Nathan Drake Desk

The Union bar in London’s Greek Street played host to a very special event this afternoon. Representing The Pelican Inn from an earlier trailer shown for Uncharted 3, it was one of the first opportunities the public outside of the press were given the opportunity to get hands on with the game’s single player campaign. I was disappointed last month whilst at the Eurogamer Expo to discover that only the multiplayer part of the game was playable, although this event totally made up for it.

The bar itself had subtly been given the classy treatment with Uncharted 3 posters placed inside large golden frames and we were initially directed to the rear of the location which contained a few comfy sofas and a large HD TV with the Uncharted 3 start menu on screen. PlayStation Access, who had organised this event for fans had managed to secure a few members of the development team from Naughty Dog. The two “Dogs” that graced us with their presence were Justin Richmond (Game Director) and Arne Meyer (Community Strategist).

The session began with an hour long session that entailed a live play through of the recently revealed Chapter 19 – The Settlement with an extra few minutes of game play added on beyond what had been released to the public. Nothing significant was shown off in the extra few minutes other than the continuation of the shootout between Drake and the enemies and him crawling through a narrow crack between two walls. There were sniper rifle enemies and rocket launcher enemies thrown into the mix to vary the difficulty with some nice kill animations that made the crowd feel their pain.

After the play through the developers opened up to floor to questions. The majority of fans were very pleased at how co-operatively the questions being asked were answered. From the questions asked I will try and list the main points covered. The TriOviz 3D functionality announced for Assassins Creed Revelations yesterday will not be supported in Uncharted 3. The game will however support the Active Shutter and Passive 3D functionality provided by 3D Ready TV’s on the market. This is because Naughty Dog did not want to sacrifice the colour palette of the game for colour tinted glasses.

In addition there seems to be a major focus on multiplayer this time around. The co-operative adventure mode will return featuring a linked and more immersive storyline, and all co-op modes will be playable online and offline. You can also expect to see skins for characters from the previous Uncharted games and use them as playable characters in the third game’s multiplayer. The current PlayStation Plus beta progress will be carried over to the full game on release and Naughty Dog plan on releasing more maps and content in the weeks leading up to release. Announcements will continue to be made up until one week prior to release.

There will be no single player DLC released for the game but there are plans to expand the multiplayer and co-op elements through DLC. Not much has been revealed about puzzles in the game but we have been assured that there are plenty of new puzzles in this game and a special member of staff was hired to create these puzzles. Drake’s journal will provide hints rather than full solutions to puzzles this time around making it a more challenging and engaging experience. Finally you can expect the length of the game to be similar to Uncharted 2. I would expect it to be slightly longer clocking in between 25 and 30 chapters compared to Uncharted 2′s 23 chapters.

After the presentation and Q & A, the PlayStation Access team had set up a table with various objects relating to Nathan Drake and were dressing the fans up in gun holsters and a neck scarf so they could take a picture as Nathan Drake. I found this to be a nice touch to the event.

The part that everyone turned up for in the first place was being able to play the game themselves. We were treated to two levels of the game which had previously been revealed to the public, The Chateau and The Cargo Plane. I won’t go into the details as you can view the footage in many places across the internet but will give you my impressions. The game play felt solid and very familiar to previous Uncharted Games. The controls immediately felt natural and without second guessing, you knew which button to press when required.

The biggest change I noticed was the improved melee combat system. Enemies will now put up a struggle and Drake cannot start taking out thugs like Batman. You may throw three punches but then if triangle appears you have to press it to dodge a punch from the enemy and if the enemy starts choking you, mashing the circle button is your form of escape. A whole slew of new melee animations and outcomes have been added where it can be as simple as throwing a few punches and kicks to take an enemy down or stylish scenarios such as hitting them with the butt of your gun before knocking them out. You are also able to steal the enemy’s weapon through a well executed melee attack. All in all the combat feels much more dynamic and less predictable.

Another large change was the pacing of the game. Both scenes started of slow but turned into a fully blown set piece within minutes. Sneaking around the air plane vents one minute and two minutes later you are hanging out of the plane on the net of a cargo truck. The same situation carried over into the chateau level where one minute you are climbing across wooden beams, before the whole place is on fire and it quickly turns into a game of how do I get the hell out of here. These intense scenarios really bring a sense of excitement and get your adrenaline pumping, but I hope that they are spread out and well paced between slower platforming and puzzle sections.

Overall the event was fantastic for fans of Uncharted and I encourage PlayStation Access to continue organising similar events in the UK so the fans and community can immerse themselves more into the gaming universe of their favourite games.

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