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Written by Tom on Tuesday 28 Jun 2011
While the rest of the world waits for the Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta to go live at 9pm GMT, a few of us lucky individuals with Hong Kong PlayStation Network accounts are already cramming into the Beta’s lobbies with giddy excitement.
I spent a couple of hours with the Beta earlier and came away with some interesting facts, figures and impressions. If you’re keen to know what to expect when you have access to the Beta later today then stick around while I run through all the sights and sounds of Naughty Dog’s latest gift to PlayStation 3 gamers.
The Beta weighs in at 1627 MB and features two maps and five game types for the time being. For the full schedule please refer to this article.
The available modes are: Team Deathmatch, Three Team Deathmatch, Plunder, Hardcore and Co-op Arena. Hardcore is a variation of Team Deathmatch where you’re barred from using boosters and don’t earn any medals. All the modes are for ten players (five a side) except Three Team Deathmatch which is six players (three teams of two) and Co-op Arena which is three players.
The Beta allows you to play in full stereoscopic 3D, or play split-screen with a friend. Your buddy can sign into his own profile and get medals, treasures, XP and cash just like he could if he were playing on his own console.
I tried the split-screen functionality out using a spare controller and it works really well. The textures and frame rate are impacted slightly, but definitely not enough to dampen your enjoyment of side-by-side teamwork.
Speaking of graphics, Uncharted 3 looks very similar to its predecessor at this stage. The lighting may be improved somewhat and there are new animations and effects, but it would be difficult to tell the two games apart if you compared only their respective multiplayer levels. The frame rate in the Beta drops marginally on occasion, but that’s understandable given the work-in-progress nature of the build.
The Beta allows you to do all the things you could in Uncharted 2’s multiplayer, and then some. You can party up with friends, record and upload movies of matches in Cinema mode (now you can send these to PSN friends), and change your taunts and boosters. There’s also a whole new layer of depth thanks to weapon and clothes customisation, as well as emblems.
Much of the progression in Uncharted 3’s multiplayer is based on a combination of XP, cash and treasure sets. Most items can only be bought once you fulfil a specified level requirement, and many of the items of clothing I browsed through needed certain treasure sets to have been collected as well. I didn’t collect any treasures during my short time with the Beta, but I noticed that a treasure symbol would sometimes display during matches and I also came across a few locked chests. I imagine that you’ll need to arrive first at one of these chests when the treasure symbol shows up in order to claim your prize.
Emblems are a way of stamping your authority on a map, literally. You can choose and edit a design to your liking, and this creation will display on certain objects in a map during matches depending on how well you’re doing. The better you perform, the more visible your emblem will be in that map. It’s a great way to show your opponents who’s boss!
Those of you who have spent a fair amount of time with Uncharted 2’s multiplayer will immediately notice a large number of changes during matches. A calm female voice announces various match milestones, which seems a bit out of place amidst the testosterone-fuelled blaze of gunfire.
You can now high or low five your buddy by pressing ‘Down’ at any time during a match. This is an awesome way to celebrate a co-op kill and feels especially good when you’re standing over your latest victim’s body.
There’s a zip-line in the Chateau level which allows quick navigation across a courtyard, and there are also gun emplacements in that level which add a new layer of strategy to Uncharted’s multiplayer. I enjoyed hanging off a ledge just downwind from one of the emplacements, and then gunning down anyone who was stupid enough to use it without first checking that the coast was clear.
You also now have a choice where you want to spawn after dying - you can either allow the game to automatically assign you a spawn spot or you can spawn in the vicinity of your buddy. I think it’s great that Naughty Dog included this option because it fosters teamwork if that’s what you’re looking for.
You can sprint over short distances by pressing L3 (this can be reassigned to R3) - perfect for making a hasty retreat.
Another thing I noticed is that AI enemies in Co-op Arena can now climb. Overall, their general behaviour is far more like real players compared to Uncharted 2.
In the Airstrip level there are automatic garage doors which you can open or close depending on the traffic you want to let in or out. These interactive objects add a layer of strategy to multiplayer matches that just wasn’t there in Uncharted 2. Hopefully there will be similar instances in other multiplayer levels in the finished game.
One thing which hasn’t changed from Uncharted 2 is the lack of physics on most objects in the levels. I tried shooting up a desk with a PC, files and papers and none of them shifted an inch. If you enjoy games with destructible environments like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 you may be disappointed with Uncharted 3’s largely static environments.
Uncharted TV is a new addition to the multiplayer menu which sits in the bottom right-hand corner. At the moment it’s just streaming trailers for UC3 and behind-the-scenes footage, but in the future it will be used to showcase match highlights, special events and announcements. I’m not sure how much of this footage (if any) it stores in a cache, so people with internet data caps will do well to monitor their usage during multiplayer sessions. What compounds the problem if you’re in this boat is that there’s no option to turn it off.
I’ve barely just scratched the surface of what the Uncharted 3 Beta will offer gamers over the next two weeks, but I must say I’m mightily impressed with the many awesome additions Naughty Dog have made to the multiplayer portion of this great series. I’ll provide another set of impressions in the near future so stay tuned to El33tonline for all your Uncharted 3 news and views.
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