Intervju: Uncharted 2

[UrgeLoL]

When Naughty Dog does something, it aims to do it properly. That's what Uncharted 2: Among Thieves game director Bruce Straley told us and he wasn't joking - when he answers a question he does it properly.

 

That said, we have one hefty, internet-snapping interview right here, in which Straley spills the beans on absolutely shed loads of new gameplay mechanics and details and describes the new direction for Nathan Drake.

 

So many details in fact, that we've split it into two parts for easy digestion. So stop messing about and tuck in...

 

Many reviews said that the original was a mix of tried-and-tested influences. Did you intend to play it safe with Drake's debut?

 

 

Bruce Straley: Our goal from the beginning of Uncharted was to capitalize on what we call the "comfort food" of the action-adventure movie genre and translate that into a satisfying, fun gameplay experience for the player.

 

By "comfort food" I mean those elements from the movies that people have grown up loving and associate so closely with the genre. If you were to make a sci-fi game or horror game, there are certain hallmarks that make up those genres that the developer would need to at least tip their hats to.

 

Basically we set out to use the action-adventure genre as our palette and paint a really good story, create compelling characters, and place them in exciting predicaments, just like our favorite action-adventure movies do.

 

Delivering that experience is something I think we've excelled at. I don't look at delivering a fun game as being safe or unsafe, but as accomplishing a very difficult goal that any game developer would be proud of had they made Uncharted!

 

A player's experience throughout the game is the key in crafting a satisfying experience. "How does the player feel when playing our game?", and "Do they finish it?", are an example of the big questions for us. We've found that an overwhelming amount of players have completed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. That tells us a lot about how successful we were to hook players into our game story and mechanics once they got the controller in their hands.

 

How have you approached the sequel in terms of giving the game more of a unique identity?

 

Straley: We looked at our review scores and the feedback on the forums only to discover that so many people got what we were doing with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and had a great time playing it. So in Uncharted: Among Thieves we're not looking to break the franchise, but really build upon the foundation we laid in the first game.

 

 

We've been hard at work on creating a new story to propel the game play. We got praised for our story in Uncharted and we don't want to lose what drew people into it. We worked hard to make Nathan Drake feel like a real person, and as grounded a hero as we've yet seen in video games. He's not your typical video game hero, destroying 50 foot aliens in his armored space suit.

 

He's a real dude existing somewhere on this planet right now, dealing with the people he's surrounded himself by, and the situations he finds himself in. Just like in a good movie, we've strived to make Uncharted a character-based story, meaning character motivations are driving the plot and the protagonist's decisions. We want to explore more of the cast characters around Drake and the pressures they apply on him in Uncharted 2.

 

Those characters that exist in this gritty, realistic side of the modern-day treasure hunting world, which is chock full of scavengers, backstabbers, and thieves. It's interesting to us to ask, "If you were a criminal, who would your friends be? Who would your lovers be? Who can you trust?" So, we're happy with what we're planning on delivering to the video game world in terms of a fresh story that's also going to provide some interesting game play events.

 

As much as we're pushing the story, we're pushing Drake's core mechanics to help parallel the needs the story requires. For instance we've got a really good set of traversal mechanics, which we've expanded upon in Uncharted 2, and a dynamic cover-based, run-and-gun combat system.

 

What if we combined them? Layer them up and we've now moved our combat spaces to anywhere, anytime in the environments, which also really changes the flow of the level. What if you could use a billboard you're hanging from as a piece of cover that you could shoot from? What if you could shoot from a set of monkey bars?

 

For example, Drake is climbing across a gap when he spots an enemy -- shoot or don't shoot, player's choice. In Uncharted 2 we're exploiting these two great mechanics by allowing the player to shoot from any movement state - running, walking, hiding in cover or climbing. The types of set-ups this allows us to create are really diverse. Ground based, vertical, horizontal spaces all come into play now. How you think about flanking an enemy may change completely.

 

 

The enemies need to accommodate for this as well, so we've allowed them to traverse the environments with a move set that is similar to what Drake has. They can flank you by jumping gaps, climbing ladders and jumping down from ledges - all of which are within their navigation system.

 

One of our other big goals in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is to capture what we're calling the "summer blockbuster" feeling in our game play. We've got a great story, and a great set of core mechanics, now we need to splice in those 'aw shit!' moments from those summer blockbuster movies we all love. We've added the tech to allow all of Drake's move set and combat mechanics on moving objects, which means if we want a building to collapse while you're inside, trapped in a fight, we can do that in the game! Our moving train is truly a moving train.

 

I think we're in a great position to give the player a lot of new experiences while playing Uncharted 2. If there was one thing we could hang our hat on it would have to be the sum of all of our parts, and the experience that that provides.

 

You've spoken about the first game having only used 30% of the PS3s power, and the sequel using closer to 100%. What direct benefits will the gamer get from the increased performance - will they be instantly noticeable?

 

Straley: Yes. No doubt. We're definitely utilizing more power from the PS3 this time around and it will certainly be noticeable in a variety of ways.

