While we patiently wait for Uncharted 4’s story expansion, The Lost Legacy, Naughty Dog has made the wait less stressful by giving us the previously promised co-op Survival Mode. Uncharted 4 was my personal pick for Game of the Year and it’s a game that I have yet to get tired of. As long as Naughty Dog continues to give us free content and updates, this masterpiece of a game will continue to stay in my gaming library.
To the common gamer, Survival may seem like just another run-of-the-mill horde mode. In a way, it kind of is. This new free expansion doesn’t create anything groundbreaking for wave-based shooters. What makes it worthwhile though is that it is just mindless over the top fun! That’s why I play video games, to have fun. In my opinion, what makes a multiplayer or co-op game memorable is those super fun moments you create with other players. While leveling up and getting more skillful is comforting, it’s those crazy “Oh my god! Did you see that!” moments that enhance the experience. This happened extremely often within my first 5 or so hours playing with my two friends.
To describe how this mode works, all I can say is that it’s like an RPG with Uncharted 4’s fluid and stylish combat. One shot to the head isn’t going to kill an enemy. They all have health bars and you’ll see damage numbers with each shot just like a lot of common RPGs. This is definitely not what we’re used to, but it’s a welcome addition. Some enemies may be spongey, but it never got frustrating. All of this leads to your one overall goal: survival all 50 rounds.
In order to never let it get dull and tiresome, the mode will throw you onto a new map every fifth round. With each round, the objective may add a modifier. In one round you may only be allowed to get headshots, and in the next you have to collect all the treasures on the map while fighting off enemies. When you get to the tenth round, you’ll face off against one of the extremely ridiculous bosses that will require patience and teamwork. Each boss has their own mystical abilities that make them tough to kill and constantly keep you on your feet. It’s best to never stay in one place as the bosses and enemies are ruthless, especially when you start the higher difficulties.
As you progress and level up, you’ll gain access to new weapons and mysticals that you can purchase with the money you earn during a match. Your stats do increase with each level as well, giving you an edge when you decide to tackle the more challenging Crushing difficulty.
That’s the basics of how the mode works. As I stated before, this mode is just pure entertainment and fun. Nobody buys an Uncharted game for the multiplayer or co-op, but luckily Naughty Dog is a developer who puts care into everything they do. These added modes never felt tacked on. You can tell the developers were just having an absolute blast creating this mode.
What makes every encounter interesting is just how unpredictable everything is. It’s extremely over the top and the combat is so frantic that there are times when you don’t even know what the heck is going on. Each of the round modifiers made us shake things up differently, as well as the bosses. The bosses are all varied, not letting you do the same tactic you’ve been doing for the last five rounds. One boss we encountered was a teleporting brute with a shredding minigun. His tactic would be throwing the Wrath of El Dorado mystical at you. Sometimes even two at a time, which caused my teammates and I to run like hell or we were finished. While it seemed tough, it rarely ever seemed unfair, we just had to change up our tactics and eventually we would prevail. Luckily dying only makes you start that specific wave over again. An upcoming Hardcore mode is set to release next year which makes survival mode totally unforgiving. Guess Naughty Dog wanted us to give us time to “git gud” before we took on this new difficulty.
If you want to see just how fun and exciting this multiplayer is, check out a little montage below I made of the random moments I had with my friends, as well as the hilarious fails we suffered through. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get revenge on this teleporting undead pirate who’s killed me numerous times! Enjoy!
