Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)

[kboyrulez12345]

It's been delayed again folks, by three weeks this time:

Quote

As you know, Naughty Dog is wrapping up production on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End with the game on track to go gold and into production later this month. In an effort to meet the considerable worldwide demand, and to ensure that all gamers worldwide have the opportunity to play the game on day one, we have chosen to postpone the launch of the game by two weeks to allow for extra manufacturing time.

Therefore, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has a new worldwide release date of May 10, 2016.

We know this news might be disappointing, and we are sorry to have to make you wait a little longer to play Naughty Dog’s latest. The good news is that the game is phenomenal — we are fully confident that it will be worth the wait and the team at Naughty Dog is eager as ever for you to experience Nathan Drake’s final adventure.

We thank you for your continued support for PlayStation.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/03/01/new-release-date-for-uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end/

Well, it's good that they want to the game to come out at it's best. On the other hand, the amount of delays is starting to become just a tiny bit ridiculous all the same.

On second thought, with the amount of incomplete games released on release day, this is more of a good thing.

[CrashRatchetFan]

At least Ratchet has some leg room now. 

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

They delayed it because the preorders are huge for this game, not because they need to polish. They are aiming for a worldwide release, so they delayed it to allow more manufacturing time.

This therefore will keep all gamers happy. But, wow. You can imagine how many sales this game would have in the first week. 3 million?

[Ripe]

So another delay? Ok...

Well, at least there is the open weekend to test the multiplayer. Already downloaded that.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Well, Uncharted 4 got hit with two pretty bad things today.

First, several retailers accidentally broke the retail date of the game, with several websites such as IGN and Eurogamer seemingly confirming that Amazon US, and Amazon Germany were two of the retailers. Next? PlayStation issued a warning across the internet warning people to be careful in regards to spoilers. Why? A truck transporting a shit ton of copies of the game was stolen in transit, and the game has ended up in several CEXs across the UK, with people reporting walking into CEX and buying it for £55, while others are trying to sell it on EBay for upwards of £99. Multiple people have also reported that the single player campaign is fully playable, with multiplayer being blanked out, trophies not correctly syncing up to PS Network, and the codes not being active yet.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2016/04/27/uncharted-4-a-thiefs-end-update/

[kboyrulez12345]

Well damn. That's unfortunate. 

[TheOcelot]

Okay, so I've played up to Chapter 6 of Unc4. Good so far.

I've had a go at the Crash Bandicoot stage. Lost all my lives (you get three) and died halfway through the stage, lol.

I then went back and had another go. Got a score of 2114. Then when back, had another go and got a better score.

Spoiler

I collected all boxes and all wumpa fruit. I could have gone a few seconds faster. Other than that I don't think I can beat Elena's score of 3500.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

7 minutes ago, BenderBR said:

Okay, so I've played up to Chapter 6 of Unc4. Good so far.

I've had a go at the Crash Bandicoot stage. Lost all my lives (you get three) and died halfway through the stage, lol.

I then went back and had another go. Got a score of 2114. Then when back, had another go and got a better score.

  Hide contents

I collected all boxes and all wumpa fruit. I could have gone a few seconds faster. Other than that I don't think I can beat Elena's score of 3500.

 

It's impossible in the first chapter you play it. There's another point you play it where you can get a trophy for the high score. There you will get an extra life when you start. You need to make sure you get through it without dying, and that will give you the 500 points you need to beat her score.

[Nix]

I just beat the game today and

,ok maybe not a 10 but it's still superb.  A bit more slow going than 2 and 3 I feel, but I think it really works in 4's favor.  I honestly don't get the complaints that the last third of the game drags on; really didn't feel it.  I absolutely loved the addition of the grappling hook in the game.  It helps mix up the platforming a bit and holy shit it's awesome in gunfights.

Also the game is damn gorgeous.  I had to do a double take in a few scenes because it looked too damn real.  Naughty Dog did it again, I'll be go to hell, etc.

Victor Goddamn Sullivan/10

 

[Remynaka]

Uncharted 4 is a fucking 10 out of 10 for me. I'm only in like the 11th chapter but DAMN SON. This game had me screaming with joy at parts, those set pieces, that gun fight in the beginning of the game. Where you meet Sully, the lighting effects, the music, the banter. I'd marry this game if I could. Never before has a game had me SCREAM in joy. SHIT I was in a depression spike when I got my copy, this game cured my spike. That's all I'm saying. Fucking 10 out of fucking 10. 

