Uncharted 4: Thief’s End extended gameplay demo shows incredible promise

If you weren’t lucky enough to get to see the behind closed door demo, no worries, as Naughty Dog recently released their full E3 demo to the public. No doubt Uncharted is going out with a bang — the graphics looked crisp, the action was over the top and we were slightly introduced to some new faces and got to see the return of some familiar ones.

The lengthy 16 minute demo displayed some new things Nathan picked up on since we last met. For instance, we will have the ability to drive a car. Sure, it's probably only during set pieces like the one from the demo, but nonetheless we still can drive. We also got to see Drake’s new grappling feature which seems to be cool, though my guess is that we’ll also see it in some form to solve puzzles. But the most interesting thing about the demo was that we got to see a little bit more of Sam, Drake's older brother who will be voiced by who other than.. Troy Baker. This should be an interesting aspect of Uncharted 4 as it throws a new wrinkle into the story. Up until now it has been mostly Drake and Sully, but now throw in Drake's older brother and the chemistry changes up completely. Both actors, Nolan North and Troy Baker, are friends in real life so the acting will most definitely be authentic.

Naughty Dog is excellent at making the small details stick out in their games, from Drake being completely covered in mud, to the clothes rack attaching to your vehicle after crashing into it, all the minor effects create a more realistic and immersive experience for the player. It has been stated by Naughty Dog that they will keep Uncharted 4 locked at 30fps. Originally, they planned to make it 1080p/60fps, but they decided to keep it locked at a steady 30fps instead. As of now this will only be for the single player story mode, they do plan to have the multiplayer run at 60fps.

The departure of Amy Henning, director of Uncharted 1-3, had me slight worried. The game had been in development for so long and for Amy and half of the team to ‘leave’ , Uncharted 4 looked to be in some deep trouble. But with the new addition of Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, it brought some hope back to Uncharted. These guys directed the critically acclaimed  game, The Last of Us, so they know what their doing. Showing from the demo, the game doesn’t look too far off from a finished project, it looks to me that we won't see another unexpected delay and we will indeed get that Spring 2016 release date Naughty Dog is hoping for. And for players both new and old to the series, you could pick up the Nathan Drake Collection on October 9th to experience Uncharted 1-3 and touch up on Drake's story before what seems to be the finale of the franchise. Plus you get exclusive beta to Uncharted 4's multiplayer.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End suggests that it will be the last installment of the ‘Uncharted’ series, from a surplus of rumors to an actual statement from Nolan North, voice actor of Nathan Drake himself.

“It’s bittersweet but at a certain point you want to go out on top. If this is the last one indeed, and I believe it’s the last one – nothing’s confirmed, but I believe it’s the last one Naughty Dog wants to do, in which case I hope somebody else doesn’t pick up the mantle because they’ve done it so well for so long – but yeah, it’s one of those things where you just have to cross that bridge when you get to it. I like the idea of going out on top so we better do a hell of a job with this one… and it’s already looking pretty good.”

Regardless of what happens to our hero, Naughty Dog will create a phenomenal story. Uncharted 4 is definitely a game to keep your eye on heading into 2016.