Uncharted 3 Beta impressions [Article]

I loved the Uncharted 2 multiplayer and the Uncharted 3 Beta showed me that Naughty Dog are only looking to improve the winning formula.

It had a rocky start with multiple glitches - the main two being the PS3 resetting or the game freezing - but once Naughty Dog had patched these it was playing well and I had bundles of fun with it and my friends.

There were 9 modes overall and these were pretty basic but classic and they were Team Deathmatch, Free For All, Hardcore, Plunder, Team Objective, Three Team Deathmatch, Co-op Arena, Co-op Adventure and Co-op Hunter.

A quick breakdown of these modes:

Team Deathmatch - 5 against 5 to reach the amount of points within the time limit by having the most kills.

Free For All - 8 people in a game battling to have the most kills within the time limit.

Hardcore - Team Deathmatch without boosters, etc.

Plunder - 5 against 5 to capture the treasure 5 times.

Team Objective - 5 against 5 to win the most objectives that include deathmatch, siege, turf war, plunder, king of the hill, chain reaction and kill/protect the V.I.P.

Three Team Deathmatch - 3 teams of 2 with the same aim as Team Deathmatch.

Co-op Arena - 3 players fighting against the AI to complete 10 rounds that include survival, plunder and siege.

Co-op Adventure - 3 players fighting against AI to complete a campaign like mission.

Co-op Hunter - 2 teams of 2 fighting against eachother to either protect or capture treasures.

My favourite modes were Team Deathmatch, Three Team Deathmatch, Team Objective, Co-op Arena and Co-op Adventure - and spoilers ahead - but it's a shame that Co-op Adventure wasn't a full mission but it ended on a great, suspense building moment with Drake, Sully and Elena surrounded by 2 enemy helicopters.

The gameplay feels smoother than it did in number 2, especially with the climbing and rolling, and some of the new melee kills look great executed but my favourite is still jumping up and kicking somebody in the face when they're a bit below you.
The shooting feels tighter and this is considerably more noticable on the AK-47 considering it was immensely inaccurate on Uncharted 2 and most of the other guns are variations of what was on Uncharted 2 e.g. the M9 is the M4, the G-MAL is the FAL, etc.

There were three maps - Chateau, Airstrip and Yemen and they all looked fantastic and allowed for various styles of play.
Airstrip has this awesome sequence at the start of the match on Team Deathmatch only that has the villains jumping between vehicles to get onto the plane as the Heroes defend the hanger and shortly after this you are taken to the actual map.
Chateau is great for objective based games, especially siege and it was my favourite map but I'm not sure why, I just took a liking to it.
Yemen is great for Three Team Deathmatch and sniping and melee kills as there are two tall towers which you can hide in but then you have to be on the lookout for people pulling you over the ledge or shooting you from afar and obviously grenades.

The perks work very well too and rarely feel overpowered although I think smoke bomb is cheap as it allows you to vanish on the spot and spawn somewhere nearby which means the people who just got denied of a kill is most likely to get killed and that feels plain cheap.
The perks that let you run faster or shoot without reloading are quite well balanced though and work well.

The customisation is great (although I never did unlock the Aviators for Drake :() but the added inclusion of collecting treasures online is really addicting and by unlocking items with them it gives you more purpose playing online than just winning.

The graphics haven't had such a huge boost but considering it is a beta and the single player looks fantastic I imagine they will look stunning on release but the animations are fantastic, especially the new taunts, my favourite being the chicken dance because it's pure awesome.

The audio is spectacular as ever with the music being catchy and well orchestrated as the suspense really builds up as it gets faster on specific game modes, usually Team Objective.
The voice acting is still some of the best around although it's very little heard online as it is mostly grunting, yelling, etc.
The guns, turrets and explosions still sound great and are what you expect from Uncharted - high quality.

I can see this online lasting me a long while as Uncharted 2 has done - an online game I still play and find amazing - and I for one am very excited for Uncharted 3 to release.

If this is only the beta then the main game should be spectacular.

I won't rate this as it is a beta but I will say that if you have a PS3 and can play online and didn't bother trying this out - you've missed out.