after the planned Nova-6 attack. Confirming that the Rusalka is the numbers station, Hudson calls in the US Navy to destroy the ship and its underwater base. Mason and Hudson finally find Dragovich in the lower levels of the facility and manage to kill him before the destruction of the base, swimming for the surface during the destruction of the targets. Weaver declares victory, but Mason is unsure, haunted by his last conversation with Dragovich.
Archive footage of President Kennedy prior to his assassination are shown, with the broadcaster and Mason narrating random numbers. After a second play-through of the archive footage, Mason's appearance in the crowd, as well as Dragovich's final words, suggest that Mason followed his original programming.

9 out of 10

Red Dead Redemption

In the year 1911, John Marston, a retired outlaw formerly of a gang led by Dutch van der Linde, is taken away from his wife Abigail and his son Jack by government agents. The agents tell Marston that he will be reunited with his family if he hunts down the remaining lead members of his former gang. Left with no choice, Marston travels to the territory of New Austin to capture or kill one of his old friends, Bill Williamson, who now runs his own gang of bandits out of Fort Mercer. Marston confronts Williamson, only to be shot and left for dead outside the fort. A rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, finds him wounded, and brings him to a doctor to be treated.

After recovering from his wounds several days later, Marston begins repaying the MacFarlanes for their help in the form of several jobs around their ranch. At the same time, he recruits help for a plan to attack Fort Mercer. Along with U.S. Marshal Leigh Johnson of Armadillo and his men, con man Nigel West Dickens, grave robber Seth Briars and drunken arms dealer Irish, Marston uses a Trojan Horse strategy to breach the fort. Marston and the Marshals breach the fort and massacre Williamson's gang, only to find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuela, another member of Marston's old gang. Irish offers to take Marston into Mexico over the river border. Along the river, Irish and Marston encounter Mexican bandits. Marston and Irish take the bandits out, barely making it into the country.

In Mexico, Marston works with Mexican Army Colonel Agustin Allende and Captain Vicente de Santa, as well as the revolutionaries in the area led by Abraham Reyes. He also improves his gun skills under the tutelage of elder gunslinger and childhood inspiration Landon Ricketts. Allende promises to deliver Escuela and Williamson to Marston, but soon betrays him and has de Santa attempt to execute Marston for working with the revolutionaries and killing Allende's men with Ricketts. After escaping execution, Marston sides with the rebels who help kill de Santa and successfully get Marston to Escuela. Following Escuela's capture or death, Marston joins Reyes and his men for an assault on Allende's villa, not only culminating in the deaths of Allende and Williamson, but also Marston's rebel friend Luisa when she attempts to save Reyes. Reyes takes control of the surrounding Mexican counties, and vows to march onto the capital with his rebel army. Marston, meanwhile, returns to the city of Blackwater to meet with his government contact, Edgar Ross.

Much to his dismay, Ross will not let Marston return to his family until Dutch van der Linde, who has emerged from hiding, has been killed. While Dutch and his men wage war on theUnited States Army in the area, Marston has several run-ins with Dutch who manages to elude capture each time. Marston eventually joins Ross and a group of U.S. soldiers in an assault on Dutch's hideout. Marston follows the outlaws to their base, and confronts Dutch on a cliff. Dutch ultimately chooses to commit suicide, backing off a cliff to his death. Before he dies, Dutch warns Marston that the government will always find another "monster" to justify their pay.

Marston is released from his deal with the government and returns to his family at his ranch. After some time spent getting the farm up and running again, Marston is forced to repel the army when Edgar Ross betrays him with a surprise attack. After Marston's friend Uncle falls, Marston manages to get Abigail and Jack out safely but stays behind to hold back the soldiers. Despite a valiant last stand, John, realizing what he must do to save his family, tells his family to ride away and that he will catch up. Then, John steps out of the barn to confront his attackers. He is able to take down a handful of soldiers, but is shot multiple times by Ross and his men. Jack and Abigail return to the ranch after hearing the gunshots, finding John dead and the soldiers gone. John's body is buried on a hill overlooking the ranch, his grave inscribed "Blessed are the Peacemakers".

