Dates for Beta:
June 28th - July 13th (June 28th if you have Playstation Plus, July 4th if you don't. Everyone can get Playstation Plus with the free month that Sony is giving everyone as part of the Welcome Back content)
Beta Level Cap:
25
Modes for Beta:
Team Deathmatch (5v5)
2v2v2 Team Deathmatch
Team Objective
Free For All (8 players)
Plunder (5v5)
High Stakes (gamble with your XP and cash, 8 players)
3 co-op modes (details to come)
Maps:
Airfield
French Chateau
Powerplays:
Powerplays are one-minute events that'll occur in blowouts to give the losing team a fighting chance (although the winning team can benefit, too).
Marked Man - A person on the winning team is marked, and the losing team gets 3 points if they kill him. Meanwhile, the winning team gets double cash for each kill and a special medal if the Marked Man doesn't die.
Cursed - The winning team sees all characters as skeletons and friendly fire is turned on. Each time the losing team gets a kill or the winning team kills one of its own, the losing team gets two points. Meanwhile, the winning team gets double cash for each member of the losing team killed.
Exposed - The winning team's location is revealed to the losing team. The winning team gets double cash for each losing team member killed.
Double Damage - Losing team inflicts double damage. Winning team earns double cash for each kill.
Boosters:
When you choose one of these abilities and use it, you earn experience points for it. So, you're leveling up your profile and your abilities individually when you play the game.
Booster Slot 1 Options
Come Here - See the opponent that killed you on your radar until he or she dies.
Retaliation - Spawn with the Power Weapon you were killed by.
Cloaked - Opponents won't see you on the radar and you can't be heard.
Weapon Expert - Gives you the ability to add additional mods to you weapons.
Booster Slot 2 Options
Back in the Saddle - Reduces your respawn time.
Bargain - Decreases the cost of Medal Kickbacks. (Special powers you set before the game and have to earn in a match.)
Power Hunter - See the location of Power Weapons.
Daredevil - When you taunt over a defeated opponent, you get extra ammo.
Medal Kickbacks:
Before you start a match, you decide which Medal Kickback you want to use. When you're out there on the battlefield and start earning medals, you start building toward your kickback. Get the amount of medals needed to use the kickback, and you can pull off the uber-maneuver. Not all Medal Kickbacks are created equally. Some cost more medals than others. Medal Kickbacks are activated by pressing up on the D-pad. Teammates will show the Medal Kickback icon near their player arrow when they have one activated.
Smoke Bomb - You vanish in a puff of smoke.
Speedy G - You get a speed boost.
RPG!!! - You instantly spawn an RPG.
Cluster Bomb - One grenade explodes into multiple grenades.
Guns:
AK-47, G-Mal and the Dragon Sniper round out the long guns. Pistols are also included, and the above Medal Kickback confirms RPGs.
Mods:
For your long guns, there are two -- clip size and Call Out (which shows the location of enemy you're aiming at to the rest of your team). For the pistols, you can increase the total amount of ammo and the rate of fire for the Arm Micro.
Characters:
If you choose to be a hero, you can be Nathan Drake, Sully or a treasure hunter. If you're going to be a villain, you're a pirate. However, remember that you can customize the hell out of these characters. Shirts, hats, sunglasses, and more will help you make your avatar your own.
Treasure Sets:
You can find treasure during matches. They appear for a short amount of time. There are different levels of rarity for Treasure Sets. Artifact Sets, Idol Sets, Relic Sets and Legendary Sets. Treasure Sets unlock "Appearance" items and "Emblem" parts. Some Treasures will only drop in certain Game Types or Maps. A Treasure Drop will be either money or a piece of a Treasure Set. Picking up a treasure will always award a Medal.
Paid Boosters:
You are given the option to purchase them before a game starts. They can be purchased at any time during a match by pressing start. Paid boosters use the money you've earned in the game and can only be applied to the current match.
