It's an excellent article, and I like the position Druckmann takes on these issues, especially in regards to Elena's role in the game.
She is hardly the "roadblock" that Feminist Frequency described her as, though I can see how other female characters in other games serve simply as Damsel in Distress or shallow motivation for story advancement. A warranted criticism for many games, but less so the Uncharted series, and less even for Uncharted 4.
Even in Uncharted 1, Elena is first presented as an equal partner to Drake in their search for Francis Drake's coffin. And even on top of that she is the one who ends up rescuing Drake by pulling the bars off his prison cell (thanks to her knowledge from her own documentary "Architects of the New World" lol). Though you do end up saving Elena in the end of the game.
Elena is very much the subversion of these trope-y concepts. As a life partner, she is incredibly supportive of Drake and is shown to be clearly invested in his happiness and welfare. She is not at all a simple love-interest or motivation or a damsel-trophy-wife, even if her relationship with Drake is very much an idealized vision of 2 life partners sharing interests and supporting each other.
And they spend an entire several chapters of prologue enforcing this point, that they have a real relationship, the highlight of which is their time spent in their home. This is a complete reversal of what was done in previous games, where it is just assumed their relationship "died" or took a break between Uncharted 1/2/3 due to unknown circumstances (lazy explanation
).
In other ways they subvert similar tropes several times during the game, most often in ways that assert her own independence and ability to take care of herself (even while cooperating with Drake on simple platform puzzles). For example they imply Elena is in "need of help" as a damsel in distress at the end of the elevator setpiece, only to show her clearly able to rescue herself (other times she helps Drake when he himself is in trouble). In other areas she also asserts her independence from Drake/the player when she opens the stairs to the catacombs without you actually doing anything ^^
Also a lot of people seem to misunderstand also the motivation for Drake lying to Elena about Malaysia (an opportunity she wants him to consider, even though it is illegal). He ends up lying to her, because he has already "oversteered" (Druckmann's term) and is afraid to admit he broke a promise to himself and his partner, that he no longer wanted the dangerous, treasure-hunting adventure anymore. Only at the end of Chapter 17 does he finally admit and explain that he didn't want to accept that he really didn't give up that life just yet.
I think these were all very conscious decisions on the part of the directors. They have always made it a point to describe how their families have to sacrifice for their professional pursuit (he again mentions the "crunch", but also the dedication he and his colleagues have to present at all times). Essentially they are showing that Elena is a force of her own and is also independently deciding to be there for Drake, and in a way Drake needs Elena more than Elena needs Drake (because then Drake would die probably ^^).
There are many other narrative devices in the game, some reflective of their lives (the "treasure" at the end represents a few different things, to the game characters, but also as Druckmann says it represents their professional pursuits, or the epilogue making a bit of a cheesy case for "do what you love" ^^), or some reflective of the character of Drake (Rafe is the literal embodiment and personification of what Nathan is finally able to reject at the end of Uncharted 4).
On the other hand, Sam expresses his desire to further pursue "treasures" before the epilogue starts, so maybe the DLC will include the job he and Sully discuss there
