Indiana Jones Game: 10 Things It Must Learn From Uncharted & Tomb Raider
5. Environment Diversity
A rare failing of both Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Tomb Raider (2013) was a lack of diverse locations. Both being largely isolated to a single island, their environments became increasingly repetitive, and by the time the credits roll (for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune a mere 8 hours later) the washed out greens and browns of the jungle go from intriguing early on to an eyesore by the end.
The world is a big place, big enough to offer massive diversity in level design, aesthetics and gameplay differences. Naughty Dog finally recognised this obvious fact with the subsequent Uncharted sequels, taking Drake from the snow-capped Himalayas to the dingy streets of downtown London.
The story undoubtedly is carried by Nate, Sully and Elena, but if said characters are plodding around the same locations for hours on end the final product simply wouldn't be as good as it is.
Depending on the success of Indiana Jones' upcoming adventure on XBOX, the plan is surely to continue his tale with new games in the future, and by including a range of locations in the first game would perfectly set itself apart from Tomb Raider and Uncharted's environmentally lacklustre beginnings.
Please MachineGames, don't let Indy forget his passport.