Chapter 438: Is This DLC Plan Already in Place? I Can't Beat You, Mr. Chen! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Chapter 438: Is This DLC Plan Already in Place? I Can't Beat You, Mr. Chen! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Song Ren wasn't particularly surprised by the puzzle-solving elements.

For most games—whether action, FPS, or other genres—puzzles often serve as a seasoning, adding flavor to the experience.

As for why game developers love including them? The answer is simple: they extend playtime.

However, puzzles are a double-edged sword.

If done poorly, players won't appreciate them and might even leave negative reviews.

If done well, players will praise them, but if they're too difficult, they risk driving players away.

After all, not every player is Sherlock Holmes.

Take The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for example.

You could argue it's not hard—yet some shrine puzzles genuinely leave players scratching their heads.

But you could also say it's not that difficult, just a matter of perspective.

Moreover, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a clever advantage over traditional puzzle games: most of its puzzles are tied directly to the player's various abilities.

This means you solve puzzles while playing, not through pure puzzle-solving alone. Plus, the game’s guidance is quite effective.

In contrast, Uncharted leans more toward traditional puzzle-solving—combining mechanisms and clues for players to decipher.

Fortunately, the puzzles aren’t overly difficult, and the game provides corresponding prompts.

"Ah, I see now!"

After circling the room, Wolong of the infamous duo Wolong and Fenghu briefly considered yelling at Zhang Yi to ask how far he’d progressed and how to solve the first puzzle.

But he quickly stopped himself, realizing that as the companion of Fenghu, the other probably hadn’t figured it out either.

Then, a system reminder cleared the fog, suddenly enlightening him.

Song Ren examined the symbols on the wall, pressed the corresponding Shelter Stone mechanism, and unlocked a hidden compartment in the prison cell, retrieving a cross.

What followed after the puzzle deeply pleased Song Ren—the thrilling climbing and parkour segment.

This time, the return path wasn’t the same as the way in, but a different route.

Because the prison’s level was built in a spiral ascending structure, the return involved sliding down via chute-like paths, combined with mid-air grappling hook swings—making the journey back far more intense than the approach.

Especially in the middle section, when the wooden floor of the prison hut collapsed multiple times, the danger and excitement were overwhelming.

Back inside the prison, although Nathan had found the cross,

he didn’t tell Bargas.

Unfortunately, right after Nathan reunited with Sam and the other man previously mentioned, Rafe, they were surrounded by a group of prisoners.

After a brief fight, Bargas arrived and discovered the cross Nathan had hidden.

Driven by greed and wanting more profit, Rafe immediately stabbed Bargas to death.

"I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t survive past episode three, but I didn’t expect you to die before even finishing the first!"

"And you, Rafe! Couldn’t you have just pretended to agree? Don’t you know what stalling for time means? Now we’re completely screwed!"

Watching Rafe stab the warden, Song Ren was stunned.

This guy was clearly ruthless. Would he eventually betray Nathan and Sam after they found the treasure? A dog-eat-dog scenario?

Next came a series of intense escape sequences.

Facing a hail of bullets and explosions, the tension was off the charts.

At the same time, Song Ren’s impression of Rafe plummeted. He was now about 70% certain Rafe would turn out to be someone like Micah.

Why?

When climbing the fire escape ladder, this guy literally shoved Nathan Drake aside and climbed first.

Later, when Nathan fell into the prison, Sam—who could’ve escaped—jumped down to fight alongside Nathan, while Rafe selfishly slipped away alone.

After a relentless chase, Sam was eventually shot and fell back into the prison.

Nathan and Rafe, however, managed to escape.

"No way! Sam is dead!?" Song Ren was stunned.

Previously, Mr. Chen only started dropping plot twists in the middle or toward the end. Now he was doing it right at the beginning?

"Wait! No, that can’t be right! Sam probably isn’t dead!" Soon, Song Ren realized something.

Falling after being shot into the prison—sure seemed like certain death.

But he remembered the earlier sea scenes, where Nathan and Sam were together, and Sam looked significantly older than he did now.

So Sam probably didn’t die after all?

After a series of intense and thrilling events, Song Ren watched as Nathan leapt from a cliff into the sea, and he began speculating about Sam’s fate.

As Nathan plunged into the water, Song Ren’s vision turned black, leaving only the sound of bubbling seawater in his ears.

Then, accompanied by soothing music, a subtitle appeared: Fifteen Years Later.

Song Ren was visibly surprised. The timeline had just jumped 15 years forward?

Now, Nathan worked at an underwater salvage company.

