Today, Sony and Naughty Dog released the third episode of Uncharted 4: Behind the Scenes, a mini-series that shows us the development process of one of the most talented development studios in the world. The entire video is worth watching, of course, but one thing in particular sticks out- unlike in the previous Uncharted games, all cutscenes in A Thief’s End will be rendered in engine. All previous Uncharted games utlized pre-rendered cutscenes which had a higher quality AA and better looking character models to make them stand out. A black screen used to serve as a transition medium between gameplay and cutscenes. Thankfully, you won’t be seeing any of that in A Thief’s End.
“Last gen, you would get a black frame between gameplay and cutscene which would take you out of the experience,” Naughty Dog explains in the video. “One of the huge things the PlayStation 4 has allowed us to do is that all of our cutscenes are now in-game.”
“What it boils down to is what do we make this a pure cinematic moment that you just sit back and enjoy versus actually saying, no we need you. We need you right now, do your thing.”
Which sounds pretty awesome to me, and is also, in a major way, Naughty Dog blurring the lines between storytelling and interactivity in video games in a big way.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will launch exclusively on the PlayStation 4 in May.