Uncharted 2 – has Naughty Dog gotten too serious? (pic: Sony)
A reader is glad to hear rumours that Naughty Dog is not involved in the next Uncharted and hopes the new developer will shake things up.
As everyone’s thoughts turn to the next year in gaming it’s odd how the release schedules show a lot of interesting looking games with exact release dates, but none of them are Xbox or PlayStation exclusives (unless you count DLC or the PlayStation VR2). Nintendo has a few scheduled, but the closest Sony has come to revealing its plans is saying that Spider-Man 2 will be out in the autumn. Whether they’re keeping things secret or they simply don’t have much to talk about is a mystery, but it does seem as if a new Uncharted is on the cards.
There seems to be at least two separate rumours about Sony trying to make a new Uncharted, with the first attempt starting at Naughty Dog and then going on to Bend Studio, who apparently didn’t want to do it. Then just this week there’s talk of a new game being made at a different, unnamed studio.
I don’t think you need many insider contacts to know that Sony would want to make a new Uncharted, given the success of previous games and, most importantly, the recent Tom Holland movie. However, every rumour so far seems to agree on one thing: that original developer Naughty Dog is not making the game. I for one am relieved to hear that, as I just don’t think they’ve got it in them anymore.
Naughty Dog is obviously a very talented developer but they’re also one whose range has shrunk more and more over the years. The more celebrated they’ve become, the less interested in gameplay they’ve become and while that has led to some great narrative games, I think we’re soon going to learn that there’s little reason The Last Of Us couldn’t have just been a TV show in the first place.
The Last Of Us is what it is though and I’m not here to criticise it, even if it does upset me how little gameplay change or innovation there is in the second one. That’s one of the reasons I don’t want Naughty Dog to do another Uncharted but the other is that they’ll just make it too grimdark and serious. Uncharted 4 was already going that way, as the tone was noticeably different since they turfed Amy Hennig out (which is a whole other story worth getting it).
There seems to be an inability at Naughty Dog to just have fun and an insistence on making everything serious and it’s just exhausting. The Last Of Us Part 2 went on and on forever and everything was so dark and miserable and depressing, which I assume is also going to be the case for the TV show as well. I think given the world today that’s not a message we need reminding of, and we could actually do with something more upbeat.
There’s also the problem that Uncharted has been copied so much by basically every other third person action adventure around that the whole shtick has become very cliché and predictable. When rival games are only distinguished by what colour the markings are, for what ledges you can jump on, I think it’s time to say that the formula needs a shake-up, and I really don’t think Naughty Dog are the right people for that job.
The franchise needs a proper reboot, not in terms of story necessary but in terms of gameplay. It can’t just be the same platform action anymore; it needs to be bold and inventive and take full advantage of next gen PlayStation 5 technology. It needs to be the thing that everyone else copies for the next 15 years, until it needs another reboot.
I don’t know, or even really care, who it is that does this – this isn’t one of those developer X should definitely take over the franchise things – I just want new blood to work on the next game and give it the kick up the ass it needs.
I’d also like it if it worked out and Naughty Dog saw it, and they asked themselves whether they would’ve been as bold and inventive. And if the answer is no, as I suspect it would be, maybe that will make them think twice before they start work on another grimdark game that plays exactly the same as all the others.
By reader Grappler
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A reader is glad to hear rumours that Naughty Dog is not involved in the next Uncharted and hopes the new developer will shake things up.
