E3 2014: Uncharted 4 Story Details Emerge, “Still Going to Be a Roller-Coaster Ride”

Since Sony capped off its E3 press conference Monday night with a trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, additional details on Nathan Drake's next outing have been released, including the first tidbits about its story.

An official synopsis for Uncharted 4 has been released, revealing what Drake will be dealing with (but not why): "The next generation of Nathan Drake will explore what it means when Drake is forced back into the world of thieves. He will embark on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. 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."

We learned recently that The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley were stepping in to head up Uncharted 4's development. A new video (watch it above) released by Sony features the duo talking about their approach to Uncharted, which they both have experience with after working in prominent roles on the series' first two games.

"Gameplay-wise, we're just going deeper and richer with all the mechanics. It's still going to be a roller-coaster ride." -- Naughty Dog's Bruce Straley

"[With] The Last of Us, we went to great lengths to try to create this reality, but we were still limited by the amount of overdraw the PS3 could handle, etc.," Straley says. "Now, the PS4 is allowing us to push so much more density, so it's fun to go back and go like, 'Oh, look at the things we wish we could have done in Uncharted 1, it's just like, this is easy, let's just make this.' It's nice to be able to explore something and look back and go, 'Wow, remember when we couldn't do any of this?' It's kind of neat."

While Druckmann and Straley are bringing with them some of the lessons learned from The Last of Us, that doesn't mean they're throwing away what has worked for Uncharted in the past. "Gameplay-wise, we're just going deeper and richer with all the mechanics," Straley says. "It's still going to be a roller-coaster ride; it's still going to have that pacing. We still want you on the edge of your seat, but at the same time, we want to make sure that you as players--I, as a player--want to play this thing and feel invested. And we want to make sure we have that with the epic, with the pacing, with the characters that we're known for."

Druckmann also spoke about "expanding Nate's core move set" and giving players "more options, more ways to approach; whether it's exploration, traversal, or combat, we're going to have more ways to attack those things."

As Monday's trailer revealed, Uncharted 4 will see the return of both Drake and frequent companion Sully. The game is scheduled to be released on the PlayStation 4 at some point in 2015.

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