Thursday, June 11, 2009

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Beta PS3

So I got my hands on an Uncharted 2: Among Theives Closed Beta Code. Now I don't know much about Uncharted seeing how I didn't play the first one, so storyline is lost on me. What I can report on is the gameplay. In the beta you can play multiplayer online with others who are in the beta. I luckily hooked up with someone I knew and was pleasently surprised that the mic worked on the beta. The gameplay mostly consisted of strategicly hiding behind boxes, couches and such and shooting hoards of soliders. You can also melee and kick and bunch the crap out of them. I noticed that if you decide to do hand to hand combat they go down faster then if you were to shoot the hell out of them. However if they have you in a strangle hold you are helpless to get out. Another player has to shoot them for the enemy to loosen their grip on your neck.

The health system is fairly simple. What is nice is that the color of the whole world around you fades until it goes into black and white. It's easier to tell when you are dying then keeping your eye on some sort of health bar. The color slowly becomes vibrant again as you stay out of the line of fire. If you get to badly hurt you will become paralized hoping that the other players can revive you before you completely die. So running out in the middle of the hoard is not a good idea. The player who will try to save your life will most likely die as well.

There are other actions. Once you clear out a hoard a red icon will appear. You have to find out where it is and set off an action. Usually moving an object so you can climb on it to gain access to another area. The Beta consisted of 3 or 4 areas, one with a mini boss, which your characters will comment on how you should kill him before he gets you, but really he was a piece of cake. The beta ends with another boss-like enemy jumping over a wall carrying a machine gun.

It was pretty fun, but something I will buy when the full version comes out. I'm still on the fence about it.