History of Uncharted (2007 - 2020)

welcome back everybody i'm nick930 and today i want to share with you the complete history of one of my all-time favorite game franchises [Music] uncharted [Music] uncharted is a third person action adventure series created by naughty dog and published by sony interactive entertainment practically every entry centers around the accomplished and frequently sarcastic treasure hunter nathan drake as he decrypts clues fights bad guys and uncovers long forgotten civilizations the series is best known for its over-the-top action and cinematic presentation along with its memorable characters and well written story and because of its major success it's largely responsible for completely redefining the action-adventure genre but what about this video game series is so special and how exactly did naughty dog transition from their colorful cartoon platformer past to the much more mature style of video games that they created today well to answer that let's start by taking it way back to naughty dog's early days with the sony playstation throughout the course of the late 90s the game development studio naughty dog had built a major reputation for themselves the crash bandicoot series proved to be a huge success and quickly became the unofficial mascot for sony's playstation console all the while the studio continued to refine their skills with each and every release improving on their graphical architecture and toying around with new gameplay mechanics like vehicles that would eventually inspire them to create the fan favorite crash team racing in 1999 but with universal's leash tied around their neck naughty dog decided that if they wanted to continue to grow creatively they would need to leave behind their beloved marsupial and start over with a completely original idea while most of the team worked on crash team racing two developers worked on concepts and designs for their new game series including a new lead character and two goofy animal sidekicks after ctr's release development for the new project ramped up significantly with the rest of the team now on board to help expand on the level design and incorporate hundreds of unique animations for their new characters during this time naughty dog was purchased by sony computer entertainment giving the studio all the funding and resources that they needed to finish production and in 2001 they released jack and daxter the precursor legacy exclusively for the playstation 2. jack and daxter while still a cartoon platformer is nothing like naughty dog's original crash games the levels are larger the platforming is all done within a fully realized 3d space in the experience has a slightly more mature edge to it thanks largely in part to daxter's many explosive outbursts but one of the most important distinctions between jack and the crash series is the increased emphasis on storytelling this first game was met with glowing reviews and many applauded naughty dog for keeping the 3d platforming gameplay fresh which was quite the achievement considering the stiff competition in the 3d platforming genre at the time with its success naughty dog had established their new flagship property that inevitably spawned two more sequels and an additional spin-off racing game each innovating further with improved gameplay mechanics interesting new settings and even more ambitious stories unlike with the crash bandicoot series naughty dog never felt pressured to abandon jack and daxter in fact after jak 3 the team had begun to completely overhaul their graphical architecture in the hopes of delivering a next-gen take on the beloved duo but the years that followed are considered by naughty dog as some of the darkest in the studio's history as original co-founders andy gavin and jason rubin stepped down from the rolls while the rest of the programmers waited patiently for sony to provide the development kits for the next gen playstation finally in 2006 the kits arrived leaving them with very little time to churn out an ambitious open-ended game like before because of this they opted to create a more linear experience one that relied more heavily on its storytelling potential and would expand upon the relationship between jack and daxter but as they began to toy around with the look of jack using their more advanced graphics engine they quickly realized that the more realistic art direction they wanted to pursue would be a disservice to fans of the series and they decided to transform their work into an entirely new property instead now aware that they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted they landed on the concept of a sort of serial action-adventure story but with a contemporary twist not unlike the popular indiana jones films they added in more modern elements like pirates armed with ak-47s and old ruined forts to fight in using a smooth cover-based shooting system made popular by kill switch and gears of war to help stand out in the sea of overly dark and grim shooter games on the market the game's artists retained all the bright jungle environments planned for jak 4 giving their new shooter a unique vibrant and colorful presentation as they familiarize ourselves with the ps3's architecture they began to really expand upon the game's graphics adding in more dynamic vegetation that would blow in the wind realistically and advanced water simulation with lots of interesting techniques to make the character's clothing appear wet when traversing through it i really wish but one of their greatest challenges was the design of the characters themselves