And the stealth turns out to be far from the stop-start mood-killer you might be expecting. “Stealth is often meticulous, frustrating and boring,” says Straley. “Ours comes back to the cinematic experience – it’s about keeping the pace. On a gameplay level, you want to play one set-piece in a variety of different ways, so stealth just gives you something more in the toolbox – another element, another choice that’s available to you. Suddenly you can try out all different kinds of options. We call it action stealth. It’s not Splinter Cell. It’s choosing when and from where to enter combat.”

“You don’t see films where it’s all shooting,” chimes in Hennig. “You see heroes creep up and slam someone into a wall. In the first game, you occasionally felt there was only one way to do things. In other games, stealth is always defensive – someone spots you sneaking past them, and it’s all over. We wanted to put you on the offensive for once: stealth or shooting – both choices are valid at any time.”

All of this is aided by some excellent environmental details – bookcases shake and dislodge dusty volumes as Drake scrambles over them, while pigeons scatter in sudden bursts as he scampers from one shop sign to another, and lampposts threaten to buckle under his weight as he swings past. And the enemy AI has made some leaps too – a second playthrough by the developer reveals that if one of the militia gets to the car-door shield before Drake does, the final fight can turn out very differently, and we’re also promised that enemies will be able to scale walls and vault from one rooftop to another just as easily as he can.

Ultimately, it’s this blending of platforming and shooting, in a way no other game has yet managed convincingly, which makes Among Thieves feel like such an exciting prospect, and may help to provide the sense of individuality the first game gently lacked. Tomb Raider stumbled over the combat, Gears never attempted any kind of gymnastics, and even the first Uncharted struggled to get the combination to work. But from what we’ve seen, its sequel promises to be one of the first true action-platformers, a game that, if anything, resembles a more light-hearted, joyous and nimble take on the first few acts of MGS4 than any of the usual reference points.

It’s a time-honoured convention of treasure movies that the hero never finds quite the treasure they were looking for, and in this respect, Among Thieves may prove solidly traditional. No doubt Marco Polo’s lost fleet and the Cintamani stone will elude our hero in the final act, carried away by plot twists, sudden betrayals and selfless last-minute sacrifices. But in its place, there’s every chance that, this time, Nathan Drake may unearth the trophy he needs the most: a confident identity of his own to match the intelligence and wit with which Naughty Dog’s games are constructed.