[Junko]

Uncharted 4 actually looks better than the initial demos.

[KHCast]

This is one harsh fucking review, damn. 

[Brad]

Gaddem he sound so petty. Any legitimate criticisms he might have are lost in his clearly biased distaste for the series (and characters) as a whole. 

...of course, Washington Post also has this review for the game available, so who knows if this is satire or whatever.

Really loving the game so far. Fantastic performances, visual design, set pieces and environments. Pretty sure I only have a few chapters left but it's some really top notch stuff so far. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Finished the game tonight. It's a amazing game, and an absolute brilliant send-off to all of these characters. I don't know what the Single Player DLC will hold (I'm hoping for something involving Chloe and Cutter personally) but I hope it has as much polish as this.

Also, no one dies. Even in the 15 year time skip in the Epilogue, Sam and Sully are partners and have retired, with Sully even getting rid of his smoking addition. The title referred to Nate finally giving up his obsession for a Treasure Hunting life.

Also, decided to compile a list of easter egg trophies. Warning, one of the trophies happens at the end of the game.

Stage Fright: On Chapter 11, when you begin the chase to Sam's tower (It occurs right after Sully and Nate take a massive wooden bar off a door and enter it, stand perfectly still for 30 seconds as soon as the cutscene ends. Trophy refers to the E3 Uncharted mishap where the controller wasn't connected correctly to the system.

Best Score: NOTICE: THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE ON CHAPTER 4. This is because there isn't enough lives for you to beat the score. In the final chapter, you'll start the chapter playing Crash Bandicoot, and you'll find a live crate. Smash it, take the live, and don't lose any lives. As long as you hit enough boxes and collect enough fruit, you'll be fine.

Marco Polo Returns!: In Chapter 12, if you explore the sea for a bit, you'll find a shipwreck on a small island. Jump into the water here and Nate will reference the Marco Polo gag from Uncharted 2 and 3, and unlock this trophy.

I Can See My House From Here!: On Chapter 11, when you are climbing the clock tower, your objective is to get to the top and ring a bell to activate a passage. Don't do this. You'll be able to climb higher up on the clock tower if you look around the outside of the bell, and find some more pieces of the wall Nate can climb. Climb to the very top for a beautiful view of the city, an Assassin's Creed reference, and a trophy.

Don't Feed the Animals: On Chapter 11, at the very start, take your left path and you'll see two girls selling apples. Buy an apple, and walk further ahead, and you'll see a guy sitting down with a lemur. Press triangle and Nate will play with the Lemur. After this, walk up to Sully, and the lemur will run after Nate and steal the apple.

Glamour Shot: In Chapter 11, you'll need to solve a set of puzzles which involves taking pictures with Sully's phone and sending them to Sam. Instead of doing this, simply move the phone over to Sully, and a brief piece of dialogue will begin where Sully says cheese. Press X to take the picture of Sully, and you'll get this trophy.

Finally, not a trophy, but just Guybrush Threepwood.

Nothing else

Guybrush Threepwood.

[TheOcelot]

Update 1.03 is live:

Details of the patch can be viewed here

I myself am only up to chapter 10. Chapter 8 was the best so far for me. I like how vast the area is to explore and it was nice to see Scotland used in a game!

[Haalyle]

Only up to Chapter 8 myself... got a little lost and have yet to go further as I've been playing more multiplayer with friends than the story.

Have they fixed this bug yet?

 

[Strickerx5]

Finished the single player last night and if I had to sum up this game with one word... Phenomenal. Completely blew past my expectations honestly. I was a bit worried with all of those delays, people leaving, and the thought in the back of my mind that ND really didn't want to make this game. My thinking was somewhere along the lines that they had to due to Sony needing one of their big names as a promise for the PS4. Though, after playing through it I think it's safe to say that my worries were completely unneeded.

