Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta is now out in the wild, and our compatriots at Game Informer Australia have already had a chance to dig into the new competitive offering. Curious about whether Nathan Drake's multiplayer adventures might offer some fun opportunities to throw down with online friends? Check out full impressions below, complete with additional detail from Naughty Dog's Arne Meyer.

Editor's Note: The following article first appeared in Game Informer Australia Issue #72, and is written by David Milner.

There’s a moment in every Uncharted game when the narrative veers off its semi-plausible path right into Crazyville – the equivalent of the arrival of the “inter-dimensional” beings in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, but less awful.

Uncharted 4’s multiplayer exists in that wacky thematic space, playing-up the series’ often-overlooked super-natural elements with the introduction of mystical abilities.

At PAX Australia, I went hands-on with Uncharted’s weirdest multiplayer component yet, and chatted with Arne Meyer, director of communications at Naughty Dog, to discuss the new features and tease out some more details.

Mystical Abilities

The PAX demo featured four loadout classes – assault, tactical, support and long range – each equipped with weapons suiting a corresponding play-style. Most interestingly, all of these loadouts also had a mystical ability tied to them.

Mysticals are purchased mid-match by opening the in-game store with the touchpad, and then spending cash earned from treasure pick-ups and downing enemies. Every time you buy a mystical it becomes more expensive for subsequent purchases, ensuring top players aren’t constantly using these powerful abilities and throwing a match out of balance.

The assault loadout is tied to the Wrath of El Dorado mystical, an item that can be hurled like a grenade using the R1 bumper. Once it lands, it spawns a totem that shoots out demonic spectres; these seek out and damage enemy players in the vicinity, essentially making it a tossable supernatural auto-turret.

After being pinned down by heavy fire, I managed to turn the tide of battle using this mystical, forcing the enemy to flee from its entrenched position. Being able to throw the Wrath of El Dorado from behind cover into the heart of an opposition stronghold gives it huge crowd control potential and tactical flexibility.

The Cintamani Stone mystical, tied to the tactical loadout, creates a large area-of-effect radius around your character that heals you and your teammates. This is especially useful because Naughty Dog has borrowed the down-but-not-out state from The Last of Us’ multiplayer.

No longer will players die instantly when felled – first, they enter a crawling, downed state, and can be revived by teammates and the Cintamani Stone if reached in time.

“Some mysticals are a lot more aggressive, while some fill more of a support role,” explains Meyer. “My favorite is the Spirit of Djinn. It lets you teleport across distances... It’s great because you can use it to help your aggressive tendencies, but also to escape tough situations.

“You can pop it to flank a group of enemies behind cover, take one out up close, and then shoot your way out... Plus you’re on fire while you use it, which is always cool.”

When pressed about other Mysticals, Meyer alluded to some even stranger possibilities. “There are two mysticals we haven’t revealed yet. The three shown so far are related to Uncharted 1, 2 and 3 respectively, so obviously the other two can’t be as closely tied to Uncharted’s universe.”

When asked if this means there are mysticals related to the Last of Us (or Jak and Daxter), Meyer simply replied, “Well, it’s time to speculate...”

Sidekick Companions

The in-game store also allows you to buy sidekicks: A.I. characters that assist your team in various ways. “They’re NPC companions who each have a different class,” explains Meyer. Like mysticals, sidekicks become more costly with every purchase.

The Hunter runs straight at the nearest enemy and places them in a choke-hold, allowing you to run in and finish them off with a melee attack. You can fight your way out of these grapples by mashing triangle, but by then it’s probably too late.

“There’s a Savior, who is basically a medic,” Meyer adds. “If you’re downed, he will come and revive you. He’ll also give you ammo if you’re empty. He’s very much a support role.” Saviors hide in cover as close to you as possible, but never directly engage in battle.

“There’s a Marksman companion, too, with a sniper rifle who can provide suppressing fire,” Meyer continues. “You can place him somewhere high on the map and pin down enemies, giving you the opportunity to flank, because the other team won’t want to pop out of cover.”

You can only summon a Marksman on your location, so if you want to place one on an exposed overhang you’ll first have to brave enemy fire in order to reach it yourself (Marksmen can be relocated if you’re not happy with the positioning). If a Marksman’s laser-sight gets a bead on you, you’d best roll for cover – his sniper rifle puts you down in one shot.

“Another Sidekick, the heavily armoured Brute, has quite similar functions,” says Meyer. “He’s got a big machinegun and can lay down supressing fire when you have a bunch of enemies in cover. It has three purposes: you can use it to escape, to take out an entrenched team or to suppress them while you flank.”

Getting Around In Style

The demo’s sole map, a lush jungle with a central ruined temple swallowed by ancient parasitic foliage, has more vertical space than ever before. Clambering up walls and dilapidated columns opens up high-ground paths – great locations to place Marksmen or lob grenades from.

A new grappling hook tool can be tossed at certain branches by jumping into the air and pressing L1, allowing you to swing across chasms or around environmental obstacles. Your swing arc utilizes in-game physics, so you can control your speed and direction with your character’s momentum, rather than following along pre-programmed paths.

It works brilliantly. Before long I was ignoring the gunfight below just so I could sway around in the canopy. At one point I found three anchor points situated near each other, allowing me to repeatedly launch lines in mid-air Spider-Man style.

Of all the new additions, this is easily the element I’m most excited about. Drake has always been an agile guy in the campaigns, but multiplayer tends to get stuck on terra firma and bogged down behind cover – all that changes with this entry.

The jungle map also features watery chutes that essentially function as one-way lanes: your character will slide down these at great speed, but it’s impossible to clamber up them. I like this idea as it adds some cinematic flair, but Naughty Dog might want to consider adding better indicators that convey an unclimbable chute – at the moment, when you attempt to clamber up, your character simply stands there and shudders a bit.

“There are two things we’re trying to do with these chutes,” says Meyer. “We’re trying to make it feel like it’s grounded in the cinematic experience you have in single player, and we’re trying to create really interesting maps that funnel people into certain areas, generating different gameplay and combat situations.”

No one ever buys an Uncharted game exclusively for the multiplayer. However, with an increased emphasis on traversal skills, maps with more verticality, the inclusion of mystical abilities and A.I. sidekicks, the two components have never complemented each other so well. The Uncharted 4 multiplayer beta launches on December 4 – do yourself a favour and try it out. 

Editor's Note: The preceding article first appeared in Game Informer Australia Issue #72, and is written by David Milner.