The game then jumps three years ahead to 1914, where the fresh grave of Abigail rests next to his. An older Jack, now the playable character, is seen standing at the foot of where his parents rest. He walks away to search for Edgar Ross who has now retired. After questioning Ross's wife under the guise of a messenger, Jack learns that the retiree is out hunting. Eventually, he finds Ross shooting ducks on a riverbank. When Jack reveals his identity and intentions to Ross, the two get into a heated argument, and Ross claims that John killed himself with the life he lived. To resolve the dispute, the two duel, in which Jack guns down his father's killer. Almost immediately after Ross's death, Jack looks down at his gun in confusion; while he has avenged his father, he has also become a murderer and a criminal, which his father died to prevent. Jack holsters his gun, pauses, and then walks back up the riverbed, his future, uncertain.

A newspaper summarizes the fate of John Marston's companions. Marshal Leigh Johnson retired as sheriff of Armadillo, and then moved as far away as possible from the town. Abraham Reyes, though promising to lead Mexico into an age of freedom, was consumed by power and became a tyrant. Bonnie MacFarlane eventually married, but it is not said to whom, although several conversations heard throughout MacFarlane's Ranch suggest she married her foreman, Amos. Irish accidentally shot himself dead in a Thieves Landing outhouse when his gun discharged. Seth Briars eventually found the treasure he was looking for and became rich. Finally, Landon Ricketts passed away quietly in his sleep.

9 out of 10

Infamous 2

In the months following the events of Infamous, Cole (Eric Ladin) prepares to face the Beast, an entity of untold power whose coming was foretold by Kessler. Cole and his friend Zeke (Caleb Moody) meet with NSA agent Lucy Kuo (Dawn Olivieri) who tells them she can lead them to Dr. Sebastian Wolfe (Michael Ensign), a scientist who worked on the development of the Ray Sphere which granted Cole his powers, and who claims he can make Cole even stronger. As they are about to leave, they are confronted by the Beast. Cole fights the Beast but proves to be no match and is severely weakened as a result. Cole, Zeke and Kuo escape to New Marais to find Wolfe while the Beast pursues them, destroying everything in its path.

In New Marais, they find the city under the control of wealthy industrialist Joseph Bertrand III (Graham McTavish) and his anti-conduit militia. Aware of Cole's arrival and abilities, Bertrand wages a propaganda campaign against him. Before Cole can meet Wolfe, his lab is destroyed, spreading Blast Cores across the city. Wolfe survives the explosion and explains to Cole that by finding and absorbing the power of the Blast Cores he can boost his powers to a point where he can activate the RFI (Ray Field Inhibitor) which would allow him to defeat the Beast. Wolfe is captured by the Militia and a rescue attempt fails, resulting in Wolfe's death and Kuo's capture. Cole and Zeke meet two new allies: Laroche, leader of an anti-militia resistance group, and Nix (Nika Futterman), a Conduit who dwells in the swamp. Together they locate Kuo trapped in a facility where she has been infused with ice-based abilities. Cole frees her but inadvertently unleashes an army of mercenaries also imbued with ice-powers.

Cole and his allies attack Bertrand's operations before eventually learning that Bertrand is himself a Conduit, able to transform into a building-sized monster and convert humans into monstrosities. In the past, he had used a Ray Sphere to gain abilities, believing himself destined for greatness. The activated Ray Sphere kills many but also grants Nix her abilities. Disgusted by the powers he receives and now believing Conduits to be evil, he attempts to incite a Conduit genocide using the power of the Conduit mercenaries he helped develop to instill fear in the populace. Meanwhile he uses his monsters to justify the protection of his militia to New Marais. Cole and his allies eventually coax Bertrand into again transforming, where he loses self control. Cole is able to kill Bertrand, ending his plan.

