Multiplayer First Impressions

So I've played a couple hours worth of the multiplayer beta (yes, I was one of the ones downloading it at 12:01am :P ) and I made it to level 4, and I've got some mixed feelings about it. Parts of it are quite good, parts aren't really for me but might be good for other players, and some parts are not so good.

My thoughts and observations:

-- It's a bit buggy. Obviously. Not as bad as it could be, but it does need some ironing- animation issues (particularly for Sully), little glitches that catch and immobilize you, weird places that mess with jumping, and a couple of times I've had matches just black out and either end or bring us back to the beginning. According to the forums, one that EVERYONE is having is that trying to quit the Beta restarts your PS3, which happened to me too. This isn't really a judgment against it though, just things to watch out for.

-- The controls ARE a bit different. Grenade launching does not require the SIX-AXIS controls anymore, although you can use them if you want (also if you forget and try to use the non-existent zoom/centered-look by hitting L2 you'll accidentally drop a grenade right in front of yourself- oops!). Melee is simplified to hitting [] twice (instead of [] ∆ [], or [] repeatedly) which may not be the case in the real game...but I'm not counting on it.
Most irritating, though, is that you can no longer press X to flush out from behind cover. It just makes you jump up the wall, which gets REALLY frustrating when there are things like doorways that you can climb up on but not actually go anywhere from. Hitting O just makes you roll to the next cover, or jump out randomly into the street, or maybe just makes you stop taking cover. I'm definitely leaving feedback about that, because as far as controls go it's my biggest issue. (∆ still does all the same stuff-- action button and pick up ammo, treasure, plus propane tanks and riot shields, etc.)

-- Now, I personally am not a huge online multiplayer shooter gamer what-have-you. I prefer single player, or local/in-person multiplayer at the least, and this is my first *real* online gaming experience. So I naturally suck at the deathmatch and capture-the-treasure. I am getting better...but very slowly. For me there's a definite learning curve, but some of the people who have been yammering into their headsets have said that they find it very VERY easy. I imagine it will take me a bit more practice, but if you're seasoned then you might find it pretty easy to level up.

-- Leveling up, or more accurately "increasing your rank" I guess, is controlled by how much cash you earn in matches. Cash is earned mostly by killing people, and secondly by assisting a kill. I don't think you lose any for dying.

-- There are WAY more guns to choose from if you can find them (which obviously means more gun choice in single player), and they handle a bit nicer, particularly the automatics which do not get quite as sporadic on rapid fire. Some of the new ones took time for me to get used to, since I don't play many shooters and I don't know much about guns that I haven't learned from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Example: the FAL shoots three quick, high-powered bullets but takes a bit more time between shots, something that might be standard practice in games but I wouldn't know, and got me killed a couple times as a result.

-- The interface is pretty nice, very user friendly once you poke around a bit. There are lots of tips on the loading screens, and the loading times are fairly short too. You can change your "profile" preferences so that you load as a specific character in deathmatch/plunder (co-op is randomly assigned I think, although it might go by rank, I'm not sure). You are also given a bunch of "bonuses" you can apply to your weapons, things like improved accuracy with automatic guns or pistols, or carrying more ammo, or picking up more ammo, or more bullets per clip. I haven't noticed the difference too much, but that's more because I'm just trying to stay alive more than anything else.

-- There's been roughly 2200 players online at any given time for a while now, and it's usually not too terribly long of a wait to get placed in a match. Respawning feels like it takes forever, ESPECIALLY in co-op, where if you die you get knocked out until the remaining player(s) hit a co-op section and you come back. But until then it is boring. They recommend helping your teammates by telling them where enemies are, and the camera system they have set up for that is cool, but no good without a headset.

-- It seems to me that for the deathmatch, especially the Nepal War Zone, the Hero team has a MUCH more defensible position than the Villain team. Granted that you're supposed to be out there moving around and stuff, and it did get a bit more manageable with practice, but where you're starting seemed to me to be easier to access sneaky locations.

-- Speaking of sneaky locations, none of the places that look good for stuff like sniping and picking people off are 100% secure. There is always some way that someone can sneak up on you or shoot you, which is frustrating in gameplay but in principle is really good since it keeps things fair.

-- And, as always, the graphics and cinematics are lovely. The color palates tend towards one shade though (tan, grey, or blue, depending on the setting), even if there are nice bright bits of color. I think this is standard in all online multiplayer shooters though :P

I need to play more and get lots of practice in, but these are my first impressions. I can already assure you that I prefer the co-op over the competitive, but that's just one person's opinion.

Links to official reviews will follow soon, no doubt.