especially their lead protagonist according to lead director amy hennig they wanted to avoid creating the cliche armored badass that was all too often featured on games box art and instead created a more relatable everyman as she puts it that while plenty capable still had his limits the model was created using much more advanced shaders and rendering techniques than what was possible during the jack and daxter days giving details like his skin and hair actual depth alongside a massive leap to over 30 million polygons to help form the contours of his face and body on top of this the team spent a significant amount of time nailing down each of the character's animations with hundreds of different poses for each facial feature enabling them to behave more naturally they even recorded their voice actors simultaneously while they were equipped with full mocap suits in order to derive a more authentic performance from them watch where you step some of these boards are really falling meanwhile composer greg edmondson known for his work on the show firefly lent his talent to the game's musical score and mixed together classical orchestral swells with unusual sounds from lesser-known instruments resulting in one of the most iconic themes in the world of gaming this project proved to be far more ambitious than anything the studio had worked on before with tons of moving pieces and a lot on the line but at e3 2006 the team were finally ready to show off a tech demo of what they had managed to accomplish the demo showcased their lead character performing several acrobatic feats in a jungle environment while fighting pirates with a variety of impressive combat animations the press were mostly impressed though the ps3 in general had already established a pretty disappointing reputation for itself thanks to its unreasonable price point and lackluster launch titles throughout the course of the next year noting dog refined their new game further ironing out the story threads and updating the appearance of their characters a bit finally in the fall of 2007 naughty dog released uncharted drake's fortune exclusively for the sony playstation 3. drake's fortune begins on a small boat off the coast of panama where a young adventurer named nathan drake along with reporter elena fisher have just discovered an old coffin believed to contain the remains of sir francis drake but as drake pries opened the coffin it's revealed that the only thing inside is an old dusty diary handwritten by francis drake himself using this diary the pair along with drake's longtime friend victor sullivan embark on a journey to uncover the mythical lost city of el god damn dorado he was on to something big all right but as with any classic treasure hunting adventure the heroes aren't the only ones on the trail and the narrative spirals into a deadly race to reach the gold first this story is pretty cliched by today's standards with a cocky hero protagonist a witty romantic interest and the idea that all that glitters is not gold but to introduce these concepts into a video game and in such a cinematic fashion was unprecedented back in 2007 everything about uncharted is delivered in a way that feels like you're actually controlling a movie with lots of high quality cutscenes epic action set pieces and a likable cast of characters right away nathan drake's personality is shown to be much different from that of your typical male lead protagonist he's clever capable and a bit cocky but he also recognizes his own limits and is fiercely loyal to his friends keep smiling i'll see you soon elena serves as a driving force behind a lot of the action in the game she's initially hinted at being a typical damsel in distress but it's soon revealed that she's plenty capable of handling herself and even helps drake out of a few sticky situations well come on then of course there's sully a long time treasure hunter who's taken drake under his wing but is frequently taking shortcuts that get the pair into trouble each of these characters are explored a good amount throughout the story especially during each cinematic cutscene but a decent chunk of the dialogue is actually delivered through the course of the gameplay with drake often speaking out loud about the many situations he finds himself in especially as things start to fall apart strangers trying to kill me leaving my map on a burning plane lane is missing most likely dead that's great great start mate and things most certainly fall apart almost all the time thanks to plenty of hollywood-esque action sequences incorporated into the design of the gameplay uncharted at its core is a third person action adventure game with a heavy emphasis on environmental traversal and cover based shooting the game's many levels are all linear and separated into chapters each with a decent amount of simple platforming and combat encounters platforming often involves shimming around on rock outcroppings swinging from vines and leaping across gaps but is often made more interesting by scripted moments like handholds breaking away requiring the player to think on the fly and leap to safety players can even balance across some narrow structures using the gyroscopes built into the 6-axis controller a feature intended to spotlight the new console's capabilities now and again players are faced with some light puzzle solving requiring them to reference francis drake's diary for critical clues to help progress further but mixed in with the more thoughtful exploration and perilous platforming or plenty of intense combat encounters much like the xbox's gears of