Everything in this game was pretty much top notch. An interesting plot that kept me guessing what would happen next, a stellar soundtrack, extremely well polished controls and gameplay (seriously, I'm about to play through the game again just to see how crazy I can get those enemy encounters to go), and those graphics... good God those graphics... Believe me when I say that this is the best looking game I've ever played. Completely blows past the previous holders of that title for me like MK8, Halo 5, GTA V PC, and even Arkham Knight. The amount of detail in literally every area you go through is staggering. I can see why this game took so long XD. Add in those animations for all those different movements and actions (I STILL CAN'T GET OVER THE GRASS AND PLANTS OMG) and I often just found myself exploring and looking at things more than actually playing the game at points.

I mean look at this!

Spoiler

Note: These pics sadly suffered from what ever compression the PS4 does when uploading these things to Twitter. Though, I still think they look damn good.

If I haven't had played through the game myself and taken these pics I would have easily labeled these as pre-rendered photos or even concept art. But no, these are fully in-game, fully explorable environments. Seriously, I feel like I could go on for paragraphs about it all. It makes me yearn for a PC release (though I know that will never happen) so we could get it all on top of a smooth 60fps. But hey, I guess that's what the PS4.5 is for... *sigh*

Anyways, I felt as though the plot also held its own. With a great cast of characters and a reason for just about every action taken, it was great to see it all play out. The game did a great job on conveying the current emotion of the plot both through narrative from characters to the music of the given scene. Hell, it even took turns in areas I was never even expecting. Also, massive bonus points for the lack of jump scares. There were honestly times I felt something was about to jump out and it never did. The game had me cautious and fully on my toes without those cheap gimmicks. That is a massive achievement that most games just can't accomplish nowadays. Add in the background story that you can find in the journals and you can definitely see how this was the same team that made The Last of Us.

Though, that's not to say that I didn't have a couple of faults with the game. For one, there is A LOT of climbing. I realize this to be a mute point with these games but the amount here kicks the living shit out of anything that came before it. It's fun, but there were definitely points where I would look at a cliff and sigh a bit.

Another thing I wasn't too keen on was the last quarter of the game. I won't spoil it but I felt that it did drag on a bit too much for its own good. It's mostly movement through areas with not too much going on beyond that. It definitely sticks out when compared to the killer three quarters that came before it. It's definitely not bad by any means and the ending is still superb (in my opinion) but it does stand out. Also, is it just me or did the game seem a tad shorter than the last two? I don't think less of it for that but it did seem like Uncharted 3 (and maybe even 2) had a bit more on them in terms of length.

Lastly, and you can see this as more of a nitpick than anything, but I felt like a part of the game was missing without that huge set-piece that the other games had that sent people crazy. I mean, with Uncharted 2 you had the train. In Uncharted 3 you had the plane, sinking boat, and burning mansion. I guess here the truck chase was suppose to be that and it was certainly impressive (one of my favorite parts of the entire game and did have me giddy as fuck during it) but in terms of scale... I don't know, it just felt lacking compared to what came before it. Especially with the graphical boost this game has on the others. It had a bunch of little segments with impressive action bits but nothing of that scale. Again, this is a complete nitpick and I imagine others will disagree with me but it is something I thought to myself.

But even with that, I still feel like this is a clear case of the good heavily outweighing the bad. To me, this is simply that one game that comes along every couple of years that anyone who owns the console it's on needs to get. If you have a PS4 and don't have it already... why are you reading this? GO NOW!

Oh yeah, and the multiplayer is fun too. Haven't played much of it yet but it's definitely the first PS4 online game I can see myself getting invested in.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So. Two exploits were found for two of the most annoying trophies in the game. They both use the same general structure however. Those trophies are Sharpshooter (For completing the game with 70% accuracy), and Speedrun (Complete the game under six hours). I did not find these myself, that credit goes to various members of the PlaystationTrophies board. I have tested them and both worked for me.

Speedrun: 

 

 

 

Step 1: Complete the game on any difficulty (You need this for the Epilogue chapter)

Step 2: Start a new game on a separate save file (Warning, you can only have one save file prior to this one, that being the file you finished the game on. If you have any additional saves apart from your completed save, and the one you are about to make, then back them up with either a USB or PS Plus, and delete them. Before you move onto Step 3, you should only have two saves. The completed game save, and the new one you are about to make.) WARNING: THIS SAVE MUST BE ON THE SAME DIFFICULTY AS THE SAVE YOU DID FOR YOUR COMPLETED PLAYTHROUGH.

Step 3: Wait till you have control in the Prologue. Play around for a few seconds, and quit the game. This is where several things can occur.

