Warning: Small Spoilers Ahead
When gamers find out these days that a game will be getting DLC an unrelenting force of sighs can be heard blowing in the east. However games like Fallout, The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption for example have proven that DLC (or expansions when DLC is done right) is not all that bad and could potentially add more to our games if every developer could do justice to the so called hated practice.
When I think of all the games I’ve played on over the years which would be ripe for DLC my number one game would have to be Uncharted. Now you are probably wonder “Didn’t Uncharted get DLC” and yes you would be right, Uncharted did get DLC however this was in the form of Multiplayer content which was all about map packs, like every other Multiplayer DLC pack. However what the game didn’t have was Single player DLC, now some believed that this was because NaughtyDog had created their story and they didn’t want to intrude gamers experience with it by making DLC which would be added into that but with the Last of Us it’s been proven that NaughtyDog are quite capable in making Single player DLC, so the question is “Why did Uncharted not get the same?”.
In my opinion the DLC NaughtyDog could have done for Uncharted might have been the best Single Player DLC content a developer could do with a linear, cinematic story driven game. The Story expansion would not intrude on the main game by adding new levels within the story but like the Last of Us DLC “Left Behind” the content would have focused on adventures with other characters.
If you pay attention within the game you’ll see that Nathan Drake, our main central character of the Uncharted franchise, usually ends up splitting up with the companion he is travelling with during a level when he is whisked away and ends up pressing on alone. So when Drake leaves his companion behind what exactly happens to them? If you think about it most times Drake leaves someone behind or splits up with them they are usually in a car chase, shoot-out or the big bad is looking for all of them, so it’s crazy to think that his companion he’s left behind would not get in some kind of trouble. A great example would during Uncharted 2: Among Thieves when Drake and Elena break into the train yard to get Drake aboard the train, however thanks to how unlucky Drake is this puts him straight into a shoot-out where he is eventually saved by Elena who races to catch up with the already departed train to help Drake get aboard and find Chloe. Once Drake is close enough he jumps from the vehicle Elena is driving and just manages to get on as Elena runs out of road. This leaves us with Elena at the end of a road where the only way she can go is back where she came from, right into a group of enemies they were previously just running from.
This right here would have been a perfect opportunity to tell a short story involving Elena where she ends up running into some trouble on her way back. Now obviously Elena Fisher is not Nathan Drake so NaughtyDog could have fun in experimenting with some new gameplay, this is where they could have messed around with some stealth options that was kind of lacking in Uncharted 3. Since Elena isn’t as skilful as Drake so would have to use her wit to sneak around enemies and knock them out, if she does get into a shoot-out her aim might not be as good so the weapon sway would be heightened. This small story could show how Elena went from the end of the road Drake last saw her all away up to how she arrived at the Tibetan village where she finds Drake next.
Another example would be Uncharted 3 where Drake drinks the water near the end of the game and goes on a rampage after thinking Sully has been shot. After going through the level and letting the effects wear off we find that Sully is alive and well and has been trying to find Drake. Wouldn’t it be great to see this scene from Sully’s point of view and see what he saw when Drake was having his episode? If Sully was trying to find Drake he’d be fighting off a lot of Marlowe’s men and would have to overcome a ton of obstacles the lost city had in store for him. Just like Elena’s story pack Sully’s come experiment with some new gameplay options. Now we know Sully can’t really climb much these days and has to get Drake to find a way to open a door or lower a bridge so he can continue however with Sully’s gameplay it would mean he would have to be more practical and do things himself like finding some explosive power to topple a statue so he can get across to the other side of a ledge or finding a way to move a large stone boulder out of a doors way. Of course unlike Elena he’ll be getting into the same shoot-outs as Drake but I feel like for Sully he would have more experience with a gun which would give him special moments during shoot-outs where he could shoot something above an enemy to make it fall and kill them.
In conclusion I feel like Uncharted would have been the perfect franchise to get DLC expansion and would really let other characters have time to be developed more. Another good one would be in Uncharted 3 where Chloe and Cutter are tasked at retrieving the other part of the amulet or even a full on flashback to when Drake met either Chloe or Cutter for the first time. The possibilities are endless and I really hope NaughtyDog will explore this during Uncharted 4 and answer the questions that we really haven’t gotten answers to.
Today, Astragon announced a new installment of the Bus Simulator franchise, simply titled Bus Simulator 27, coming for PC, PS5, and Xbox.
