What the Uncharted 4 Multiplayer Beta Taught Naughty Dog

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - the fourth and final chapter in the series that follows treasure hunter Nathan Drake around the world - had a week of closed multiplayer beta this month so that the developers would have feedback to work on, with the game's release barely months away.

After the beta ended, Uncharted 4's lead multiplayer designer Robert Cogburn spoke to Gamespot on what the developers had observed over the course of the multiplayer beta. Cogburn reflected on how it was interesting to see the perception of players to new features change over time.

As we learnt back in October, Uncharted 4 multiplayer would have AI-controlled "Sidekicks" equipped with unique abilities and a fantasy element tacked onto the adventure, in the way of supernatural power-ups so to speak, called "Mysticals".

"At first, [the players] said: 'I don't like the Mysticals.' Then it's: 'Oh, no, the Mysticals are pretty cool.' Then people said: 'I don't really like the sidekicks.' Although feedback on the sidekicks has been mixed and we're definitely going to start addressing that," Cogburn told Gamespot.

Even though Uncharted has largely been a single-player story-driven game from the start, Cogburn noted that the studio will always "create experiences that [the makers themselves] want to play".

At the same time, they have also looked to improve multiplayer. And the heart of making it better is building on teamwork, which Cogburn said was "incredibly hard to facilitate" with Uncharted 3.

"What we've really tried to do with the systems we've created in [Uncharted] 4, like the Mysticals and Sidekicks, when you get teams that are combining those things, you get a lot of synergy with those systems. If someone throws a Wrath of El Dorado, or chases their opponents with the Spirit of the Djinn, then someone can throw a Brute down, or a Savior to revive some of their buddies," he said.

Cogburn also pointed out that Naughty Dog is heavily involved in the game's future beyond release, and will always be listening to fan feedback to reorient its thinking and make changes out of that.

"We're not going to ship Uncharted 4 and call it a day. Not at all," he added.

Uncharted 4 is an exclusive for Sony's gaming console, the PlayStation 4. The final entry of the series was initially slated for a mid-December release this year, but in March game directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann announced that the game would be delayed until spring 2016.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End will be released on March 18, 2016 and is available for pre-order.