With Uncharted 2, the series has decided to dive into new ground by adding multiplayer to the experience. Early adopters of Infamous were lucky enough to get into the beta for competitive and cooperative online multiplayer and from my experience both are shaping up extremely well.

The controls of this beta are pretty much exactly the same as the original Uncharted and are unchangeable for the moment, but hopefully that does not remain for the retail release. One notable difference between the multiplayer of Uncharted 2 and the single player for the original is that you die and recover much faster in the multiplayer. You can die with just a few shots, but if you can find a decent bit of cover you will heal up back to full in around two seconds. This makes everything much faster paced since you won't have to hide in cover nearly as long to heal yourself to full health as you did in the first Uncharted. The visuals in the beta are not quite as beautiful as the single player appears to be, but they are still quite nice, and the only really noticeable thing missing is someone's pant leg getting wet when they step in water.

Competitive multiplayer gave me access to two different maps as well as a deathmatch and CTF type game type. Both maps have a lot of places to make use of your character's ability to climb and use almost any ledge you can see. The original Uncharted had some platforming sections, but the platforming in Uncharted 2 (at least in the multiplayer)feels a lot more freeform. You really seem to be able to grab onto any ledge you see. This is great in the competitive multiplayer maps because it allows you a lot of freedom to use the plethora of buildings in each map. Climbing up to a higher vantage point is often an easy way to get the jump on your enemies. Deathmatch games are the same as they always were, but the CTF game type has a different twist to it. Instead of capturing a flag you are fighting over a priceless artifact, which is huge, golden, and apparently heavy as hell. Once you grab the artifact, you will notice that you move around half as fast as you were before and you now show up on everyone's minimap to see, basically making you a slow moving and very obvious target. The best thing about the artifact is that you can toss it like a grenade (except for the exploding part), and this is used especially well in one of the maps where you have to take the artifact to the second floor of a building. It can be quite difficult to get the perfect throw to send the artifact safely up to the second floor when you are constantly being shot at, and this adds something that helps to make CTF in Uncharted 2 unique. The lobby allows you to make a party using friends or people you have met in Uncharted 2 online, which is particularly useful for the second option in the beta.

Unfortunately, the cooperative multiplayer only gives you access to a single map, but it was still a lot of fun. You are put in a team of three consisting of Drake, Sully, and Chloe (a new addition to the series). The best part about the cooperative play is that it really forces you to work as a team in some places. At one point you give a boost to one of your team members so that he/she can do some platforming and get to a bookshelf to push down to the street so that the team can use it as a ladder to get over a bus that has crashed in your way. While the one team member is platforming, enemies are still coming from all sides, and the two on the ground have to try their best to protect the other since you can't shoot very well while grabbing onto ledges (you can use a pistol but no rifles). I really enjoyed how the cooperative play mode seemed to almost constantly throw enemies at you, but there were some lulls in the action if you took out the enemies too quickly, and I would love if they upped the pace a bit more or had varying difficulty levels.

Uncharted 2 is looking to be quite the fantastic game. The competitive and cooperative online multiplayer is enjoyable and I can't wait for the full retail version to come out with greater variety in maps and game modes as well as the single player campaign that I fell in love with in the original Uncharted. Look for Uncharted 2 in stores sometime this fall, and I'll see you all online.

*pictures are not from the beta*