Uncharted 2 multi-player beta impressions

The first Uncharted was graphically the best looking game on the PS3 and arguably the best looking current-gen game period. I spent a lot of time with the multi-player beta for the sequel and let me tell you, it’s no slouch either. The environments are just gorgeous from the way the moonlight hits the pools of water collected in the crevices of the highly topographical Plaza map, to the tropical Village map full of rooftops and vegetation. No other console multi-player map feels like it’s had this much attention to detail paid to it. The character animations for Nathan Drake and company are also some of the best in the business as well. It embodies that Indiana Jones feel off a hero without catlike grace who’s just barrels in head first to get the job done.

Currently deathmatch and plunder (that’s Uncharted speak for capture the flag) are the only two verses modes that can be selected, and there’s a co-op mode allowing 3 players to team up to advance through 3 sections of a level. Both of the verses modes also come with a leveling system. You get gold for however many kills you get with bonuses for taking out multiple enemies at once or using melee attacks and after you collect enough gold you advance a level. There are boosters as well you can assign to your character which will give you things like more bullets per clip or increased accuracy when firing certain types of weapons. As mentioned, the levels are very topographical but also quite vertical and a bit of platforming can be done on them. I’d have liked to see a more platform friendly level than what they’ve put out, but they may be holding that one for the full release. There were still many locations you could climb to and attempt to snipe the other team.

The main gripe about the first Uncharted was it took way too many bullets to take an enemy down and I’m sad to report that’s still an issue here. It isn’t that bad in the multi-player verses, but playing the AI opponents in the co-op section you’ll put 20 AK-47 bullets into someone before they drop. This is kind of a shame as the co-op is well paced, quite fun and challenging. Enemies come at you from every direction and you always have to be on your toes. When one of your team members is injured you have the option to save them Gears of War style, or let them die. They’ll re-spawn if enough time passes, but if you fail to complete an objective, you have to restart from the last checkpoints. You only have three chances per mission, so it’s in your best interest to work as a team and keep everyone alive.

This beta has me excited for the full version which will be out this fall. Despite the hit detection issue with enemies not wanting to die when you pump them full of bullets, the Uncharted series is still king of the mountain as far as action platformers goes. It eats Tomb Raider’s lunch and out Indiana Joneses Indiana Jones. Whether or not the game needs multi-player is debatable, but the feature is beyond competent and offers a nice alternative to the Halo, COD, Gears, and Killzones of the world. Let’s just hope that when the full version does come out it takes at least 10 less bullets to drop a hostile.