Alright, after a very long wait I finally have the promised Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta impressions article for your reading displeasure. I’ll say this right off the bat, I haven’t played this as much as I would’ve liked, only logging about five and a half hours in it. But, that said, I think that’s enough to have gotten a good grasp on what is going on in the beta. Another thing, this is a beta, so it would be very unfair to critique things like lag (although there was none) and level selection (I only played two in competitive and one in co-op). The beta was available to any of the “early” buyers of inFAMOUS, or those of you lucky enough to get a code from Sony (like me).
Alright, my impressions from this beta can be summed up thusly “I can’t wait for this game.” Most people are describing the game play as a “faster Gears of War” and, for the most part, I agree with that. However, there are a few things that set this apart from Gears of War. The first has to be the inclusion of the vertical element. The ability to climb up the sides of buildings and take cover on a higher floor is awesome. Me being more of a sniper type player I loved climbing up to a balcony, taking cover behind a wall and sniping enemies with the strangely named “FAIL” gun.
The unfortunate thing about the beta is that there were only a few maps and two game types (in competitive), which is to be expected. But the maps I did play were very fun. I’m afraid I don’t remember what they were called (because I identified them by picture, not name) but they were both very well designed. They both featured lots of sniping points and higher areas to climb up to. That said, I do have a beef with both of these levels. The play on them is very hectic. Because the levels are very wide, so most of your deaths will most likely come from behind (as mine did). Due to the design of the two levels there are lots of ways to sneak from one end to the other without being seen, through small side alleys that no one ever uses. Of course, the way to fix that would be to use tactics and actually have people watching those alleyways but come one, who’s going to due that?
The two modes that were available were the obligatory team death match and an original mode called “Plunder” (which isn’t actually that original, it’s sort of like capture the flag except there’s only one flag). The point of plunder is to capture a piece of treasure that’s stationed in the centre of the map. I’ve played the mode a few times and I’ll tell you, it’s really pretty fun. However, I do find that the maps aren’t long enough for this mode. It’s very easy to simply grab the piece of treasure and run, all by yourself, back to your drop point. Maybe I’m just that good, or maybe there’s a design flaw here, but I’ve done that several times and it makes me wonder why I’m able to do that so easily.
There’s one final thing I was a little negative about and that’s the characters you play as. The two teams are made up of the heroes and the villains. So you play as characters from the single player campaign, and that’s what I don’t like. I would rather see it rebels vs. mercenaries, with characters you create, instead of the characters from the story. Playing as Drake or Sully or Chloe can take away from the single player experience as well as the multiplayer experience. Playing on a team with four other Nathan Drakes really takes away from the experience. It would’ve been much nicer to have seen Naughty Dog include customizable characters.
There are also the always necessary perks. I’m not sure if these are all the perks that are going to be included in the final multiplayer but you don’t really notice a difference between the different ones. There’s also a reward system, so I’ll be interested in seeing how that’s used.
And that was just the competitive multiplayer, there was also a cooperative multiplayer. Unfortunately, there was only the one map, taken straight from the single player demo that was shown off. But it was enough to get a taste of what to expect. It’s three player coop with each player taking the role of either Drake, Chloe or Sully. The gameplay breaks down to this, you kill a wave of enemies, then there’s a small cooperative action where you all do something like push a book case against a wall so you can use it to climb over. Once you climb over then you’re faced with another small area and waves of enemies. It’s pretty basic coop really. But, it really encourages the team to work as, well, a team. You can not just play alone or you will get slaughtered because enemies come from everywhere. And I mean everywhere. They come from the front, behind, the sides, everywhere. If you don’t have one of your teammates watching your ass you’re not going to make it out of there.
I’ve sort of focused on the bad here but my impressions of the two multiplayer modes are very good. The gunplay mechanics have been hugely improved upon that which was present in Uncharted Drake’s Fortune and the cover mechanics are still the best in any game I’ve played. Of course, the thing that the Uncharted franchise is famous for is it’s amazing graphics, and this game definitely lives up to those lofty standards. It looks just as good, if not better, than Killzone 2. Of course, the main attraction of a game like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is it’s single player campaign so all of this is really a bonus. That said, from what I’ve played, this is one hell of a bonus. It’s incredibly fun to play and I can’t wait to see the full level selection.