During this time, the Beast has arrived in New Marais. While on recon Cole encounters John White (Phil LaMarr), an NSA agent whom had seemingly died in a Ray Sphere explosion in Empire City. John reveals himself as the Beast. He shows Cole that a plague, created when the Ray Sphere was first activated in Empire City to empower Cole, has been spreading across the country. The plague is killing humans but Conduits are immune, and John is using his powers to find and empower potential Conduits, sparing them at the cost of countless human lives each time. Believing humanity is lost, John implores Cole to help him find and convert the Conduits so that some may survive. After finding all of the Blast Cores, Cole prepares to activate the RFI. However, he learns that the device will not just weaken the Beast but kill all Conduits, but it could also nullify the Ray Sphere radiation, ending the plague. The story diverges from this point dependent on whether the player chooses to activate the RFI, sacrificing Cole and thousands of Conduits but saving millions of humans, including Zeke who has contracted the plague, or work with the Beast to save the Conduits.

9.45 out of 10

Infamous

While the basic story of the game remains unchanged whether the player opts for the "Good" or "Evil" karma path, there are some story elements that change depending on the player's choice at that time.

Cole is instructed by an anonymous customer to deliver a package to a location in the Historic District, and then to open it; unbeknownst to Cole, the package contains the Ray Sphere, which activates upon opening and wipes out six city blocks. Cole manages to survive the blast and is nursed back to health by Trish, during which he discovers his newfound powers. When the Voice of Survival pinpoints Cole at the center of the explosion, the city turns against him including Trish, whose sister was killed in the blast, and Cole and Zeke try to escape the quarantine with Cole's new powers but are overwhelmed by government agents. During his arrest, Cole is convinced by Moya, a high ranking government agent, to return to Empire City to seek out the Ray Sphere and her husband John in exchange for Cole and his friends' release from quarantine. Cole proceeds to follow Moya's missions, restoring power to the city to be able to fight off the various gangs that have taken over. As he comes to interact with Sasha, Alden, and Kessler, the leaders of each gang, he learns that Kessler displaced Alden from the leadership of the First Sons, an organized crime group, and initiated construction of the Ray Sphere, while rejecting Sasha's attempts for romance. Cole is able to defeat Sasha and capture Alden, but during a breakout attempt by the Dust Men, Zeke's own heroism antics allow Alden to go free, much to Cole's irritation. Later, Cole and Zeke track down Alden, who has recovered the Ray Sphere; Cole is able to distract Alden long enough for Zeke to recover it. However, Zeke is caught between Alden and Kessler, and realizes that he could gain superpowers himself through the Sphere and activates it, but nothing happens. Kessler immediately figures out what went wrong and offers Zeke power in exchange for assistance to fix it. Zeke agrees and departs with Kessler, taking the Ray Sphere with him.

Cole is finally able to track down John, but learns that John is neither from the FBI nor Moya's husband, but instead an undercover NSA agent who assisted in the creation of the Ray Sphere. John explains that the Ray Sphere consumes the bio-energy from those around it and transfers that power to the person holding it, granting them super abilities at the cost of thousands of lives, and urges Cole to help him find and destroy it. Alden goes on a killing spree while heading into the Historic District. After a long battle, Alden is defeated and jumps off the bridge. During the battle, Alden destroyed huge sections of the bridge. Cut off from the Warren, Cole goes ahead into the Historic District. As they search for the Ray Sphere, Cole discovers that Kessler has kidnapped Trish along with six other doctors, and forces Cole to choose between saving her or the other doctors. Regardless of the player's choice, Kessler has arranged for Trish to fall to her death, but is briefly revived by Cole. If the player has good Karma, Trish will be proud of Cole and profess her love, while if the player has bad Karma, she will curse his name with her dying breath. After mourning for his loss, Cole works with John to recover the Ray Sphere; the player can then opt to either destroy it or use it to further enhance Cole's powers (which also gives him red and black electricity), but either option causes the Ray Sphere to malfunction, disintegrating John.

