4 Unfiltered Investigations Reveal How Different Amy Hennig’s Real Vision Was – WGB

For years, Amy Hennig’s unreleased version of Uncharted 4 has been one of gaming’s most enduring mysteries.

We know the broad strokes. Hennig left Naughty Dog in 2014, Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley took over the project, and the game finally appeared in 2016 as Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Since then, fans have debated endlessly about what was lost, who was responsible, and whether Hennig’s vision could have been better than the match we got in the end.

Now, thanks to years of research by researcher Michael Kemp, we may finally have a very clear picture of what that first version of Uncharted 4 looked like. Watch his video above for a deep and surprising dive into what Uncharted 4 could have been. I’ll give you a glimpse of what Kemp discusses in his video and podcast.

Kemp recently published a lengthy breakdown of his findings before appearing on Sacred Symbols: The PlayStation Podcast with Colin Moriarty to discuss his work. Moriarty also knows a lot about what happened behind the scenes, so the duo raises some interesting points. Unfortunately, the episode is behind a Patreon paywall, so if you want to check it out, you’ll need to consider subscribing.

Rather than relying on hearsay or secondhand stories, Kemp spent years combing through leftover game files, script references, audio clippings, leaked portfolio pieces and concept art. The result is an impressive work.

“I started finding pieces of Uncharted 4 that didn’t seem to relate to anything I was seeing. References to levels that weren’t there, things in the story that didn’t happen,” Kemp explained.

The result, he says, is a “definite rip-off” however of the version of Uncharted 4 that was developed by Naughty Dog between 2011 and 2014.

And if his reconstruction is accurate, this game was once a very different beast.

According to Kemp’s investigation and comments made earlier by Hennig himself, the first impression emphasized mystery and detective work.

“Like Uncharted 1, it was meant to be a bit of a return to form,” Hennig explained. “This idea that a lot of the story will take place on this undiscovered or forgotten island is a pirate utopia and a detective story that we could find in that.”

Note: most of Amy Hennig’s quotes are from a 2019 interview with USGamer. However, that original interview is no longer available, so I’ve linked to 2nd party sites covering the story at the time so you can read the full excerpts etc.

Another major difference seems to be a series of playable flashbacks set in 1695. Kemp’s findings show that players will control the pirate Henry Avery during a major historical sequence, including a battle on Avery’s ship during the Gunsway attack.

These were not easy scenes either. According to Kemp, Naughty Dog built Avery’s ship as a fully explorable environment with moving and destructible objects.

“They built Henry Avery’s ship as a full play area so the player can move around it freely,” he explained. “This would be necessary as it was also built to crumble, slowly blasted to pieces in battle.”

Interestingly, Hennig himself previously admitted that this idea may have been a victim of his own ambition.

“I was hoping to do some pirate flashbacks,” he said. “I liked the idea of ​​going back to Henry Avery, but it was a crazy idea because material-wise and everything, all of a sudden you have to do Black Flag and Uncharted 4.”

That quote may ultimately explain much of what happened next.

Kemp’s reconstruction suggests that the original game incorporated a surprising number of mechanics and ideas that did not survive into the final release. Among them were a visible three-piece health bar, stamina-based leveling, expanded sword fighting, interrogation systems, enemy release mechanics, non-lethal takedowns, and utilizable slashing mechanics.

Some levels seem to have pushed too far into traditional Uncharted territory. The big gala mission reportedly featured Nate, Elena, Sully and Charlie Cutter sneaking into a London event using disguises, trickery and a little dancing. Elsewhere, the Madagascar chapter allegedly saw Nathan Drake stranded on an island where he scavenged for supplies, weathered storms and built a raft to escape.

The heavy emphasis on scouting and not shooting everything that moves may also be a reaction to years of fans joking about Nathan Drake’s ridiculous body count. And no, I’m not talking about the bloke’s success rate with women. When the game was released, there was a lot of talk about “narrative dissonance”, in which context people found a difference between Drake’s rogueish charm and the large number of people he killed in a strange way.

However, for many fans, the most surprising part of Kemp’s investigation may not be what was cut, but why it was cut.

For years, the discussion surrounding Hennig’s departure has often been reduced to the simple story of Neill Druckmann and Straley arriving, taking over the project and abandoning everything that came before. At the time of Sacred Symbols, however, both Kemp and Moriarty argued that the truth seemed more complicated.

“There are conflicting opinions about what happens next,” Moriarty noted. According to a veteran sports journalist, the program seems to be struggling before the leadership changes.

“It was in a bad shape in terms of the communication channels, the pipeline, what people were doing, and it didn’t feel like it was making the major progress it needed to,” he said.

Kemp’s findings seem to support that possibility. Large parts of the game seem to require used assets, unique tools and extensive development resources. Pirate histories, survival gameplay systems, extended melee combat and massive sandbox-style levels could have been expensive and difficult to put together.

As a Scottish boy, it is also a shame that we have lost a great chapter of Scotland, full of puzzles, cathedrals and a crumbling crane set. Then again, as tough as Nathan Drake is, I’m not sure he would have survived his first night out in Scotland. We go hard here in bonny Scotland, because if we don’t, the stress from all the bloody rain can drive us to suicide.

Importantly, neither Kemp nor Hennig himself believed that the final game was a complete rejection of the original work. In fact, Hennig has repeatedly pushed back against that definition.

“I don’t want people to think that they should throw everything away and start over,” he explained. “No, no, no. It’s like tons of basic work.”

He was more specific in other areas over the years.

“Most of my work is in that game, I worked on it for two years.”

Hennig also confirmed that although major elements have changed, much of the overall structure has remained the same.

“We didn’t have things that happened in his childhood, we didn’t have a character like Nadine,” he explained. “But everything else, the places, the organization of all kinds, what’s going on, that’s all the work I’ve done.”

In other words, Uncharted 4 may not be a story of one game replacing another. Instead it may be the story of a single project that evolves dramatically as the realities of development collide with creative ambitions.

More than a decade later, it remains a very entertaining story to play. But thanks to Kemp’s investigation, it may not be as mysterious as it once was.