Uncharted 2 enemies have improved since you last met

by Jem Alexander on Jan 14th 2009 3:15PM

Looks like Nathan's enemies will be enjoying an expanded skillset in Uncharted 2. CVG has been nattering with Bruce Straley, one of the game's directors, who has revealed that the baddies in Uncharted 2 will feature improved intelligence. Specifically, they will now "hunt" and "investigate" based on movement in their peripheral vision. "When Drake enters this peripheral vision the enemies will look over in the direction they think they saw him in and depending on how long he was in this vision cone, they may just look or they may walk over and check out what they think they saw."

"If they lose eye contact with Drake for a few seconds, one or more enemies will start hunting around the area, starting with his last known location, and then spread their search out if he's not found." This hunting behaviour means that the enemies will need to be able to follow Drake wherever he goes, which means jumping and climbing around the environment. "The benefit to this was our combat wasn't limited to flat terrain anymore."

Sounds great to us. One of our biggest gripes with Uncharted 1 was that at any given point you were either fighting or platforming. Hopefully we'll see more of a crossover in the sequel. Apparently more details will be forthcoming once CVG posts the full interview with Straley tomorrow.

Source

Tags: Bruce-Straley, CVG, naughty-dog, uncharted, uncharted-2

Reader Comments (39)

cant wait to play this game

this is the series of this generation so far. I would gladly take this over MGS5, Resistance 3, Killzone2 or whatever else you could throw at me

The game was great, yes, but I still want my KZ2, GoW3 and R3....but that's just me....

The original is one of my favorite games of all time.

this must be that "stealth" gameplay. Im sure we have to watch 'knocking stuff over' in the game too, perhaps raise alarms w/ guards finding dead bodies?

I thought the AI tactics were good in 1. Beating it on crushing was hard when they kept flanking, bum rushing you. you had to fire warning shots just to keep them at bay as you tried to take em out one at a time

I had a tough time on Normal when it came to the end, so I can only imagine Crushing. Also, I still only have 40% of the trophies which bugs me....the treasure is the most time consuming part I think...

The stealth was explained in the GI article that it's more just having the opportunity to take out a few guys near you without alerting others before heading into a big fight. If you just want to charge in Rambo-style, you can do that, too, so it's up to you. The new AI lets you take a few shots at enemies and if you can get out quickly without them noticing, they'll head for your old position and you can take them out from behind with your tactical advantage.

@Devin.
You can use a guide if you get stuck. But chapter select def helps.
I got the game back from my friends after trophy support (and luckily already beat it on hard so could go straight to crushing) got platinum in under a week of casual play.

@Eric

That's good to hear. I'll use a guide then. I'm having a hard time trying to get 5 brutal combos in a row, as well as shooting them and then killing them in one punch (either I kill them or they take at least 2 punches)....

@deven
the very first level is the best for those. you can even restart if you mess up and i think you get at least 7 enemies on the deck in a row. (if you mess up restart before the last guy, otherwise it'll reset you to right after the last guy)

Play on easy so its really hard to die and to kill them with 1 punch, run up and shoot them from the hip (don't aim), then hit them if you saw the bullet connect (sometimes tricky with a couple of bad guys next to each other. Shoot one, hit the other) You'll have the trophy in no time. (%90 should only take 1 punch after shooting from the hip)

Crushing wasn't hard. I beat the game in 5hours 13minutes on Crushing, once you know where everything was coming you could easily get ready for it.

@ Devin, that Iron Fist one is easy. You have to shoot them run and gun style (without aiming) then hit them. If you try to aim, you'll kill em or won't injure them enough that one punch will do it.

Thanks guys for the help. Sorry for taking away from the article.

Eric, my PSN ID: DevDevil87

Actually, Iron Fist is a lot easier if you just use the combo: Square, R1, Square.

@Devin, I found the game to be the same from easy to hard, I've heard crushing is much harder, but after getting frustrated at how tough it was on normal, I switched it to easy, which seemed tougher, now I'm playing on Hard, which I am flying through.

good cuz i never met them but will this time

I didn't mind the AI at all in the first one. The thing I minded was I'd have to climb a five-story tower, drop the skeleton, pick up the key, take the key to Atlantis, find the Holy Grail, skim across the crumbling remains of a building for twenty miles, drop into a twenty-mile deep hole which leads to a twenty-mile long stairway up into the temple where the badguys had just blown a hole in the wall and were already there.

they used the side door, duh.

LOL, I remember thinking this exact thing.

Hahah, the true mystery of the original Uncharted.

The enemies have a better map than you do. In fact it's so good they're always one step ahead of you.

