Revisiting the series in the recent remastered collection, it’s noticeable how much each successive sequel ratcheted up the spectacle, to the point where the third game is practically a string of ever more explosive set-pieces connected by cutscenes. I wonder if that was something Neil wanted to get away from in UC4?
“The first three had this trajectory of going bigger and more badass - we didn’t want to continue that trajectory, we didn’t want to become a caricature of ourselves,” he admits. “So we said, ok, set pieces are important, but how do you better tie set pieces with story so they come in at the right time to mirror some kind of personal conflict in the story?
“But also something we learned from the Last of Us is not all set pieces have to be big and explosive. Some of them can be small and intimate - and that lets us get much more interesting and introduce different pacing than in the previous Uncharted games”