It has been ten years since we were first introduced to Nathan Drake and the Uncharted world.
Back in 2007, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was released with no small amount of fanfare on the PlayStation 3, as developers Naughty Dog released an action adventure game that was one part Lara Croft, two parts Indiana Jones.
Naughty Dog, who had previously been best known for the Crash Bandicoot games, had hit the sweet spot with a game that mixed platforming around beautiful scenery, shoot outs with dangerous treasure hunters, and complex puzzle solving that forced you to use your brain instead of just mindlessly aiming and firing.
For the sequels, 2009’s Among Thieves, 2011’s Drake’s Deception and 2016’s A Thief’s End (which saw the games jump up to the PS4), we learned more and more about Drake’s past, his complex friendship with his BFF Sully, the love interests he’s had – in particular Elena and Chloe, representing the two sides of Drake himself perfectly – all while travelling to every corner of the world in search of the latest impossibly priceless artefact.
And that is all before we even get to the action set-pieces that would put most Hollywood blockbusters to shame. Remember the submarine in the jungle from the first game?
Or the train-wreck scene from Uncharted 2?
Or the plane crash sequence from Uncharted 3?
Or the foot chase to car chase to massive shoot out on the streets of Madagascar in Uncharted 4?
All clips via PlayStation
We’ve had a lot of fun with Drake over the last decade, but is it really time to say goodbye to him?
It would appear that way, as Naughty Dog have effectively told us so with the title of his last adventure, not to mention that they’ve moved on to The Last Of Us series, with the sequel to that due out later this year.
Which brings us on to The Last Legacy, the new mini spin-off of the Uncharted series, which has just been released for the PS4.
In it, we control Chloe (who we haven’t seen since Uncharted 3), who teams up with Nadine (who was one of the primary antagonists in Uncharted 4) to find a mythical item in India which may have enough power to bring the country into a state of civil war.
It shows a new direction for the series should Naughty Dog wish to pass the torch, as while Nathan Drake is very much a part of Uncharted, he is not everything that Uncharted has to offer.
The adventures of Chloe and Nadine are just as good as anything that we’ve had with Nathan so far, and they potentially represent the future of the series, should we want to go back to maybe visit the past of Sully, or see what Sam was up to in the years before he was reunited with Nathan, or any other of the great supporting characters, perhaps including Nathan’s own daughter Cassie, who we controlled for a few minutes at the end of Uncharted 4.
And then there’s the totally new platform for Nathan Drake himself: Movies.
Over the years there have plenty of rumours and even a few almost-rans for the character, with Nathan Fillion expressing a strong interest in playing the character for years. Then it was Mark Wahlberg co-starring with Robert DeNiro as Sully, to be directed by David O Russell (American Hustle, The Fighter, Silver Lining’s Playbook).
More and more names were attached to the lead role and the director’s chair until, finally, Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night At The Museum) was announced to direct, and the new Spider-Man himself Tom Holland attached to play a younger version of the game’s hero, in a prequel to any of the events we would have played already.
So no matter what, even if Nathan doesn’t get another game himself, his legacy will indeed live on through other games set in the Uncharted world, and through the movies to will carry on his name.
And until then, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be going back to play them all again.
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