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New Uncharted 4 Amy Hennig details emerge and departure from Naughty Dog
- Thread starter dcelw540
- Start date
Just gonna bump this up again since people keep talking about how this version would've been better/worse than the one we got.
UrbanDandy
Member
I wonder what would have been the supernatural element in Hennig's Uncharted 4, should it have gone into full production?
SomedayTheFire
Member
Those ideas don't sound too good at all. Delighted with the Uncharted 4 that we got.
brickarts295
Member
I'm convinced it was ghost pirates a la pirates of the Caribbean 1. Nathan even makes a joke about it in U4.
WrenchNinja
Member
I'm sure it would have been better than the exploding mummies and fighting all those armoured goons in the ship graveyard
UrbanDandy
Member
You're probably right. I bet some players would roll their eyes with that story.
Pretty sure the one written by Hennig would have been better. Because it would have been written by Hennig.
At the very least, I feel comfortable assuming she would have had an angle on Sam that made him interesting in some way, which the U4 that was released did not. I'm glad Nadine was in U4, because then in Lost Legacy she was around to be a character who felt the same way about Sam Drake that I did.
I would be fine with not having Elena be a large part of Uncharted 4 though. It's been done before. The story between Nate and Elena was done in 1 and 2. It would have been nice to have the focus be on someone else for a change. Like Sully and Nate did in Uncharted 3.
I mean if they were going to make Sam Nate's brother no matter what, the story HAS to be focused around those two. Otherwise what's the point of those two characters being related?
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Well her feelings wasn't just towards Sam.
Electret
Member
Definitely - TLL is among the best of the franchise. I wonder how letting them handle future iterations will work, as ND doesn't have A and B teams, per se. I think they have the ability to split off a pre-production team, but the company is going to be knee deep in TLOU for a while.
Because "here's my brother, a guy that I never mentioned and that had no real impact on my life except being a delinquent teenager and getting me into trouble with shady deals" is so much better.
Yabberwocky
Member
I really loved how messy and complicated Nate's and Sam's relationship ended up being. They really loved each other, and were competitive with each other, like siblings often are. Sam's a bit jealous of Nate, but equally protective in turn. Nate felt like the older brother to Sam's younger brother, despite it really being the reverse. I liked that adrenaline junkie addiction/treasure hunting obsession was explored, both with Nate+Sam and Nate+Eleana. Sam did some really shitty things, Nate did some less shitty things that were still a bit shit, but it was all surprisingly quite nuanced. I don't love the pacing of UC4, but the dynamics between the characters were beautifully explored. (Also, Sully is still the best.)
Bought Jason's book, been looking forward to it! (Also, to spite YouTube guy for the rip-off.) ETA: Maybe that was Jason's long-con all along, ha.
Bought Jason's book, been looking forward to it! (Also, to spite YouTube guy for the rip-off.) ETA: Maybe that was Jason's long-con all along, ha.
Hot take fellas!!! Majority opinions, critic opinions and multi million sales dont matter I guess.
Basileus777
Member
Interesting bit. It got me to buy Jason Schreier's book at least.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It sounds alright, but the version we got sounds more subtle.
Funny, for me it was the other way around. Until then Chloe had hardly called out Nadine for wanting to murder Nate.
Greatest Ever
Member
The older I got the more away from Hennig's writing I became. I always have a soft spot for the first two Uncharted games' more human moments, but nothing comes near the wholly satisfying Uncharted 4 for me. Druckmann's writing is much preferred.
Of course, she has evolved and her blueprint definitely influenced a lot of nuances in Uncharted 4's characters. On the other hand, I'm still salty about how sloppy Uncharted 3 was thanks to her odd writing and a set piece first mentality.
Of course, she has evolved and her blueprint definitely influenced a lot of nuances in Uncharted 4's characters. On the other hand, I'm still salty about how sloppy Uncharted 3 was thanks to her odd writing and a set piece first mentality.
Greatest Ever
Member
Having an opinion isn't a hot take. Uncharted 4 is one of my favorite games ever, but I can easily see where it falls apart for someone else.
