Uncharted

Setting

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune sees Drake travel to the Amazon and an uncharted island off the coast of South America. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves explores the snow-capped mountain landscapes of the Tibetan Plateau in southernmost China, a museum in Istanbul, the jungles of Borneo and the urban landscapes of Nepal. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception sees Drake through a number of locations, including the streets of London and Colombia, a château in France, a castle in Syria, a city in Yemen and the sprawling deserts of the Rub' al Khali. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End sees Nate journey to the Rossi estate in Italy, a cathedral in Scotland, several locations in King's Bay, Madagascar and several uncharted islands in the Indian Ocean not too far off from Madagascar.

Gameplay

Gameplay in the Uncharted series is a combination of action-adventure elements and 3D platforming with a third-person perspective. Platforming elements allow Nate to jump, swim, grab and move along ledges, climb and swing from ropes, and perform other acrobatic actions that allow players to make their way through the many challenges that Nate will have to face. Although a wide variety of weapons are present in the game, the player can only carry a sidearm (pistols and the like), a primary weapon such as a rifle or shotgun, and a handful of grenades. These weapons are obtained by picking up weapons dropped by a downed foe or from those scattered around the various maps.

Multiplayer gameplay, both competitive and co-operative, was introduced in the sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The co-op multiplayer allows up to three players to take the roles of Drake and two other "hero" companions and features missions involving gunfights, platforming, and teamwork-based objectives. Players can also assist their comrades if they become critically injured or if they are grabbed by an enemy. The competitive multiplayer allows a maximum of ten players to play against each other in two teams of five. Six competitive modes are featured: Deathmatch, Plunder, Team Objective, Three Team Deathmatch, Hardcore and Free For All. Deathmatch features two teams of five, with one team acting as heroes and the other as villains. Players can choose their own appropriate character models (such as Drake, Elena, Sully and new characters Tenzin and Chloe for the heroes team). As players accrue points and rank up, they can purchase more skins for both heroes and villains.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, the first in the series, combines action-adventure and platform elements with a third-person perspective to chart the journey of protagonist Nathan Drake, supposed descendant of the explorer Sir Francis Drake, as he seeks the lost treasure of El Dorado in South America with the help of journalist Elena Fisher and mentor Victor "Sully" Sullivan. They are pursued relentlessly by pirates led by Eddy Raja and later on by a group of mercenaries led by Gabriel Roman and Atoq Navarro.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes Drake on a journey across Nepal and the Himalayas in a search for the lost city of Shambhala. It reunites most of the cast from the first game, such as Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan, and introduces the stealth mechanic and new characters: Chloe Frazer, a new love interest who has history with Drake; Harry Flynn, a shifty former partner of Drake; and Zoran Lazarević, a Serbian war criminal and the game's primary antagonist. The second game introduces a multiplayer mode to the series.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception was released in November 2011. The story focuses on Nate's relationship with his mentor and father figure, Victor "Sully" Sullivan, and has him searching for a legendary lost city that will ultimately take him to the Arabian Peninsula and the vast wasteland of the Rub' al Khali Desert, in search of "Iram of the Pillars", also known as the "Atlantis of the Sands". Elena Fisher and Chloe Frazer feature again but with smaller roles, and the game introduces new characters such as Charlie Cutter and Salim, Nate's newest allies, and Katherine Marlowe, Talbot and Ramesses who serve as the game's main antagonists.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is the fourth installment of the series and the first Uncharted game built from the ground up for the PlayStation 4. It was released on May 10, 2016. It focuses on Nathan, now a retired fortune hunter, getting forced back in the world of thieves when his long-lost—and believed to be dead—brother, Sam, appears and asks Drake for help. He embarks on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure.

Naughty Dog stated that A Thief's End was Nathan Drake's final story, as well as the last Uncharted game to be developed by the team. However, Nolan North expressed interest in continuing the series, should Sony decide to do so. A standalone expansion to Uncharted 4 entitled The Lost Legacy, featuring Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross was announced during PlayStation Experience in December 2016.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a title for Sony's PlayStation Vita. It was developed by Bend Studio, with development being overseen by Naughty Dog. It was released first in Japan on December 17, 2011. The release date in North America and Europe was February 23, 2012. The game's events take place sometime before those of Drake's Fortune, though developers have stated that it is not a prequel to Drake's Fortune, but rather a separate original story.

