“Uncharted 3 provides an unparalleled cinematic experience that you really can’t get from any other form of media," enthuses Naughty Dog’s Arne Meyer, in an exclusive chat with PSU about the third instalment of Nathan Drake’s PS3-exclusive adventure.
Arne, who works as Naughty Dog’s community strategist, is exhausted, and unsurprisingly so. Since the official unveiling of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, he has spent most of the time on the road, visiting a host of countries and spreading the word about how the series has evolved into this latest narrative-driven, cinematic show-piece. With the game set to launch in the first week of November, we hooked up with Arne at the Uncharted 3 event in London, where he was making one of his last major appearances before he takes some much-needed time off.
Any fan of the series will tell you that Uncharted isn’t just about the gameplay and, unsurprisingly, this event was geared just as much toward telling us about the pain-staking work that has gone into the overall production as it was about highlighting the major new game-enhancing features. A combination of high quality production values, bigger and more spectacular interactive set-pieces and in-depth story-telling have all gone into Uncharted 3 in order to take gamers on an interactive and immersive adventure.
One of the major things we’re looking forward to is seeing how the narrative helps drive the gameplay. Fans will be looking forward to see how existing relationships develop and how the interactions between cast members help shape Drake’s adventure. "If you look at the top movies, it’s the stories that involve deep interpersonal relationships that shine," says Arne. "That’s always been a big focus for us in Uncharted, but even more so with the relationship between Sully and Nate which evolves throughout the adventure in Uncharted 3."
This "bromance," as Arne calls it, is mentioned in the same sentence as the word “corruption,” suggesting that we could be in for some shocking revelations. Could Sully, who has been a mentor to Nate for so long, actually betray him? Naughty Dog has made no secret that Uncharted 3 will be full of deceptions, but who deceives who remains one of the major unanswered questions that all fans will want to know – proof that the Uncharted series has taken us on a journey that captures the mind.
Arne isn’t revealing anything just yet and quickly switches chat to the new villains in the game, who have far more interesting and in-depth personalities than previous villains in the Uncharted series. Heading up a secret society, Katherine Marlowe and her right-hand man Talbot, wield power through influence and deception as opposed to guns and brawn. Arne says that we won’t tackle these villains head-to-head in boss battle-style encounters but mini-boss battles will occur (perhaps against their henchman or, as some journalists believe, against Sully himself. "The new melee system has enabled us to feature mini-boss melee fights," reveals Arne.
Indeed one of the major new features in Uncharted 3 is the new level of interaction that the new melee system brings, and Arne is keen to tell us more. "This is a really complex context-sensitive system, and there are some awesome visceral moves,” he says. “If you’re near a table, for instance, you might pin an enemy over it, or smash his head into a pillar. The melee move depends on the distance and angle of the attack as well as the objects that are around you. If there’s a bottle lying around, Nate might pick it up and smash it over an enemy’s head.”
Arne continues: “You can play the same sequence many times and still have different finishing and melee moves. There are ones that even we haven’t seen yet that only our animators know about.” Arne tells us that his favourite move is throwing a gun at an enemy, who then tries to catch it giving you time punch him in the face. “Finishing moves are ultimately very satisfying,” he says.
The melee system looks set to bring a refined balance to the combat system with both melee and gun-play affording gamers with two different play-styles. During the campaign, Uncharted 3 encourages you to switch play-styles tactically, sometimes forcing you to stand back due to sheer numbers of enemies and pick them off from a distance, while other times placing you in cramped surroundings where melee attacks are far more effective.
During the limited time we had with Arne, he was keen to talk about the multiplayer and let us know how it has evolved from the previous title, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. “We’re providing a deep level of customisation,” he says. “We want players to be able to customise the way a character looks and how they play, giving players the freedom to change load-outs and modify weapons.”
Uncharted 3’s multiplayer has been streamlined to be more flexible, accessible and rewarding. As a direct result of community feedback, enhancements include the ability to drop into multiplayer games, an unprecedented variety of game modes (including a new death- match mode) and deep social integration.
The addition of Facebook integration, which will allow players to convert treasures that they find in the game into cash and share them with Facebook buddies, is an innovative move. “When you’re playing online you often play with people that you don’t know. We wanted to find a way to make it easier for you to hook up with friends,” says Arne. “You have a ton of friends on Facebook and a lot of them play games. We wanted to leverage that friends list and give you a way to find even more friends to have a much better social experience while playing the game. It’s all about creating a better multiplayer experience.”
With a progressive ranking system, medal unlocks, dynamic environmental effects, boosters and kick-backs, the Uncharted 3 multiplayer looks the complete package, providing a wholesome, balanced and rewarding experience that may have set a new benchmark for online games on the PlayStation 3.
So, what about the future of the Uncharted series, we wonder? Well, Naughty Dog hasn’t finished with the PS3 just yet. “At the end of every game we’ve said we’ve maximised the power of the PS3. But there’s always ways to optimise the code and make things more efficient. We’re always finding ways to do that even better,” says Arne. "It still provides us with a challenge from a technical and gameplay side and we still feel that there are stories to tell that’s why we’re sticking to Uncharted."
So where would you like to see Drake’s next adventure set, we ask Arne? “Fiji, so we can have a great holiday,” he jokes, but then reveals that the team have been discussing it. “We were talking about that recently…we’ve seen some incredible countries,” he says. “We don’t want to choose a location typical to the action adventure genre, but somewhere that has a rich history – places in Scandinavia and Portugal are great – I mean the Portuguese ruled half the word at one point. It’s about finding places that have a deep history.”
With each iteration the Uncharted series improves and it’s hard to imagine what the Naughty Dog developers will come up with next. For now though, all eyes are on Uncharted 3. Are the set-pieces that we’ve seen nothing but visually impressive gimmicks? Can the gameplay possibly live up to our expectations? Will we be satisfied with the how relationships develop and the final outcome? Will the multiplayer keep us engrossed for months to come? These questions and more will be answered shortly. Stay tuned to PSU over the coming days for a host of Uncharted 3 features, an exclusive Uncharted-themed podcast and, of course, the full review next week.