The Last of Us Director Speaks on Uncharted 4’s Gameplay Changes
The creative director of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Last of Us speaks on what he learned going from Joel to Nathan and the changes he's bringing to Drake's new adventure.
In a video interview with Game Informer (via Polygon), Neil Druckmann, the creative director of The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, explains his big plans for Drake's big PS4 debut as well as what he learned from his work with the Fireflies. With Neil Druckmann replacing Amy Hennig as Uncharted 4's creative director and writer, all eyes are on Drake to see if he meets the standards of both The Last of Us and Uncharted's fan bases. Druckmann is going for some big changes while trying to stay true to the series, especially when it comes to Drake's elaborate action sequences.
"With the verticality of Nathan Drake, with adding set pieces that weren't necessarily in this demo, how do you get a bigger flow, something that is deeper at an emotional level? All those things come together to make the Uncharted that we want to play," Druckmann said. "We have our vertical slice and we've found our flow and the voice of this game. Now it's like, how do you expand on that?"
The team at Naughty Dog is trying to create a sandbox-like experience where it doesn't seem like you're just traveling from action sequence to action sequence. Instead, you're part of a massive landscape where all these crazy things happen and Drake properly reacts to them instead of just running through scripted events.
"How do you flesh that out across the entire experience, making sure it's got its proper pacing, it's got its ups and downs? It seems like an eternity from now until when we'll be finished with it," Druckmann added. "To us, the Uncharted combat works best when it has a flow to it, when you are not just behind cover, shooting over and ducking back down. When your cover is getting flanked and you have to jump and move down to another level."
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is expected to launch sometime in late 2014 for PlayStation 4.