The Uncharted series has continuously pushed the boundaries of what can be delivered from a game in narrative, gameplay, and visuals. As can be seen from the image above, with each title released, Naughty Dog has pushed the visual fidelity of the game and its main hero Indiana Jones Malcom Reynolds Nathan Drake. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End will be no different, but there is one change that will be coming to the series that at first might go by unnoticed – character hair.

Here is Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper on the topic:

@GameAnim Primarily because engines couldn’t support realistic lighting on alpha (see-through) textures, not to mention physics on long hair

— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) July 1, 2014 

This by itself shouldn’t be taken as a confirmation that Naughty Dog is looking to suddenly part ways completely with how characters look compared to previous iterations of Uncharted. However, for a company who is primarily secretive about their titles and what’s said publicly about them until they’re ready to show something, this likely hints at what’s to come in Uncharted 4. Cooper finished his thought:

@illogicalchick There are more technologies incoming that will release us from the homogenisation of game characters.

— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) July 1, 2014 

Though the Uncharted 4 teaser trailer offers a limited scope of the game, it was already quite apparent that Drake’s clothing and body are much more affected by his natural surroundings, including his hair. As the above tweets suggest, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that characters in Uncharted 4 will have far more natural and flowing hairstyles that aren’t purely limited to one cut and flow, no matter the circumstances.

Discuss:

Do you notice small details like this in games and do you think they help bring a more realistic world to life?