Uncharted is a series of action-adventure video games and media created by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. The series was created by Amy Hennig and follows a group of treasure hunters who travel around the world to solve historical mysteries. The games mix real history with fictional stories, characters, and events. In the main series, players control Nathan Drake, while a later expansion allows players to control Chloe Frazer.

The first game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, was released in 2007. It was followed by Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011), and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016). Other games, such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss (2011), Uncharted: Fight for Fortune (2012), and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017), support the main series. The games were originally only available on PlayStation consoles but later came out on other platforms, including a mobile game called Uncharted: Fortune Hunter (2016) and remastered versions of A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy for Windows in 2022.

Players control characters from a third-person view, with gameplay focused on combat, shooting, exploring, and solving puzzles. Later games added multiplayer modes, stealth gameplay, and driving. The series takes inspiration from other games, films, and media, and includes scenes set in distant and unusual places. The franchise has also inspired other forms of media, such as a live-action movie, board games, comics, and a novel.

The main games received high praise for their stories, characters, voice acting, gameplay, and graphics. Critics often compared the series to Hollywood action-adventure films, like the Indiana Jones movies. The series helped raise the standards for single-player action-adventure games, and its second and fourth main games are often ranked among the best video games ever made. The franchise has sold over 41 million copies, making it one of the most successful video game series. It also contributed to the success of PlayStation during the seventh and eighth generations of consoles and helped establish Naughty Dog as a respected game developer.

Titles

Drake's Fortune, the first game in the series, was released for PlayStation 3 in November 2007. After Naughty Dog agreed to release the games only on Sony systems, the PlayStation 3 hosted the next two main series games. Among Thieves was published in 2009. The game's creators had more freedom to use the system's random-access memory (RAM) because of an improved special engine. This allowed the game to include more locations, larger maps, and better exploration and combat features. Drake's Deception, released in 2011, improved on these features and added a better online multiplayer mode.

The next main game, A Thief's End, was released for PlayStation 4 in 2017. It focused on realistic details and included driving elements, better stealth, and role-playing features. It also improved multiplayer gameplay. The game was a major financial success and broke several records. A free-to-play mobile game called Fortune Hunter, available for iOS and Android, was released to support A Thief's End.

Golden Abyss, released in 2011, was the first game in the series for PlayStation Vita, a handheld console. It is considered a prequel to the main series, though some developers said it is a separate story. In 2012, a turn-based card game called Fight for Fortune was released. It was developed by One Loop Games and included interactive elements for the Vita.

Drake's Trail was an online game released in 2007. It was a browser-based game with alternate reality elements. The story, which served as a prequel to Drake's Fortune, followed journalist Elena Fisher hiring a detective to find treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Players used a Google Maps plugin to locate real-world areas and a Flash Player to explore fictional locations for clues.

The Nathan Drake Collection is a remastered version of the first three games in the series. Bluepoint Games ported it to PlayStation 4 in October 2015. It was released to make up for delays in producing A Thief's End, which was originally planned for summer 2015. The collection included new trophies, an in-game Photo Mode, and improved graphics. It did not include multiplayer modes from earlier games. The collection received positive reviews for its technical improvements and visual upgrades. During the COVID-19 pandemic in April–May 2020, Sony offered the game for free as part of its Play at Home initiative.

The Lost Legacy was released as a standalone expansion to A Thief's End. It is the first game in the series not to feature Nathan Drake. The game includes characters Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross, who previously appeared in Among Thieves, Drake's Deception, and A Thief's End. It was released for PlayStation 4 in 2017. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, a remastered version of A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy, was released for PlayStation 5 on January 28, 2022. A Windows version, developed with Iron Galaxy, was released on October 19, 2022.

Common elements

Gameplay in the Uncharted series mixes action-adventure and 3D platforming, viewed from a third-person perspective. Players complete physical tasks, such as jumping, swimming, climbing, and swinging on ropes, to move forward in the story. Other activities, like shooting, combat, and solving puzzles, are also included. Later games added driving, boat riding, and more acrobatic actions.

The games offer some freedom through their map designs. Later titles include open-world elements, allowing players to explore freely to find collectibles or avoid enemies stealthily. In A Thief's End, role-playing was expanded to include conversations with other characters. The series follows traditional action game structures, where players complete levels in a single, linear path, viewed from a third-person perspective.

Shooting is important for progressing through the game, as players must avoid enemies. Many weapons are available, but players can only carry a sidearm like a pistol, a main weapon like a rifle or shotgun, and a few grenades. These weapons are found by picking up items dropped by defeated enemies or scattered around maps. If a player dies, they restart at a specific checkpoint in the level.

In A Thief's End, vehicles were added to an explorable environment. Players can use vehicles freely, but they must be driven to specific locations to advance the story.

In Among Thieves, multiplayer was introduced, featuring both competitive and cooperative gameplay. The cooperative mode allows up to three players to take the roles of Drake and two other heroes, completing missions that involve gunfights, platforming, and teamwork. Players can help injured teammates or those captured by enemies. The competitive mode lets up to ten players compete in two teams of five. Six competitive modes are available, including deathmatches and team-based objectives. A Thief's End added a survival mode, where players fight waves of increasingly strong enemies while completing tasks. Multiplayer also lets players earn points and ranks, which can be used to buy new character outfits.

The first game, Drake's Fortune, takes place near Panama, in the Amazon rainforest, and on an uncharted island off South America. The second game, Among Thieves, was the first to use multiple locations, including the Tibetan Plateau in southern China, a museum in Istanbul, the jungles of Borneo, and urban areas in Nepal. Later games continued this trend, with Drake's Deception featuring London and Bogotá, a French château, a Syrian castle, a city in Yemen, and the Rub' al Khali desert. A Thief's End includes a Panamanian jail, an Italian estate, a Scottish cathedral, locations in Madagascar, uncharted islands near Africa, and settings in Boston and New Orleans, both past and present.

