I Need Bigger Pockets.

[rionaleonhart]

Uncharted 3 is tonally and thematically quite a weird game, compared to its predecessors. The first Uncharted is very much 'Whee! Treasure! Explosions! Adventure! Fighting bad guys!' The second game is similar in feel, but with some darkness beginning to creep in around the edges; we begin to see that innocent people can get caught up and hurt in the wake of the destruction that follows Nathan Drake around. And then the theme of the entire third game is 'Nate, what the hell are you doing? You need to reassess your life before your stupid hobby gets everyone you love killed.'

It feels like the Uncharted series got a bit older and began to question its own existence. I wonder whether the fact that the third game was in development at the same time as The Last of Us had anything to do with it.

So I find it very difficult to imagine the Uncharted game that's supposedly in development for the PS4. Will it follow Uncharted 3 chronologically? Can you follow a game with the main theme of 'Nate, you have to stop going off and getting yourself shot at by millions of dudes for the vague possibility of treasure' with a game in which Nate goes off and gets himself shot at by millions of dudes for the vague possibility of treasure? Probably not. So will it be a prequel? Will it be about someone other than Nate?

I hope it's not about some random new treasure hunter with no connection to Nate at all. Unless it's, say, alternate-universe treasure hunter Ellie from The Last of Us. I'd be able to live with that.

I suppose Naughty Dog will probably end up surprising me, whatever they do. They do like to surprise. Uncharted 3, the third title in their ridiculous explody action game series, has a startlingly emotionally complex story. Jak II: Renegade, the sequel to gentle platformer Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, is basically Grand Theft Auto. I'm expecting the rhythm action sequel to The Last of Us any day now.


I've been watching a playthrough of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, incidentally, in the absence of a Vita. Nate's amazing pep talk to his companion when they're climbing around on ancient masonry: 'It's like the playground! Except if you fall here, you'll probably die.'

(Also pretty great: 'There's no such thing as an easy charcoal rubbing. You rub too hard, you tear the paper! You can get charcoal dust in your eye!')


In The Last of Us replay news: I love that Joel picks up Savage Starlight comics for Ellie. (He said 'I bet Ellie would like this' the last time I picked one up, and it was so fond.) Space is possibly the most precious thing in their post-apocalyptic world; you only have room to carry seven rifle rounds, for goodness' sake. But Joel will pick up these comics whenever he finds them, purely for the sake of giving Ellie a fleeting moment of enjoyment. I think that's a really charming detail.

(For charming detail appreciation purposes, let's ignore the fact that, despite limited space for supplies and weapons, Joel perplexingly seems capable of carrying every scrap of paper and Firefly pendant he comes across.)

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Ha! I used to read a lot of videogame magazines in my teens, so I'd already seen a Jak II review before it came out and was therefore prepared for a drastic change in tone; I can't imagine how I'd have reacted if it had come as a complete surprise.

[milliebee.livejournal.com]

I was still a pre-teen when Jak II came out, and it definitely was not aimed at me. I remember being really disappointed that they'd made the game all dark and miserable. I never played more than a few minutes of it, and never bought a copy of my own. I actually haven't touched the series since, which is a shame because I might appreciate the darker tone more now -- although my 'dark phase' kind of ended when I hit my twenties. :)