Uncharted 2: Among Thieves MP Beta Impressions

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves looks phenomenal. I didn’t have to see Naughty Dog’s E3 2009 presentation to come to that conclusion; I was terribly impressed with the gameplay footage shown on Gametrailers.com a while back. While there’s no denying Naughty Dog’s unrivaled quality as far as the single player campaign is concerned, I had my share of inhibitions about the game’s multiplayer aspect.

Naughty Dog has put in a significant amount of effort to make Uncharted 2's MP component a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

At first I was of the opinion that Naughty Dog was just forcibly adding multiplayer since a game like Uncharted never really needed versus action to begin with. Was I wrong! Even though I’ve barely sampled Uncharted 2’s MP aspect via the beta, it seems Naughty Dog has put in a significant amount of effort to make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

The beta grants you access to two maps and two game modes. First up is the cooperative mode that puts Drake, Sully and newcomer Chloe deep in Nepal as they hunt for treasure and gun down angry military personnel. The game’s co-op mode isn’t a story driven one like Gears of War or Halo 3; instead it’s more on the lines of Resistance 2 (only a hundred times better) where you’re thrust in different scenarios and you’ll have to run, gun and platform to reach the treasure.

Gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game so if you’ve played Drake’s Fortune, you’ll be right at ease here. If you haven’t for some reason I suggest you pick the game up ASAP since it's part of Sony’s platinum range now (if my enthusiasm doesn’t convince you, head on over to our review to see why we loved it so much).


Once you’re done playing treasure hunter with your friends you can head into the competitive arena where you’ll have two modes to choose from; Team Deathmatch and Plunder – a variant of capture the flag where instead of a flag you’re chasing a golden relic. While holding on to the golden relic you can’t fire your guns so you’ll need your teammates nearby giving you that much needed backup, protecting you from enemy fire. Even though you can’t wield weapons while holding on to the relic you can throw it towards your team and this makes for some intense gameplay as every team member who gets his/her hand on the relic tries throwing it closer towards his/her base. Of course the relic doesn’t spawn at the same place every time so you’ll have to keep a look out on your map. Sometimes it can even spawn at a height in which case one person goes after it while the rest of his team cover his ass. Fun times!

As you kill enemies you gain experience points that can be used to unlock Perks like the ability to carry more ammo, reduced recoil and so on. There are only a few present in the beta but I’m sure we’ll find lots more in the final version. Also I’m guessing all the money you rake up after a round will allow you to buy new gear like weapons (clothing maybe?) for your character.

Visually, Uncharted 2 is gorgeous enough to make every PlayStation 3 owner proud. Environments and character models are extremely well detailed and even during intense skirmishes, the frame rate stays rock solid. Some games cut down on visual quality in multiplayer to achieve better frame rates but that’s not the case with Uncharted 2.

The only thing about the beta that irked me to no end was the game’s matchmaking system. It took me over 10 minutes at times to find a server to play on even though the game told me that there were over a thousand people playing the beta at the same time. For some reason it was easier to find a cooperative server but that too took me at least five minutes (if I was lucky i.e). I’ve heard Naughty Dog is working on this issue so that pretty much takes away the only issue I had with this game. Watch out for more on Uncharted 2 in the weeks to come.