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Uncharted 4 Story Changed "100 Percent" After New Directors Came On

"We want it to be a mind-blowing, eye-popping, sweaty-palms adventure."

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The story for action-adventure game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End changed "100 percent" when Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley came aboard the project, Druckmann revealed in a new AP interview.

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The game was originally in development under the direction of Amy Hennig and Justin Richmond, but they left the studio in early 2014. Though it was not confirmed, reports indicated Hennig was allegedly "forced out" by Druckmann and Straley, a point that the studio has denied.

Druckmann and Straley, who worked on the first Uncharted and its sequel before moving on to The Last of Us, were named co-directors of Uncharted 4 in June 2014, according to Game Informer.

No information was provided as to the specific changes Druckmann and Straley made to the Uncharted 4's story. However, Nathan Drake actor Nolan North shared some insight in an interview last year, saying a lot of work was thrown out after Hennig left Naughty Dog.

The development team "shot eight months of her story and it was all thrown away," he said. "Amy is still a very dear friend of mine and she's brilliant. But the Last of Us guys were the next team there, so they took over and they just wanted their own flavor. They got rid of some of the other people that were involved and just redid their thing."

North said Uncharted 4's overall tone is going to be "slightly different" than Hennig's vision.

"It has to be, you know," he said. "You can't have a Robert Ludlum novel that's going to be the same as Stephen King. It's just that they're different styles. But it's true to the story."

In the AP interview, Straley said Uncharted 4 is the "biggest, most ambitious" game Naughty Dog has ever made.

"We want to do this justice," he said. "We want it to be a mind-blowing, eye-popping, sweaty-palms adventure. Everybody is bleeding out of their eye sockets to make it come together. We want to make sure Drake is sent off properly."

Uncharted 4 is the final entry in the Uncharted series that Naughty Dog plans to develop (but not necessarily the final game in the series) and the last game to star Nathan Drake.

"It's time," Druckmann said. "Sometimes, a character just lets you know it's time to move on. For me, that was part of the intrigue of coming back to this world. You never see something successful in the industry end. It usually just fizzles out."

After multiple delays, Uncharted 4 launches exclusively for PS4 at the end of April.

Just this week, a thrilling new story trailer was released. It was great, but it had a problem, too--it used concept art from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Naughty Dog has since apologized for the "regrettable mistake" and released a new version of the video with the art in question removed.

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jeffreybernabe

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Edited By jeffreybernabe

In Naughty Dog, We Trust

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Flyin3lvl

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Edited By Flyin3lvl

*door kicked open*

""you out""

""you out""

files/concepts/finals swiped of desk into trash

"you , you , you ,out""

meh. uncharted one played a lot, two was epic, three was running low on plot ideas. maybe they were gonna do a walk through a snow storm scene and someone send out the word "help"

is a little stretch a brother has emerged when no mention at all in previous games. but then cheers once did Frasier dad was dead, was only child then in the reunion on fraiser "he told that lie because he was mad at him" ........

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patsfan365

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@Flyin3lvl: well Nate's past has ever hardly been mentioned. It's usually references that we're out of the loop on, they only really dabbled in his backstory in 3. And even then, it was only a small mention of his parents. Not a stretch at all.

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HermitKiller

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I'm dissapointed. Where are all the pc petition crybabies??

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freeformrulz

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If they kill sully and Nathan's brother betrays the gang that would be the most cliché story ever. I really hope they don't take that route

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weFest0507

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coming back to this world. nah you guys never left.

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OBSIDIAN_BORN

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Naughty Dog games are like a Platinum Blonde. I prefer a brunette with a deep character that I could get lost in.

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dooNish

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Edited By dooNish

@obsidian_born: I prefer women with large Adam's apples.

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SkyHighGam3r

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@obsidian_born: I'd rather get taken for an amazing ride I'll never forget and that trade that off for the next adventure.

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mourtos1

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This game will blow

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SkyHighGam3r

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@mourtos1: I love getting blown.

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merimack

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Can't wait to see what they've come up with for this one. This is by far my favorite TPS series of all time.

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baral-o

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Edited By baral-o

I know the odds are small, but I hope they keep the split screen mode they had in uncharted 3, why are most companies remove that even though they had it the the previous game?

nevertheless, I'm really looking forward for the final chapter, I loved all 3 uncharted

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Weelious_225

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@baral-o: Since SkyHighGam3r is clearly just looking for an excuse to be mad, I'll try to explain why modern games tend to omit split screen. In the old days, split screen was simply a matter of creating a second viewport and maybe lowering the quality of the assets to compensate for the additional strain of running the gameplay systems twice. However, modern games use more and more rendering techniques (fullscreen effects, dynamic lighting) that would require a lot of additional coding in order to make them work with split screen, never mind actually run well.

