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 include stories based on real events, along with fictional characters and elements of fantasy and folklore. In the main series, players control a character named Nathan Drake. In some expansions, players control another character named Chloe Frazer.
The first game in the series, 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. At first, the games were only available on PlayStation consoles. Later, they were released on other platforms, including a mobile game called Uncharted: Fortune Hunter (2016) and updated versions of A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy for Windows in 2022.
The main games are played from a third-person perspective, with gameplay focusing on combat, shooting, exploration, and puzzles. Players also use platforming to move through environments. Later games added multiplayer modes, stealth, and driving. The series was inspired by other games, films, and media, and features settings in exotic locations. Adaptations of the series include a live-action movie, board games, comics, and a novel.
The main series received high praise from critics for its stories, characters, voice acting, gameplay, and graphics. Its quality is often compared to Hollywood action-adventure films, such as the Indiana Jones series. Critics have also said the series raised the standards for single-player action-adventure games. The second and fourth numbered games are often ranked among the greatest video games. The series has sold over 41 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises. It helped the success of PlayStation during the seventh and eighth generations and increased Naughty Dog's reputation as a top 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 exclusively release the games on Sony systems, the PlayStation 3 carried the next two main series games. Among Thieves was published in 2009. The creative team was allowed to use more of the system's random-access memory (RAM) because of an improved special engine. This game introduced more locations, greater freedom to explore, better combat abilities, and a larger map. Drake's Deception, released in 2011, expanded on these features and added an improved online multiplayer mode.
The next main game, A Thief's End, was published for PlayStation 4. It focused on realism and detail. This game was the last to feature the main character, Nathan Drake. It added driving elements and improved gameplay aspects, such as stealth and role-playing. It also included major upgrades to multiplayer. The game was a financial success and broke several records. A free-to-play game called Fortune Hunter, available for iOS and Android devices, was released to support A Thief's End.
Golden Abyss, published in 2011, was the first game in the series to appear on PlayStation Vita. This marked the first time the series was released on a handheld console. Golden Abyss is considered a prequel to the main series, though some developers said it tells a separate, original story. In 2012, a turn-based card game titled Fight for Fortune was released. It was developed by One Loop Games and included interactive elements suitable for the Vita.
Drake's Trail was an online game released in 2007. It was a browser-based game with elements of alternate reality. The story, which serves as a prequel to Drake's Fortune, follows journalist Elena Fisher hiring a private detective to track down Nathan Drake, a famous treasure hunter. Players used a Google Maps plugin to locate real-world areas and a Flash Player to explore fictional locations, such as Drake's apartment, for clues to the next location.
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 a voucher for the beta version of A Thief's End's multiplayer mode. Enhancements included new trophies, an in-game Photo Mode, and improved textures and gameplay. Multiplayer modes from Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3 were not included. The collection received positive reviews, with most praise going to technical improvements and visual upgrades. During the COVID-19 pandemic in April–May 2020, the game was offered for free as part of Sony's Play at Home initiative.
The Lost Legacy was released as a standalone expansion to A Thief's End. It is the first entry 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, respectively. 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
The gameplay in the Uncharted series mixes action-adventure and 3D platforming, with the player viewing the character from the side. Players must complete physical challenges, such as jumping, swimming, climbing, and swinging on ropes, to move forward in the story. Other activities, like shooting, fighting, and solving puzzles, are also common. Later games added driving, boat riding, and other acrobatic actions.
The games offer some freedom through their map designs. Later titles include open-world elements, allowing players to explore for collectibles or avoid enemies using stealth. In A Thief's End, role-playing expanded to include side conversations with other characters. The series follows the structure of traditional action games, where players complete levels in a linear path, always viewing the character from the side.
Shooting is important for progressing through the game, as players must defeat enemies. Players can carry a sidearm, like a pistol, a main weapon, such as 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 drive to certain locations to continue the story.
In Among Thieves, multiplayer was introduced, offering both competitive and cooperative play. Cooperative mode allows up to three players to take the roles of Drake and two other characters, completing missions that involve shooting, platforming, and teamwork. Players can help injured teammates or those captured by enemies. Competitive mode lets up to ten players compete in two teams of five, with six different modes, 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 designs.