war uncharted combat is built heavily around its cover system drake can snap to cover and peek out to target an enemy with precision alternatively he can shoot blindly from cover or can dangerously run around the area shooting from the hip uncharted also makes use of a robust melee combat system that can be seamlessly strung together with the shooting mechanics allowing players to transition from gunplay to hand-to-hand brawls whenever they feel like weapons include several conventional firearms including pistols submachine guns and assault rifles and can be swapped between or replenished by defeating enemies and grabbing their weapons off the ground in the later half of the game the lightly armed pirates are replaced with much more organized mercenaries they will drop even more powerful weapons like the m4 desert eagle and the spas-12 shotgun players also need to make use of frag grenades to defeat enemies that by default are aimed by tilting the 6-axis controller to adjust the arc of the throw all these gameplay mechanics along with the ambitious storyline are blended together to create a uniquely immersive action-adventure experience one that encourages repeat playthroughs to discover its many hidden treasures and to unlock bonus cheats and character skins uncharted drake's fortune was met with mostly positive reviews from fans and media outlets alike naughty dog was praised for their beautiful visual design especially with the incredible lifelike character animations along with its movie quality story and exciting gameplay however a few did note some guaring issues with the game especially the way enemies reacted to being shot at which directly interfered with the fluidity of the combat on top of this the game was criticized for its short length with little content outside of the optional collectibles to justify the price though for most these issues were outweighed by the game's engaging narrative and likable characters and the title quickly became one of the playstation 3's crowning achievements an accolade desperately needed by the platform as it struggled with its initial launch with uncharted now being held up as the playstation's new next-gen mascot naughty dog decided to put plans for a new jack and daxter title on hold and instead focused entirely on their next adventure with nathan drake with a better understanding for the playstation 3's hardware development for the sequel went much more smoothly graphic designers made more efficient use of the system's cell architecture and offloaded unnecessary stress on the graphics chip allowing for greatly expanded environmental detail and more complex character designs the character movement was also modified with even more layered animations allowing drake to stumble around more realistically eliminating the often stiff feel of the first game to further improve on their signature active cinematic experience they also created larger more impressive set pieces with the players still maintaining full control of the action the original game's proprietary physics solution was also replaced with a much more practical havoc physics allowing for more interactive environments that would blend more seamlessly with their more immersive scripted moments amy hennig neil druckmann and josh share all returned to write the sequel and set out to expand on the uniquely grounded yet adventurous universe that they had created a major focus for the sequel story was to expand on the character of nathan drake to achieve this they incorporated brand new characters that would help to bring out more complex aspects of the weed's personality while also complicating the romantic subplot and raising the stakes with a significantly more imposing villain after toying around with their game engine's capabilities some members of the development team even identified a way to incorporate a multi-part component and the team rapidly expanded on the concept adding in a new cooperative mode and a competitive death match intended to capture the over-the-top shooter action of the main campaign after a little over 20 months of development the sequel went gold and uncharted 2 among thieves released exclusively for the playstation 3. among thieves kicks off with a brief glimpse of the future with drake injured in a train car that the audience soon learns is suspended over a massive chasm after pulling himself out of the wreckage the image fades to present day with drake relaxing at a tropical resort where he's approached with a new job regarding marco polo's mysterious lost fleet drake reluctant at first eventually agrees to go along with the heist and the trio set off to istanbul to recover a seemingly worthless oil lamp but the plot thickens after discovering that the lamp holds a critical clue and drake and his allies set off on their own to pick up the trail like with the first game the adventure turns into a deadly race for treasure with drake and his friends using their wits to get ahead while the opposition uses overwhelming force but lazarovich the game's lead antagonist is a much more ruthless villain than the ones in the first game and is willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top you better pray that he is not bluffing this provides an excellent opportunity to expand on drake's personality we saw him get pushed to the limit before but not quite like this come on i'm through playing the hero it's a much more emotionally driven and ambitious narrative as a whole one that feels ten times more cinematic than the original game while still retaining the lovable personality and charm that