Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is the closing chapter of Nathan Drake’s treasure hunting adventures. The game is made by Naughty Dog, a developer known more recently for the survival thriller The Last of Us. The unifying thread among developer’s projects is that they’re exceptionally cinematic, even more so than most other big budget games.
With the ambitious goal of recreating reality, the process of producing sound for such a game can be as daunting as making the game itself.
[Note: This video doesn’t discuss plot points but shows some scenes from Uncharted 4. If you strive for spoiler purity, you’ve been warned.]
A new 13-minute episode from the Soundworks Collection takes a deep dive into the sophisticated audio production behind a big-budget game. The documentary short follows crews as they use boom mics and all sorts of equipment to capture the sounds of vehicles, guns and even the very foliage Drake walks through.
One sound engineer even bought the same kind of bull whip used by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, you know, for accuracy.
Sound is becoming increasingly important to video games. In many cases, sound can make or break whether something feels truly immersive. In the case of Uncharted 4, the sound team admits that much of the material created for the game will likely go unheard, but the commitment to quality audio is impressive all the same.