The first game, Drake's Fortune, takes place near Panama, in the Amazon rainforest, and on an uncharted island off South America. Among Thieves was the first game to include multiple locations, such as the Tibetan Plateau, a museum in Istanbul, the jungles of Borneo, and the cities of Nepal. Later games included settings like London and Bogotá, a château in France, a castle in Syria, a city in Yemen, and the deserts of the Rub' al Khali. A Thief's End features locations like a Panamanian jail, an estate in Italy, a cathedral in Scotland, areas in Madagascar, uncharted islands near Africa, and Boston and New Orleans, shown in both past and present times.
The prequel game Golden Abyss includes a dig site and other locations in Panama’s forests. The standalone expansion The Lost Legacy features settings in the Western Ghats mountain range of India, as well as a small bazaar and city in Tamil Nadu.
Many locations in the series were researched carefully. The development team traveled with guides and historians, taking photos and videos to accurately represent the settings.
The series includes many voice actors, with important characters voiced by less well-known actors. Only three characters appear in every main game, and Chloe is the only other single-player playable character:
- 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 board 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 was released. Written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Sergio Sandoval, with covers by Adam Hughes, it was published on November 30, 2011, as part of a six-issue series. The story follows Nathan Drake on a quest to find the legendary "Amber Room" and travel to the Hollow Earth.
A novel titled Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth was published in October 2011. 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 film based on the video games, written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The film features Tom Holland as Nathan Drake (who also helped produce the film) and Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan. Antonio Banderas, Sophia Taylor Ali, and Tati Gabrielle played supporting roles. The film was released in theaters in the United States on February 18, 2022, and was produced by Columbia Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, and Arad Productions. PlayStation Productions helped oversee the film, and Sony Pictures Releasing handled distribution. In August 2023, producer Charles Roven said the studio was planning a sequel. By June 2024, Sony confirmed 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 received positive feedback, especially for Fillion's performance and an action scene filmed from a close perspective, similar to scenes in the video games. The film also included 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 representative from Naughty Dog, the game's developer, praised the film with a heart emoji, and film director Shawn Levy also gave it praise. Ungar supported the official film.
A "storycoaster" ride called Uncharted: The Enigma of Penitence, based on the 2022 film, opened at PortAventura Park on June 17, 2023.
Reception
The Uncharted series has been very successful in terms of reviews and sales. Many people praise the series for its graphics, writing, and voice acting. GamesRadar ranked it as the second best franchise of the seventh generation. The Uncharted series helped improve Naughty Dog's reputation, making them one of the top game developers in the industry.
Nathan Drake, the main character in the series, is considered a PlayStation mascot. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is often called one of the greatest games ever made. It won over fifty Game of the Year awards, and critics called it a major milestone in gaming. The game has one of the highest ratings for 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 top 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 best-selling game during its release month. By 2011, all the games combined sold over 13 million copies. Uncharted 3 sold more than twice as many copies as its predecessor, exceeding expectations. By 2011, the series had sold over 17 million copies worldwide. Before the release of Uncharted 4, the series had sold over 28 million copies globally.
Uncharted 4 is the best-selling game in the series, with over 18 million copies sold. It is one of the top-selling PlayStation 4 games of all time. As of December 2017, the series had sold 41.7 million copies worldwide.
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was named the best PlayStation 3 game of the year by IGN.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves won several awards in 2009 and 2010, including Game of the Year, Best PS3 Game, Best Graphics, and Best Story. It also won ten awards at the Interactive Achievement Awards and five awards at the Game Developers Choice Awards. It received the most Game of the Year awards in 2009.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception won awards in 2011, including Best PS3 Game, Best Graphics, and awards for visual engineering, art direction, and animation. It also won awards for writing and visual arts. It was one of the most awarded games of 2011 in the Game of the Year category.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End won awards in 2016, including Best Narrative and Best Performance at The Game Awards, and Adventure Game of the Year, Best Story, and Best Animation at the D.I.C.E. Awards. It also won Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards and PlayStation Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. It received the most Game of the Year awards in 2016.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy won awards in 2017, including Game and Franchise Adventure at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards and Best Music/Sound Design at the Webby Awards.