Buddy System:
A Buddy can pick up a treasure for another Buddy. Doing so will award money but not the Treasure. A Buddy can spawn on another Buddy when they are not in combat. Buddies can high-five each by holding square next to each other. When Buddies take down a enemy together, an icon appears over the corpse and the Buddies can high-five each other. A Buddy can be abandoned by high-fiving with another teammate.
Mechanics:
Sprint has been added and is defaulted to R3. It can changed to L3 under Options. Grenades can be thrown back with the right timing. A grenade can be dropped while rolling or jumping. Ziplines are awesome -- you can shoot from them or throw a grenade.
Finally, I'll list the bonuses from pre-ordering from different stores.
Bestbuy: Regeneration Booster Allows you to "boost your healing power to recover from your wounds more quickly."
Amazon.com: Carpet Bomb Kickback - Allows you to "send out three grenades with a single throw to blanket your opponent – or take out a group of opponents – with multiple explosions."
Clip Size Mod for Para 9 or G-MAL - Allows you to increase the size of the bullet clip for your weapon of choice and "spend more time shooting your opponents before having to reload."
Gamestop: Creepy Crawler Kickback - Allows you to "turn into a swarm of deadly creatures for a limited time and overwhelm your enemies."
Walmart: Callout Mod for AK-47 - Allows you to "equip your AK-47 with a laser sight that enables your entire team to see the location of the opponent you are currently targeting."
Creepy Crawler Kickback
Conclusions:
So that's a lot of stuff. The powerplays seem like they will mostly be applied to deathmatch. There are so many more options than in Uncharted 2. The other facts that I left out are that you will have the option for multiple loadouts (combinations of boosters, kickbacks, and mods) and there are turrets located throughout the stages. So you will be able to change loadouts in between matches and hopefully during matches after respawning. It will be nice to have loadouts for specific situations (scoring the treasure, playing defense, countering situational/power weapons). Basically this is what I'm seeing after reading all of this:
Booster 1
Booster 2
Paid Booster
Kickback
Weapon Mod Long-gun
Weapon Mod Pistol
You get to choose all of that for one loadout. Everything looks good except for a few problems. They mention radar a few times and the call-out mod sounds a lot like situational awareness, but I was glad to see that call-out only shows the rest of team the location of the person you are aiming at. Cloaked is good to counter situational-ness, but you might not want to waste a booster on it. With all of this new stuff though, it's not that much to use 1 booster on. Everything weapon related (down the irons) will be a mod so boosters are freed up to just be random advantages. I like the idea of kickbacks because they're like a little powerplay or invincible star in mario kart. They last for a short amount of time and give you a huge advantage. The paid booster is nice if you really need to beat an annoying team talking trash. I forgot to mention that there is splitscreen that allows both players to sign into their psn accounts. I'm really excited for the buddy system. It'll be great to have a offensive squad and defensive squad.
Now, finally, my advice for loadouts:
My Loadout
Booster 1: Cloaked
Booster 2: Back in the Saddle
Paid Booster: (paid boosters aren't listed yet)
Kickback: Cluster bomb
Weapon Mod Long-gun: Clip size
Weapon Mod Pistol: Total amount of ammo
Worst Nightmare Loadout
Booster 1: Retaliation
Booster 2: Power hunter
Paid Booster:
Kickback: RPG!!!
Weapon Mod Long-gun: Call-out
Weapon Mod Pistol: Increased rate of fire
Pre-order bonus
BestBuy. Regeneration will be a good booster.
I can't wait to see what other boosters, kickbacks, and mods there are. These are just my choices for the beta. I'm sure they'll change. My biggest worries are the emphasis on radar and power weapons. Hopefully the other boosters will be good counters and bring balance to the whole system. It's going to be a whole new game with a lot more strategy. Turrets, ziplines, sprinting, throwing grenades whenever, boosters, kickbacks, mods, the buddy system, and powerplays will make it harder to get kills and outsmart other players. It's going to fun. Can't wait for June 28th.
- Matt
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