Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Preview - E3 2017

The follow up to the finale to Drake’s adventures in Uncharted 4 is Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. In this new, standalone adventure, Chloe Frazer (Claudia Black) from Uncharted 2/3 returns, with her partner in crime Nadine Ross, who we saw in Uncharted 4. Chloe is on the hunt to recover an ancient Indian artefact, keeping it out of the hands of a ruthless war profiteer, Asav, played Usman Ally. The two venture into the mountains of India’s Western Ghats to search for the ruins of the Hoysala Empire and recover the legendary Tusk of Ganesh. At E3 2017, I got a look at an extended gameplay demo, highlighting the series’ hallmark of exploration, action, and discovery.

We open in the heart of the Indian jungle, perched precariously on a jagged slice of rock upon high. Beyond us, forest and thick jungle roll out towards the horizon. Chloe and Nadine share a bit of banter, and we’re reminded that the dynamic of Nate and his various partners has been taken in another direction. Obviously, the hints of sarcasm are still present, but it’s more buddy-cop, in that the main story crux is focused on the characters learning to work together, with no pre-standing relationship.

Chloe whips out the rope, which made its debut in Uncharted 4. She and Nadine swing across a gap and then must navigate their jungle environment: the usual scaling of walls, hopping over obstacles. While there were overtly no new mechanics on show, climbing looked smooth and the two exchanged some quips.

Soon, the dense jungle gave way to a seemingly abandoned temple: walls lay crumbling; vines were suffocating ancient pillars and bursting out of the flagstones. For someone not too versed in ancient Indian architecture, only referencing previous games, or Indiana Jones, it certainly seemed authentic enough and beautifully designed.

Of course, it couldn’t last.

Enemies appeared out of the woodwork and began redecorating the temple with bullets from automatic rifles. Chloe dove for cover behind a crumbling wall, which promptly disintegrated under a hail of bullets. The aspect of destructible cover sure added shot of urgency to proceedings. I find chest-high wall shooters a little boring these days, and enjoyed Uncharted 4’s sense of verticality in battle, and the fact enemies flank you. The same happens here, but the chaos has been cranked up a couple of notches. Our temple battle arena is already cramped; while there are no taller structures to surmount, it’s split up into short ledges. Pathways are choked, guards are all around, so we had to constantly scurry from one safe spot to the next, popping off a few shots or exploding barrels (because you always need the latter when surveying an ancient ruin).

To make matters worse, in a scene reminiscent of the market gunfights Uncharted 2, a giant armoured truck crashed through a temple wall and began raining fire upon us. You can’t put a dent in the beast, so you have no choice but to flee. Like all Uncharted games, battle set pieces like these have a very cinematic feel to them, especially when it throws in a couple of QTEs—which I really don’t mind.

Chloe and Nadine managed to flee from the truck, into the temple proper. Convenient. They crept through ruins, observing the results of ancient rituals—skeletons, veins in the brick to collect blood, your standard ritualistic tools. However, I didn’t get to see much of the dungeon exploring, unfortunately. While the puzzles have never been real brain-scratchers, there was always an interesting bit of lore or character interaction, which I felt was missing here. And, compared to the action, the divide was 15% ledge jumping, 75% combat, and 10% exploring. Eventually, you enter a chamber and climb a wall—which the truck, from before, promptly ploughs through.

Now, I know it’s a preview, but I still have to nit-pick. You have some egregious story/gameplay segregation here. Chloe and Nadine have just mown down a ton of mercs, but one knock down and one dude with a gun and they’ve totally lost the upper-hand? C’mon.

Anyway, we get to see our villain because reasons. Even though we’ve not seen too much of his acting or motivations yet, Asav seems to put on quite an engaging performance. The animations and visuals look, as you would expect from Naughty Dog, fantastic. While I’m unsure about just how Chloe and Nadine will develop throughout the story, they do have some rather large boots to fill when it releases in August this year. Whatever happens, I’m on board with Naughty Dog’s next adventure.