By now we all know that Uncharted took heavy inspiration from Indiana Jones, and if you didn't, now you do. The series is known for its witty dialogue and epic action set pieces. As the series got bigger and Nathan Drake became more iconic, it seems Naughty Dog wanted to take some inspiration from a British legend, James bond.
Speaking on Couch Soup's Get Good show (spotted by Eurogamer), Uncharted 4's co-lead designer Kurt Margenau told other guests about a cut sequence from the game's Madagascar Jeep chase. The one where you're racing downhill through a town as a truck fires on you and keeps corralling you down side roads.
"There was some stuff that didn't make it," said Margenau. "There was some James Bond car chases where the car goes up on two wheels between a narrow [gap]. We actually prototyped doing that in this sequence. [Thinking], 'Okay how do we get you up on two wheels?'"
One of the other people on the call asked if Naughty Dog considered a quick-time event for this, but Margenau shot the notion down immediately. "No, it would be real. The whole thing of the sequence was [to] never take control away [from the player]."
The James Bond film in question is Sean Connery's Diamonds Are Forever. Bond tips his car onto two wheels to get through a narrow gap and escape his pursuers. Very daring.
He also provided more insight, clarifying that the truck that always manages to appear in front of you remains simulated for the entire sequence. They considered having it simply teleport whenever it was offscreen, but the sound department flagged this as an issue, as the sound of the truck had to come from somewhere. In the end, it was decided to simply keep it in and program AI to ensure it always managed to cut you off.
In other Uncharted news, it was recently revealed that a stamina bar was considered for Uncharted 4, but scrapped to "keep everything quick and moving."