Cole then goes to face Kessler at Ground Zero of the original explosion. As they fight, Zeke appears and tries to intervene but is tossed aside by Kessler. Cole eventually mortally wounds Kessler. Kessler uses his last actions to implant his memories into Cole's mind, revealing that Kessler is a version of Cole from the future of an alternate timeline. In that timeline, Cole (as Kessler) and Trish were happily wed with children, but soon the appearance of an entity known as "The Beast" plunged their world into chaos. Kessler and Trish fled with their children rather than fight, but after years of running, The Beast eventually caught up to them and killed his family. Kessler realized the only way to stop the Beast would be to use his powers to go back in time and prepare his past self, Cole, for battle against it as it was too late to fight back in Kessler's time. Kessler seized control of the First Sons from Alden, shunning Sasha's advances due to his past love for Trish, and ordered the construction of the Ray Sphere much earlier than in his timeline. Kessler was also the anonymous customer that directed Cole to use it. Kessler used Trish's death as a means of making sure Cole could choose the impossible in the battle with The Beast. After Kessler dies from the battle, Cole declares his hatred for Kessler, and says "When the time comes, I will be ready."

The ending of the game depends on the player's Karma. If the player's Karma is good, Empire City continues to rebuild itself, while still idolizing Cole as its savior. If the player's Karma is evil, Empire City has fully slid into chaos. The sky is red, people are dying in the streets, and Cole recognizes himself as the strongest person alive. He then laughs at the idea of using his powers to fight The Beast.

9 out of 10

Killzone 3

The game begins in medias res from the point of view of (presumably) two Helghast soldiers who have arrived at Stahl Arms Corporation, Jorhan Stahl's weapons factory. The two are taken to an execution room where the captured Jason Narville's execution is about to be broadcasted by Stahl across Helghan. As the two soldiers are about to execute Narville, they reveal themselves as Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko and Rico Velasquez and the scene cuts back six months earlier, immediately following the events of Killzone 2.

Sev and Rico regroup with Captain Jason Narville outside Scolar Visari's palace and they begin their evacuation towards the remaining ISA ships on Helghan, facing heavy resistance from organised chimera troops led by Admiral Orlock, whose plan is well-received by most of the senate except for Jorhan Stahl, the chairman of Stahl Arms, the largest weapons manufacturer on Helghan. From the outset, the animosity between the two parties is made apparent. Rico receives a transmission from Jammer and separates from the group to rescue her squad who have encountered heavy resistance. Despite a largely successfully-engineered evacutation, few remaining ISA ships are unable to depart, separating Rico from Sev and the rest of the ISA forces and leaving all of them marooned on Helghan.

Jumping six months forward, the Helghast senate expresses their disappointment with Orlock's search for the remaining ISA forces, having initially promised that they would be dead within the hour. As a result, Stahl refuses to deliver his weapon prototype to the military, citing the Admiral as incompetent. Stahl organizes his private army to hunt down the ISA who are hiding in a Helghast jungle. Narville dispatches Sev along with a soldier named Kowalski to retrieve a satellite uplink in order to contact the Vektan government. Upon doing so, Earth Command informs Sev and Narville that the ISA has surrendered and that they are to surrender so their release can be negotiated after the Vektan government capitulated. The Helghast soon track the ISA in the jungle, ending with their capture and the death of Kowalski after a brutal and titanic confrontation.

Rico, and his men including Jammer, who have been separated from the main group for six months, are able to rescue Sev, who convinces them to save Narville and the rest of the captured ISA forces. They track them to Stahl's base and discover a horrifying new weapon using irradiated Petrusite, a compound that triggers victims to explode. Disguised as Narville's executioners, Sev and Rico rescue Narville in addition to freeing some of their men held as prisoners of war and used as test subjects for Stahl's new weapons. On their way out, Rico and Sev discover Stahl's plan to destroy Earth and the ISA remnants pursue Stahl's cruiser to the Helghast orbital elevator as Earth, the most powerful military force, were the leading imperial force who colonised all and their downfall would simply pioneer a situation for the Helghast to dominate and presumably reclaim Vekta.