Step 3.1: Check and see if Chapter/Encounter select is there. If they are, click Chapter select and go to Chapter 23: Epilogue

Step 3.2: If Chapter Select isn't present, then repeat step 2 (Ensure you delete the Prologue save, and do a new game again, as well as loading up your completed game save before starting the new save). However, at the end of Step 2, quit the application and restart it, then check for chapter select.

Step 3.3: If Steps 3.1, and 3.2 didn't work, then delete the prologue save, load up the completed game save, and start a new game. This time, play up until Chapter 1 starts, and quit as soon as you get control of Nate. Quit application and restart the game, and check for the chapter select.

Step 4: If it worked, and you are on the Epilogue, congrats, everything should have worked. Simply complete Epilogue now and the trophy should pop either at the ND logo, or after the credits at the main menu. 

Step 5: If the below steps didn't work, attempt doing this with the Sharpshooter trick, as that should definitely reset your stats, including game time and accuracy.

Sharpshooter: 

Spoiler

Since McGray_Scythen on PlayStationTrophies came up with the way I did the glitch, I'll link to their step by step guide on the exploit. I didn't do it for the Speedrun trophy as that seems a lot more weird and took a lot of piecing steps together from various members of PlayStationTrophies to get working, to many to mention. 

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/uncharted-4-a-thief-s-end/289201-sharpshooter-trophy-exploit-70-accuracy.htm

 

[TheOcelot]

Uncharted 4 First Week Sales Surpass 2.7 Million

http://magazine.artstation.com/2016/05/uncharted-4-art-blast/?sf26483984=1

I've now done two playthoughs of The Last of US 2 Unch4. Sorry I had to

When I say TLOU 2 I mean it as a compliment. It's a very enjoyabe game. Best one in the series for me. Has the best pacing. There being slightly less combat is a big improvement. The graphics look amazing and the environments look stunning. Also has the best story, on par with Uncharted 2's. Excellent voicing act and the in-game dialogue helps flush out the story and makes for a very touching ending to the series. I <3 Troy Baker. Wish Chloe was in it

Would have been nice if some stages had had more multiple routes and the enemies take far too many hits to go down. They react super fast (when you don't) and they often spawn out of no where and can get behind you and kill you in seconds, which can be really annoying! Uncharted games have never got the combat spot on, but this was definitely an improvement.

I managed to find all journal entries, journal notes and all optional conversations without using any guides. I've only found 86 treasures so far. They are very well hidden!

The Crash Bandicoot stage is really cool. Here's my best score attempt on Crushing difficulty:

I was never much of a fan of the PS3 trilogy, but Uncharted 4 is an excellent game which I highly recommend.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

This, was a game.

What kind of game, you ask? Well, a GOOD GAME.

I didn't have any glitches which was nice, except for one. I got the trophy for killing 50 enemies from a rope... But I never killed anyone from a rope at that point, nor did I actually kill anyone at all from a rope. Dunno why I got that but hey.

Pretty much the only nitpick (not criticism, nitpick) was the same as the other games, being that they cuss quite a bit. Could've been worse, though. I mean, they could've been saying strong language as opposed to just language. Other than that, there was no supernatural enemy to fight this time around. That would've been cool.

I had to say though, I was on the edge of my seat during the final boss, and the ending quite surprised me too. The Crash stages were fun, too! ALSO, Rainbow Fun Land. Good. Very good.

Yeah I give it a 9/10, I'll have to rent it again when the single player DLC comes out!

[TheOcelot]

Full interview is in the spoiler tag, because......spoilers

Spoiler

Even though you worked on the first two Uncharted games, with Uncharted 4 you were taking over a series that was started by Amy Hennig, versus The Last of Us, which is something you and your co-director, Bruce Straley, created. When Naughty Dog asked you and Bruce to direct this game, where did you start?
I knew we didn't want to kill Nathan Drake, or kill any of the main characters, because tonally that felt wrong. Even though I knew in marketing we wanted to do everything we can to make people feel like we might.

The way in for me was creating his home life. We know between each game that at the end of the previous adventure he gets together with Elena. At the beginning of the next one, their relationship has fallen apart. What happened? It's kind of hinted at but never quite answered.

Our interpretation is that, in order to make his marriage work, Nate oversteered and decided to give up the life of adventure.

