transient thoughts

After the GoW3 demo, I rushed over to jump in line for the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves demo. I’ll admit, I was looking forward to the game, and fully intend to pick it up in a few weeks, yet after playing the demo, I still felt the need to write at the top of my notes, in big writing, “BUY!!”

This was, for me, the best game of the show.

The thing that impressed me the most were the environments. The Nepalese city I was running through (forget if it’s Kathmandu or not) looked amazing. The urban setting lets them create a much more colourful and detailed setting, and the level of detail they’ve put into the environments is amazing. It’s the little things, such as having books fall out of bookshelves as you climb on them, that gives the world so much life. The city really has the feeling of a place that’s war-torn and falling apart – half the buildings are blown open, trucks are driven through walls, it’s a mess.

It also feels a lot more fun climbing around the half-ruins of the city – as well as the traditional sticking-out bricks, you can also climb on a range of other things too. Initially, I did feel a little lost and unsure of where to go, although I’m not sure if there was some Japanese hint I missed. Sadly, in the short playtime I had I only got 2 fights, and a climbing section in between – I didn’t get to see any of the puzzle solving side.

The combat was something I enjoyed in the first one, and the second seems to have added a number of small changes to add a little more variety. For example, I got my hands on a metal riot shield, which afforded me some mobile cover in exchange for slower movement and being restricted to one handed weapons. Also, the propane tanks littering the city can be picked up, thrown and detonated by shooting them, for fun barbecue times. On the side of simplifying controls, grenades are not much easier to use too, by simply tapping L2 when aiming, instead of having to switch to them as a separate weapon type.

There really wasn’t a great deal more that I can say from the TGS demo, but I found the demo really exciting. Even for “just” a demo, it felt very well – and very deliberately – crafted, with a good interest curve (this was particularly noticeable compared to some of the other demos at the show).

In the week since the show, I’ve had a chance to experience a bit more of the game, through the multiplayer beta that Naughty Dog have very kindly made public.

While traditionally I’ve avoided online multiplayer (perhaps due to memories of arse-whoopings in Warcraft 2/3 and its ilk), lately I’ve been more and more inclined to try it out, and I have to say, it’s rather fun.

I won’t say too much about it, but I’ve played a variety of games, and game types, and they’re pretty enjoyable. My least favourite are the elimination matches, largely because when (not if) I die, I’m stuck waiting for the longest, and the matches tend to end pretty quickly. I imagine they’d be pretty fun with two coordinated teams though. My favourite mode is probably the Plunder matches, which pit two teams against each other trying to reclaim an idol. It’s a lot of fun, especially as it forces each team to group up and work together (especially when you need to throw the idol). I’ve yet to try playing it against the CPU yet, but I hope to get to that at some stage.

My other favourite is the RPG Deathmatch, just for the sheer madness of it

Your kills in the multiplayer matches are rewarded with cash cash moneys, as are various actions, which earn you medals. Earning cash grants you levels (like experience), and allows you to buy various booster abilities (most of which additionally have a level requirement), as well as different skins, taunts, and other upgrades. The boosters are small, situational bonuses, that can be switched before each level, depending on what you’re after – ultimately they’re a minor character customization.

It’s quite addictive, all-in-all. In fact, this post has probably taken me the better part of 3 or 4 hours to write, largely because I’ve been playing it between matches

In short, this game will be awesome. I can’t wait the two weeks for it to be released (birthday present to myself lol), a wait which is made all the harder by some of the reviews that are already hitting the interwebs.

written by .klik2