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baral-o

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@weelious_225: true, but in some occasions it is possible, last gen I was always hearing that open world racing games cannot be done split screen, it's 100% impossible...driver SF prove them wrong and I had so much fun in that, I was hearing the same for uncharted 2, yet 3 had ss, every time they say it's impossible, a game comes out to prove them wrong

I don't mind if they drop the resolution to 900 (or even 720) tone down some FX and frame rate to 30, star wars battlefront did something similar and graphical it was heavier than halo...to bad SW B is a below mediocre game (personal opinion)

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SkyHighGam3r

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@baral-o: In order to have split-screen you usually have to render the entire game twice, which puts a major limit on what you can do graphically.

Sadly, most gamers only care about graphics and don't have any real-life friends/girlfriends so they don't even notice or care.

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LPDisturbedHU

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@skyhighgam3r: In my case, my gf and I just plan on gamesharing when we get her an Xbox One. We'll just set up two TV's in the same room whenever we game and problem solved.

It sucks if you want to do 3-4 player co-op though, but I rarely ever use that (and I'm sure that's the case for most of us).

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SkyHighGam3r

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@LPDisturbedHU: My fiance and I actually do something very similar.

I've got my Xbox setup in my ... for lack of a less ridiculous term... "man-cave"... and then the one I bought her in the living room.

What I will do though, is bring my laptop into the living room, and stream my Xbox to it. That way I don't have to move TVs or systems or anything.

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Aiden_Kasel

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That's very very interesting, can't wait to play this damn game, just hope all these delays make sure the SP will be in 60fps

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baral-o

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@aiden_kasel: sp will be locked 30fps

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PutASpongeOn

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Uncharted 3.14

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merimack

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@putaspongeon: Man, I want an uncharted pie now.

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dugnik

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Edited By dugnik

Hennig was the creative director and writer on U2, it's funny to see ppl think druckman was. If you thought U2 > U3, you can thank Amy for that as it was still hers.

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blazinpuertoroc

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@dugnik: Druckman was a co-writer

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LouiXIII

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Good. I can't wait xD C'mon April

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davidsworld3

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I expect this game to be disappointing and not worth full price, I never was able to get myself to beat the 3rd game just too boring and scripted.

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wrestlemaniaw

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@davidsworld3: same with me until I got the collection which ran at 60 fps then I was a able to enjoy it a bit and finished it...

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TronicMoose

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I cannot wait for this game to come out, the story looks amazing. This will be the third major title game that I get this year. I am currently playing Street Fighter V to quench my thirst until this, and Ratchet & Clank comes out.

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naomha1

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Changed 100%? WTF is that about? Hennig and Richmond were phenomenal writers/directors. What exactly is Drukman bringing to the table except a 100% inflated ego?

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Spaced92

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Edited By Spaced92

@naomha1: Amy Hennig is great and the Legacy of Kain is one of my favourite series because of the story, but The Last of Us was better written than any Hennig Uncharted game.

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patsfan365

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@naomha1: talent?

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Pl3xus

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I miss Amy.. :(

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SprSynJn

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I am calling it. Articles and comments galore of how the previous directors should have finished the story if this story is found to be in anyway dull. Just watch.

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lostn

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I think the game is in good hands. Druckman and Straley did U2 and TLOU, Hennig did U3. U2 was better than U3, so their version of U4 should be better than Hennig's.

I can't wait to see what they did next. When they showed dialog options, they quickly assured everyone they were not making Mass Effect. But I kinda wish they were making ME in U4. I would have liked choices with consequences. They should have taken it a step further.

Perhaps for the next game they work on, whatever that will be.

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Zerabp

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@lostn: Hennig departed Crystal Dynamics to act as the creative director for Naughty Dog.[5] She contributed to the Jak and Daxter series before working as the game director for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune,[9] and as head writer and creative director for the Uncharted series. With Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Hennig led the 150 person team who created the game, as well as acting as writer.[1] After directing and writing for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End for the PlayStation 4, Hennig left Naughty Dog in 2014.[10] As of April 3, 2014, Hennig joined Visceral Games with Todd Stashwick to work on their Star Wars game.[11]

Can you be more wrong?

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lostn

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Edited By lostn

@Zerabp: With your corrections, let me rephrase with more clarity.

U1 = Hennig in charge. Okay game.

U2 = Druckman and Straley worked on it. Good game.

U3 = No D&S. Okay game.

TLOU = D&S worked on it, no Hennig. Good game.

U4 = D&S worked on it, no Hennig. I assume it will be a good game.

Hennig wrote and directed U1 and U3, but only wrote U2. She did not direct that game. Incidentally, U2 without her direction is widely regarded as the best in the series. TLOU was also not directed by her, and was also much better regarded critically than U1 and U3. I don't know if that's a coincidence or causation, but it makes me feel better about U4 and to be honest, I don't think I'm going to miss Hennig at Naughty Dog.

The only thing you've corrected is that Hennig led the team on U2 and acted as writer. The spirit of what I said has not changed in light of that correction.

Rumor has it (and ND has denied it) that D&S forced Hennig out, and their relationship was not good. If this is true, ND could have either removed D&S or removed Hennig. I think they made the right call. Of course the 'removal' will be made to look voluntary so she can keep her dignity.

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