 

What did you want this game to say?
I want it to ask interesting questions, or at least have people ask those questions of themselves. Can you balance passion versus settling down? That, to me, is the heart of this thing, which mirrors a lot of our lives as game developers. I'm sure you've read about "crunch," and how difficult that can be on personal lives. We've all joined this industry with the hope of affecting people, touching them in some way. Which is why we work so hard, sometimes to destructive outcomes. So in this game, I really wanted to explore that. To kind of use the pulp action-adventure story as a backdrop, but it's all kind of a metaphor for our life's pursuit.

 

You're 37, you're a father, and you made a game about growing up and letting go of your past – about whether you've been ignoring the damage you've wreaked on your family while you wander the world in search of fame and fortune and adventure and cheap thrills.
I find that the more personal it is, the more you follow your gut, the more successful it's been.

 

But it sounds like you're not Nathan Drake. It sounds like Nathan Drake is the video game industry.
Or is the world of treasure hunters the video game industry? A passion can veer and devolve into addiction.

 

How much does the game resemble your original pitch for it?
The biggest thing that changed was probably the flashbacks. It used to be just one cut scene in the beginning of Nathan and his brother Sam entering the orphanage, and his brother saying, "I'm going to take care of you."

 

The game didn't have any interactive flashbacks?
No, not initially.

 

 

Did those come about because of your interest in so-called walking simulators? You once told me that Tacoma, Fullbright's follow-up to Gone Home, is your most-anticipated game of 2016.
Maybe subconsciously. It's not like we played Gone Home or Firewatch and said, Oh, we've got to get more of this in our game. Usually when something is just a cut scene, there's going to be someone who says, "Should we make this playable?" That's always a motivation: How can we put more of it "on the stick," as we say?

And it felt like, as the story was evolving, that we needed to spend more time with the kids. We're not going to have them run around and shoot and take cover and all that. So what are some interesting things we can do with them?

That led to the whole mansion sequence, and breaking into someone's house. We needed to show that Nate, even at a young age, was intrigued by all this stuff. And it was important to show how much Sam cares for Nate.

 

Dark Souls III came out right before Uncharted 4. A lot of people love how enigmatic and opaque the Souls games are. But Uncharted is sort of the un-Dark Souls.
I love Dark Souls. Bloodborne was my favorite game last year. Maybe because it's so different from the kind of stuff that we make. To me, those games are less about story and more about mood. It's just about this constant tension that the world gives you, which is so unique to video games.

 

That tension is what players describe as "fun."
"Fun" is such an interesting word. We took it off our focus tests. It was just a weird word that people were getting hung up on. How do you rate the dive sequence at the beginning of Uncharted 4? Is that fun? There's no real challenge. There is a perceived threat, where they talk about oxygen, but that's just weird narrative fluff. You can't really run out of oxygen.

But that level is important, to set up how mundane Nate's life is. Just rating it on its own, one through five, that was constantly the lowest-rated level. But it kind of had to be. We're not going to change that.

 

 

What word did you start using instead of "fun"?
It used to be, "How fun did you find this level?" Now it says, "Overall, how would you rate this level?" And one is "did not like" and five is "liked a lot."

 

It becomes less about, "Did I have fun? Did I have an interesting challenge?" and more about, "Did I like it?" And I hope people interpret that as, "Was I engaged? Would I recommend it?"

All of a sudden the focus-test scores improved dramatically.

 

You've said in the past that you've been influenced by Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency videos and the larger conversation about diversity and representation in games. How did that affect Uncharted 4?
When I'm introducing and describing a new character to our lead character concept artist, constantly she will ask, "What if it was a girl?" And I'm like, "Oh, I didn't think about that. Let me think, does that affect or change anything? No? Cool, that's different. Yeah, let's do it."

Initially, in the epilogue, it was Nate's son. Something similar happened with the mansion they go into. That was an old English guy's house. She asked, "Well, what if it was a woman?"

You have some sexist focus testers who were really upset by Nadine beating up Nate, and really upset at the end when it was Nate's daughter. To the point where we had to ask one guy to leave. In his core, it just affected him. He was cursing, "Not you, too, Naughty Dog! Goddammit. I guess I'm done with Uncharted if you guys ever make another one, with his daughter. This fucking bullshit." And I was like, Wow, why does that matter?

