In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, there was quite a hullabaloo last week regarding a popular gaming website embarrassingly admitting that they had published a preview on The Nathan Drake Collection from the Tokyo Game Show, erroneously believing it was actually Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. If that wasn’t bad enough, the writer who played the game labelled themselves an ‘Uncharted veteran’ and their preview centred on the fact the game felt ‘too formulaic.’ A cringeworthy moment in video game journalism we think you’ll agree, although like anything in life, mistakes happen, people move on. However, we’re not here to jump on the piss-taking bandwagon like some have. Rather, the whole affair got us thinking about something: Uncharted 4, in all honesty, probably will be formulaic, and is likely to attract quite a bit of criticism from some camps due to this come March 2016. And you know what? That’s perfectly okay with us.
Uncharted has never been about breaking new ground with each new instalment. Rather, Naughty Dog, the California-based studio that developed every Uncharted game bar 2012’s Golden Abyss on PS Vita, has opted for incremental improvements with each new adventure. This has allowed Sony’s resident misbehaving pooch to fine-tune the fundamental mechanics of Drake’s fortune hunting without deviating from an established paradigm; Uncharted 4 will no doubt follow suit, and it’s likely going to result in a brilliant game. A good example of fine-tuning can be found in what Naughty Dog is doing with the combat and environments. Locations are more open, but it’s not open-world; Drake has more options at his disposal for combat, but he’s no Ezio or Edward Kenway; our cocky hero can scale precarious rock faces a little more seamlessly than before with a pick-axe, but it doesn’t radically alter the flow of platforming.
In that sense, yes, Uncharted 4 is likely to be formulaic. It’s sticking to a formula, an established template that has allowed the developer to slowly evolve without, say, completely overhauling everything you know about the series—this isn’t going to be Naughty Dog’s Resident Evil 4, to put it bluntly. And that’s fine with us. Would you want Uncharted to go down a different path? Become an open-world game? Would you want Drake swinging like Tarzan from vines or going equipped with an assortment of James Bond-esque gadgets? Or would you rather him keep his feet firmly where the series has found success: as a cinematic, Hollywood-like blockbuster that marries adrenaline-pumped combat, state-of-the-art visuals, and top-notch voice acting. Combat is something that people frequently disparage when it comes to Uncharted, although this was never the main highlight of the series; it’s perfectly functional, and Naughty Dog has injected a little more variety to it with each new game, but you could argue that gameplay has sometimes played second fiddle to the superb production values inherent of the multi-million selling series.
So, to that end, yes, Uncharted 4 is probably going to be quite formulaic. And to be honest, we wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s still five months away from release too, so who knows what the Dogs have in mind—they may just surprise a few of the naysayers come launch day.
Uncharted 4 is due out exclusively on PS4 on March 18, 2016.