While I’m doing my best to avoid story spoilers, I’m pretty hungry for any new info on the multiplayer component. So based off the recent MP gameplay stream which Naughtydog did on TwitchTV, we can finally get a glimpse of what new boosters and systems are in the final game that’s finally released on May 10th.
Video
First of all, here’s the link to the ND stream:
Watch live video from NaughtyDog on www.twitch.tv
Controls
ND have added some ability to switch between various button configurations. You can now also adjust the aim assist on a scale from 0-10.
Unlocks, Loadout Points
It doesn’t look like unlocks are tied to player level anymore, but instead certain kill or usage requirements. For example to unlock the Raffica, you need 5 pistol downs, the Uzi 10 pistol downs etc. What’s not clear is whether this is cumulative or the counter resets after the next unlock (eg you need 5 to unlock the Raffica, then another 10 for the Uzi).
You now also start with 19 LP instead of 25LP from the beta. you obtain the remaining 6 LP by unlocking long guns, pistols, gear, sidekicks, heavy weapons and mysticals, which nets you 1 LP per category.
Weapon mods
Weapon mods from Uncharted 3 are back, however this time they cost LP to equip. During the stream I saw
- Reload Speed
- Clip Side
- Aimed Strafe Speed(!)
- Blindfire accuracy
- Silencer
- Starting Ammo
- Scoped in radar
- Accuracy
- Recoil
Weapon mods are unlocked by getting kills with that weapon.
Not all upgrades are applicable for all weapons, it looks like you can only normally have one upgrade per weapon, but there were also Hero weapons much like Uncharted 3, which have 2 upgrades installed. However the hero weapon costs much more LP to equip.
I’m somewhat concerned about how effective some of these will be. For example, Aimed Strafe Speed is similar to Fleet foot of UC2, however the devs did mentioned it’s tweaked per gun.
Mystical Mods
You can also upgrade mysticals with LP now. I only saw the upgrades for Wrath of Eldorado:
- Faster ghosts
- Highlight targets
- More damage
Sidekicks
Sidekicks no longer regen health by default. You can also pay LP to mod sidekicks:
- Health regen
- Faster movement speed
- No laser sight (sniper)
- Better accuracy
- Highlight targets
New Boosters
Here are all the new boosters I could spot from the video. Alot of them have pretty vague descriptions which makes me rather worried about how balanced they actually are in the final game.
Use your melee and charge melee more effectively
- Level 1 – Quicker recovery time after whiffing a melee attack
- Level 2 – After downing an enemy with a charge melee attack, your next charge melee charges faster; Gear resupply reduced by 10 seconds after a melee down
- Level 3 – Gear resupply reduced by 3 seconds for every melee hit
Pretty cool idea for a booster. It will probably end up being a niche booster but I think whoever uses this will have alot of fun making plays with it (especially with RPG).
The three levels of this booster probably correspond with the existing Marking booster, letting the mark last longer and then showing an outline of the marked target.
Final comments
Overall…I’m very excited at the crazy amount of options now, but also quite worried at the same time since ND did not release many of these during the beta.