Saw this yesterday and wanted to do a thread on it, didn't know how to approach it though with not having read the book but wanted to give Jason the credit.
Ya messed up, OP.😦
That said I wanna do another thread about the biggest thing UC4 did wrong for me, and suffice to say that was the story. Hennig's game sounds like from a story standpoint it would have negated my biggest issue with UC4.
Damn...
Ya messed up, OP.😦
That said I wanna do another thread about the biggest thing UC4 did wrong for me, and suffice to say that was the story. Hennig's game sounds like from a story standpoint it would have negated my biggest issue with UC4.
Damn...
Might just be games I play but it feels rare to me in terms of narrative driven games. I don't mean abrupt switcheroos in light narrative games, I've seen that, I mean a more detailed and slow paced switch.
You wife will ask about your childhood. She'll ask someone who knew you from chi old hood (Sully). I agree on Marlowe too as that would be in their files but it's stretching it your investigative journalist wife would be kept in the dark too. It's too big an thing and to be honest too obvious to miss. If Nate betrayed Sam sure he'd hide that but as literally shown to us there's not enough of a reason to hide what happened to his brother. It's the kind of addition that never stacks up well which is why I wish they didn't bother. Sam being a key partner of Nate and Sully would have been enough and would actually make Sam's actions more plausible in U4.
That said I liked the scenes with them as young guys but it doesn't mesh to well bringing a brother into it like Sam. If Sam was a bad guy that would work better as Nate would have a guenuine reason to keep him a secret. Sam's shown to have been pretty caring about Nate in his knockabout way and a big part of his life prior to Elena. The other issue is happy go lucky Nate in U1 and U2 seems odd giving timing of losing a beloveded brother and how.
Older brother comes back for revenge because younger brother apparently abandoned him and left him to die. So glad we didn't get that story, because on top of it not sounding like a Nate thing to do, what we got was much better, even if it wasn't perfect. No Nadine would've sucked too, though she wasn't perfect in U4 either, but I'm glad they reintroduced her in TLL which I plan to play very soon.
Dangansona
Member
Seems like it to me as well.
Also I need to buy this book.
I think it's a little fair to contrast the two keeping in mind what you have said at least. At the very least when it comes to the treatment of Sam. I'm just happy to see people saying something positive about U4 lol.
ExtinctionEvent
Banned
So much for those wishing Henig did uc4, sounds like less gunplay was Henigs idea.
This sounds worse than what we got.
This sounds worse than what we got.
Shpeshal Nick
aka Collingwood
While similar to what we ended up getting, it sounds like Amy's vision(s) for the game would have made it even more boring overall than the final game we got so I'm kinda of glad the changes were made.
An Uncharted game with very little combat would not have been fun. One with not much combat wasn't that fun as it was.
An Uncharted game with very little combat would not have been fun. One with not much combat wasn't that fun as it was.
Nightwing123
Member
I like some of the ideas but overall I'm definitely happy that we ended up getting the Uncharted 4 we have.
When Jason Schreier was interviewed by Colin Moriarty he sounded a bit too self-important. However the take-away I got was that, unlike the many hacks out there, he has a real regard for games journalism.
Uncharted is one of my favourite game franchises so I've been intrigued as to the story behind it. I prefer to know the unfiltered version first. I wanted the print edition of Blood, Sweat & Pixels but the UK has to wait an extra month so I have ordered the Kindle edition and will read it in bed!
Uncharted is one of my favourite game franchises so I've been intrigued as to the story behind it. I prefer to know the unfiltered version first. I wanted the print edition of Blood, Sweat & Pixels but the UK has to wait an extra month so I have ordered the Kindle edition and will read it in bed!
Some interesting ideas there.
I've said it before, but the central conceit of Uncharted 4 (that Drake has a long lost brother that no one knew about and/or cared to mention before) is one of the things that most bug me about the game, because as presented in the game it simply feels to jarring and crazy to contemplate. It's been known for a while that the idea came from Hennig, but I've often wondered if the romanticism of her writing could have perhaps sold the concept a bit better than Druckman's naturalism. It's interesting to think of what might have been, at any rate.
