Uncharted 3 Beta Versus The NowGamer Community

Uncharted 3’s multiplayer beta recently went live, so we jumped in with the NowGamer community to find out how Naughty Dog’s new and improved online component has turned out. Here's everything you need to know, and how many of the new features have turned out.

Buddy System

This new addition will team you up with an online team-mate, who will likely be someone on your friends list where possible. Should the enemy bring you down, the camera will cut to your ‘buddy’, where you can continue to offer advice while you wait for the respawn counter to time down.

Not only this, but additional rewards are earned when sticking together with your ad-hoc ally, as well as having someone to spawn on – providing they’re not in combat, of course. It’s a handy feature, and one that helps build a sense of camaraderie with your chosen partner and get you into the thick of the action as quickly as possible.

From the community
“You can pick up each others’ treasures that enemies sometimes drop when killed, and also high five/fist bump or some other bromance action when you've jointly shot someone to pieces! This is done at your own peril, though, as Adam and I found out a couple of times when one of us was cut down mid-homoerotic celebration!”
MarkySharky

Watch as we bring down the masses in part one of our Uncharted 3 multiplayer gameplay. Read further for part two.

Improved Customisation

Everyone likes imparting their personality onto a game, but Uncharted 2 only enabled gamers to pick from a handful of pre-created characters – which was largely useless, considering everyone picked the impossible-to-hit Skelzor costume anyway. Uncharted 3 improves on that, and while the options in the beta were limited, they did highlight the possibilities of having your own bespoke character.

As with the last Uncharted, you pick both a Heroes and a Villains character, each of whom can have their clothing altered and coloured, including everything from shirts and pants to boots and headgear. There’s even the option to craft a personal emblem, which will be plastered onto the walls of an area in-game after taking control. All this is done through cash purchases, which is earned through killing opponents.

From the community:
“In my first game I made the mistake of customising my player with a red T-shirt. Yeah, I may as well have had a "Shoot me" T-shirt on with a bull’s-eye logo on the back. After that round I customised my guy with greens and browns and it really did help me to move around undetected”
CPC6128

Each character and weapon loadout is now custom to you.

Enviromental Changes

During a game each map will alter throughout the course of the match. These range from the burning and collapsing innards of the Chateau map or the bombing run from aircraft on the Airfield map. Parts of the map will deteriorate during play, causing an untimely death for anyone caught in the vicinity.

It’s a neat twist on gameplay, forcing gamers to think on their feet. However, these are scripted and would occur the same regardless of how many games we played – devoted gamers will soon learn when and where these events occur, perhaps negating the adrenaline they initially offer.

From the community:
“The changing environment adds an extra level of coolness to the game. And yes, you can be crushed by the collapsing floors in Chateau, as I found out last night while running away as a VIP!”
Cal_el

Airfield begins with this section on Team Deathmatch, but is very tricky.

Power Plays

Think of these as a helping hand. At certain points throughout a match a Power Play will come into action, assisting the losing team and rewarding the winning team. For example, during an ‘Exposed’ Power Play, the winners' locations are highlighted on the HUD of the losing side, however they will earn twice as much money for each kill scored.

This is a fluid addition to the game, keeping each match fresh and rewarding those who may well be outplayed by their enemy. While the beta only displayed a handful of possible Power Plays, we’d fully expect many more to be included in the final game.

From the community:
“Personally I feel basic Team Deathmatch modes are really boring and Power Plays change the pace a little, which is often needed. It seems to be fairly random which Power Play activates and when one is needed, however. There is one – Double Damage – which I feel is slightly too much in favour of the losing team as well.”
Gingie05

Double Damage evens the odds greatly for the losing team.

Kickbacks

It wouldn’t be a multiplayer game without adding in a Call Of Duty-inspired killstreak feature, but Uncharted 3’s Kickbacks offer a little variety to the tried-and-tested formula. A Kickback is chosen at the start of a match, ranging from temporary speed boosts, to a quick, deployable smoke grenade or even a free RPG for when you’re really in a pinch.

Standard kills won’t cut it, however, since to earn a chosen Kickback you’ll need to score enough medals to activate it. Many of you will recognise medals from Uncharted 2 as special accolades earned after killing an enemy in a unique way, be it by kicking them from a rooftop or breaking their spine from a stealth kill. They return, but now with Kickbacks they serve a far greater purpose.

From the community:
“I like the fact the Kickbacks are less elitist than killstreaks.”
MarkySharky

“Another good feature are the Kickbacks. When you get enough of them a voiceover tells you your Kickback is ready, then you just press up on the D-pad and have at it!”
Cal_el

Note: three exclamations. It's worth it; it's a bloody rocket launcher!

Map Design

While only two maps are available in the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta, the ones on offer are of a high quality. Chateau covers multiple elevations, with turrets covering the open ground, while Airfield is the most interesting. This map opens with a set of weaving trucks trying to assault a plane as it takes off, but this brief section seems poorly designed – perhaps due to having to play it in Team Deathmatch for the beta’s duration.

Starting before the ground-based hangar section of the map, this brief plane assault is difficult for the attackers and, ultimately, futile, as it takes off with only a moment's notice and no real impact on the rest of the game after that. For the most part, however, Naughty Dog has successful carried over Uncharted 2’s philosophy of enabling the freedom through climbing, and we couldn’t be happier about that.

From the community:
“Loving the game to be honest. I actually really like the runway section, though my prediction is that this is part of a specific game type. Perhaps the winner of the plane section gets an advantage in the subsequent map. The current incarnation makes no sense – the aeroplane takes off then you're all fighting on the ground?”
likwidboy

The plane section of the map is hilarious, but feels forced in unfortunately.

Uncharted TV

A smooth lobby system has been implemented to keep the time between games as entertaining as possible. The lobby, also acting as the multiplayer menu, offers the chance to customise your various elements.

In the corner, however, is a small video constantly playing, providing an insight into the upcoming map or tips from Naughty Dog developers themselves on surviving in multiplayer. This can be muted, should you wish to ignore it, but its inclusion means there need never be a tedious moment while you wait for the next game to start – should they be regularly updated, of course.

From the community:
“I really liked Uncharted TV! It helps explain the finer details of the game quickly and if they are clever they will use it to show top players and user-submitted replays when the full game is out."
Cal_el

Uncharted TV will show gameplay footage, maybe even like this one...

But How Does It Look?

You’d be forgiven for expecting a lot of graphical grunt from Uncharted 3. After all, it has already proven itself across the selection of single-player trailers and videos that have been released. But now we’ve had hands-on with the beta we can’t say it’s a massive improvement on top of Uncharted 2.

Of course, this is still a work in progress, and to cram in all that high-octane gameplay and keep it smooth there has to be some leeway. For now we’ll just wait and see, but when Killzone 3 can bring gorgeous visuals seamlessly into multiplayer we can’t help but think the same should be true of Uncharted 3.

From the community:
“I thought the visuals were good without being brilliant. I will expect the single-player to have improved visuals over this beta and I'm sure any multiplayer game scales down the detail a little bit in favour of performance.”
CPC6128

“The game itself looks nice enough, if a little too dark at times, but my main problem is the slow cumbersome feel to movement and shooting. It feels like I am trying to perform any task in a tight woolly jumper.”
Tonymachete

The visuals are still fantastic, but we expected a little more from Naughty Dog...

Summary

Uncharted 3's beta hasn't shifted drastically from its previous outing, which will please a lot of the fans. The new additions, however, prove that Uncharted can continue to expand in the multiplayer space and make Uncharted 3 multiplayer a barrel of fun to play. It's not without issues, of course, but let's remember this is only a beta, and a great example of more to come.