Naughty Dog's hints that Uncharted 4 could be its last entry in the series - a suggestion made most recently at last week's Paris Games Show - shouldn't come as a big surprise. Especially so, judging by the ideas bandied about in its multiplayer demo, a five versus five team deathmatch set to a striking jungle stage. It's clear the team is in a reflective mood, as if casting its mind back on the series' highlights since its 2007 debut, and incorporating it all into one package. It's an online mode that feels like a celebration, a carnival of all things Uncharted, as the studio looks to close its tenure with the series.
Watermarked as a 'pre-alpha' build, the map shown at the event is pure Uncharted; a dense jungle set that loops around an ancient ruin. There are wide pits to cross, passable with a grappling hook deployed with the L1 button - a new move that also enhances your melee attacks, should you swing to the other side with an enemy in reach. We take control of a wide-ranging cast of Uncharted faces here, from Nathan's newly introduced brother Sam, to old rivals like the second game's main baddie, Zoran Lazarević.
It's a vibrant mishmash of personnel that, in its fiction, you'd be surprised to find all in one space duking it out. Even the studio's recent The Last of Us used generic nobodies in its multiplayer to preserve the impact of Joel and Ellie's story. It's a tactic pleasingly not taken here though, and as with earlier games Uncharted 4 takes delight in its bombast, with every hero and villain getting an encore past the single player portion. The introduction of magic and AI sidekicks pushes the mania one step further, and already it looks like the fastest, most action-focused multiplayer effort we've seen from Naughty Dog.
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