I've said it before, but the central conceit of Uncharted 4 (that Drake has a long lost brother that no one knew about and/or cared to mention before) is one of the things that most bug me about the game, because as presented in the game it simply feels to jarring and crazy to contemplate. It's been known for a while that the idea came from Hennig, but I've often wondered if the romanticism of her writing could have perhaps sold the concept a bit better than Druckman's naturalism. It's interesting to think of what might have been, at any rate.
Well, it would have been a reveal, and presumably not as obvious, so already it would have that going for it.
But also, Sam's brother being a Drake was so detrimental to Nate's character, and it seemed like this would have avoided that pitfall completely.
Fancy Clown
Member
Sam being a villain until Nate and he realize they're actually brothers sounds awful to me tbh. Glad we're finally getting details on some aspects that might have been, but I'm happy with what we got, especially how polished and complete it feels given the development problems.
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
Heh l like Hennig's ideas would have been quite different from the past games. The dance mini-game would have been cool.
Lys Skygge
Member
Overall it sounds like Neil and Bruce had nothing to do with Amy's departure, and were even apprehensive about taking over the project.
Remember when the consensus was that Neil and Bruce were largely responsible for Amy exiting the project?
Remember when the consensus was that Neil and Bruce were largely responsible for Amy exiting the project?
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the situation being quite similar to this one. Years of work but the game never really had a cohesive vision, which ultimately led to Sony binning it. Weren't there also rumblings that Sony felt that it might be too close to Destiny? Anyway, the main difference between that situation and Naughty Dog's is that they (ND) actually managed to salvage Uncharted 4 by bringing on new people.
Again, this could be me speaking out of my ass so please correct me if I'm wrong.
I just saw that for Germany. Does the book have a lot of illustrations which would suffer from reading it on a Paperwhite?
The Kindle version is even a bit more expensive here...
neurosyphilis
Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
Yeah , Druckman's versions is way better than that.
That wasn't supposed to be a revelation for Drake, it was supposed to be a revelation for the player, according to what I read in the book.
So it would have been a case of Nathan Drake keeping that a secret from his allies (and the player) for a good duration of the game, for some reason, which fits him not mentioning Sam Drake in any of the earlier games.
What does that mean? Because UC3 is written by Amy too (in fact I think it was the first time she was the sole writer, in UC1 and 2 she had co-writers too) and that one has the worst plot in the mainline series.
Waldo Lydecker
Member
Are characters dancing in multiplayer the remaining pieces of this dance minigame?
Fancy Clown
Member
Drake knowing but the player not rubs me the wrong way too because then the twist isn't internally motivated by the narrative or characters.
funkystudent
Member
Cant blame the team if it wasnt coming together. Last think you probably want is another Uncharted 3.
As for Amy leaving. I would guess she probably just had enough of the crunch mentality at ND. Its something Visceral has moved against since she has joined the team and partly why that game is taking so long to have its been reveal but after 15+ years of it at ND I cant blame her. Having to redo years of prep work on U4 could have just been the straw that broke the cammels back.
Also I wonder whats up with Bruce Straley. Dude "officially" took a year long sabbatical after shipping U4 but when I read that I could also read "we are just letting him sit out the rest of his contract before he bounces to another studio or goes teach at a Uni or something".
As for Amy leaving. I would guess she probably just had enough of the crunch mentality at ND. Its something Visceral has moved against since she has joined the team and partly why that game is taking so long to have its been reveal but after 15+ years of it at ND I cant blame her. Having to redo years of prep work on U4 could have just been the straw that broke the cammels back.
Also I wonder whats up with Bruce Straley. Dude "officially" took a year long sabbatical after shipping U4 but when I read that I could also read "we are just letting him sit out the rest of his contract before he bounces to another studio or goes teach at a Uni or something".
RedAssedApe
Banned
Druckmann meme
I hope amy does well with her starwars game, but i guess it is reasonable that she left given the creative issues at play, and those plot points raise some flags for me, having nate not fire a gun for the whole first half of the game feels far worse than the over emphasis on platforming in the final game