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So while many screamed with joy when an early video of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves showing Nathan Drake traversing a seemingly desolate village plaza turned into a raving bloodbath, I let out a howl of despair. Drake’s Fortune is one of my favourite games this generation for its beautifully crafted story and characters, and the last thing I needed was Naughty Dog caving in to the pressure of including a multiplayer component to extend the replay value of the game.
Thus began the grand scheme of abducting the development team responsible for the multiplayer component and transporting them into an alternate space-time dimension. However, with no means in sight, I had to settle for downloading the first multiplayer beta back in June and bitching about it on the IVG forums.
And boy was I wrong!
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As Nitin’s preview of the earlier beta indicates, Naughty Dog knew what they were getting into, and planned all along to do things in style. In my short time with the beta, it was evident that the multiplayer component of Uncharted 2 had no intention of leaving anything short of a mark, much like its single player campaign. The current multiplayer beta, with its truckloads of additional features, has only cemented that belief. However, I still had my doubts. The biggest being – will the multiplayer mirror the gameplay experience we have come to expect from the single player? More on that later.
Let’s first open the package and see the contents. Joining the Village and The Plaza maps from the earlier beta, the current beta also includes the Temple and Ice Cave. The former is a set of rooms within a temple (duh!), while Ice Cave is set upon an open area nestled among mountains and huge idols in derelict state, with another level of passages underneath the plane. The clever design ensures that all maps require a different approach, with the verticality to be taken in account by the players in every map i.e. a good shot and a high vantage point can spell doom very quickly. Add weapons such as grenade launchers and RPGs at specific points of the map to the mix and the competitive multiplayer quickly turns into a strategic and compelling experience.
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The current beta also includes more game modes; Chain Reaction and Elimination join Deathmatch and Plunder. Elimination is a reminiscence of Counter-Strike, with two teams engaging in a team deathmatch with the objective being to eliminate every member of the opposing team. Victory in three out of five rounds is required to win the game. Chain reaction is Naughty Dog’s take on Capture-The-Base, with each team tasked with capturing 5 bases. However, to make things more interesting, one team is required to capture base 5 through 1 and the other is required to do the exact opposite.
The cooperative mode also returns with the earlier mission extended in this beta to include the fight with the chaingun wielding boss, as well as higher difficulties. This fight really requires a lot of teamwork, because not only is the boss a bullet sink, but other enemies keep dropping in who are more than happy to choke you to death. The key to survival here is watching each others’ backs. The inclusion of higher difficulties is also a good thing, because in my opinion, the cooperative mode was the weakest suite of the earlier beta. Players seemed to be more intent on racking up kills than to work together, which completely defeated the point of this mode. However, such an approach will not float on higher difficulties. Enemies take a lot more bullets to drop, and the only way to succeed is to work together and cover all entry points. A well executed cooperative game now is nothing short of exhilarating.
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The other cooperative mode is Gold Rush, where a team of 2-3 players is dropped onto a map, and is required to collect gold statues (similar to Plunder), while battling waves of AI opponents. The challenge progressively gets tougher with more and more enemies spawning in subsequent rounds, with one round even featuring the chaingun boss. However, compared to the other multiplayer modes, Gold Rush appears to be more of an afterthought. It does not bring any new ideas to the table, with the gameplay being a mix of Plunder and the cooperative campaign. I expect Gold Rush to be the least popular of all multiplayer modes in Uncharted 2.
Next page: Upgrades, cinema mode, etc
And if all this isn’t enough, the beta features a full-fledged economy system. The money earned from the games can be spent to buy boosters (almost 80% of the final game’s boosters are present in the beta), weapon upgrades, character skins and taunts. More and more add-ons are unlocked as the player levels up. Money is earned by kills, assists and earning medals in both co-op and competitive multiplayer and medals are earned through specific in game objectives such as getting a kill streak, ending an opponent’s kill streak, using hand-to-hand combat and much more.
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Another brilliant addition to Uncharted 2’s multiplayer is the cinema mode. The recently played multiplayer games are saved in their entirety, and can be viewed at a later date and even uploaded to the internet. Not only can the player tweak with the lighting and contrast of the videos, the videos can be watched in slow motion, or from different players’ perspective, and one can even click pictures to showcase their particularly “bad-a*s” moments. In fact, all images in this feature are from the in-game cinema mode of the game.
Oh, and did I mention that the beta features Twitter support? Phew!
With such an abundance of content, Uncharted 2’s multiplayer isn’t just about adding replay value to the package. It intends to take on the best in the field and stand tall in their presence (I’m looking at you Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2). Graphically, the game is absolutely gorgeous. The first time I stepped into the Ice Cave, I stared in awe at the two huge idols locked in battle (and got a rocket in my face for my lapse in concentration).
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There are few minor gameplay bugs and graphical glitches here and there. In one game, a grenade froze mid air and stayed that way for the rest of the game (It was very unnerving every time I stepped into that area during the game). In another, a small waterfall kept clipping around the mid-region. However, knowing Naughty Dog, all these bugs will be sorted out in the retail edition.
With no shortage of content (and quality), it is evident that the multiplayer component of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves will translate to hours of entertainment once you are through with the epic single player campaign. However, this brings us back to the question I asked earlier: does it feel like Uncharted? The platforming obviously doesn’t play as much a role in the multiplayer as it does in single player, though it’s still a factor. But it would be unfair to pick on the game for that. The real sense of Uncharted lay in the engaging and visceral combat scenarios, which shifted from gunplay to hand-to-hand and back to gunplay with natural ease. And I’m happy to say, all that is there in the multiplayer.
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Apart from the frantic gun battles, if you manage to sneak up behind an opponent, you can immediately snap his neck. Hang from a ledge, and you can plunge an unsuspecting foe down to his death, just like you can in the single player game. If things get too close for comfort, the action can quickly shift from the nozzle to the butt of the gun in a smooth transition.
Yes, the multiplayer feels like Uncharted. And the game is all the more better for that. Now all I need to do to satiate my single player sensibilities protesting at the presence of multiple Drakes in a team is to assume that he is a Cylon.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is scheduled for release for PlayStation 3 on October 16. You can preorder the game right now at IVG. Click here for more info.