After taking time off from the fan-favorite franchise, Naughty Dog is returning to Uncharted for a truly next-gen sequel. This is a studio where story is king, so naturally plot details regarding Uncharted 4 are sealed away tight in some secret box at Naughty Dog's Santa Monica headquarters. But the developer has started cracking the lid on that box, just a little, and here's what we know -- and what we can conjecture.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End picks up Nathan's story several years after the end of Uncharted 3, where (spoiler alert!) the treasure hunter and his lady love Elsa sailed into the sunset of happy marriage. Nathan effectively retired at the end of that game, but the teaser trailer shown at E3 2014 reveals that something has "forced" him back into treasure hunting. His voice-over in that trailer specifically states, "It's not like I have a choice," as he's imploring Sully to join him for one more adventure.
According to the developer, Uncharted 4 sends Nathan Drake on a "globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure." Naughty Dog adds, "It's his greatest adventure yet and will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he's willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves."
The elephant in this room is obvious: Where's Elsa? It's worth noting that in the trailer; Nathan can be plainly seen still wearing his wedding ring. What could have happened that's big enough to make Nathan leave his wife behind to go back to the dangerous world of treasure hunting? The smart money is on Elsa finding herself in some kind of calamity. Is she in danger, or (gulp) worse? The developers at Naughty Dog have proven cold-blooded in the past, so anything's possible.
Whatever Uncharted 4 brings, it can be counted on to push the PlayStation 4 to its highest limits. The brief footage in the trailer was rendered in Naughty Dog's shiny new engine, which runs at 60 frames per second at full 1080p resolution. Graphically, the developer claims that Nathan's appearance in the new game uses more than double the polygons used in The Last of Us for main character Joel. Speaking of The Last of Us, watch the video below to learn about how directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley are bringing everything to Uncharted that they learned from the experience of crafting their post-apocalyptic game of the year.
