At the tail end of 2013, Sony and Naughty Dog revealed that an Uncharted game was set to launch on the PS4 exclusively but didn't give away any firm release date details for the title.
It’s been nearly three years since Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception was released for the PS3 and Uncharted: Golden Abyss was launched for PS Vita back in 2011. In our opinion it would make sense for there to be an Uncharted launch just in time for Christmas 2014.
Whether it will be called Uncharted 4 or Uncharted PS4 as Naughty Dog are simply calling it, this is the one place to get all the latest news and details on the next instalment of the hugely successful series.
Uncharted 4 Release Date
Casting our mind back to November 2013, the teaser trailler was shown off at a US PS4 Launch event with narration from American actor Todd Stashwick.
"We have great news for all our Uncharted fans – Amy, Justin and the team are hard at work on an amazing new instalment of the Uncharted series to be released exclusively on the PlayStation 4 system,” said Naughty Dog Community Strategist, Arne Meyer at the trailer launch.
“Our goal is to continue what we’ve done in previous console generations and once again deliver the best in storytelling, performance capture, technical innovation and graphics on the PS4. We can confirm that the voiceover is performed by Todd Stashwick and he will play a character in the game.”
Since the game was announced, Uncharted 4 writer Amy Hennig has left Naughty Dog after working on the Uncharted series for over a decade.
The Last of Us developer has since confirmed that her departure will not affect work on Uncharted 4.
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Uncharted 4 Trailers
The first and only Uncharted PS4 trailer was released in November 2013 and gives us very little information about the game’s storyline or locations. However, there are some clues embedded in the limited footage we’ve been shown, including a suggestion that Uncharted 4 could follow Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag’s pirate theme.
There are several clues in the trailer that point to Cape Agulhas (L’Agulhas) in the southernmost tip of South Africa. This ties in with the mention of Cape of Good Hope which is also in South Africa.
Near the end of the trailer it focuses on an island near Madagascar called Ile Sainte Marie. This island is one of the possible locations of a pirate haven known only as Libertatia, set up by Captain James Mission. Libertatia’s motto was “For God and Liberty”, which is then scrawled on the map in the trailer.
All these tips may suggest a pirate theme for Uncharted 4, but let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Uncharted 4 News
Sadly, apart from the teaser trailer we’ve had very little official news on Uncharted 4 from either Sony or Naughty Dog.
What we do know is that US actor Todd Stashwick is on board to voice one of the main characters in the game. From the teaser trailer, it seems he will voice a seemingly villainous character that will potentially become the main antagonist for our hero Drake.
However, some have suggested that Drake may not even become the main character for Uncharted 4, with Naughty Dog leaving him behind with the original trilogy. We’ll have to wait and see if more announcements start popping up around E3 to see if that’s true though.
Huge Uncharted 4 announcement due at E3 2014
In February, industry insider Ahsan Rasheed (aka @thuway) and his multiple Sony sources suggested that Sony has a huge Uncharted announcement in store for us at E3 in June.
“Whatever is happening behind the scenes, it’s got people excited,” said Rasheed in one tweet.
He then tweeted a list of six announcements that would be made by Sony at the annual gaming conference in Los Angeles:
“Things to look forward to –
1. DriveClub updated footage
2. PS4 VR and SSM [Sony Santa Monica] new IP
3. UC 4
4. Guerilla new IP
5. UC 4
6. The Last Guardian
The future for PS4. Oh so good”
What had us pretty intrigued was the fact Rasheed issued yet another tweet saying: “And yes, UC4 was posted twice on purpose”.
We expect Naughty Dog to unveil Uncharted 4 for the PS4 in all its glory, along with a separate PS Vita title related to the game, similar to the Golden Abyss release in the summer.
Read more: PS4 E3 2014 announcements leaked
Uncharted 4 – What we’d like to see
Ahead of more details on the the fourth Uncharted game from Naughty Dog later this year, we’ve had a think about what we’d like to see with Uncharted 4.
1. Make sure it stars Drake
It might make us sound like schoolgirls at a One Direction concert, but we’re not ashamed to cry “We want Drake” for Uncharted 4.
Some rumours have circulated since the teaser trailer that Uncharted 4 may not feature our favourite male adventurer, instead taking the form of a prequel or post-Drake title.
If Naughty Dog chooses to ditch Drake, it will be doing the series a disservice. Uncharted and Drake go together like bread and butter. The series is so synonymous with this cocky protagonist that it would be lost without him.
2. Improve the shooting mechanics
Throughout the series, we’ve often found the shooting mechanics to feel jerky, unresponsive and slow, especially in comparison with the fluidity of the surrounding gameplay.
In fact, there were so many complaints about the aiming inaccuracies in Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog actually had to release a patch for the game to fix the problems.
Despite the patch, we still found the heavy combat portions of the game very frustrating at times.
With Uncharted 4, Naughty Dog needs to find a balance between making the shooting parts challenging and rewarding, but not at the expense of still being enjoyable.
3. Take collectibles to the next level
One of the great things about Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the PS Vita was its wealth of collectible items. The series as a whole has always had a strong history of treasures, but never took them to the same level as Golden Abyss.
With the PS Vita title you could examine them, giving them meaning, a backstory and value to the overall storyline. After all, Drake is a treasure hunter and explorer by nature so why not make more of the hidden wonders he discovers along the way?
4. Introduce a bit of Tomb Raider climbing action
Uncharted games are well known for their fluid and intuitive platforming sessions, but sometimes they are far too easy to navigate. All you need to do is hold the analogue stick in the direction you want to move when climbing and occasionally press jump.
Tomb Raider made cliff climbing truly precarious – one wrong move and you’d see Lara Croft plunge to her death, which is something that we’ve never really experienced with Drake. As the game moves to the next-generation console, now would be a great time to overhaul some of those climbing mechanics to make it feel more realistic.
Perhaps Naughty Dog could even introduce some climbing tools like a pick-axe or ropes, just to mix it up a bit and play on Drake’s adventurerous side.
5. Make us use our brains a little more
We long for the game where puzzles make us properly scratch our heads with frustration. That’s not to say that the puzzles in Uncharted games thus far haven’t been perplexing, but we’d like our brains to be bombarded with less linear and more open-ended challenges in this PS4 exclusive.
Make use of Drake’s lust for exploration with the puzzles, make him have to search the locale from top to bottom in order to find clues to the solution.
6. Fully utilise the PS4 features
At the time of writing, we feel that inFamous: Second Son is the only title to take full advantage of all the PS4’s unique features, particularly the DualShock 4.
Uncharted 4 is one of the only games that we know of being specifically built for the PS4, so it would be a shame not to see the console's new features fully utilised.
The touchpad could be used to dust off some of the artefacts you discover along the way or the Six-Axis motion sensing system used to navigate your potential pirate ship for instance.
We’re sure that Naughty Dog will be able to think up some ingenious ways to incorporate all the new features, and we can’t wait to find out more.
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