Limited Run Games, MARVEL and Konami have announced MARVEL MaXimum Collection for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
would love it if xmen arcade offered two modes. the regular single screen 4 player mode and the ultra wide (simulated dual screen) 6 player mode.
How much you wanna bet that this collection will keep the games in their original aspect radios with no visual fidelity or options?
Was excited until I saw that Limited Run was attached. Their so-called collections thus far have been nothing but sloppily slapped together emulations.
A new Resident Evil Requiem graphics comparison examines Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox Series S, revealing performance gaps and visual trade offs.
interesting that the Switch 2 version renders at a higher internal resolution. I wonder if they dropped it down to the same as the Series S the game would hit the 60 mark more often than it does.
Solid port though, can't wait to play this tomorrow (or whenever my preorder gets to me lol)
The one thing I must say Naughty Dog needs to improve is their DLC. TLoU IMO had DLC for the MP that made it unfair for those who didnt buy it. But other then that, Naughty Dogs are the best!
Another great blog Fox, keep it up buddy.
It refreshing ready your blogs, informative, non bias and completely free of fanboy nonsense.
Always an entertaining read and you blog with the poise to not allow any trolling in the comments (although some still attempt to slip through, unavoidable)
Enough of the Foxtrot praise :)
OT: I agree Uncharted would have been a great game for some post launch story driven DLC. Hopefully in U4 that becomes a reality, I am pretty sure there was an article with a rumour about it already.
I am 100% for post launch DLC with the simple caveat that it does not give an unfair advantage in MP. My only real gripe with DLC, as DLC, when done right, is optional, extends the experience (enhances the experience in some cases) and give the devs an opurtunity to expand on their initial vision.
As with your Fallout, Red Dead etc, I would like to throw in Bioshock, that had some amazing DLC.
Uncharted seemed to be fine without DLC milking, i mean, Uncharted 3 had quite a lot of DLC's that could've just been added as unlockables in the game. If the same thing happens with Uncharted 4, well, that's just sad.
Great post. I've also wondered what form an sp Uncharted dlc could take. Think about the pacing & conventions of an Uncharted game, the bombast & spectacle, then condense that down into 3-4 hours...what would it even play like? Add in potential different characters w/ different playstyles like you mentioned and it adds a whole new wrinkle on top of that. Its a very interesting proposition to me. With TLOU, we at least could speculate on what the core experience would be if not the actual story (which was absolutely phenomenal and stood up to the quality of the full game, which was no small task...that ending was highly emotional, you could almost smell the iron in the blood and truly sense the desperation between the two, absolutely gripping stuff) but Uncharted is such an even balance of platforming, combat, puzzling & set pieces that I still find it hard to wrap my head around exactly what it could be and how ND can condense the core spirit of the Uncharted series down into the shorter dlc format.
That said, the love that ND puts into environmental design in their full campaigns would make me want to see a completely new area telling a completely new story as opposed to plugging in some gaps like you suggested. I'm sure ND could make that cool, but I think it wasn't in the game because it wasn't highly important or consequential. Just like they said that they wouldn't tell Ish's story through dlc in TLOU because it was already completely told through the notes, these stories may be better off left to imagination in this instance. That's not to say that I wouldn't love to play as Elena or Sully in the manners you mentioned, I'd just like that to happen during a period that we were unaware of and reveal a story that we hadn't heard or experienced vs. ND potentially reusing a lot of older assets instead of giving their art team something meaty & new to chew on. Honestly the idea of an Uncharted dlc intrigues me almost as much as the full game because its such an unknown quantity. Can't say I can recall a single dlc that would have been similar to whatever we may be in store for, and that's pretty exciting in this day & age.
Even more than sp dlc, I've wanted Naughty Dog to take the Uncharted franchise into the episodic realm for a few episodes. I've always pictured something like the Young Indiana Jones tv show replaced w/ the Adventures of Young Nathan Drake. It'd be really cool to see how they decided to split these games up into chunks and what form that would take in my opinion, and it would also offer us a chance to expand on Sully's relationship w/ Nate back during those formative years when they were cultivating this love for adventure and treasure hunting. It could even take the format of TLOU where we play as Sully & young Nate would take a role similar to Elena's in that title...I think the emotional core would resonate pretty similarly, but it would have that added Sully humor. I know a lot of people can't get into the episodic format but I think it'd be perfect for a story like this, and it could be a great way to send off the franchise if they ever decided to come back for a one off w/o a huge commitment.