Hidden Secrets: Evan Wells on Uncharted 2

Train level. Best ever.

I’ve had the link to this interview with Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells from shortly after the release of Uncharted 2 sitting in my inbox since, well, the release of Uncharted 2. So this is pretty ancient wisdom but I like this point in particular:

G4:  I felt like that while searching for treasure. There’s that compulsion there to search for it, but I’m going so quickly in the story and I don’t want to change that pace…

EW:  That’s interesting you bring that up. That’s one of the things we’ve talked about, it’s something that we could improve if we were to do another Uncharted. How hidden those treasures are could potentially slow the player down, and we wanted to maybe think of an idea maybe where you had some that were on the main path, and on the second playthrough we’d open up more hidden ones…things like that, so yeah that’s absolutely a concern that we could address in the future.

Spending days scouring the world is pretty much the main idea in a sandbox game. But, if you’re going for a highly directed experience then the thought of players dawdling behind while teammates get gunned down and set off the next event while they scour for shiny bits is horrifying. Of course, if you’re going to hide away half of your hidden doo-dads for a second playthrough you might want to ensure that it’s worth playing again. The idea of starting Damnation all over again just to have a chance to find stupid blue frisbees and earn an Achievement/Trophy is definitely not enough. Just an FYI, you Eastern European devs.