Now that the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta has come and gone there is only one thing to do. Express my opinion about how it was. The beta didn’t have any glitches except when I played the co-op missions where the enemies stopped showing up and there was nothing to do. The game looks just like the second one in terms of graphics; as far as I can tell they didn’t tweak or improve it in any way. Now that isn’t necessarily a bad thing since Uncharted 2 is still one of the best looking games out there but it would have been cool to see if Naughty Dog could have pushed their engine even further. Also the music and sound design is just as good as the last time to.
The beta had a lot of different game types, nine to be exact. First off there was Team Deathmatch the tried and true favourite in most multiplayer games. It consists of two teams of five squaring off to see which team can rack up 50 kills first. One cool feature that has been added to the game type is Overtime which means that if the two teams are within one point of each other when they hit 50 or are tied after 20 minutes both teams are given one more minute to decide a winner. Overtime is always really intense and if it is still tied it will go into a second Overtime and I haven’t seen what happens after that. Another interesting feature are the Power Plays which give the losing team an advantage (ex: extra damage) if they are really far behind so they can catch up in order to keep things fair and fun. The next game type is Team Objective which is another 5 on 5 game type. I think it is really unique and interesting because usually you get a list of a few games like Capture the Flag, King of the Hill and others from which you pick one but in Uncharted you play a best of 5 round match and at the end of every round you get a different game type. So you can get up to 5 of any of the following types in a single match: Multi-Marked Man in which both teams have to kill specific players on the other team to get points, Team Deathmatch which was just explained above, King of the Hill in which you stand in a rectangle and for every second each member of your team is inside without any enemies your team gets a point, Territories which is just like King of the Hill except it has multiple zones to score from, Chain Reaction which has multiple zones you have to capture and whichever team has the most when the time runs out wins, and finally Treasure Hunter in which your team gets points for every second that they are able to hold onto the treasure. Each of the rounds only last a few minutes so the action stays fast and if you aren’t good at one type it will change soon so you don’t have to worry. Next is Three Team Deathmatch, each team has 2 members and the game is first to 20. In regards to Overtime, when I played Team Deathmatch there was a second over time if it was still within a point but in this game type it goes to Sudden Death which eliminates the team that is in last and the members of the two remaining teams each get one live each. Free For All is an 8 person match that plays just as you would think with the first to reach 15 kills crowned the winner. I like the game type but with all the different paths and levels in the maps it can become very chaotic. Plunder is basically CTF except you’re carrying a large treasure with one hand so you can still use your pistol with the other to defend yourself. The first 5 man team to return the treasure to their chest 5 times wins. Team Hardcore is Team Deathmatch without any perks excluding weapon upgrades and no Power Plays. I like the exclusion of the perks but if your team is far behind Power Plays keep it interesting so I prefer Team Deathmatch. Now it is time for the co-op modes. In Arena you and your 2 teammates fight waves of bad guys, when I played I was a little annoyed by the fact that enemies stopped spawning halfway through and even when they did show up it wasn’t anywhere near as much fun as similar modes like Horde or Firefight. Hunter pits 2 players as Heroes against 2 players as Villains who get help from CPUs. As a Hero you must grab treasures and as a Villain you must stop them, then you change sides and whoever gets the most treasures wins. I hated this game type, first off it tells you to plant as many treasures as possible not collect them which left me without any clue what to do then with so many bad guys plus other players it is incredibly hard to run across a map with a treasure and a pistol. The final co-op mode is Adventure which has you and your team complete curtain missions while fighting bad guys like delivering treasure, killing all the enemies or only getting points if you kill them while your entire team is inside a specific zone. However I should state that the co-op modes aren’t as much fun as the competitive ones.
The weapons are pretty basic, you’ve got two automatic weapons you can start with (Ak-47 & M-9), a semi-automatic (G-mal) and a sniper (Dragon Sniper), I personally prefer the G-mal. When it comes to pistols your options are more limited, you can start with a standard handgun called the Para 9 or an automatic one called the Arm-Micro, there’s also a semi-automatic one that can be found on the maps along with the Pistole which works like a mini shotgun. There aren’t many power weapons on the maps just a sniper, a Rocket Launcher and a Grenade Launcher; I also found a Sawed-off in the co-op modes but not the competitive ones. You can upgrade your guns with minor tweaks like increased clip size and improve your character with perks like preventing your name from popping up when an enemy sees you making you stand out less. There is also a feature called Medal Kickbacks which allows you to use a special ability for every set number of medals earned throughout the match like turning your one grenade into a chain reaction of around a dozen. There is yet another way to improve yourself, by buying pregame upgrades like a mini radar which are total rip-offs because they cost as much as a permanent boost but only last for one game plus they are about as useful, which quite frankly isn’t that much. I played a lot of my matches without upgrades and I found I played just as well without as I did with them. Another feature costume customization which isn’t that detailed and pretty much lets you change the color of Drake’s shirt.
There were only three maps during the beta none of which really stood head and shoulders above the rest but I would say that Yemen was my least favourite. The reason for that is there are so many different paths and levels due to all the buildings which have you going up and down and all around. Château was a good map with a cool floor that can explode and a lot of space. Lastly Airstrip is another solid map that has an interesting opening in Team Deathmatch in which one team is on a plane about to take off while you other team is on the back of trucks trying to board the plane. While it is a cool sequence whoever is playing as the Heroes gets to be on the plane and the Villains are just lambs to the slaughter. The first time I played the scene my team was up 12-1 (my second game still learning the controls and yet 4-0 at this point) by the end of it, at which point we went to the actual map in a cutscene and the other team was screwed, even with Power Plays they were too far behind to catch up.
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