Game Informer revealed last night that Uncharted 4; A Thief’s End would grace the cover of their February issue. What’s more, the digital version was published straight away! The article inside is lengthy and in depth – is contains more concrete information that we have had to date about Nate’s upcoming outing. Story and background details are revealed, as well as gameplay improvements, and some tech stuff, too. This article will discus the various bits, but I will highlight anything that might give some of the story away. Not everyone wants to know.

First thing to note is that The Last of Us influence looks to be quite heavy, but mercifully not in terms of the level of grimness and bleakness. With any luck we won’t be weeping into our Cheetos within the first ten minutes of this game. The traversal will offer the player options. There will be no one set path that you have to follow, but several, none of which will be the ‘easiest’ or ‘correct’ path. Players will be able to try out different routes to suit their playstyle, or to give them an extra challenge. With collectibles being scattered about these various routes, replay value looks to be increased.

The other point to pick up on is that of the AI. Enemy AI is being improved to the point that the baddies will work more as a team to gang up on Nate, calling out his position to their buddies. And on the flipside, the relationship between Ellie and Joel in The Last of Us looks to be providing a very strong basis for Nate’s next journey. The guy we met in the PS Experience gameplay demo (more about him in a bit) will be accompanying Nate and interacting with him in a similar manner to how Ellie did with Joel. It sounds like the optional conversations (Ellie’s jokebook, anyone?) will make a return for Uncharted 4, for example. Nathan and that other guy will be battling alongside each other, equally competently. Whether they are *always* together is not certain, but I for one hope we get some alone time with Nathan, other than that which we saw in the gameplay demo.

So…. who is that guy? Yes, he *is* Nate’s brother (not a ‘so-called’ brother) and his name is Sam. So anyone who said it wasn’t – you were wrong. If you don’t want any story details, please skip the next two paragraphs.

According to the article Nathan believed Sam (about five years older than Nate) was dead. If you remember the initial teaser trailer, back when Todd Stashwck was playing Sam, the voice over talked of being ‘buried alive for fifteen years’. Now, I wouldn’t begin to imagine that that was anything but a metaphor, but assuming Nate and Sam have been parted for those fifteen years (“you left me”) Sam falls easily within Sully’s timeframe. Does Sully know about Sam? The article suggests not. Sully didn’t seem to know about Chloe either. It looks like Nate may have hid certain aspects of his life from Sully for a long time. If a trek went wrong enough for Nathan to have believed Sam dead, why didn’t he mention it at all to Sully unless there were something he were ashamed of or afraid of? Whatever the reason, it looks like a lot of Nate’s formative years will be revealed in Uncharted 4. And in my eyes, that is a good thing. This dynamic will inevitably alter Nate’s outlook, and perhaps pull him in ways that we have not yet seen.

As for other people in Uncharted 4; the article doesn’t give full details, but there is more than a heavy hint that Elena will be in the game, as well as Sully. I think it is safe to say we will see them. However, two other names cropped up – Rafe and Nadine. These two will be villainous, and more involved in the story than previous villains, so as to ‘flesh them out’ a little more. And my money is on Dominic Monaghan playing one; probably Rafe, as Nadine is a woman’s name.

The central historical figure is indeed Henry Every (Avery) of whom we have previously written an autobiography. He is a fascinating character from the late 17th century. Take a look, if you will.

There is so much more information in the article and I won’t regurgitate it all here. It is worth taking a look, though, unless you are already on a media lockdown. However – one final point; there will be multiplayer. Like there ever wouldn’t be.