Platinum Get - Uncharted 3

Earlier today, I ended up picking up the final treasures I needed to get the trophy for getting all 100 (101 if you get the Strange Relic as well) treasures over the course of the campaign with a few chapter selections since, even following a guide, I still managed to derp-run past a few ones.  After that, it was just a matter of locating a Mag 5 and shooting enough people with it to get past the 30 toll on it.  (For those interested, chapter 8, stealth kill the first guy you encounter.)  And then finally to dip into Multiplayer for the first time, even though I activated the online pass the day after I bought the game.

I didn't know quite what to expect with Multiplayer as, on one hand I quite enjoyed Uncharted 2's offerings, even going so far as to actively participate in the Beta when it was around and then play a good portion of MP in the actual game well past the single required dip into each mode.  On the other hand, I generally dislike multiplayer shooting galleries because sometimes I am simply not good at them.  Sometimes I am, though!  I think it more depends on the game, really or maybe I'm just better at third person shooters than first, but regardless, my time spent with Uncharted 3's multiplayer was quite enjoyable.  My competitive mode match was fairly uneventful; Team Deathmatch, we lost, bleh.  I was Rank 1, of course, in a match with at least one 47, a 22, and a 55 (Though at least one of those was on my team) so I wasn't really surprised.  The highlight would be that I managed to score a melee kill on someone who I believe was Rank 27 by circling around behind them.

My Co-Op mode match, though, that is what I'm interested in talking about.  In a manner much like how I assume most people got their trophy or at least their start in Co-Op, I simply hopped into the Find Match setting which, quite counter to my Competitive attempt, plopped me right into a Co-Op Arena game with swiftness.  A game where I was Rank Three among two others who were Rank 45 and 42 respectively.  (I believe.)  Needless to say, I was a little nervous at the expectations here since my rank exposed my Multiplayer green-ness, though thankfully Co-Op revolves around more than just the visual representation of how long you've put into it.  Still, were that not enough, when it came time to select a difficulty, two votes were instantly cast for Crushing, near instantly ending all need for further input.  So, sufficiently challenged, I grit myself for the fight.

Apparently in Uncharted 3's Arena (In which you are simply supposed to survive a number of rounds of foes) every round also has a different sort of theme to it on top of that.  Our first round, as far as I could tell was simply "Survive and Thrive", as if any other gimmick was attached I simply missed it.  However, starting our second round, we had the ability to pick up treasures, much like in the mode specifically built around doing so, to take back to a chest for deposit to make some quick money while killing our foes.  I believe we captured two treasures before the end of it, which was fine enough for me.  The third round, however, is where everything went south.  I forget if it was called Siege or Turf War, but essentially, a piece of the map was squared out and only kills made while you were in that zone (you, didn't have to be the enemy as well) counted towards your score.

I'm not sure if it's a Crushing-exclusive amount or what, but we only had three 'lives' for the entire Arena battle, though thankfully the lives were only expended once we were all downed.  Which...well, happened.  A lot.  Enough to end the game for us.  The inclusion of some of the harder troops from the main campaign was definitely our downfall as an Armored Shotgunner invaded our 'base' as it were, very very slowly, and proceeded to murder us all while we were scrambling to kill him and revive our teammates.  The second rounds fared similarly unfortunately, though one loss was directly a case of ending up separated and slaughtered systematically.  Still, it was good fun and in the end, I'd ended up holding my own quite well, having only a $1-2K difference in score from my teammates and Kill/Death Ratios that were similar enough to not be outstanding one way or another.

When the trophy dinged, I was actually tempted to disregard it and just continue on playing, but I'd meant to play Sengoku Basara:  Samurai Heroes for some time now and ended up throwing that in instead to punch mans as Ieyasu Tokugawa.  I think if nothing else, it stands to reason that I like Uncharted 3's multiplayer if I have such a story of personal enjoyment from it and was only tempted away from it by the prospect of punching dudes.  Which, I suppose I could still do in Uncharted 3, but it's not quite the same.  Still, I could see myself coming back to it for Holiday events or the like, or just casually if I ever combat the deluge of games I still have and will still get in the time to come.  And with Platinum Trophy number Seventeen firmly in place, I can move on, for now, with an oh-so-pleasant feeling.