After many months of speculation (and red herrings), Naughty Dog has finally revealed the first official details about Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, the developer’s highly anticipated follow up to one of the most acclaimed titles of this generation, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Entertainment Weekly reports that Drake’s next adventure will, as many suspected, take the dashing treasure hunter to the sandy sprawl of the Arabian Peninsula as he searches for a lost city. There will also be a big emphasis on Drake’s “relationship with his mentor and father figure,” Victor “Sully” Sullivan.

As evidenced by these first screenshots of the game, Uncharted 3 draws a lot of inspiration from famed British officer and archeologist T.E. Lawrence, who was immortalized on film by Peter O’Toole in David Lean’s masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. Naughty Dog creative director says the decision to go with a desert setting was creatively compelling but also technically challenging.

“When we first came up with the idea of sand, you see everyone’s eyes light up here and go, ‘Yeah, that’s going to be really hard — let’s do it!’”

EW also says players can expect even more motion-capture magic in Uncharted 3, which is mighty impressive given how stunning the character performances were in Uncharted 2. Some other improvements include new acrobatic gameplay elements like the ability to climb backwards and to fight several enemies at once, suggesting that Drake will be using his fists and feet a bit more this time around. Here's what looks to be a concept drawing of the Drake 3.0 getting ready for action:

There will also be big multiplayer and online co-op improvements as well, but major details won’t be reveled for another few months. However, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells did drop this compelling tidbit: “We want to take on the big boys of multiplayer genre…It has become something here at Naughty Dog that will become an important part to all our games.” Them’s fightin’ words, no?

Obviously, Uncharted 3 doesn’t have a release date just yet, but it’s scheduled for release sometime later next year. Of course, Sony is holding a big event this Sunday to make some major reveal, so perhaps we’ll find out more then. (And by that I mean, I sincerely hope we find out more about it then.)

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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