Uncharted: Fight for Fortune

In November 2012, the Australian Classification Board database showed the rating for a game titled Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, developed by One Loop Games. Later that month, it was confirmed that Sony's Bend Studio was developing the game and that it would be an "action-adventure turn-based card game". It was released on December 4, 2012 through PlayStation Network for the Vita.

Uncharted: The Board Game

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

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection is a remastered collection of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. It included a voucher for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End's multiplayer beta. It was ported by Bluepoint Games and was released for the PlayStation 4 in October 2015. A PlayStation 4 bundle with the game was also available. Reviews for the set were very positive - with most praising the technical improvements and enhancements across all three games.

Uncharted: Fortune Hunter

On May 5, 2016, Sony released a free-to-play game for iOS and Android tie in with the release of the fourth main game.

Uncharted: Drake's Trail

Drake's Trail is a now defunct 2007 online game. The game was a browser-based game with alternative reality elements. Consisting of ten chapters, the story, serving as a prequel to Drake's Fortune, recounts journalist Elena Fisher hiring a private detective to track down famous treasure hunter Nathan Drake believing he is onto something big. The game was played using a Google Maps plugin to locate game areas within the real world, in conjunction with a Flash Player to explore those fictional locations (such as Drake's apartment) for clues to the next location.

Uncharted: Eye of Indra (motion comic)

On October 23, 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment America released the first of a four-part series adventure called Uncharted: Eye of Indra. It is a prequel to Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The second part was released on November 25, 2009, while the third and fourth parts released simultaneously on December 7, 2009.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (motion comic)

A motion comic adaptation of the prologue of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, starting with the discovery of Francis Drake's coffin and up to the first encounter with Gabriel Roman. Uses the same voice clips from the video game.

Uncharted: Drake's Journal - Inside the Making of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Uncharted: Drake's Journal - Inside the Making of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a behind-the-scenes book featuring the motion capture and artwork for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, written by Nathan Drake voice and mo-cap actor, Nolan North. It features bios of the game's cast and crew at Naughty Dog, as well as QR codes for exclusive video clips of the game.

Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth

A novel released in October 2011. The novel is written by Christopher Golden and published by Del Rey Books, and follows the search for the Daedalus's Labyrinth, a maze used to hold the Minotaur, a monster from Greek mythology.

Comic book

On July 19, 2011, Sony announced that an Uncharted comic book would be released by DC Comics around the time Uncharted 3 came out. It is written by Joshua Williamson, with art by Sergio Sandoval and covers by Adam Hughes It was released on November 30, 2011, as part of a 6 issue mini series. "A quest for the legendary "Amber Room" launches Nathan Drake on a journey to the center of the earth."

Film adaptation

Film producer Avi Arad has stated that he is working with a division of Sony to develop the film adaptation of Uncharted. In response to a question posed to Richard Lemarchand, lead game designer of Naughty Dog, on whether he would like to see a film adaptation of Uncharted, he replied "no comment". Since then, Columbia Pictures has confirmed that an Uncharted film is being developed. It was to be written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer and produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, and Alex Gartner. As of June 30, 2009 it was confirmed that the Uncharted film had been in development for the last year-and-a-half. Nathan Fillion expressed an interest in playing Nathan Drake, and started a campaign on Twitter to encourage fans to support him in the endeavour. In a 2011 interview, Naughty Dog told PlayStation University how close they really were with the development of the movie and that they had trust with all who were working on it.

On October 8, it was announced by Doug Belgrad and Matt Tolmach, presidents of Columbia Pictures that David O. Russell has been set to write and direct Columbia Pictures' Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, an action-adventure based upon the first game in the series. The film would be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, and Alex Gartner. Following a screening of David O. Russell's film, The Fighter, he was approached by a fan of the Uncharted series who asked whether he had considered Nathan Fillion for the role of Nathan Drake for the upcoming film due to the high number of requests for him to fulfill the role. Russell was unaware of the interest in Fillion and who he was and seemed to quickly dismiss the idea.

On November 24, 2010, an interview with Mark Wahlberg was published by MTV with the actor discussing his involvement in the film adaptation of the popular franchise. He stated that David O. Russell was currently writing the script and was excited for what he had in store, hoping to shoot in the middle of 2011: "I'm obviously in whatever David wants to do but the idea of it is so off the charts: De Niro being my father, Pesci being my uncle. It's not going to be the watered-down version, that's for sure."

On May 26, 2011, it was reported that David O. Russell had dropped out from directing the video game film, with a new screenwriter being sought by Columbia Pictures. On July 6, Variety reported that Neil Burger was stepping in for David O. Russell.

