While it’s seen its fair share of drama in the past–everything from a twitter quibble over concept art, to it’s release date getting pushed back to May–Uncharted 4 looks to be one of the most emotionally charged games Naughty Dog has put out. Already announced as the end of Nathan Drake’s narrative, it looks like developers are looking to end things with a bang. The game’s director Neil Druckmann was quoted during an interview given with IGN, saying:
I think people will discuss the ending. If focus tests are anything to go by, there will be some arguments about the ending. I’m excited. Indifference would be the worst thing. I would rather have people hate it than be indifferent to it. We’ll see how they react.
It looks like there is a lot riding on Uncharted’s next installment, as it is following on the coattails of their most recent game, The Last of Us, which was known for its exceedingly excellent reviews and successful sales. However, the developers remain optimistic in their abilities–after all, practice makes perfect according to an interview they gave to Gamespot:
We also borrowed optional conversations. In The Last of Us, every now and then, a little bubble would appear and you could choose to engage with characters or not. We’re using some of that in Uncharted 4, either to flesh out a conversation or for one of the non-player characters to comment on something. For people who want to engage with the story more, it’s there. For people who want to just plough on ahead, they can do that.
…the goal is to tell a story that the player can empathise with. When you tell a human story, it doesn’t matter whether it’s dark and people are dying and it’s grounded in our reality, or if it’s a more stylised reality.
Naughty Dog continued to add unique additions to Uncharted 4 with Nate’s journal–a new system where stumped players can consult to “do do a little sketch” instead of backtracking with plain mission statements, as you usually see in other games’ journals.
Players can also look forward to gameplay with stealth oriented sequences similar to the Metal Gear Solid series (aka: pretty challenging).
Lastly, the developers are adding fodder to the hype fire by releasing new gameplay footage, which can be view below.
Uncharted 4 will be out next month on May 10th, hopefully sans additional delays, for Playstation 4 exclusive. How this might play into the PS4K, we still do not know.