Still, we managed to overcome them, moved on to an open courtyard with a crumbling central structure where tons of enemies poured in, dusted them and then went to grab a treasure hoard inside. Thinking all was well, we celebrated, congratulated each other and then realized we had to hold that position as more enemies moved in. This actually opened up the opportunity to pilfer a chaingun from one of the earlier armored grunts which we unleashed on the others with reckless abandon. It didn't just feel good to watch Sully tear through far-off targets, it felt great and was one of the most intense and enjoyable sections of our time playing co-op.

What was interesting was that the entire time we were playing, scores were being tallied. Things like rescuing or reviving other players, picking up treasure dropped by enemies and generally just staying alive doled out points, and despite it looking like your humble TPS representation was kicking ass, we actually ended up at the bottom of the pile. So much for playing support.

Quite literally speechless from the shock of just how gripping and straight-up fun the co-op was, we paused for a smoke and then charged into the game's competitive modes, namely Plunder (Naughty Dog's take on Capture the Flag where the flag was a huge, heavy statue that slowed down anyone who tried to pick it up and carry it back to "base" where a chest lay waiting to receive the golden idol) and Team Deathmatch.

Plunder was interesting in that the idol could actually be thrown to help chain a series of moves back to the home base. This was similar to the move where a propane tank could be scooped up and then lobbed at enemies to be shot, though obviously less explosive. The two Plunder maps, an almost marshy, lush area rich with browns and greens and a purple-slathered nighttime map that felt partially lifted from the final moments of the co-op portion were both rife with weapons, allowing us to pick through the various shotguns, revolvers, assault rifes and so on seen in the original Uncharted. Like that game, though, the M4 was still our best friend, and this time ammo was far more plentiful.

Team Deathmatch was fairly standard stuff, using the same maps as Plunder, but what struck us after we stopped sticking to cover and picking the same routes in both modes was just how much stuff there was to thread through. Rooms with multiple entrances and open areas where the flanks were constantly compromised fed into tighter corridors or snaking back routes, making for ample opportunity to get the drop on someone. But, and this is very important, this is an Uncharted game, and as a result, verticality played a huge role in approaching the levels. Not only were perches packed with sniper rifles and shortcuts to cross maps more quickly than down below, but were someone to be close to the edge of a perch, someone clambering up could yank them off and send them falling to their death.

Without being so dense with vertical areas so as to make it all confusing, combat in Uncharted 2 immediately felt more three dimensional; we had to watch out for attacks from above as much as from someone hiding behind cover off in the distance, and it's easily the biggest differentiating factor between what Among Thieves is doing vs. any other cover-based shooter. That the game still felt incredibly satisfying, though, is infinitely more important to us than any sort of gimmick. Thankfully, both were present in spades.

One little area where we were only allowed a few seconds to explore was the game's reward system, which includes things like perks (so running faster with big weapons or the new riot shield), plus medals for performing certain tasks (think of them like ribbons in Killzone 2), all of which seemed to tally up toward a bunch of progressive rewards. We were able to swap out our starting weapon load too, but the games would mysteriously seem to start juuuust as we started digging into the options. We'll make sure we update you once we've spent more time with the customization and rewards/perks system.

It really is hard to convey in words just how exciting the addition of multiplayer is. It's clear that, at least from a visual, traversal and level design standpoint that Naughty Dog isn't backing down from the combination of climbing and gunplay that made the first game so damned fun to play through even on Crushing difficulty. We said this multiple times during our experience with the game, but if the single-player is just as good as the first game, with characters and a storyline that's just as entertaining, then this is the game to beat this year, and at the risk of getting a little presumptuous, we're very, very tempted to declare this the front runner for Game of the Year 2009. And yes, that includes all platforms.

Doubt it all you want, but if you pick up an early copy of inFAMOUS, you'll be able to get into the multiplayer beta to see for yourself. In the mean time, take our word for it: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is bringing it. Hard.