Embarrassed by Stahl's failure to execute Narville, the senate decides to vote Orlock as Helghan's new Autarch and he orders Stahl to transfer his new weapons to the Helghast military. Stahl is made to confront Orlock at the space station where he plans to assassinate Stahl. After a grueling ground battle with the Helghast forces, remaining ISA soldiers arrive at the orbital elevator and use it to ride up to the space station.

On the station, Stahl turns on Orlock, destroying his fleet and murdering him after a brief duel, and makes preparations to bombard Earth. The remaining ISA forces hijack two fighters and Sev manages to shoot down Stahl's cruiser. Unwilling to let Stahl escape the cruiser, he drops a nuke on the falling cruiser, detonating the Petrusite weapons it was carrying above Helghan's atmosphere. The Petrusite engulfs the entire planet and wipes out everything on its surface. Jammer then reports that Helghan has gone dark and Sev contemplates on the many lives on the planet obliterated by the Petrusite.

In a mid-credits scene, two Helghast soldiers are searching through some ruins when they come across an escape pod. Though the occupant's identity is not revealed, both soldiers bow and say, "Welcome home sir.", heavily implying that Stahl survived and managed to escape his cruiser before it was destroyed.

                                                8.5 out of 10

Killzone 2

  

In the prologue, the ISA has set up their fleet of Cruisers, including the New Sun, in the clouds of Helghan over the Helghast capital city, Pyrrhus, preparing for a final assault to take the city. Unable to get their capital ships close to the city and destroy it with bombardment due to Helghast anti-aircraft firepower, the ISA deploys an invasion force. The ISA's troops, including Alpha Team (with the player character), are deployed in an attempt to capture the city. The invasion is seemingly successful until the Helghast activate their main defense system, a barrier of electric arc towers throughout the city, killing many ISA soldiers and crippling the first wave of the assault, reducing the ISA's advance to a crawl; however, the fight between the ISA and Helghast continues with unmitigated ferocity as the slowly retreating Helghast desperately repel the ISA forces whose compelling advances seize Visari Square in one of the greatest battles ever.
Using an intact piece of an arc tower destroyed earlier in the campaign, scientist Evelyn Batton discovers that the arc towers are powered by an element called Petrusite, and large portions of the mysterious element are located around the Tharsis Refinery on the outskirts of Pyrrhus. The refinery is thought to be abandoned. Alpha Team is ordered to accompany Evelyn and travel to the outskirts of the city in an attempt to find a way to disable the towers.
During the mission, Sev and Rico depart from the team in order to activate a communications tower. Before the tower is activated, however, Garza, Natko and Evelyn are captured by Helghast. Eventually, Sev and Rico find their squad, only to see Colonel Mael Radec, a ruthless Helghast commander, interrogating the group in the hopes of obtaining the launch codes for the Helghast's stolen set of ISA nuclear warheads. After the squad refuses to give information to Radec, he loses his patience and threatens to execute the group. While Sev, realizing the danger of rushing into the fray, waits and attempts to find a good location to ambush Radec's unit, Rico's impatience causes him to rush in, attempting to save the squad. Unfortunately, Garza is mortally wounded in the ensuing firefight, and Radec escapes. The only thing the squad can do is return to the New Sun before they are attacked again. Evelyn heads to the nearest communications tower to call for extraction. The squad is then attacked by more Helghast troops, but the group is able to fend off the attack. Unfortunately, when ISA support finally arrives, the injured Garza collapses and dies in Sev's arms.

