Uncharted: A Retrospective Look as a Great Series
My whole life I have always wanted to have an adventure. I wanted to hop from plane to plane and travel the world. As a child I was captivated by the Indiana Jones movies and wished I had my own fedora and whip. Growing up in rural Alaska I would often wander the woods and wonder what it would be like to find some lost idol. An object akin to Indy’s adventures that would bring me fortune and glory. Unfortunately I only ever found moose crap. That being said my lust for adventure never expired.
Life happens and due to our lives we are not always able to go on globetrotting adventures. Most of my adventures have taken place on my couch in front of a game console. Because of this, I am happy to say that the Uncharted series by Naughty Dog was my adventure and will always hold a spot in my heart. This series allowed me to live out my Indiana Jones fantasies through three separate adventures, the fourth coming this April. Through the eyes of Nathan Drank, the series’ protagonist, I was able to explore lost cities and search for treasures the world had long forgotten.
I came late to the game when the PlayStation 3 was released. I did not pick up the console until late in it’s life time. The first game I had for my PS3 was Uncharted: Drake’s Deception. It was weird starting off on the third entry of the series, but I was hooked. As soon as I finished the game I ran to GameStop to pick up the other two entries. Unfortunately, GameStop never had a copy of the first game, but I was able to obtain a copy of Uncharted: Among Thieves. I raced through this game (my favorite of the series so far), and enjoyed every second of it. From the harrowing opening scene where Drake sits shot on a train that is dangling precariously off a cliff, to the ending where I was running along a collapsing bridge, I was enthralled. Recently I was able to play through the Uncharted Collection on my PS4. I was finally able to play through the first entry of the series and loved it just as much as the other two.
But why is it that these games speak so much to me? Early on in our lives I think we all want to escape reality and get away from everyday life. We want to up and leave everything behind for a life of adventure. Do I really want the fortune that could accompany finding a lost artifact? Not entirely, I want the journey. I want to be the one to trudge through the hardships in order to restore a piece of our lost history. The same can be said for Nathan Drake. His companion and father figure, Victor Sullivan, may often times remark about the riches to come from their labors, but that is not the case for Drake. He wants to strive forward and be the one to come out on top. This is what makes him such a relatable character. Besides his freakish upper body strength that allows him to hop from ledge to ledge, he is an every day man. He has his flaws that we can all relate to and he, in essence, is who so many of us are: a flawed human being who is simply trying to leave his mark.
So why did I take time out of my day to write this article you may ask? It is because, looking back on it, the Uncharted series has given me the opportunity to live out those adventures I always wanted as a kid. I got to have globetrotting adventures when life could not afford me them. During the roughly 6-10 hour campaigns, I wasn’t me anymore; I was the Indiana Jones I always wanted to be. The everyman that against all odds was able to come out on top. Most video games you play an unrelatable space marine whose only goal is to kill the enemy for some generic reason. Not in Uncharted. No, in Uncharted you are out to leave a mark and ultimately all of us want to leave a mark in our lives. We all have that inner Nathan Drake who is trying to make a statement to the world and have fun doing it. If you haven’t yet tried out this series, then you are sorely missing out on one of the greatest game series of our lifetimes. I am sad to say that the series will be ending with the fourth installment, but you can put your money down that I will be there for Drake’s final adventure.
If you would like to buy the Uncharted Collection and try the series for yourself, Amazon has a great deal on
the collection and Uncharted 4 here:
