Not all of Naughty Dog’s ideas for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End made it into the PlayStation 4 game. For various reasons, the developer decided to part ways with some sequences and gameplay elements, director Neil Druckmann explains in a new interview with Glixel.
Druckmann outlined a number of the things that got cut, and we’ve collected his quotes here. You can see what he had to say in the spoiler text below; as you can see from the volume of black bars, Naughty Dog cut a lot of content.
Uncharted 4: What Got Cut
Druckmann was also asked if he would consider putting any of these sequences back in if there was ever an Uncharted 4 director’s cut. Here’s his spoiler-filled response:
Also in the interview, Druckmann talked about Uncharted 4’s “Ludonarrative Dissonance” Trophy, a tongue-in-cheek achievement awarded after you kill 1,000 people. Druckmann said he doesn’t exactly understand why people criticize Nathan Drake for being a mass murderer when Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker are, too.
“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,” he explained. “Because we don’t buy into it.”
He goes on: “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. “
The full interview is incredibly fascinating and well worth your time if you’re at all interested in the development of Uncharted 4 and the people behind it. In the same interview, we learned that Naughty Dog booted some focus testers for their “sexist” comments about some of the game’s plot points.
Uncharted 4 launched on May 10 and sold 2.7 million copies in its first week.
GameSpot’s Uncharted 4 review scored the action-adventure game a 10/10.
“Uncharted 4 is a challenge to the medium. In its writing, in its design, in its understanding of what makes games unique, Uncharted 4 is something to aspire to,” critic Mike Mahardy said. “It’s a shining example. And we’ll be talking about it for years to come.”
Naughty Dog has extensive DLC plans for Uncharted 4 that include things like more multiplayer maps and modes, all of which will be free. Additionally, Naughty Dog is making single-player DLC for Uncharted 4, representing a franchise-first.