E311 Preview: Uncharted 3 is Hollywood-level set pieces and blockbuster spectacles

E311 Preview: Uncharted 3 is Hollywood-level set pieces and blockbuster spectacles

Uncharted 3

I want to be Nathan Drake.  He’s handsome, scores with incredibly hot blondes and brunettes, and lives a life that the Most Interesting Man would envy.  And while I can’t develop Nolan North’s voice overnight, thankfully Naughty Dog will be bringing the latest game in the series, Uncharted 3, to shelves this November.  I guess that’ll have to do… for now.

So, when I had the chance to sit in on a single-player demo of the game, I jumped.  Like, literally jumped, into through the doorway and into a room designed to look like an old cargo room.

The demo I saw basically leads up to the scene that Sony showed during their press conference. In this case, Drake and Elena need to sneak into an airplane hangar to escape elitist adversary Katherine Marlowe’s goons. The scene has them running and jumping along rooftops — is that Drake’s favorite way to travel, or what? — before finally splitting up just before the hangar.

Uncharted 3

As Drake punches and shoots his way to plane, it starts to taxi down the runway.  Back comes Elena, now in a Jeep, to scoop up Drake and chase the plane.  The player takes control of the vehicle, aligning it with the front wheel of the plane.  Drake makes a daring leap onto the wheel, climbing up and into the plane.

As the plane takes off, Nathan fights along through the cargo hold before one of the mercenaries opens the bay door, trying to force Drake out.  Instead, Nathan lets loose a parachute latch that launches a car out of the hold, taking the adversary with him.  In typical big-production Uncharted fashion, drake gets caught in a net that launches him out of the bay, leaving him hanging for dear life while the plane zooms into the atmosphere.

End Scene.

Yup, the Most Interesting Man in the World has nothing on Drake.