 

That's amazing. He played an entire game that's about Nate, Sully, and Sam. I mean, it's about Elena, too, but not really. And you're going to go bonkers because Nate has a daughter?
It's interesting that you say it isn't about Elena. I haven't timed it, but I think she's in the game more than Sullivan.

 

She definitely is. And the game is certainly about their marriage. But is Rocky about Adrian?
The Feminist Frequency review that I just watched, which I actually really enjoyed, talked about this. I disagree with them. They said they didn't like how Elena was handled in the story. That she becomes an obstacle to Nathan, that's she's this wet blanket, and she's the thing that's holding him back.

My interpretation, or at least our intention, is that she's not. The only thing holding Nate back is Nate.

If anything, Elena is trying to urge him to take this Malaysia job, even though it's illegal. The thing that makes Elena the most upset is that he doesn't include her. That's his biggest flaw in the story, that he ends up lying to her.

 

In some ways, those sequences – the stuff at Nathan's house, and the flashbacks – make the game feel like a sequel to The Last of Us. The last third of this game feels more quintessentially Uncharted, with the car chases and escapes from collapsing buildings.
To us, it's an evolution of the studio. The village sequence in Uncharted 2, nothing like that existed in the first Uncharted. When you watch a movie like Star Wars, the lightsaber fights are important, but so are the character moments. I guess it's getting more and more confident in using our medium to have these downbeat moments.

The whole construction of The Last of Us was a relationship. And we learned a bunch of lessons making that and The Last of Us: Left Behind. We were conscious to bring that to Uncharted, while being mindful that there is a lightheartedness that we didn't want to lose. Hopefully we hit that balance, where it feels like an evolution without having lost its DNA.

And then when you get to the action, it's more meaningful than just seeing cool graphics and spectacle. There's some character investment going on as well.

 

You once said you weren't nervous about losing players who just want wall-to-wall action from Uncharted, because you don't make games for them. What if I said I don't believe you?
Which part of it?

 

I don't believe that you weren't nervous. I do believe that you don't make games for them.
I'm always nervous how a game will be received, how successful we'll be, is it going to make its money back. I guess what I meant is that I know we're going to lose some people. I know there are people on NeoGAF right now complaining about the beginning of this game. Because I read some. They hate how slow it is. They don't believe it's really a game until you get to the end of the auction and you get your gun and you start shooting at people. That, to them, is the game. I'm OK if we lose some of those people. Hopefully they're replaced with other people who are intrigued by the more conscious pacing.

 

You're surfing the comment forums at NeoGAF right now?
That's my sick obsession. You listen to movie directors in interviews, and they can go sit in a theater and get the reaction of people to their movie. We don't have that experience. Sure, I can invite someone over who hasn't played the game and watch them play, but it's not quite the same. Going on NeoGAF or watching Let's Play videos is how I get to experience the game now, and see what works, what doesn't work, how people interpret the material. That, to me, is part of the payoff of making this game. You have to have thick skin. But it can be quite enjoyable.

 

I've heard that the game was not always a cover shooter.
For most of its development cycle, the first Uncharted was a brawler slash lock-on shooter. There was no aiming. You had a gun, and you could lock on to enemies and shoot at them. But we thought we could create a game that had that kind of pulp-action feel, where you would just run around without having to worry about moving a second analog stick and aiming.

We tried all these minigames – if I have a lock-on, how do I make aiming challenging? Is it timing based? None of those ideas were fun. And we tried them for many, many, many months.

The first iteration was, OK, only when you take cover, we can let you aim. As soon as we put that in, all of a sudden combat became even more engaging. There was an interesting challenge that wasn't there before.

We built a lot of the game, and a lot of story, and then we were like, "Oh my God, we built a really short game. Let's throw a bunch of combat into every environment." To me, playing it back, I still think it's an awesome achievement, but it's a little overstuffed with combat in waves. I think it kind of ruins what has a really beautiful story underneath it. Maybe "ruins" is a bit harsh. But hampers, a little bit.

 

 

Uncharted 4 has a trophy called "Ludonarrative Dissonance" for killing 1,000 people. That's a reference to the criticism that Nathan Drake doesn't respond emotionally to all the killing he does.
I told all the people on the team, "This is my proudest moment, the fact that I came up with this trophy on this project." We were conscious to have fewer fights, but it came more from a desire to have a different kind of pacing than to answer the "ludonarrative dissonance" argument.

