Chapter 1 – How Long is This Thing?
Description: The opening scene shows picturesque shots of the Great Wall of China with the subtitles “Shaanxi Province, China” with authentic Chinese music playing. On a ground shot of the wall from a dirt road in the forest to the side of it, Drake all of a sudden whizzes by on a motorcycle with his patented “Oh Craaaaaap!” Sully quickly follows suit. They’re being shot at from all directions, by people on motorcycles, in the forest, and from the Wall itself. You’re thrown right into the action with no explanation.
At the end of the motorcycle sequence there’s a cut scene where a guy with a rocket launcher destroys part of the Wall and Nate and Sully fall off, their motorcycles wrecked, and their guns fly away. An introductory hand to hand fighting scene ensues, ended with a heavy of course.
At the end of this sequence a jeep pulls up, driven by a Chinese man. The dialogue between them is quick and to the point. Drake mentions that they found the clue they were looking for, and they need to get to “Xi’an” and step on it.
Features: This will play much like the Caravan level in Uncharted 3. The motorcycle will act as your horse and you’ll be able to jump onto the baddies’ bikes when need be. Of course there will be points where you can get onto the Wall itself. This is not a great place to introduce guns, but what the hell, I did it anyways.
Commentary: The reason for this is to start you off with a bang. The gamer won’t have time to think about what is going on because they’ll be firmly entrenched in a fight for their lives from the get go. This will set the tone for the game in more ways than one. Firstly, it creates the notion that this is just what Drake does. There were questions in U3 by those around him what exactly Drake’s motivations were, but this puts those questions to rest with a bang. Sorry, ND, but I don’t buy the hesitancy. Like Marlowe said, he gets off on this. Secondly, it creates a backdrop for what the settings of this game. In the other Uncharted games we were mostly introduced to fictional locations based on myth or just mere representations of certain areas (unnamed mountains and villages in Tibet, unmarked forests in France, etc.). This time around we get to see tangible wonders, and places that actually exist in the real world. Of course, this game will have a mix of both.
Now, the writing. It is meant to be vague on purpose. This is because this Chinese element of the game will only last a couple chapters and it’s meant to portray the tail end of one of Drake’s adventures, completely unrelated to the main quest of the game, which we know nothing about yet. All we know is that he’s after some kind of treasure.
Character Introduction: Gan Li – He’s the man driving the jeep. We aren’t sure exactly who he is yet but it’s clear that he is well-trusted by Drake and Sully. He seems to have a solemn demeanor.
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