Back aboard the New Sun, Sev mourns for Garza; however, he is interrupted by a surprise Helghast counter-attack on the ISA fleet; initially ISA had established orbital control militarily but the Helghast breached them. All ships, including the New Sun, are boarded. In the assault, Colonel Radec reaches the bridge where he personally executes Evelyn and mortally wounds Fleet Commander Colonel Jan Templar. Before leaving, Radec steals the nuclear strike codes for the (previously stolen) nuclear weapons. Templar, in a final act of self-sacrifice, manages to deactivate the thrusters on the New Sun, sending it crashing onto Tharsis Refinery, destroying the city's Petrusite defense grid.
With the defence grid down, the ISA advance and attempt to regroup near Visari's palace in Pyrrhus and gain victory; however, a nuclear bomb is deliberately detonated within the city by the Helghast, destroying it, along with most of the ISA forces. With the fleet decimated, and the ISA ground campaign crippled by the blast, Alpha team and the last remaining ISA troops attack the palace of Scolar Visari, facing fanatical Helghast resistance as both forces engaged each other in a titanic struggle as the ISA's decimated and crippled forces resiliently repel the Helghast into their palace in an epic duel.
The ISA troops manage to breach the palace and Sev and Rico try to fight their way to Visari's throne room, but encounter Radec and his personal guard en route. Sev and Rico manage to eliminate Radec's guard after a ferocious battle, but are then forced to battle Radec himself, who decides to deal with the two interlopers personally. Eventually, the two manage to severely injure Radec. He commits suicide to avoid capture.
Finally, Sev and Rico, still under orders to capture Scolar Visari and deliver him to the Vektan high command, find the Helghan leader waiting for them in his throne room. He tells Sev and Rico that the war is far from over and seemingly goads them to kill him, telling them that in death the Helghast will remember him as a martyr, and subsequently unleash terrible vengeance upon the remaining ISA forces; his survival is all that is keeping the Helghast "under control".
Rico, determined to avenge Templar and Garza, the latter of whom died due to Rico's own errors, and has left him wrought with guilt, falls for Visari's provocation and guns the Helghan Emperor down. As Visari succumbs to his injuries, he mutters his last words: "The madness...begins."
Worn from what he has been through and disillusioned with Rico's execution of Visari, Sev leaves the palace and sits on the entrance steps. There, he sees an overwhelmingly giant fleet of Helghast ships, which were believed to be destroyed by the first ISA wave, initiating an assault on what is left of the ISA fleet and sees, first hand, the destruction Visari envisioned. They will later fight these Helghast in Killzone 3.


                                            7.80 out of 10

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The narrative opens with a quote attributed to Marco Polo, "I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed." The plot revolves around the doomed voyage home of Marco Polo from China in 1292. After spending almost 20 years in the court of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo departed with fourteen ships and over six hundred passengers – but when he arrived at Persia a year and a half later, only one ship and eighteen passengers remained. Polo never revealed what had happened to the lost ships.
The story begins in medias res, with a wounded Nathan "Nate" Drake (Nolan North) waking up to find himself in a train hanging off a cliff. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that former associate Harry Flynn (Steve Valentine) and old girlfriend Chloe Frazer (Claudia Black) approached him with a job to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from an Istanbul museum. Nate accepts the job when he learns that the lamp may lead to the treasure of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Harry and Drake acquire the lamp, which contains a map showing that the lost fleet had been transporting the Cintamani Stone from the mythical city of Shambhala (better known as Shangri-La) before being thrown ashore in Borneo by a tsunami. Taking the map, Flynn double-crosses Drake, who is arrested and imprisoned for three months. Chloe, who claims to have had no knowledge of Flynn's treachery, asks for the help of Drake's friend Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Richard McGonagle) to secure his release.

