After playing some co-op, I head over to another part of Sony’s booth that offered a ten player deathmatch in a different map. The setup was team deathmatch, with players on my team, Green, featuring ‘good’characters like Nathan and Sully and the like, while the Blue team had spec ops looking type characters that are the bad guys from the campaign and co-op missions.
The winning team would be the team to reach thirty-five kills first. This particular map we played was fairly small, but featured lots of short walls, ladders leading up to hiding places, several explosive fuel containers, as well as a few other weapons I had not up to this point seen. These new weapons included a FAL, which is a beautiful rifle usually calibered in .308; it fires in controlled three round bursts. I think it does more damage than the AK47, or it seemed to, but it’s not a full auto rifle. However, the massive chain gun is a full auto piece. When I picked up the chain gun with Nathan, my movement was drastically slowed down and I wasn’t even able to take cover. This is truly a purely offensive weapon as it slows your character down and keeps him from climbing or taking cover; that said, it’s an offensive powerhouse as it can, obviously, disperse a ridiculous amount of firepower in a mowing or sweeping fashion. It makes for a great temporary weapon; I was able to quickly dispatch two or three of the enemy who were close together but I didn’t feel safe enough to continue to use it for long, so I swapped it out for an AK or FAL. Also, while I didn’t get a chance to use it during the match I played, there is also a sniper rifle available, and a handful of spots to make good use of it.
The health system was the same as in the campaign and co-op; as you take damage, your screen turns more and more gray, and you can begin to hear your heartbeat. Unlike co-op however, there is no reviving from teammates. Instead, you will respawn after five seconds, and actually in the same place every time, at least in this demo. I never got spawn killed or anything like that, so respawning in the same area may not turn out to be a big deal, we’ll just have to see as development marches on.
To be blunt about it, this team deathmatch mode was a lot of fun. Personally, I liked it more than a Gears of War or heck, perhaps any other third person team deathmatch experience I have played thus far (which to be honest isn’t many). However, in saying that, I am also much more of a fan of Uncharted’s characters and universe than its competitors.
In terms of actual gameplay, it’s what you would expect from a game that is fairly realistic. Using cover and dive rolls is essential, taking aim is very important in getting kills quickly, and keeping an eye on your ammo and watching for those scary “a grenade has just landed near you” icons is key. You can also commit suicde too and probably team kill, although I actually didn’t witness or experience either of those during this match.
As far as the framerate and other presentation notes, this ten player match ran without any lag or even a drop in graphical quality from what I could tell.
I wouldn’t normally mention this, but I actually had a hell of a match during play today. I managed to get 21 of the team’s thirty-five kills with the next person below me scoring eight, so that was really cool. I’m looking forward to hopping into the beta sometime this weekend and I have a few more voucher codes to hand out if anyone is interested; just send me a PM and I’ll see if I have any left.
