The build we played was from the recent GamesCom convention, so all the latest technical goodies and gameplay tweaks have been added. The level was the same level from the Multiplayer Beta’s co-op, however it was still fairly different due to it only being you in control rather than other players too. It starts off with Drake being chased down a small alleyway by a jeep, with you in control and constantly firing back at the ever so close jeep of certain death. Eventually the jeep crashes and burns out, and you end up in an open street which looks torn to death by war. A cut-scene ensues and Drake hides behind cover as several enemies approach.
From this point on it’s pure gameplay all the way with no interruptions in cut-scenes, and to say that it was solid is frankly an understatement. Drake, as a character, animates and interacts brilliantly, with extremely natural movement patterns, giving you the feeling of absolute control when moving him about. The game uses the cover system from the previous game with a few tweaks and the same melee system albeit slightly deeper and more challenging now. AI is clever and very aggressive. For example, they will actively flank you and throw grenades to flush you out of your cover zones. This is also probably why the melee is much more punishing in its timing and execution now as well. As the AI is far sharper, much more caution is advised when approaching the enemy. In fact, the AI reminded us much of the Helghast in Killzone 2, in which they were intelligent enough to know when to take cover and aggressive enough to make you break a sweat.
Oh christ..Sully was right about that burrito.
The melee system has also been upgraded with some much more punishing stealthy kills, which reminded us heavily of the masterful Metal Gear Solid 4. Sneaking up on enemies while hanging off ledges will make Drake yank them off the side to their death, and sneaking up behind walls may have Drake swerve the enemies into the side walls, practically shattering their entire bone structure. It’s a very fun and gratifying addition to the already robust arsenal of melee moves, and is a testament to the game’s beautiful animation.
Which leads us again to Uncharted 2’s technical prowess. This game looks really good, and much, much better than the Multiplayer Beta. Aliasing is practically non-existent now and the texture resolution has been upped even more, creating a sharp and crystal clear image that really shows off the power of the PlayStation 3. It seems that they’ve added much better shadowing on characters too, and some Ambient Occlusion, which adds much more depth to many of the objects in the world. And did we mention that this all runs at a rock solid frame rate, even with half a dozen characters on screen? With still a few months left in development, Naughty Dog have clearly obtained a firm grip on the architecture of the PS3, creating pretty much the most technically impressive console game of this generation - and it’s not even finished yet.
Yeah I'll show you my role-KAPPOWW
The single player level ends just where the co-op stage does, with a truck blocking off your path and several soldiers coming in to take you down. It was only about 10 to 20 minutes of gameplay overall, but it was enough for us to be even more excited about Uncharted 2’s imminent release. The Multiplayer Beta had us convinced that we were in for a great gaming experience, but now that we’ve also tried out the single player, we’re fairly confident that if Naughty Dog keep the level of quality we saw in the demo consistent throughout the entire single player portion, then we may have ourselves one of the best games of 2009, and a sequel that practically eclipses the original in quality.
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