Bcoming Part Of The Game's Storyline

Troy Baker remembers the day he got "the call" like it was yesterday. By the time he hung up the receiver, it was locked in stone - he would be voicing Sam Drake, the brother of protagonist Nathan Drake, in Uncharted 4, the final chapter in the acclaimed series of action-adventure games from developer Naughty Dog.

"It was a banner day for me, I'm not gonna lie," Baker enthuses on the line from the US. "I was such a fan of that franchise. And this was one of those games - I mean, I've been a gamer my entire life, but I remember specifically where I was the first time that I played Uncharted, and after I finished, I was like, 'I wanna do that! Whatever they just did, I want to be a part of that.' And it's so funny how life kinda comes full circle, and not only was I able to be in that game, but to be in that role, which, to me, is such a really, really cool role because it adds such weight to not only the characters ... but also just their relationship. So it was a huge win for me, man."

"I remember specifically where I was the first time that I played Uncharted, and after I finished, I was like, 'I wanna do that!"

Despite the palpable, wide-eyed excitement at it all, Uncharted is far from Baker's first prominent role - heck, it's not even his first job with Naughty Dog, with whom he's worked since landing the lead character of Joel in their venerated survival horror The Last Of Us. He's also voiced the protagonist of Lord Of The Rings spin-off Shadow Of Mordor and Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, as well as following Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins.

The weight a role places on a game's actors has unquestionably grown in recent memory, with Baker explaining Naughty Dog's performance-capture process in awe-tinged detail and saying that he and The Last Of Us co-star Ashley Johnson "knew at the onset that this game was going to be a watershed moment, not just for games, but for storytelling".

"Because, it's not just about 'Can we tell a story?'," Baker explains of their realisation. "And if you break it down to its elements, the story has been done before. The story will probably be done again. But the way that they present it in that medium, where it's not just observational, it's not passive, but you have the stick, you're driving this, and you're completely entwined with those characters and their decisions that sometimes you wrestle with those decisions. And there's just a certain weight that comes from spending ten to 12 to 15 hours with these two people and all the other people that they come in contact with.

"My first playthrough of Uncharted 4, I clocked in 19 hours, and I feel like I went too fast. I'm already planning my second playthrough, because there's so much stuff that... like, us as gamers, we're always like, 'Get to the end, get to the end, get to the boss, then get to the end,' and, for me, it's like, 'OK, I've gorged myself, I've had the entire buffet; I'm gonna sit down and really savour this.' I can't wait to do my second playthrough."