After spending some time with Uncharted 2’s campaign yesterday, I made it a point to play some co-op and deathmatch today. As I stated in my impressions yesterday, the multiplayer aspect of Uncharted 2 features both competetive and cooperative modes, where cooperative mode has players working together towards an objective (whereas in single player the action is driven by a narrative).
In my two co-op sessions, I played as the brunette in the red shirt and as Sully. Both characters handled similarly if not identically in my experience, although I believe there is a difference in some of the co-op assist sequences where, at least in the demo, the male characters had to lift up objects so that all players could proceed. Anyway, the action is fast paced and immediate — a very brief in game cutscene showed Nathan telling the other two characters/players that a treasure was nearby and the objective was to retrieve it. Everyone started off with a grenade, pistol, and AK47, although armed enemies made it possible to switch to a different pistol or the shotgun within minutes.
I thought the action and atmosphere was in great form; excellent visuals a good pace, as well as challenging and well placed enemies. Enemies controlled by the AI would utilize cover, throw grenades, use melee attacks when close, and even drop in from behind you to catch you off guard if not careful. After a firefight involving probably fifteen bad guys (maybe five at a time), a supped up bad guy with tons of armor that made him invulnerable to melee attacks dropped in. The three of us were able to use our grenades, rifles, and pistols to hit him from multiple angles and eventually bring him down in about twenty to thirty seconds (not of continuous damage, but close). This tougher foe was able to dish out a lot of damage and as such he actually put one of our players into a dying state, similar to what you see in Resistance or Gears of War. When this happens, a team mate has to come to your rescue. When a team mate is near you, they have to hold down triangle to refill a circular gauge that is emptying the closer the downed character gets to death. Unfortunately, players in this downed state cannot fire or do anything but sit and wait — personally, I would have liked to have seen (and who knows, we may still see) a more Army of Two type of buddy system that has players being able to shoot while down, and even while being dragged away to cover.
Besides a wealth of ammo and alternate guns lying about, there are also treasures to pick up during play that gives the finder a boost in points for the end of the round, although to what end I’m not at present sure. Getting back to the weapons for a moment, there are indeed fairly plentiful, although not wildly abundant. Furthermore, if one player takes a treasure or weapon, other co-op players cannot take the same item, i.e., there is only one pickup per item.
About my only complaint with the experience today would probably be the co-op assist sequences. For example, during this short demo, there was a part just a minute or two in whereby Sully and Nathan had to come to the same marked spot and hold down Triangle to initiate a brief cutscene which showed the pair lifting up a fallen shelf so that the trio might get over a rock wall. I suppose it just wasn’t very clear who or what the three of us were to do; as the woman character, I actually couldn’t do anything, but I couldn’t tell that by just the on screen icon alone.
Obviously, with the beta just opening two nights ago, other problems will pop up, but I think Naughty Dog has plenty of time to exact all repairs and additions before the game goes gold later this year. Be sure to check out my multiplayer (deathmatch) impressions as well in my next article; I’ll be joining the beta sometime this weekend and have several additional multiplayer voucher codes to hand out if anyone is interested; just send me a PM and I’ll see if I have any left.
