We were a little surprised to originally hear that the sequel to Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune would include multiplayer.  It’s not that we didn’t hope to see it, but we were perfectly content with the original’s single player campaign.  Regardless, it seems to be required that every shooter now includes a multiplayer mode, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is no exception.  The multiplayer beta consists of three different game modes – cooperative, deathmatch, and plunder (capture-the-flag).  We’ve been meddling in the beta for a few weeks now – continue reading for our impressions.

The first thing we did when we fired up Uncharted 2 was hopped into the cooperative mode.  You join up with two other players and play through a short-ish level lasting about 20 minutes.  However, it’s likely to last longer than that as the mode is surprisingly challenging.  You start by plowing through a few enemies while making your way down an alleyway.  Quickly, you end up on a street in a firefight, fighting a seemingly never-ending wave of enemies until the final badass shows himself, who takes a few clips from each player to drop.  You end it by, yes, killing even more bad guys.  It’s nothing over-complicated, but it strikes a good balance between being too easy or overly difficult.

The mechanics of the game are silky smooth, as sliding into cover is quick and effortless.  This is evident mostly in the two maps for the competitive game modes, where you’re always sliding from cover to cover, positioning yourself across from the enemy.  The cover system is very similar to Gears of War, in that you can quickly and easily slide into, slide out of, and hop over cover without thinking twice about what button to hit.

Uncharted 2 borrows another proven system in its multiplayer: perks.  Although they are called boosters, they are essentially the same as perks in recent Call of Duty games.  In the beta, there are only a handful of these, giving bonuses from increased accuracy at long range to an increased clip size.  The choices are currently pretty limited, but Naughty Dog promises plenty of them in the final game.

That’s not to say the multiplayer is perfect.  There are some obvious balance problems, like the strength and range of grenades, that will hopefully be fine-tuned before release.  One of the maps work great for plunder – the other is a little frustrating.  And yes, there is a bit of spawn camping.  These issues are all things that Naughty Dog will hopefully have time to perfect before its release.

Ultimately, the multiplayer is shaping up to be a great addition to a franchise that has already proven itself to have a solid single player experience.  Despite a few shortcomings, Uncharted 2’s multiplayer is a pleasure to play.  It will likely be something that PS3 owners will be sinking plenty of time into when it releases later this year.

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