Uncharted 4 concept art is dark and dreary

Naughty Dog celebrated their 30th birthday earlier this week with a large gallery showing of all their work. Not only was Naughty Dog’s past on show, but also their present, which meant a few early looks at Uncharted 4. We’ve already seen how different Drake is going to look, with a look now at some of the locales he’s coming back to explore.

 

A few new images have surfaced online, showing some of the dreary looking environments Drake could possible be thrown in next year. The images are photos from “The Art of Naughty Dog”, a collection of concept art that will be released later this month. Concept art doesn’t always appear in the final game, but these little snapshots do look rather marvellous.

Waterlogged cities and even house structures completely submerged. These could form some of Uncharted’s slower, explorative set pieces that the series does so well. Uncharted 4 takes place several years after Uncharted 3, with Nathan Drake forced out of retirement to search for a long lost pirate treasure. With all these underwater cities, it’s not hard to imagine that this could lead him to, say, Atlantis.

Nothing is set in stone from concept art alone. Especially art that is going to be made available publically well before the launch of a game. Still, I like the tonal shift these pieces already present. Uncharted 4 is being helmed by the directors of The Last of Us, so it’s not too farfetched to imagine a darker, less comical tale. It could even be the tragic end to the hero that defined the PS3 era. Who knows.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s Tale is being released exclusively on PS4 next year.

Last Updated: October 1, 2014