Paris Games Week is still going on in, erm, Paris, and there are more than a few special attendees at this year’s event. Not us though, we politely refused. That’s a lie. Our invite got lost in the mail…
Still, while we’re not in attendance, we do have a couple of lads keeping the humour alive: Troy Baker and Nolan North, the starring duo in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4. The pair recently sat down to have a chat (in French) and talk about the game, their experiences making the adventure come to life and more.
The strapping fellas were asked what their favourite scene from Uncharted 4 is, but for obvious reasons they don’t answer. Because spoilers, duh. Troy Baker does however give a bit more insight into the story. He explains that he’s a long-time fan of the franchise and has played each of the games and states that he love the “turns” in the stories. The Uncharted games typically start out quite normal (at least as normal as Nathan Drake can manage) before taking a turn for the worse and introducing some supernatural element. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune had the big turn in the submarine; Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took a change of pace in Nepal, and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception had a very dark twist in the final third.
“With [Uncharted] 4 there are turns everywhere, I think if people are gonna try and figure out where the story’s going they’re always gonna be surprised because you have the new character of Sam and other new characters that we’re introducing.”
We’re still clueless on who the villains are and who the other new characters will be, but that’ll all become clear in time.
Next, Nolan North was asked how he prepares for each game and if there’s any sort of process he goes through in order to become Drake.
“I’ve been doing this for so long that I don’t really have a process I go through. I get my coffee and I’m just so excited to get to the stage, get in the suit and actually get out there. Again, it’s one of the few projects with performance capture that is very much like theatre. It’s everything that you learn about acting: it’s voice over, it’s performance, it’s movement, it’s connection with the other actors, so I think this series really has hit it on the head the way it should be done.”
So he’s just a normal guy, then. What’s strange is that the voice of Nathan Drake has never actually completed all of the games. Not a single one. He’s seen them all being played and he’s had a go at a few levels here and there, but he’s never actually finished them. His excuse, “I’ve lived them.” Fair enough, but we’ve seen those mo-cap sets and they’re pretty bland…
North will be playing through the original trilogy as part of the Nathan Drake Collection before moving onto Uncharted 4, thanks to his son’s insistence on teaching him the multiplayer. Cute, no?
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will release on PS4 this March 18th. It’ll be the last one in the series, as stated numerous times during the interview. Each time it’s said, we die a little bit inside.