Because we don't buy into it. I've been trying to dissect it. Why is it that Uncharted triggers this argument, when Indiana Jones doesn't? Is it the number? It can't be just the number, because Indiana Jones kills more people than a normal person does. A normal person kills zero people. And Indiana Jones kills a dozen, at least, over the course of several movies. What about Star Wars? Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, are they some sort of serial killers? They laugh off having killed some stormtroopers. And in The Force Awakens, we see that a stormtrooper can actually repent for the person he is and come around, and there are actually real people under those helmets.

It's a stylized reality where the conflicts are lighter, where death doesn't have the same weight.

We're not trying to make a statement about Third World mercenaries, or the toll of having killed hundreds of people in your life.

 

 

Why all the ladders and crates?
Pacing, and trying to get you to work with your ally. How can I work with my ally to get through a space? Is it through a boost? Is it through a crate? I know where you're going with this.

 

Where am I going with it?
I hear the criticism. Sometimes people say it's still too much. "How did these crates with wheels get over here?"

 

But you think it helps bind you to the characters.
I do. It's the same reason we couldn't make combat work in The Last of Us without Ellie shooting. For the longest time, the story was that Ellie would never kill anybody, until the end of the game when she had to kill someone to save Joel.

And we realized, you're just forgetting about your ally. You're like, "Oh wait, what are they doing again? I have this thing that's following me around, but they're not engaging in the actions I'm taking."

Believe it or not, we had way more boxes and ladder boosts than what the game actually ended up with. This is a much-reduced version of that.

I have a list of things that we cut from the game that I've been keeping. Do you want me to go through that?

 

Yes!
I don't think I've discussed this list with anybody. There used to be a cooking sequence, where you were actually mixing in ingredients. You could make the food too spicy, and they would have different dialogue, depending on how spicy you made it. That got cut.

There was a whole sequence where you were walking around the prison yard, talking to people, and you're looking for Sam. It just felt like we needed to get on with it.

In Scotland, you could do a snowball fight. This was actually fully working. You could pick up snow anywhere and throw it at Sam, and he would throw snowballs at you. But tonally, that just felt wrong.

And when the map room starts collapsing, we had this whole sequence where the crane is collapsing into the cave, and you're climbing through the cabin in the crane, and holding as it's rotating and flipping. With production winding down, that was probably the toughest cut, because it was so far along.

You could play fetch with the dog in the epilogue. There was a ball when you walked outside, and you could pick it up and throw it, and the dog had A.I. to actually pick it up and run back to you. But the animation looked kind of janky.

The other mechanic that was pretty cool was shootable handholds. There were certain surfaces that if you shot at them, it would create holes, and you could use them to climb. And it just felt like it was hard to create the right language for that, and make sure you always had ammo for those places. But as a prototype, it was a really fun mechanic.

The opening of the game, in the boat, that used to not be the opening of the game until very late in production. You got thrown from the boat, you got separated from Sam, and you had to swim to shore. You spent several minutes swimming to shore and being lost at sea. It just felt really long and unnecessary.

This one I was kind of bummed about. In the manor, when you're playing with the two kids, they picked up swords off the wall and they pretended to sword fight. And we wanted to use the same mechanic you would then use at the boss fight at the end. We cut that.

 

Did the game start with the flashback, when you didn't start with the boat chase?
It started on Nate. You heard the nun say his name, and then we cut to him.

 

I was wondering if that was true. I think that boat chase is good, but it doesn't feel like the opening of an Uncharted game.
Adding that boat chase just created some interesting questions. There's a bit more tension in the orphanage, knowing where these two brothers end up. How did they get there? The more questions you're carrying, the more engaged you are with the story.

That boat gave you a little bit of action, a little bit of adrenaline. Now we can slow things down and really take our time. Because we gave you just that little taste of it.

 

If you made the director's cut of Uncharted 4, would any of those cuts be put back in?
The only one I'm wistful for is the sword fight. That's the only one I feel wouldn't hurt the pacing, or the tone, or something else. We were just coming up against the end of production and looking at everything that had to go in to make the story work, versus something that would just add to it, and be a really cool callback. Sometimes you have to make those difficult choices.