Nate and Sully follow Flynn and his boss Zoran Lazarevic (Graham McTavish), a Serbian war criminal who is widely thought to be dead, to Borneo. With the help of Chloe working within Lazarevic's camp as a mole, they discover that the lost fleet never actually possessed the Cintamani Stone. They locate a tomb containing the bodies of Polo's passengers, as well as a Tibetan phurba and a letter from Polo saying that the next clue is in Kathmandu, Nepal in a temple. Flynn and his men appear in the tomb soon after and take the letter, while Nate and Sully escape by jumping off a cliff into a river.
While Sullivan decides that the quest is too risky, Nate and Chloe head to Nepal, finding conflict as Lazarevic's mercenary army ravages the city looking for the right temple. After surmising that the temple they are looking for is adorned with one of the symbols on the phurba, the couple survey the area from the rooftop of a local hotel, finding its location.
En route to the temple, the pair runs into Elena Fisher (Emily Rose) and her cameraman Jeff (Gregory Myhre), who are tracking down Lazarevic to prove he is still alive. The four reach the temple and discover that the stone and Shambhala are in the Himalayas. As they are about to leave, the group is ambushed, and Jeff is shot by one of Lazarevic's men. Despite Chloe's insistence to leave Jeff behind, the group pushes on until they are caught. Chloe reluctantly pulls her gun on Nate to protect her "cover", while Lazarevic executes Jeff. While Lazarevic and Chloe leave for the train yard, Nate and Elena manage to escape just as Flynn is about to kill them. The couple manages to catch up with Lazarevic's train on a stolen jeep. Nate boards the train and finds Chloe, who is upset about Nate having taken Elena and Jeff along earlier and refuses to leave with him. As the two argue, Flynn arrives and shoots Nate in the abdomen. With no other option, Nate shoots a pile of propane tanks, killing Flynn's men and sending Nate's half of the train over a steep cliff.
Returning to where the game began, Nate escapes the train and travels through a snow storm, recovering the phurba among the wreckage before falling unconscious. He awakens in a Tibetan village, where he is reunited with Elena and is introduced to a German man named Karl Schäfer (Rene Auberjonois). Schäfer tells Nate that the phurba is the key to finding Shambhala, but Nate tells him he is no longer interested. To convince him otherwise, Schäfer sends Nate and the village leader, Tenzin (Robin Atkin Downes), to find the remains of the men in his expedition, who were looking for Shambhala and the stone 70 years earlier. Traveling through a series of caves to an ancient temple filled with yeti-like creatures, Nate and Tenzin discover that Schäfer's men were SS members on an Ahnenerbe expedition, and that he had killed them to protect the world from the power of the stone. They return to find Lazarevic's men attacking the village. After securing the village, Nate and Elena find out that Schäfer has been kidnapped along with the phurba. They then track Lazarevic's convoy to an abandoned monastery. The two locate a mortally wounded Schäfer, who tells Nate that he must destroy the Cintamani Stone. Schäfer then succumbs to his wounds and dies.
Nate locates Chloe, who surrenders the phurba after he promises to take Lazarevic down. Nate and Elena use the phurba to unlock the secret passage to Shambhala underneath the monastery, but Lazarevic corners them and forces Nate to open the gate. When the gate opens the group is attacked by the monsters from the ice caves, but Lazarevic manages to kill them. It is then revealed that they are actually the human Guardians of Shambhala, powered by the Cintamani stone and dressed like monsters to scare off anyone who trespasses in the city. Just as Lazarevic prepares to kill Elena and Nate, another wave of Guardians attacks, which allows them and Chloe to escape.
Making their way to the top of the central temple, Nate discovers that the Cintamani stone is in fact a giant amber of petrified blue resin embedded in a giant tree of life. The true worth of Shambhala is the blue sap of the tree, which when ingested makes the drinker nearly invincible. As they prepare to go after Lazarevic, a wounded Flynn arrives and detonates a grenade, killing himself and seriously wounding Elena. Nate leaves Elena in Chloe's care and sets off to confront Lazarevic at the tree. Nate arrives just as Lazarevic drinks the tree's sap, which renders him nearly indestructible and heals his old wounds and scars. Detonating the pockets of explosive resin in the tree, Nate defeats Lazarevic and leaves him to be killed by the Guardians. Nate reunites with Chloe and Elena and they escape the city as a series of explosions begins to destroy Shambhala.
Back in the village, Chloe asks Nate if he loves Elena, which he does not deny. Chloe bids Nate goodbye as Sully leads a recovering Elena over to him. While Sully chases after Chloe, Elena and Nate pay their respects at Schäfer's grave before embracing. They share a kiss and together they walk over to the edge of a cliff and watch the sun set behind the mountains.

                                                9 out of 10