Video game blog by: Jake Boeding
After enjoying a nice tasty Spicy Italian foot long and large cherry coca-cola from Subway, I noticed that by just buying a drink I had gotten early access to the online multiplayer of Uncharted 3, the third installment of developer Naughty Dog’s juggernaut series. I rushed home, put the code into my PS3, and started playing. After playing for hours I can honestly say the multiplayer is fun and exciting at times, there are a few hiccups and falls which prevent it from being an enjoyable experience.
What Uncharted 3’s multiplayer has going for it is that it is a refreshing experience to the standard Call of Duty experience. You can climb almost anything and everything in this game, which is fantastic. Shooting someone down while hanging off the edge of a train or pulling an unsuspecting opponent off a ledge is an enjoyable experience. The cinematic melee stealth kills look great when pulled off correctly which makes up for the wonky face to face combat.
The menus are easy to navigate, and the selection of game modes makes it a rich experience. However, matchmaking is not very well done, which can leave you sitting on your couch staring at the same screen saying “Finding a game.” The wait time to finally start playing can diminish the multiplayer experience for some when they finally start playing.
Speaking of game play, it is decent for a multiplayer game. Combat is paced well, so if you suck, you still won’t be getting shot down every three seconds. Uncharted 3 also brings something new by establishing “Power Plays.” Power plays are advantages given to the losing team and have the possibility of tipping the odds back in their favor. This can either put you on the edge of your seat trying to avoid the other team, or make you feel like going into total butt-kicking mode.
The part where multiplayer falls the most though, is customization. While character customization is decent, your choices beyond that frankly, suck. You only get to choose from two or three weapons to use in the beginning, and you can only get the more powerful guns by scavenging for them in an actual game, only for them to go away when the match is over. This is the most frustrating part about the multiplayer and can be a deal breaker for some gamers out there.
All in all, Uncharted 3’s multiplayer has its moments, but not enough to make it fantastic. This shouldn’t deter you from buying the game when it comes out Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011, because Naughty Dog always delivers on the single player experience. If you’re just going to focus on multiplayer, it might be best to leave Uncharted 3 on the store shelf. I give Uncharted 3’s multiplayer 3.5 logs out of 5 logs.