Naughty Dog recently held a closed-doors demo for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the footage from which shows a visually stunning Madagascar and design philosophies the studio likely picked up while making The Last of Us.
As PlayStation's Sid Shuman said on the PlayStation Blog, Naughty Dog is taking a “wide linear” approach to level design in Uncharted 4. In short, the game’s overall linear path is littered with optional side routes and opportunities to explore, making the way forward considerably more diverse than earlier, by-the-nose Uncharted games.
The Last of Us shows up again in the game’s abundant dynamic dialogue. In addition to your standard suite of reactionary yelps, protagonist Nathan Drake and support characters Sam and Sully all comment on the goings on of the world. Shuman points to Sam and Sully’s quips as a particularly enjoyable addition.
“Uncharted 4 is plastered with these tiny bits of narrative wallpaper,” he said, “and based on what I played, the game is immeasurably richer for it.”
One of the demo’s more prominent mini-narratives involves the winch on the jeep the trio uses to traverse the arid backroads. Drake and Sully go back and forth on the usefulness of the winch throughout, and come to a head when the device is needed to scale a slick muddy hill.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will release on PS4 May 10.
Source: PlayStation Blog