After enjoying some underwater scenery and retrieving a sunken truck, Nathan Drake returned to the attic of his home.

"So, Shambhala, the City of a Thousand Pillars, El Dorado—were these adventures that happened during those fifteen years? Will they be revealed through flashbacks or DLC?" Song Ren explored the attic, finding several significant clues and speculating wildly.

A three-headed Buddha statue, a golden skull, Spanish silver coins.

And a photo of Nathan Drake with Sully and Elena Fisher.

Clearly, these were remnants of Nathan’s past adventures. Now, Nathan seemed to have retired—hanging up his boots and stepping away from the life of adventure.

Yet there was no sign of his brother Sam. Had he really died?

That didn’t make sense.

Curious, Song Ren continued searching. Besides a toy gun he could use in a mini Shooting Game, there wasn’t much else.

After leaving the attic, Elena downstairs called Nathan to dinner.

As he descended the stairs, Song Ren noticed the paintings on the walls and photos of Nathan with Elena.

Inside the room, there was also their wedding photo.

Clearly, Nathan Drake and Elena were now married.

The entire house was filled with a warm, lived-in atmosphere.

Hmm… except it was a bit messy.

Clothes and books were scattered everywhere in disarray.

In the living room, Nathan and Elena chatted about irrelevant things. At dinner, Nathan seemed distracted, clearly immersed in memories of past adventures.

But Song Ren noticed something: although Nathan often drifted into those adventure memories, he seemed to be holding himself back.

But that didn’t make sense!

This was supposed to be an adventure story—why didn’t Nathan seem eager to go on another?

As the two sat on the sofa, struggling to find conversation, Nathan quickly shifted the topic to video games.

On the sofa sat a Switch.

"Wait, you can actually play games inside the game!?"

"I’m playing a game within a game??"

Song Ren stared wide-eyed at this scene.

And to his surprise, he found there wasn’t just one game—he could switch between them.

In his previous life, this spot featured Sony’s original PS and Crash Bandicoot, also developed by Uncharted’s Naughty Dog.

Now, Chen Xu had replaced it with a Switch, and the built-in game was the first level of the original Super Mario—1-1.

As someone notoriously bad at jumping games—having only cleared Odyssey with Assist Mode—Song Ren died right in the middle of 1-2.

A green dead turtle took his last life.

After some casual family chatter, the next day Nathan returned to work at the salvage company. But while working late that night, an unexpected visitor arrived.

Sam, who had been missing and unheard from for fifteen years, suddenly appeared.

The two brothers talked through the night, during which Nathan recounted his adventures from the past fifteen years.

"So, El Dorado, the City of a Thousand Pillars, and Shambhala—these are all DLC content? I can’t beat you, Mr. Chen!"

Seeing the storytelling option, Song Ren was speechless.

Wow. The game just released, and the DLC content is already planned out?

But honestly, it made sense. These were legendary treasure sites from famous tales.

Presenting them as flashbacks would be tricky—too short, and it wouldn’t feel like a grand treasure hunt; too long, and it would disrupt the main quest.

As Nathan grew excited, Sam, looking grim, explained how he escaped the Panamanian prison.

In prison, Sam had been locked up with a prominent Panamanian armed militant leader.

But due to the treasure of Henry Every, the leader took Sam along during a prison break.

A relentless series of gunfights, escapes, and explosions thrilled Song Ren to the core.

"Just as expected—after calm comes passion. This is the vibe, this is the tone!"

Controlling Sam as he fought alongside the escaping militants, blasting his way out with a gun,

Song Ren was instantly electrified.

Intense scenes, explosive gun battles, action-packed sequences, and high-speed parkour and climbing—everything was dialed up to the max.

Watching the prison completely overrun by the militants’ firepower, Song Ren exhaled deeply.

Overall, his experience so far could be summed up in one word: intense.

The greatest strength of Uncharted lies in its perfect 4:4:2 balance between story, combat/parkour, and puzzles, combined with seamless camera and level transitions and a well-matched color tone—delivering a perfectly paced player experience.

This was precisely why, in his previous life, when Crystal Dynamics took over Tomb Raider and rebooted it into a trilogy, they adopted a pace similar to Uncharted.

Though many Veteran Players of Tomb Raider couldn’t accept the change, the rebooted trilogy achieved massive success with nearly 30 million global sales.

"So the story progresses naturally: Nathan Drake retires, but is forced back into action because of his brother’s crisis." Calming down from the recent intensity, Song Ren summarized the plot.

And it only made him more eager for the subsequent work.

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