Naughty Dog Reveals 'Uncharted 4' Will Adopt An Open Sandbox Gameplay

The upcoming PS4 exclusive "Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End" will be incorporating some bold gameplay tweaks. The developer Naughty Dog's has revealed that its highly-acclaimed third-person action-adventure game will assume a more open sandbox style approach this time around.

The gameplay for the PlayStation 4 exclusive series has been more-or-less linear in the past three games. This time around, the developer aims to give players more options to achieve their goals. Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, "Uncharted 4's" co-lead designer Ricky Cambier revealed that the upcoming game won't force gameplay choices upon gamers, but rather set them free to solve challenges as per their liking.

"I think our goal with the layouts in some of these spaces is that there's not that golden path," Cambier said to Gme Informer. "You turn this corner, you're going to find something surprising. There might be a shimmy ledge this way, there might be things that break this way; so every path has that action, that tempo that you want."

As Gamespot reports, Cambier had previously worked on Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic game "The Last of Us", which featured larger environments with a greater degree of freedom as compared to the previous "Uncharted" games. "Uncharted 4" aims to expand this sandbox style by giving more tactical freedom to the player. This was evident from the lengthy gameplay demo showcased during the PlayStation Experience in December last year. In the video, Nathan can be seen using the grappling hook to traverse the expansive jungle terrain in interesting new ways while using an even wider array of acrobatic manoeuvres to take down enemies.

The new ability to swing from ledges and the accessibility offered by the grappling hook is sure to open up combat and exploration in rather interesting manner. This should address the most common reservation about the game playing out more like a movie and less like a video game. Hopefully, this development won't affect the cinematic proficiency of the game, which is known for its excellent writing.

The series will indeed experience some changes in that department after the writer and creative director Amy Hennig left the studio earlier last year according to an IGN report. She was widely credited for the success of the "Uncharted" series' distinctive narrative. The writing responsibility for "Uncharted 4", however, will be assumed by Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, who were behind the compelling story of "The Last of Us". Considering the narrative mastery of that game, the latest instalment of "Uncharted" seems to be in good hands.