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In the midst of all the reviews going out, there is this paraphrased interview piece by LA Times with Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley that talks about some interesting things that hasn’t been discussed before...

It’s an piece that also includes some reflections and perspective on some situations faced by the characters in the actual game itself, so there are minor spoilers, kind of. Steer clear if you don’t want to be spoiled.

That being said, I extracted out the key interview bits from that link :

On (some) creative inspirations for Uncharted 4 :

Talk to Druckmann about the project and he'll reference "Breaking Bad" and "Six Feet Under" as often as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," for this is a game where a

Spoiler

becomes as grand a set piece as a

Spoiler

.

It is, unmistakably, the work of Druckmann and Straley, a video game design team who believe the interactive experience should feel as directed as the cinematic one.

Spoiler

Spoiler

On possible backlash on the UC4 having slower paces and less wall-to-wall non-stop action :

"I'm not nervous about it," says the 37-year-old Druckmann. "I've accepted that some people are not going to like it. Some people want wall-to-wall action.

Maybe this is selfish, but I don't make games for them.

I make the kind of games I want to play, and I want that balance. I want things to slow down so that the action sequences have more meaning. It's as simple as that."

On Amy Hennig’s Uncharted 4 & why they rebooted the project from scratch instead of finishing up her story :

Little is publicly known about the direction "Uncharted 4" would have taken before Druckmann and Straley joining the title. "It's a delicate thing to talk about," says Druckmann, who joined Naughty Dog as an intern in 2004.

Veteran game developer Amy Hennig, who had long been associated with the "Uncharted" franchise, was previously spearheading the game. But Hennig and Naughty Dog parted ways, and it was unveiled in 2014 that she would be joining Electronic Arts studio Visceral Games to work on a "Star Wars" project. "Uncharted" scripts were jettisoned, voice work was discarded and a new direction was plotted.

"They just weren't our ideas," says Druckmann.

"If we were trying to finish it, we'd be constantly asking, 'What was this other person trying to do here?' We would intellectualize everything and have no instinct," he adds.

"That's a road to failure."

On why they decided A Thief’s End will be the last Uncharted :

To get energized about the game, the pair made one key decision early on: This would be the last "Uncharted" title.

Today, Straley jokes that only if Naughty Dog falls into financial ruin will there be another "Uncharted" game. Both say the formula, one of Nathan Drake going off on adventures and then living happily ever after with the character of Elena, was not sustainable.

"It felt like there wasn't much more to do with this character unless we were to wrap it up, unless we were to see a final change or a final event that would culminate all these experiences into a final choice — a revelation — as to how this person really is," says Druckmann.

"That's something exciting. That's something we could get behind. Otherwise, we'd just be telling the same story. That seemed less interesting. That felt like padding, just stretching out."

Adds Straley, a 16-year veteran of Naughty Dog, "He's not James Bond. It's not that world. We explored the limits."

On challenges faced joining a project mid-way :

There were other challenges with joining a project well underway, such as a lack of pre-production time.

New roles were added, and because of the rushed nature of the game were sometimes cast before they were designed. One such character, South African antagonist Nadine, went to actress Laura Bailey. Then things, admittedly, "get complicated," says Druckmann, as Nadine is black, and Bailey is not.

Druckmann is careful and patient when discussing the incident, noting that Bailey was cast for her ability to play off other cast members, and character designs were far from finished. Once the concept art came in, Druckmann says the studio faced a dilemma.
"What are our options? We cannot go with this concept. We can make her white. No one would think anything of it. What are our priorities? If our priority is to just have a strong female character and avoid controversy ... then you make her white.

If our goal is being progressive and that's the most important thing, then you recast Laura. You should cast a black actor for this part. But it's not so simple. This project had no time to recast. And Laura, to me, was the character. I couldn't imagine another person playing this character.

"So," he says, "I punted."

More at the link here for those who is ok with mild, very mild spoilers : http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-hc-theplayer-uncharted-20160508-story.html