Please no more zombies!! I get scared easily.... The only reason I didn't finish Uncharted was because was those stupid zombies

it was only that 1.5 chapters really (+ tiny bit at the end)

(i hope everyone whos going to play it has by now)

And that chapter was almost the end of the game, i would go back and finish, don't let 5% of the game ruin it. Looking back i've come to accept them just wanting to mix things up a bit, like the rail shooter levels.

lol - so was i until i tried (i was 13 {and still am}) It's not that hard...

Yeah, I agree with that last paragraph. It just seemed like it would be a section of combat, a puzzle, and then a bunch of platforming, and then rinse and repeat. And though the platforming could be fun, I kind of disliked how it just so happened that EVERY part of nature just HAPPENED to make a CLEAR path for you to follow. Don't get me wrong, I loved the game, but some parts made it hard to suspend my disbelief, which... speaking of..... please tell me that the ending of Uncharted 2 will be more satisfying and believable than the first one... Wow, when that plot twist happened, I just... Ugh...

It was like a Hollywood movie man....gotta expect those things...I could always tell when something bad was going to happen before the music even started....

I thought it was a good addition considering the fact that they say a lot of the Mayan ruins (that are still unexplored) are cursed/haunted....not that I believe it....

It sounds more and more like the stealth element simply does away with the action genre's mantra of "every enemy knows exactly where YOU are all the damn time". It's a welcome change.

As far as climbing and firing, it sounds awesome. Maybe the Infamous team and the Uncharted team got together, as both could benefit from the other.

I doubt they'd both benefit

I loved uncharted, but I hope they change the game mechanics to prevent waves of the same looking pirates swarming you at regular intervals. I mean, it was a game where you clear an area, take 2 steps, and then another 20 minute gun fight broke out.

I would personally enjoy a little more platforming and a puzzler then a run and gun game. Not saying there can't be non stop on your seat action every now and then, but the original game did suffer from repetitive waves of enemies that became slightly ridiculous at times.

The latest article inside that gamestop magazine says that they're planning on making the enemies a bit easier to kill since alot of players had issues with that.

Uncharted is one of favorite games of all time.
The graphics..
The sound..
The gameplay..
The story..

..Were all top notch in my book.

Uncharted 2 is by far the game I am waiting for in 2009.

hopefully they got rid of the "enemies just know when you are present" type of ai they used in the first one. enemies facing the other direction would just scream and turn around and start shooting when i did NOTHING to alert them that i was there.

one day we'll hopefully also have ai that doesn't do the hivemind thing either. when one enemy knows where you are, but without even telling the other enemies, they all of the sudden know your exact location where you're hiding. when one enemy knows, the others should have to hear from him where you are or find out for themselves. either that or write some telepathy cheese into the story... ;)

The enemy waves really got to me in the first one but IT DOESN'T EVEN TOUCH THE ANGER i got consumed with when the enemy would do their stupid crouch and swan sidestep to "dodge" my bullets. As if they had some "matrix" ability.

...god that made me angry

However I still really enjoyed the game as a whole and I'm super pumped for the 2nd :P

Not to mention their uncanny ability to survive 5 shots with a pistol, wearing nothing more than a cutoff t-shirt and some jean shorts.

I have no doubts at all, this is going to be fantastic.

Interest level is still at ZERO for this game. Hopefully its better than the snooze fest of part one. I'll probably just rent this,beat it and that will be that. Not one of my most anticipated games at all.

Yeah, so that's why you spared your time from xbox360fanboy to enlighten us with your first comment on this site in the last 6 months.

Why do people have to be such douchebags. Its fine if you like your xbox, but for me uncharted was the best console game I ever played at that point of time, Gears of War included.

Clever remark. For a simpleton. Just because I don't see the hype and prestige about this game automatically must mean I'm a fanboy? get over yourself and grow a pair please.

I'm a PS3 player and im awaiting much better games for the system than what this game offers.

So again,grow a pair and keep you insecurities about this game to yourself. Makes yourself look like the biggest fanboy alive.

add me to PSN when you grow up. PSN: josh1122 :)

also. ''first comments in 6 months.'' That was a good remark as well. Least you attempted something intelligent besides the insecure fanboy remark lol

@Gaurav

It is fine to say that he did not like the first one.. and is not interested in this one. I rented the first one twice (year apart) and got pissed off about how long it took for someone to die. It actually killed the game for me.
Glad to hear they are fixing that.
I will only rent this game. It does look good.

Am I suddenly a 360 fanboy?(HELLZ NO)

@Josh,
just to give credit to the other guy...
The 'insecure fanboy comment' he made actually looks pretty accurate if you look at your comment history.

But... I could also be called a fanboy if you look at my history. And the train keeps on rollin'...

Uncharted 2 enemies have improved since you last met

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Jan 14th 2009 3:18PM mahunoy said

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