 

With Uncharted 2, the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 enables us to display more polygons on screen than ever before, which allows us to battle an even greater number of enemies and to create environments with an unprecedented level of detail. The lighting and shadowing systems in the engine have been overhauled, giving our artists the ability to create an even more immersive experience.

 

The rendering of our skies has been overhauled to include some more realistic light effects as well as a procedural layer to our cloud system, all the while retaining our artist-driven style. The AI has also been enhanced so that our enemies navigate the environments more realistically, react to the world around them, and behave in even more believable ways. We're pushing the snow rendering like we did with water from the first game.

 

If we do snow, we feel that it's got to be the best snow you've seen! We're also taking on fur and cloth this time. The list goes on and on. Anything we can improve upon, we do, all with the idea of giving the player a more immersive experience.

 

 

Basically, we've maximized the power available to us in the console and our updated engine by writing optimized code for the SPU processors and parceling out jobs to the SPUs in an efficient manner.

 

The PS3 is an extremely powerful piece of hardware as shown by what we were able to accomplish in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but we're always pushing the technology here at Naughty Dog. The programmers have been hard at work optimizing and adding new features to our game engine from the moment we shipped Uncharted.

 

In the Naughty Dog tradition, we're striving to push the hardware to its absolute limits.

 

The original looks incredible, and MGS4 seemed to push limits on the PS3. How much power is left to unlock in that console?

 

Straley: Thanks. It's hard to say exactly, as there are always opportunities to optimize and refine our engine to gain performance improvements and allow us to do more. I'm impressed with how our programmers are always finding new ways to utilize the Cell core and SPUs in increasingly more efficient manners.

 

There are constant innovations they're coming up with on how to store and stream game data and so on. In a nutshell, we feel there's always room for improvement and that means we can, and will, continually find new ways to squeeze more performance out of the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 and the PS3.

 

And each game has its own needs and the engines created for each game are going to be streamlined for their unique requirements. Ours is focused squarely on making the Uncharted games everything we want them to be and more.

 

 

We've seen snowy mountains and urban environments in trailers and screens so far. Can you tell us more about the settings Drake will visit, with examples if possible?

 

Straley: We want to show Drake more in his element this game - that is to say, more in "his world" in the Uncharted universe. So that's allowing us to consider a broader range of environments over the course of his journey in our new title.

 

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is almost a unique case in the cumulative experiences of Drake - he ends up stranded on this island in the middle of the south pacific, essentially forced to play out the events before him to get safely home again.

 

Drake's everyday world doesn't take place only on that island, just like it wouldn't be for most of us, unless we were really lucky or Richard Branson. He operates in the modern world, in modern environments and dealing with these very real characters. Of course, true to the franchise, he's still going to get thrown into a roller-coaster adventure ride that will allow us to take the player to some very diverse locales.

 

In Drake's world it's not unheard of to visit some unlikely locations to uncover the next piece of the clue chain, even if it is of questionable legality, or show up in a war-torn Nepalese city looking for a specific temple where an artifact is hidden, or wind up in the outer limits of the Himalayas in a hillside village. We want diversity in our environments as well as whatever is needed to backup the needs of the character arc we're trying to explore within Drake.

 

 

And of course here at Naughty Dog we're always pushing the art and the tech and trying to give our own take on the current-gen look. When we do a war-torn city, we really want to give the player something they've never seen before. Drake's journey will be filled with a lot of fresh environments for the player to explore, there is no doubt about that.

 

Look out for the revealing second half of our chat with Bruce Straley next week.

 

Kilde

[Bruker-104685]

What" klarer dem å lage bedre grafikk en det allerede det flotte spillet Uncharted Drakes Fortune

Holder på å spille Uncharted for 5 gang, men denne gangen er det på Hard

[Steamy]

gleder meg no så sinnsykt til dette spillet! håper bare at storyen blir like god som den forgje..

 

"We're pushing the snow rendering like we did with water from the first game.

 

If we do snow, we feel that it's got to be the best snow you've seen!!!!" :dribble: hvis de greier å lage like realistisk snø som de gjorde med vann i uncharted blir jeg vanvittig glad! elsker sånne "småe" detaljer i et spill

Endret 15. januar 2009 av Steamy

[Mala]

Dette her kan bare ikkje gå galt

[HerrGhost]

Holder på å spille Uncharted for 5 gang, men denne gangen er det på Hard

Off, Good Luck, har desverre enda ikkje hatt tålmodighet til det dør noen ganger også gidde eg ikkje mer skulle ønske eg hadde bedre tålmodighet, et av spillene som eg har lyst å ta platinum på

Men veldig bra artikkel

[Skogslik]

Grafikken i Uncharted er noe av det beste eg har sett, helt nydelig.

Runda det for første gang i går og.

 

2en blir velkommen med åpne armer

[Allt í lagi]

If we do snow, we feel that it's got to be the best snow you've seen!!!!" :dribble: hvis de greier å lage like realistisk snø som de gjorde med vann i uncharted blir jeg vanvittig glad! elsker sånne "småe" detaljer i et spill

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