Neil Druckmann Doesn’t Have a Lot of Fans, but His ‘Uncharted 4’ Story Deserves Due Credit Despite What You Think

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Neil Druckmann Doesn’t Have a Lot of Fans, but His ‘Uncharted 4’ Story Deserves Due Credit Despite What You Think

Neil Druckmann is one of the most well-known and celebrated figures in the gaming and entertainment industry. But that doesn’t mean he has been free of controversy. A lot of fans have criticized him for a lot of things from the direction of The Last of Us Part 2, to his personal comments.

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Image Credit: Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One of the most debated aspects of his career is his work on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which he took over after Amy Hennig’s departure. While Hennig had a different version in mind, the version we eventually got from Druckmann is arguably better in a lot of ways. And it has nothing to do with Hennig’s design being bad.

Neil Druckmann made a lot of crucial changes to Uncharted 4, and they worked

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The game turned out to be completely different, and it worked. | Image Credit: Naughty Dog

Amy Hennig had spent years developing Uncharted 4 before she left the studio. According to Nolan North, the voice of Nathan Drake, the studio scrapped nearly seven months of work, recasting key roles and reworking major story elements. This included changing the direction of Sam Drake, who was supposed to be more of an antagonist rather than a long-lost brother in need of help.

One of the biggest changes we think was the complete rewrite of the game after Hennig’s departure. According to Nathan Drake’s voice actor, Nolan North, the team had already spent seven months working on Hennig’s version before it was scrapped. So they ended up recasting key roles, including Todd Stashwick as Sam and Alan Tudyk as Rafe, and replacing them with Troy Baker and Warren Kole, respectively.

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Character of the Day

Nadine Ross —

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“Fair warning — last person who betrayed me ended up dead.”

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— Ace Sedai

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— Broadway Era (@ace_sedai)

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Hennig’s version of Uncharted 4 also lacked two key elements: the flashback sequences of Nathan’s childhood and the introduction of Nadine Ross. The childhood flashbacks helped with Nathan and Sam’s relationship, but Nadine’s inclusion was more controversial. That’s because she was played by Laura Bailey, a white actress voicing a ****** South African character. Do you think studios could pull that off today?

Druckmann’s controversies don’t take away his success

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Love him or hate him, he did good. | Image Credit: Naughty Dog

Despite the major rewrites, Hennig herself has stated that Uncharted 4’s “DNA and the core story were all there” when she left (via

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). Many of the chapter beats remained the same, and the overall direction of Nathan’s final adventure didn’t change dramatically. Some players have even said that even knowing Hennig’s version, the one we actually got is still better.

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by

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from discussion

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So even though Druckmann isn’t on the community’s good side for the most part, you can’t deny Uncharted 4‘s story was pretty darn good. He has been criticized more than needed for the story of The Last of Us Part 2. And his public statements and social media presence have led to backlash. But we have to separate fiction from reality.

Looking back, it’s fair to wonder how different Uncharted 4 would have been had Hennig remained at the helm. Would Sam as an antagonist have added more depth to the story, or would it have felt too similar to the other twist betrayals in the series?

At the end of the day, Uncharted 4 and the series itself is one the most celebrated and beloved in gaming. Hennig’s original vision had its merits, but the final version delivered a more polished and emotionally balanced story. What are your thoughts on how Uncharted 4 ended up?

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#Neil #Druckmann #Doesnt #Lot #Fans #Uncharted #Story #Deserves #Due #Credit

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