Burger landed the offer after the studio and producers Avi Arad, Charles Roven and Alex Gartner sparked to his new take on the pic. Burger spoke out about the film in July, saying the following:

We're re-writing the script from scratch, and I'm just jumping into that literally right now, about to close the deal and leap off. Until the screenplay is written you never know who's going to be acting in it or not. But there are a lot of good actors out there who even look like Nathan Drake and who could do it. I love the project, I think it's a great adventure and it's a wild insane ride ... the game is and the movie will be. I mean it has pretty great character at its core, Nathan is a bit of a con man, a hustler ... knows his stuff, ballsy..it's great. Absolutely. And then you know you have to do what a movie does best, as well ... build on what's cool about the game and then make it into a movie. Yeah there will be (balance) in this one, this one is a very great adventure, and it's just a matter of pulling out the the [sic] very cool intense stuff that works for the film story, and making sure the story supports those elements and also makes us really connected to the character.

On August 23, 2012, Burger dropped out to work on another film and the studio hired the husband and wife team of Marianne and Cormac Wibberley to rewrite the film.

In an interview with IGN, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg said they were asked to write the film multiple times, but declined all of them. On February 4, 2014 Deadline reported that Seth Gordon would direct the film. Production was set to begin in early 2015. The film was originally scheduled for release on June 10, 2016. On November 12, 2014, the studio hired Mark Boal to write the film. After Wahlberg, Chris Pratt was in talks to portray Nathan Drake, but he reportedly declined the offer. On June 24, 2015 Seth Gordon left the project over creative differences.

On August 5, 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment pushed the film's release date back to June 30, 2017. In an interview with Game News Official, Nathan Drake's voice actor Nolan North stated that he believed that fans did not want a movie. Charles Roven did reveal to Collider that what they are working on is pretty exciting, there is a director that they do not have at the moment and they are not ready to cast that vote until they are actually ready to cast. In April 2016, Druckmann said that the most important aspect of the film is the character relationships. "If you don't get that right, I don't think the film's going to work," he said. On July 29, 2016, Variety reported that Joe Carnahan will write the draft of the film's script. On September 1, 2016, the film was removed from Sony's release calendar due to not having a director or cast, but Sony was still moving forward with the film. Director Shawn Levy on October 25, 2016 was announced to be directing the Uncharted movie. Carnahan recently spoke to Collider that he and Levy are knowledgeable about the game, and have been hard at work getting the characters right. The filming is set to begin in early 2017. Wahlberg told We Got This Covered in an interview that he was no longer attached to the film. In early January 2017, Carnahan posted a photo on his Instagram to show that the script of the film had been completed. Filming is expected to begin in Colombia in late spring of 2017.

Other titles

Other media, including a comic, have contributed to the Uncharted series. A spin-off handheld game was released and a standalone expansion is in production. A film adaptation is also in production, the cast of which is not yet known though three actors were in talks about playing certain characters.

Reception

The Uncharted series was met with critical acclaim, in particular Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. GamesRadar ranked it the second best franchise of the generation, saying "Every level is a memorable set-piece, covering terrain that ranges from lush jungles to bombed-out cities to Tibetan mountains, and almost every puzzle is unique." Much of the praise for the series has gone towards the graphics Naughty Dog have produced and attained, as well as the writing and voice acting. The Uncharted series as well as The Last of Us has also brought up Naughty Dog's reputation and has them regarded as one of the best developers in the industry. As the protagonist of the series, Drake is seen as a PlayStation mascot.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. It received over fifty Game of the Year awards, more than thirty perfect review scores, and was the highest rated game of 2009.

While Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception also received acclaim from reviewers, it was not considered a breakthrough title as its predecessor was.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, was seen as a notable improvement over Drake's Deception and is ranked as one of the best in the series.

Sales

Uncharted 2 was the top selling game in the month of its release, and as of December 2011, has sold over 6 million copies. Before the release of the third game, the series sold 8 million copies by December 8, 2010, and 13 million half a year after the release of the third game. Naughty Dog's product marketing manager Asad Quizilbash stated that Uncharted 3's week one sales were double that of Uncharted 2, which was "far exceeding" their expectations. By April 2012, the Uncharted series sold 17 million copies worldwide. Uncharted 4 is the best selling installment of the series to date, with over 8 million copies sold.

By June 2015, the Uncharted series has sold over 21 million copies worldwide. Before the release of the fourth game, the series reached 28 million units.