The prequel Golden Abyss includes a dig site and other locations in Panama's forests. The standalone expansion The Lost Legacy features areas around the Western Ghats mountain range in India, as well as a bazaar and city in Tamil Nadu.

Many locations in the series were carefully studied. The development team visited real places with guides and experts, taking photos and videos to accurately represent the settings.

The series includes many voice actors, with the team choosing less well-known actors for major roles. Only three characters appear in every main game, while Chloe is the only other playable character in single-player mode:

• Nolan North as Nathan Drake
• Emily Rose as Elena Fisher
• Richard McGonagle as Victor Sullivan
• Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer

Other media

Uncharted: The Board Game is a game created by Bandai in 2012. It was designed by Hayato Kisaragi and allows two to four players to compete for treasure and battle enemies.

Sony Computer Entertainment America released the first part of a four-part motion comic series called Uncharted: Eye of Indra on October 23, 2009. This series is a story that happens before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The second part was released on November 25, and the third and fourth parts were released together on December 7.

A motion comic adaptation of the beginning of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was created. It starts with the discovery of Francis Drake's coffin and ends with the first meeting between Nathan Drake and Gabriel Roman. The comic uses the same voice recordings from the video game.

A comic book titled Uncharted was released by DC Comics around the time Uncharted 3 came out. It was written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Sergio Sandoval and covers by Adam Hughes. The comic was released on November 30, 2011, as part of a six-issue series. The story follows Nathan Drake on a journey to find the legendary "Amber Room" and explore the Hollow Earth.

A novel titled Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth was published in October 2011. The book was written by Christopher Golden and published by Del Rey Books. It tells the story of Nathan Drake searching for Daedalus’s Labyrinth, a maze from Greek mythology that once held the Minotaur.

Ruben Fleischer directed a movie based on the games, written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The film stars Tom Holland as Nathan Drake (who also helped produce the movie) and Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan. Antonio Banderas, Sophia Taylor Ali, and Tati Gabrielle appear in supporting roles. The movie was released in theaters in the United States on February 18, 2022, by Columbia Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, and Arad Productions. PlayStation Productions helped produce the film, and Sony Pictures Releasing distributed it. In August 2023, producer Charles Roven said the studio was planning to make a sequel. Sony confirmed in June 2024 that a sequel was being developed.

In July 2018, director Allan Ungar made a fan-created 15-minute short film featuring Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake. Fillion had long campaigned for the role. The film was well received, especially for Fillion’s performance and an action scene filmed from a camera angle similar to those in the video games. The film also includes Stephen Lang as Victor Sullivan and Mircea Monroe as Elena Fisher, with appearances by Ernie Reyes Jr. and Geno Segers. Some people wondered if the fan film might influence the official movie. A leader from the game company, Naughty Dog, showed support for the fan film with a heart emoji, and film director Shawn Levy praised it. Ungar supported the official movie.

A ride called Uncharted: The Enigma of Penitence, based on the 2022 movie, opened at PortAventura Park on June 17, 2023.

Reception

The Uncharted series has been very successful in terms of both reviews and sales. Much of the praise for the series has focused on the graphics created by Naughty Dog, as well as the writing and voice acting. GamesRadar ranked it the second best franchise of the seventh generation. The Uncharted series is widely credited with improving Naughty Dog's reputation and helping them become one of the best game developers in the industry.

Nathan Drake, the main character of the series, is seen as a symbol for PlayStation. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is considered one of the greatest games of all time. It received over fifty Game of the Year awards, with critics calling it a major milestone in gaming. The game currently holds one of the highest ratings among PlayStation 3 games on Metacritic. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is also ranked as one of the best games in the series and among the finest video games of the eighth generation.

The first game in the series was part of the PlayStation Essentials collection and sold over 2.6 million copies worldwide. Uncharted 2 was the top-selling game in the month of its release. By the end of their life cycles, the games sold a combined total of over 13 million copies by 2011. Sales for Uncharted 3 were more than double those of its predecessor, according to Naughty Dog's product marketing manager, Asad Quizilbash. This exceeded expectations, and the game helped the series reach confirmed sales of over 17 million copies worldwide. Before the release of the fourth main game, Sony announced that the Uncharted series had sold over 28 million copies worldwide.

Uncharted 4 is the best-selling game in the series to date, with over 18 million copies sold. This makes it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games of all time. As of December 2017, the series had sold 41.7 million copies globally.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was named the PS3 Game of the Year by IGN.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves won several awards during the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards (Game of the Year, Best PS3 Game, and Best Graphics) and the 2010 BAFTA Game Awards (Story, Action, Use of Audio, and Original Score). The game also won in 10 categories, including Game of the Year, at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and in 5 categories, including Game of the Year, at the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. It was the game that received the most Game of the Year awards in 2009.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception won several awards during the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards (Best PS3 Game and Best Graphics) and the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, and Outstanding Achievement in Animation). The game also won in the VideoGame Writing category at the Writers Guild of America Awards and in the Best Visual Arts category at the Game Developers Choice Awards. It was one of the most awarded games of 2011 in the Game of the Year category.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End won several awards during The Game Awards 2016 (Best Narrative and Best Performance) and the 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Story, Outstanding Technical Achievement, and Outstanding Achievement in Animation). The game also won as Best Game at the 13th British Academy Games Awards, as PlayStation Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards, and as Best Video Game at the Empire Awards. It was the game that received the most Game of the Year awards in 2016.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy won in two categories (Game, Franchise Adventure, and Sound Editing in a Game Cinema) at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards and in the Best Music/Sound Design (People's Voice) category at the Webby Awards.