Online retail giant Amazon has added the official box art for the next addition to the Uncharted franchise, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, to its store page.
Below you can see the image in full. Although the box generally creates a sympathetic feel for the character, it’s conventional when it comes to 3rd person action games – there are certainly no new tricks here. You see protagonist Nathan Drake looking quite rough around the edges and with blood trickling down his right arm, suggesting danger as expected with the series. Naturally, he’s holding his gun – not only to get across the action of Uncharted but also in an effort to grab the attention of the uninformed gamers who just spot a cover and say “Hey, that looks cool, what’s this?” At the end of the day, box art is still a sales pitch.
The jungle setting obviously hints at the far-flung adventure you will undertake controlling Drake in his next quest, and his lowered eyeline and pained face could suggest the toughest journey yet. Although we have no confirmed information, perhaps Drake is betrayed and has to kill one of his closest companions? Perhaps it will be Drake’s final adventure and he gives up on his career? Again, this is pure speculation, nothing more!
Last year, The Last of Us co-directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann stepped in as leads on the new game, which could account for the emotional look of the art above.
Bottom line, we as players won’t yet know what Naughty Dog has in store for Drake as a character until we get our hands on the next game next March. But there’s certainly enough here to pick apart even from as ‘normal’ a piece of box art this appears to be.
What do you think of the box art? Do you have any thoughts I didn’t?