Uncharted 4’s Multiplayer Is A Treasure Trove Of Fun

When Naughty Dog brought multiplayer into the Uncharted franchise, there was an understandable level of skepticism. Not only was this the developer’s first proper attempt at a competitive online mode, it also came at a time where tacked-on multiplayer was at its most rampant. Chances were that if a game had guns in it – first person or third – there would be an option to play online, regardless of how well suited it was to competitive multiplayer.

As we know now, Uncharted 2’s multiplayer wasn’t a simple afterthought, bolted on just to tick another box and further justify that £40 price tag. For many, including myself, it cemented Among Thieves as one of the greatest games of all time. As if boasting a seminal singleplayer campaign wasn’t enough, its online counterpart was just as intuitive and still holds up to this day.

Yet there was a nagging fear going in Uncharted 4’s closed beta. With The Last Of Us having been such a runaway success for Naughty Dog, there was inevitably going to be some overlap, and this is a studio that thrives when reflecting on what worked best in its previous games, evolving and consolidating that into the team’s next project. To that extent, yes, there are some elements of TLOU woven into Uncharted 4’s multiplayer, yet it combines these innovations with some of its own, all the while drawing inspiration from the series’ first online outing in 2009.

Running and gunning is still order of the day, with even more options when it comes to traversing the surrounding environment. This time, however, the game’s mixing of climbing and jumping is complemented by the latest tool in Uncharted’s arsenal: the grappling hook. From what I’ve played of the beta, it’s not essential to master, but offers something that players can mess around with to clear gaps and gain a vertical advantage over their opponents.

It’s smoothly implemented, prompting you to hold down the L1 button whenever leaping within proximity of a grapple point. Once latched on you can swing freely, using its momentum to catapult between sections of the map, or throw yourself into an audacious flying melee attack.

Having called shotgun on the left bumper, the grapple hook has had a noticeable impact on the way the control scheme is now laid out. Naturally, the aim and fire actions have been remapped to the DualShock 4’s lower triggers, with grenade tossing having also been relocated. This means that the reload function is now assigned to the triangle button although everything else has remained the same. Well, mostly.

The DualShock’s oft-forgotten touchpad is put to use here, facilitating a new feature that will feel somewhat familiar to The Last of Us fans. Giving it a quick tap during play will bring up a four way menu, each quadrant housing a special item that can be purchased in the heat of battle. This is done through spending the money earned in that round from kills, objectives, and medals, as well as from finding small treasures scattered around each map.

However this is more streamlined than it was in TLOU. There, players were required to find a safe spot so they could hunker down and craft equipment while purchasing upgrades and other advantageous perks. Here, these boons can be purchased using two rapid button presses, extending Uncharted 4’s multiplayer arsenal in some truly bizarre and inventive ways.

First up, we have a gallery of specialist weapons. More powerful than your standard loadout options, these include high-damage variants of the assault rifle and shotgun as well as the dreaded China Lake grenade launcher and RPG. For those who remember the series’ previous multiplayer escapades, these weapons would be distributed around each map on rare occasions, guaranteeing a cluster of kills for whoever found them.

Next to these we have the all-new sidekicks. When watching the multiplayer’s reveal trailer, I really wasn’t convinced; throwing AI-controlled buddies into the mix just seemed like a recipe for disaster. However, although a bit strange at first, they seem to slot in perfectly. They come in different flavours too, including a sniper and medic as well as the minigun-wielding brute. My favourite of the lot has to be the maniacal, melee-focussed sidekick many have taken to calling “The Choker”. Why? Because even in the most intense of firefights, he’ll slip behind enemy lines to grab them unawares, holding them in place until you can come along to deliver that final blow.

Speaking of final blows, getting gunned down in Uncharted 4 no longer buys you a one-way ticket to the respawn timer. Again, borrowing from The Last of Us and games like Gears of War, you’ll have several seconds for a teammate to bring you back into the game before bleeding out.

The final group of purchasable items raised more than a few eyebrows. These “Mysticals” are based on the various iconic treasures discovered by Drake throughout the series and, in the right hands, can easily turn the tide of battle. For instance, the Wrath of El Dorado will summon a golden figure (much like a turret) that spews evil spirits to swat your opponents with. Meanwhile, there are other, more supportive, Mythicals like Indra which can be used to scan the enemy’s whereabouts or harness the Cintamani Stone to quickly revive nearby fallen comrades.

Although somewhat foreign, all of these new elements are bound together by a familiar approach to gunplay and traversal. What really sets Uncharted apart from other online shooters is the amount of maneuverability it bestows upon players, complemented by how each map is set up.

In the beta, we get to see two of the reported eight maps which ship on launch day. The first of these, known as The Island, is a medium sized affair split into three discernible lanes, interlinked by various corridors and grapple points. Madagascar City, on the other hand, feels slightly larger with more buildings and side-routes to explore. However, one similarity between the two is that sense of verticality.

As expected, the whole thing looks amazing even in beta. Character models and environments sport a stunning amount of detail with everything mostly running at a very smooth sixty frames, albeit at 900p for the multiplayer. The audio work is also on-point too, Naughty Dog having called in most of the original trilogy’s voice actors. However, it’s sad to report than Steve Valentine’s rendition of Harry Flynn has been replaced with some bootleg dialogue. It’s an incredibly minor thing to pick out, I know, yet something that annoyed me nonetheless given Naughty Dog’s characteristic attention to detail.

Another thing that may slightly irk fans is the encroachment of microtransactions. Getting punters to pay for tiny add-ons is nothing new in the realm of multiplayer gaming, let alone Naughty Dog titles, but Uncharted 4 seems to have gotten the balance right. Although it introduces a couple of virtual currencies to keep tabs on, these are only used to purchase cosmetic upgrades and taunts instead of bonuses that affect gameplay.

The breakdown between currencies is fairly simple too. Relics, which can be found or earned via challenges, can buy chests that contain random taunts, skins, and hats. Meanwhile Naughty Dog coins can be used to buy whichever items you’re hunting for without messing with your hard-earned relics. As mentioned before, challenges will crop up on a daily basis, rewarding players for completing a set number of specific actions.

Where Drake’s Deception felt like a marginal improvement on the series’ multiplayer foundations, Uncharted 4 is more of a genuine evolution. Not only has Naughty consolidated its work on The Last Of Us, but the multiplayer has also adapted to broader changes in online gaming without demeaning its fans in the process.