Uncharted 2 Multiplayer Beta impressions (Stephen Gillespie)

The Uncharted 2 demo is over and tears have filled the eyes of Playstation users everywhere, where will we get our super polished free online shooting action now? So the question is was it any good, well let’s look at the statistics first. In the short period when the beta was working over twenty-seven years were spent in it worldwide. That is twenty-seven human years, that is over a quarter of a century spent playing one beta, that’s pretty impressive for the sequel to one of the most under appreciated games ever. Now I loved Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, I think it is the second best game to grace this console (and computer) generation (second to Metal Gear Solid 4). What made it so good was the platforming and the cover based shooting which flowed so seamlessly. This made one great single player experience but when they announced that the second Uncharted was going to have multiplayer and not campaign co-op I was sceptical to say the least. It is a system that works so well in the campaign but is it really suited to multiplayer, can you pull off that balance without it feeling like gimmicky tacked on multi-player? Now I didn’t think it was going to work but I was definitely interested so as soon as I saw the beta up I nabbed it.

I have already pre-ordered the special edition of Uncharted 2 (that is how excited about this game I am) and was so excited about the single player and was hoping that the trophies were not multiplayer focused because I couldn’t imagine myself playing much online. Man was I wrong, I have already sunk lots of hours into the online. I have already tried to level myself up as much as I can and investing heavily in the addictive perk system. So what is it that makes Uncharted 2 online so special. Well let me start by saying I’m not a big online gamer. I used to play a lot of a certain MMO I have recently recovered from (it wasn’t WoW, I can’t afford monthly fees) but I only really online game if something really grips me. I love resistance 2 online and I played a lot of world at war Wii online but apart from that I am very picky about my online shooters. I just couldn’t get into Metal Gear Online and Resistance 1 online is just dead, only the elite ten people remain in maps made for about forty. So when I like an online shooter that is really high praise, and if I start sinking hours into it you know it is something special. In fact I am so impressed with uncharted 2 that I feel no need to get the latest Call of Duty when it comes out.

One thing which sets Uncharted apart is that it is just so different, for starters it is third person which cancels out all CoD parallels and leaves you with the next best in class: Gears of War. However this is once again a poor comparison, Gears of War is slow and heavy, you get in cover and you stay there. Uncharted 2 plays out at an insane pace, you are always moving and the movement is so fast. It is cover based but you can’t just sit in cover like you can in Gears of War and just have overly long stop and pop gunfights. In Uncharted you have to constantly think about verticality, I mentioned earlier about the sublime platforming in the original game and this is in the online. If you just stay in cover then somebody will climb up a building behind you and BAM! Either take you out from behind with a brilliantly animated brutal stealth kill with his bare hands (a personal highlight) or simply shoot you. This makes sure you keep moving and this makes for some intense gameplay. So the core gameplay is really solid, team death match is stupidly fun and the mix of platforming and crazy weapons around everywhere means pure awesomeness. So the core gameplay is just superb, but what about variety?

The variety in Uncharted’s multiplayer is actually its strongest suit, and this is only the beta. You have deathmatches; objective based gameplay and co-op modes. The deathmatches are all team based but the weapon set is always mixed up. When you are through with matchmaking and are all teamed up and ready it is time for the usual map voting. Now this is a multiplayer standard but the interesting bit here is the other options it gives you. You can have a match with just pistols and grenades which is another favourite, because pistols were possibly the best weapons in the original game- headshots aplenty- and grenades plus multiplayer equals ten gallons of pure win. You can also have a match of sniper rifles and over powered pistols (one shot kill fest also equal a whole lot of win) and the most fun mode which is just RPGs, nothing else. This mode is insane and if you’re like me you will laugh your whole way through the whole game until you accidentally kill a team-mate and they send you a personal message with the subject name PRICK but no actual message, which seemed a tad harsh. These modes add variety to the simple deathmatch and all of them are fun, you will get normal usually and all modes are voted for so you won'’ get things forced upon you.

The objective based gameplay is really awesome, unfortunately I didn’t get to play chain reaction and I have no idea what it is. I did play plunder though, which is capture the flag, with treasure! The treasure is heavy but it can be thrown and you can shoot with a pistol while holding it. This mode encourages co-operation, which doesn’t always happen and is really hard but really fun. It is so tense when you are limping along with the treasure and you realise the whole other team is aiming at you. Scary stuff but amazing stuff. The last part of the package is the co-op; I only tried one co-op mode, which was plunder against waves of enemies getting harder every time. Co-operation is needed, so hard but oh so fun! I played this with a mate and there was a lot of death but a lot of fun and ‘OH SNAP’ moments. A particular highlight being my friend running around snapping necks whilst I went on a sniper rifle rampage of perfect headshots.

So the gameplay is just phenomenal and the presentation is just awesome. The graphics are just so good; the naughty dog engine 2.0 really shines. This is one pretty looking game! So the gameplay is varied but how much customisability is there? Quite a lot, you can chose different player skins from the two sides, heroes and villains, and then battle it out. I chose Sully to start with for comedy value but now use newcomer Tanzin because he has one sweet hat. You can buy new skins with experience gained. Because Uncharted is all treasure hunting stuff you don’t gain experience you get money, which is super cool. You can chose to buy the perks you want when you unlock them at the correct level and you can buy co-op weapon upgrades and of course more skins. This just adds another addicting layer to the already overly addictive online. This is one online experience that PS3 gamers should not miss! If you have a PS3 and you like games get Uncharted 2 because the campaign will be superb and the online is about as good as online gets. This multiplayer comes with a gleaming WASD recommendation. Now Uncharted 2 is coming out this week, so look out for more impressions here, on WASD!

Thanks,
Stephen Gillespie
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