14 DAY TRIAL // Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception promises to deliver a new set of stunning adventures for its protagonist, Nathan Drake, as well as drastically improve upon the cooperative and the competitive multiplayer modes that first appeared in the second title, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
After taking a quick look at the single-player campaign in the new game, it's time we share our impressions of the cooperative mode that's been included in Uncharted 3 and see if it stacks up to the mode we already saw in its predecessor.
The co-op multiplayer in Uncharted 3 allows players to engage, either locally through split-screen or in two modes: Co-Op Arena or Co-Op Adventure. The first allows players to engage in a sort of Horde mode, battling waves of enemies in a single location, while the second sees them embark on new adventures based on the ones we already saw in Uncharted 2's single-player.
In our test, we tried out the first scenario in the Cooperative Adventure mode, which sees hero Nathan Drake and his longtime companion, Victor 'Sully' Sullivan, embark on an adventure from the beginning of Uncharted 2, trying to infiltrate the Borneo camp of the main villain, Lazarevic.
Just like with the single-player campaign, we found it was quite easy, at least at first, to rush the enemy and engage in hand to hand combat, with both Nathan and Sully displaying some serious skills as well as stylish executions. The game quickly throws at you tougher enemies though, which need to be taken down both with sustained fire and well placed grenades.
Levels are a bit more open, giving players more cover options and allowing them to flank their enemies. There's still quite a lot of the so-called monster closets, as spawning enemies just happen to drop in all around the players, even behind you, despite the fact that you presumably cleared them out.
The gameplay is pretty polished, however, and quite frantic, if you allow it. We started out in full force but quickly slowed down, in order to eliminate enemies in a more efficient manner, and also refrain from dying all too much.
Teamwork, as you can imagine, is key, as there are situations where one player needs to keep bashing a crate to unlock it, while the other needs to cover him and prevent enemies from taking him out, or even revive him. Even hordes of enemies can easily be dispatched, but only if players work together and communicate effectively.
Overall, the cooperative mode is definitely an improvement over the one from Uncharted 2, with sharper visuals and more developed environments, not to mention the more refined gameplay, carried over from the Uncharted 3's single-player.
The game is now available across the world, only on the PlayStation 3, and you can expect our full review to go live tomorrow. Until then, check out a video of our Co-Op adventures below.
