You’ll no doubt be glad to hear that Uncharted 4 is shaping up very well indeed. With the PlayStation 4’s hardware, they’re able to do more than just make the world a lot prettier than they could on PlayStation 3, but also make it wider, give you more options, let you drive around in a 4×4, and on and on.
After going hands on with the game, with a written preview and a video off the back of this, we spoke to Arne Meyer, Director of Communications at Naughty Dog, about the new directions that Uncharted 4 is heading in.
TSA: So, how come you broke from tradition and didn’t make a karting game for your fourth Uncharted?
Arne Meyer: Well [sighs], we had this really great physics engine and then we were just like, “maybe we should put some narrative around it?”
TSA: [laughs] A karting game with a story would’ve been a big hit! But more seriously, has it been difficult dealing with the expectations on the game and the delays that you’ve faced on three occasions, I think it is now?
Arne: We’ve delayed it twice… and then there’s a manufacturing issue that’s added a couple of weeks.
Not really. You’re always asked to put a release date on things, and as the game is shaping up and you start looking at it, we’re lucky that we’re trusted to basically get the game done the way we want it to get done. If we need more time, then everyone is able to rally around that. That was basically the decision we made. We were just like, “Hey, we want to finish the game the way we want to do it. We need a little extra time.”
With Naughty Dog, the game always starts to come together at the very end. Those last few weeks see a massive change in terms of polish, in terms of how everything goes together, and we tend to notice that closer to the end, which is why we knew in December that we needed to push it a little bit.
TSA: I think one of the things that’s been quite nice, in a way, is how you’ve shown the game in public on a few occasions and it’s gone completely wrong. Obviously that’s going to be stressful from your point of view, but it’s underlined for those watching that these were live demos and the game in progress.
Arne: Oh yeah, for sure. I know that Bruce [Straley] finds it really stressful when that happens, but I like it when I see it. We’re taking the chance of actually playing this live in front of you, to show that the game works and that we’re playing…
TSA: And also that it’s not necessarily a bespoke section of the game that has been worked on and polished for six months, that it’s in the context of the greater game.
Arne: Yeah, when we do demos, we’re working on the game and when the deadline comes up we see that this part works, so we’ll cut it to the side and say that we’re going to get this part of the game done sooner than our schedule originally had for it. That’s about it!
TSA: How important do you think it is for you guy to be pushing the graphical boundaries of the PlayStation 4? First party studios are often relied upon to really lead the way and show what the console can do.
Arne: For us, it’s all in service of what we’re trying to do with the game. All of our games from the PS3 generation until now were grounded in the real world or a version of the real world. As such, you have certain expectations in terms of how to ground the player in that world, how to make things believable to a degree where they’re immersed in the narrative.
So we push the effects, the graphics and even our motion capture performances in service of that. When we push the technology, it’s really only to immerse the player as much as possible.
TSA: Do you think that cutting edge is going to be difficult to align with PlayStation VR – obviously there’s nothing you can talk about specifically! – where the PlayStation 4’s power will put a number of graphical limitations in place?
Arne: I mean, we haven’t really looked at it. We tend to push what we’ve got and we’re really happy with what we’ve been able to do on a single screen. I know there are people in the studio who’ve played with all the different VR platforms, but we haven’t looked at those yet.
Like I said, we really like what we’re doing [with a single screen]. That’s what we’re really focussed on, I think we do a great job of pushing it, and that’s where our interests continue to lie.
TSA: It was quite surprising, when you revealed it, to see that Drake has got a brother and a wider family. In Uncharted 3 he was this lone street urchin, almost, so was it a conscious decision to have this more personal relationship?
Arne: I think that when we were considering the narrative for the game, bringing in a blood relation really created some interesting dramatic tension. As we’ve already been setting up, Drake is starting to have to make a choice between his family [and his adventuring], but his family could be his blood family, his family in terms of being with Elena, and so it really starts to ask what are the choices you make and how far you would go for each specific one.
Your blood family is one that you don’t really have a choice over, but you might have deeper ties with them, so would you sacrifice your family for them? It’s really asking what Drake would sacrifice for it, and I think it creates and interesting dramatic tension to have his brother there.
TSA: One interesting thing your doing in that regard is with the branching dialogue that you revealed fairly recently. But with that theme of sacrifice, does it get to be more integral to the story, or is it still a linear story overall?
Arne: We’re still doing everything in service of a linear story. We’re following the particular story of Nathan Drake and try to do so with the right pacing, but we’re trying to find ways to introduce player choice. That’s not the only time that you’ll see that sort of branching dialogue and what it does is it provides some variety with what you’ll hear about, so you’re not going to see a trophy that goes “Sam will remember that.” [laughs] It’s not going to go that far!
TSA: [laughs] That would be a nice joke trophy to have, though. Turning to the gameplay itself, you’ve talked about “wide linear” design, but what does that actually mean for the player? Are there divergent routes, or is it more about giving you a sandbox to play in?
Arne: The idea is that you’ve got different paths and approaches to the same goals.
At the end of the day, and as you’ll see in the preview section that we’ve got here, there’s always a goal off in the distance that you’re headed towards. The idea is to give you as much choice as possible on how to get there, so with the 4×4 or even on foot when you’re exploring, it could be different paths within the same environment, where maybe you’ll miss something and avoid combat, or maybe you’ll find some collectables and treasures…
TSA: That’s going to be… I’m going to resort to using a guide for all those tiny glinting dots and treasures. I miss them at the best of times, but now that the environments are bigger and you’re driving around?
Arne: Well, we definitely want to reward people who explore, and I think that’s why we have those collectables in there. So yeah, if you are a completionist, it’s going to take you a little bit longer, because they just won’t be on the main path.
But it’s the same thing that we do for the combat. As we were talking about earlier, we have different approaches to the combat where it can be full on stealth, going in guns blazing, it can be a hybrid of the two. There are even some scenarios where you can skip the combat and keep moving forward.
TSA: That’s a nice thing to hear, because full stealth and skipping encounters was always something I’ve felt you’ve been missing. You’ve self referentially noted the sheer body count that Drake racks up, but from the gameplay perspective, I was always disappointed that I couldn’t use stealth and avoid combat.
It’s also interesting to note that your AI buddies also play and can assist you stealthily? How have you handled adding that to the gameplay?
Arne: Well that’s always a challenge, because the AI’s always trying to anticipate what your actions are going to be and what your intent is…
TSA: Yeah, because even up until The Last of Us, it was always a case of letting you do stealth until the guns start firing.
Arne: Right, and so for us this is a natural extension of that. It’s not easy and it’s obviously not perfect. I mean, there will be things depending on how you play where it won’t make sense, but it is really difficult because we’re not going to be able to read your mind!
But I think that we’ve come a long way in terms of how we’re trying to incorporate your ally NPCs and how they’re acting. Just in the presentation video, you saw that they’re able to jump in and react with stealth.
TSA: Have the AI been given quieter shoes than Ellie had in The Last of Us? [laughs]
Arne: [laughs] Yeah, definitely!
All of the AI systems are the next evolution from what we’ve done in The Last of Us. Everything in The Last of Us was the best enemy and allied AI that we had, and this is the next iteration of that, the next leap forward.
Thanks to Arne for taking the time to talk to us. Be sure to check out our preview of Uncharted 4 and also watch our hands on video.
Tuffcub
Great interview Teffles
TSBonyman
Great interview, can’t wait!