 SHAUN ESCAYG: The reason we
moved away from Drake was that
we felt that we wrapped that
story up on Uncharted 4,
and that's really the motivation
to find a new cast of characters
that could actually carry on the
Uncharted legacy.
KURT MARGENAU: Uncharted is more
than just Nathan Drake,
and I think maybe it makes
people think a little
differently about the Uncharted
series as far as what they think
of when they think of Uncharted.
SHAUN ESCAYG: We started trying
to keep it short.
We started trying to keep it
contained.
But like all Naughty Dog games,
it's story driven,
and we need the time to tell the
story accurately.
We needed to go into the past,
dig a little deeper than,
you know, the surface, and it
just blew up.
We started expanding to get
character arcs developed,
and before we knew it, it was a
full game.
KURT MARGENAU: We're treating it
as seriously
as an Uncharted game.
The game could stand on its own
as an entry in the series.
SHAUN ESCAYG: It's going to be
the sum of Uncharteds in terms
of gameplay experience with some
of our beloved characters,
some of the most fan favored
characters.
Well, there were many ideas on
the table,
like a Sullivan and Sam story,
but they all were very closely
related to U4, so we wanted
something that was fresh,
something that was new, and
Chloe being a fan favorite we
thought we would explore her
story.
Then we thought about, okay, who
would be a good pairing with
Chloe Frazier?
We're like what if Chloe Frazier
wanted to explore her past,
go back to India to her roots,
and what if she needed someone
like Nadine Ross as a partner?
CHLOE: We find these symbols, we
find the tusk.
KURT MARGENAU: And then that was
kind of the jumping off point of
these two interesting characters
together.
We can put them wherever we
want.
We know there's going to be fun
stuff happening.
And Chloe is
more improvisational,
and Nadine is more logical.
We know that there's going to be
great conflict if we throw those
two together.
NADINE: Is that supposed to
happen?
CHLOE: Don't know.
SHAUN ESCAYG: Chloe Frazier has
interest in the Tusk of Ganesh,
which is a treasure that's in
India
that is kind of close to her.
Her father was an archaeologist.
He tried tracking down this tusk
before in the past.
So for Chloe there's a personal
attachment to the tusk.
For Nadine Ross, she is on the
verge of bankruptcy.
She's lost Shoreline,
and she desperately wants to
regain control.
That's where the characters
start.
Because of Nadine's military
background,
particularly with our villan,
Asav,
Chloe's brought her in to kind
of help her out.
CHLOE: He's just another
warmonger with no war to fight.
NADINE: No, you don't know him
like I do.
He changes location and routines
by the hour.
We would be foolish to take
unnecessary risks.
CHLOE: We?
Let's get one thing straight,
this is my gig.
You want your share, we play by
my rules.
SHAUN ESCAYG: Asav, as a villain
he is motivated by a code.
He believes that he owns rights
to this land,
and he's fought a war that has
kind of gone on for centuries.
So recently he has started
rekindling this war to profit.
KURT MARGENAU: Giving the player
more options I think would be
the highest level, encompassing
way to describe what we're
trying to elevate even from
Uncharted 4.
We have all those things at your
disposal again;
rope climbing, driving.
We have the winch.
We have stealth options.
We have lock picking now.
So we have crates of things that
you can find certain weapons or
treasures in.
We just present you with a lot
of stuff that the player can
then decide what to do.
And then, of course, having an
allied character with you during
all of those things and making
sure they can react and be as
lifelike as possible as a human
would.
SHAUN ESCAYG: We're taking
advantage of the buddy system by
integrating more of the
narrative.
For example, if our characters
in the story aren't
communicating well or they're
upset or they're aggravated,
it will reflect in the gameplay.
So if I've just come out of a
heated argument with
Nadine Ross, in the gameplay you
will feel that tension;
you will feel that aggravation.
The challenge for us was this
player-driven space.
It's not open world, but it's
vast and you have player choice.
You can go and experience it
differently.
KURT MARGENAU: There's things to
find,
a true sense of exploration with
the goal being that you're just
exploring and freely doing
things,
and then the story is still
progressing in the way that they
would expect from an Uncharted.
It's something we've never
really done to the level that
we're doing now in Uncharted.
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