How Uncharted 4 Changed After Amy Hennig’s Departure

Amy Hennig, the creative director and writer of Uncharted series was a crucial part of the development team at Naughty Dog. She left to work on a Star Wars game with EA and her departure caused Uncharted 4 to lose 8 months of work, 8 months of development was scrapped.

So what changed and how different this Uncharted 4 is from the one Amy Hennig envisioned? To understand how Uncharted 4 changed, we have go back in time to take a look at the original announcement trailer of Uncharted 4. Keep in mind that if you are yet to play the game, it isn’t wise to read on.

What you seen above is the original teaser for Uncharted 4. The voiceover is provided by Todd Stashwick a very popular voice actor. The words “you left me in that hell hole” and “I lost 15 years of my life” make a lot more sense than they did back then. And they show just how Amy Hennig planned to present one of Uncharted 4’s plot twists.

Todd Stashwick was playing the antagonist, his role was later taken over by Troy Baker. However, Baker isn’t playing the antagonist, he is Same Drake, Nathan’s brother who spend 15 years in a prison in Panama, presumed dead by Nate.

The Brothers Drake were after Henry Avery’s treasure and bribed their way into a prison facility in Panama. However, things got rough when their partner Rafe killed a prison guard. During escape Sam Drake was shot dead and Nathan had to leave him their.

After 15 years Sam Drake comes back to convince a retire Nathan to continue the hunt for Avery’s treasure once again. During the story you keep waiting for Sam to betray you as he had the motive, he could have blamed Nathan for leaving him there.

That betrayal was suppose to be the main plot twist in Uncharted 4 and it was how Amy wanted to end Uncharted 4. After her departure, which was rumored to be due to unconfirmed creative differences with Neil Druckmann, 8 months of work was scrapped to rewrite the story line.

In my personal opinion, Uncharted 4 changed for the better because that twist would have been very obvious and not surprising at all. The original teaser trailer gave it away when it mentioned “15 years,” the player would have figured it out as soon as Sam Drake makes an appearance and explains where he was.

The official word is that Amy Hennig left on her own accord but was this change in any way to blame for her departure? We can’t say and we shouldn’t because there is no evidence to suggest such a thing.

What matters is that Uncharted 4 is one of the best games to release this console generation and deserves all the praise it is getting.