Naughty Dog: PS4 Has Allowed Us To Push The Scale of The Environment In Uncharted 4

The Uncharted series has always been a benchmark franchise for the PlayStation platforms. The first three games in the series showed players the true potential of the PlayStation 3 and there is no doubt that Uncharted 4 will once again push the graphical boundaries on the PS4.

However, Naughty Dog admits that they are still working on the PS4, figuring out what it’s truly capable of. “We’re still trying to figure out exactly what we can do with [the PS4],” Naughty Dog’s Ricky Cambier said in a interview with GamesTM. He then goes on to explain how the hardware has allowed them to do much more compared to the previous console cycle.

“From a design perspective, it’s given us the opportunity to push the scale of the environment so you’ve got choices in the combat setups that are incredibly vast. So we can put that in when we want to. Like Josh points out, on the design side, as well, we can really get the player into a mood: so yeah, there’s still times we’ll push the player into a very intimate combat space – if we want to layer on extra pressure for an escape sequence or something – it just gives us a wider variety of trees, density, variety, foliage, background environments and how vivid and detailed they are… it gives us all that to play with.”

Cambier further explains that the new technology has allowed them to deliver more emotionally believable characters. “[The new tech] lets us emote more, with all the ‘bones’ we can put onto [character’s faces] – you pan round the camera to look at Nate’s face when he’s climbing and you see him grimacing and all this kind of stuff… we’re pushing the detail on a macro and a micro level that I think people are really going to respond to.”

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is due next year after it was delayed earlier this year.