[GDC 2011] Drake's Misfortune
We get a slightly deeper peek into Uncharted 3 and its main villain in a brief but tantalizing live showing.
Published: March 12, 2011
It's entirely possible that there isn't a bigger first-party release on any system hitting this year than Uncharted 3. We're sure there will be dissenters piping up with Zelda or even Halo talk at this point, but there can be no denying the cinematic prowess of Naughty Dog's last two Nathan Drake outings -- oh and they're damn fine games to boot. The only problem we see right now is that we simply don't have enough info on what Nate's third adventure will have in store for us, but that was alleviated just a touch by the reveal (in 3D!!) of a cutscene that introduced the main antagonist this time out.
Her name is Katherine Marlowe, and she's... well, she's awfully mean. Flanked by a handful of goons (one of which, Game Developer Conference chatted pegged, as looking more than a bit like Jason Statham, though that's mostly due to the lack of hair on his dome and the prominence of it on his face), Marlowe quipped with a freshly-beaten Victor Sullivan and Nathan Drake about plenty of mysterious history between herself and Sully before plucking the very same ring Nate has been wearing for a few years now. You know, the one that supposedly meant Drake was descended from the Sir Francis Drake?
Turns out Marlowe is the head of a cabal stretching back hundreds of years, right back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I who had in her employ... that's right, Sir Francis Drake. You get a cookie! Turns out the ring is more than just an heirloom, it's the source of a centuries-old conflict between Drake's sect and the Elizabethan one, and the key to (wait for it) an ancient, mysterious secret. Kate wants it, Drake has it, and the pair have been locked in a struggle for a while now. Except, Drake (rather smartly dressed in a black tie affair along with Sully) doesn't have it anymore, as Marlowe snatches it and drives off.
It was, finally, a peek into the no doubt elaborate story that Amy Hennig and the guys and gals at Naughty Dog are cooking up this time around. No, it won't give us a peek into how the game will play differently, nor what the sketchy pasts of our heroes birthed this little struggle, but at least on the gameplay side we were treated to another showing of the very same, tragically short demo featured on Jimmy Fallon way back in mid-December.
Things start off well enough; Nate and Sully are exploring the dilapidated, overgrown ruins of what looked like a formerly palatial chateau. Amid the overcrowding vines and crumbling wood, there were, of course, baddies, apparently up to no good as they went about dousing the floor with gasoline before eventually setting it ablaze. What started as some light exploration with a whiff of combat quickly became a mad dash to escape the blaze before the slick-looking fire did it's whole propagation thing all over the tinder-like bits of the chateau -- which is to say all of it.
Though things weren't a huge difference from what was seen on Fallon, we did get a bit more of the before, and saw just how interesting the fire was in spreading. Naughty Dog head cheese Evan Wells demoed the level three times in 3D (more on that in a bit) and each time things played out ever so slightly different -- if only because the shootouts had different pacing. Drake still found a way around a rather precipitous drop, clambered on rotting wooden foot and hand holds, narrowly escaped a few different structural collapses and helped Sully find his way across a big chasm.
Her name is Katherine Marlowe, and she's... well, she's awfully mean. Flanked by a handful of goons (one of which, Game Developer Conference chatted pegged, as looking more than a bit like Jason Statham, though that's mostly due to the lack of hair on his dome and the prominence of it on his face), Marlowe quipped with a freshly-beaten Victor Sullivan and Nathan Drake about plenty of mysterious history between herself and Sully before plucking the very same ring Nate has been wearing for a few years now. You know, the one that supposedly meant Drake was descended from the Sir Francis Drake?
Turns out Marlowe is the head of a cabal stretching back hundreds of years, right back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I who had in her employ... that's right, Sir Francis Drake. You get a cookie! Turns out the ring is more than just an heirloom, it's the source of a centuries-old conflict between Drake's sect and the Elizabethan one, and the key to (wait for it) an ancient, mysterious secret. Kate wants it, Drake has it, and the pair have been locked in a struggle for a while now. Except, Drake (rather smartly dressed in a black tie affair along with Sully) doesn't have it anymore, as Marlowe snatches it and drives off.
It was, finally, a peek into the no doubt elaborate story that Amy Hennig and the guys and gals at Naughty Dog are cooking up this time around. No, it won't give us a peek into how the game will play differently, nor what the sketchy pasts of our heroes birthed this little struggle, but at least on the gameplay side we were treated to another showing of the very same, tragically short demo featured on Jimmy Fallon way back in mid-December.
Things start off well enough; Nate and Sully are exploring the dilapidated, overgrown ruins of what looked like a formerly palatial chateau. Amid the overcrowding vines and crumbling wood, there were, of course, baddies, apparently up to no good as they went about dousing the floor with gasoline before eventually setting it ablaze. What started as some light exploration with a whiff of combat quickly became a mad dash to escape the blaze before the slick-looking fire did it's whole propagation thing all over the tinder-like bits of the chateau -- which is to say all of it.
Though things weren't a huge difference from what was seen on Fallon, we did get a bit more of the before, and saw just how interesting the fire was in spreading. Naughty Dog head cheese Evan Wells demoed the level three times in 3D (more on that in a bit) and each time things played out ever so slightly different -- if only because the shootouts had different pacing. Drake still found a way around a rather precipitous drop, clambered on rotting wooden foot and hand holds, narrowly escaped a few different structural collapses and helped Sully find his way across a big chasm.
