Maybe a video game can have too much detail?
The new PS4 Uncharted game Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is plenty likable, with lots of scenic vistas, exciting car chases, and all the other expected Uncharted trimmings. Itâs also extremely good-looking, especially if you pay close attention.
Early in the game, protagonist Chloe Frazer and her partner Nadine Ross arrive in the Western Ghats of India to search for a long-lost artifact. Itâs a larger, more open area than in past Uncharted games, so much so that the game gives Chloe a map to help her navigate. Like in a lot of other games, if you press the map button, the game will pause and sheâll take out her map so you can check your location.
Each time you find a new point of interest or temple, Chloe takes out her map and writes on it. Maybe sheâll cross off an area theyâve already visited, or mark a new location based on new information.
Itâs a nice-looking animation on its own, but itâs even more impressive if you use photo mode to pause the game and check out the map sheâs holding:
Hereâs what the map looks like when I press the âmapâ button right around the same area and go look at the map up close:
Now letâs go back to the in-game map and zoom in:
Sheâs holding the same map, complete with the marks sheâs added and even including the tiny red arrow that indicates her current location. I have little doubt that someoneâprobably a small team of someonesâspent a lot of time getting that working, just so the game would be a little bit more detailed. Good lord.
Update: Lost Legacy game director Kurt Margenau explains on Twitter that the âmap screenâ as I called it is really just them pointing the camera at the same map they use in game. Iâve updated the article to make that clearer. Technology is amazing.
What's really going to bake your noodle later on, @kirkhamilton is there is no "map screen". We just point the camera at her in game map. https://t.co/S2Y3YZXDKq
â Kurt Margenau (@kurtmargenau) August 23, 2017