fans have come to expect yeah good luck pal that's almost impossible oh you did it nice uncharted 2's gameplay takes everything from the original that worked and builds from it with smoother platforming more engaging combat and far more unique locations to explore players can explore the lush jungles in borneo the icy cliffs in nepal and will even find themselves caught in the midst of a city under siege and each of these unique environments retains the series's signature adventurous feel the traversal for example is still handled very much the same way players can grab onto objects that are often distinctly covered to help them stand out and need to follow predetermined paths to progress further but in this game the environment feels a bit less stable as hand holds and bridges commonly break apart in unique and interesting ways and part of the fun is watching as drake struggles to recover usually by the skin of his teeth these scripted moments are so smoothly incorporated into the flow of the platforming that it's often challenging to predict when it will happen allowing players to feel even more closely connected to the character the game's puzzle solving also returns and like before requires players to make use of a special notebook only this time it's drake's personal journal that comes equipped with several funny extra notes scribbled throughout uncharted 2's biggest improvement though is to its action mainly its combat design combat feels much better in the sequel thanks largely in part to the smoother animations and improved weapon control many of the guns from the first game return like pistols shotguns and aks but among thieves includes a few new weapons like a burst fire rifle equipped with a red dot sight a handheld sawed-off shotgun called the pistol and a huge handheld minigun that could be acquired after defeating powerful juggernaut enemies later on in the game other new features include riot shields that both enemies and players can use to block incoming fire some new stealth action elements like silent takedowns and a reworked melee combat system allowing for even more cinematic fist fights than before enemies also feature more variety in the sequel with access to more powerful armaments and vehicles and the situations that nate finds himself in are even more explosive and chaotic wow oh i do that but quite possibly one of uncharted 2's most impressive new features is its emphasis on active cinematic moments these moments give players full control over the action during scenes that feel like they would otherwise be part of a cinematic like a big firefight in the midst of a building collapsing or a showdown on the roof of a speeding train and each of these moments combined with the improvements made to the core gameplay loop helped to make uncharted 2 one of the most epic and cinematic video games ever made and if that wasn't enough uncharted 2 also came packaged with a new multiplayer component with a 3 player online co-op and an online competitive death match what set this game's multiplayer apart was that it incorporated all the single players movement controls and abilities adding more verticality and platforming to the already solid shooting mechanics unfortunately the online services for this game have been shut down but the style of gameplay still lives on in the most recent entries to the series overall uncharted 2 among thieves is considered by many as a masterpiece it was met with an overwhelmingly positive response from gaming journalists and fans alike and won several game of the year awards in 2009 many praised the game for its incredible movie-like qualities while also complementing the endearing characters and smooth gameplay the game is considered by many as one of the playstation 3's greatest releases and helped to catapult naughty dog from just a mildly successful first party sony studio to legends in the industry putting even greater pressure on the studio as they turned their attention towards the inevitable follow-up a follow-up to a game considered by many to be a masterpiece is never an easy task but with the studio now having worked with the ps3 for over four years they remained confident that they could continue to improve on the concepts and ideas that made among thieves such a remarkable hit in order to immediately set itself apart from its predecessor they first decided on a setting that would historically contrast to the cold mountain side of nepal and pieced together a brand new adventure this time centering around warrants of arabia and the lost city of iran additionally the writers wanted to expand even more on the characters especially on the relationship between drake and his mentor sully from a graphical standpoint the development team were challenged to really push the hardware to its limits with lots of over-the-top sequences many believed to be impossible alongside several more tweaks to further improve the realism of the game's many animations and effects after nearly three years of work and a massive marketing budget to help promote the new title naughty dog released their third entry to the series uncharted 3 drake's deception the final entry to the series to be released for the playstation 3. uncharted 3 begins two years after the previous game with drake and sully in pursuit of yet another artifact the mysterious decoder believed to be connected to sir francis drake but to get to this device the duo alongside chloe frazier and series newcomer charlie cutter are forced to steal it from catherine marlowe the head of a deadly shadow organization that has been secretly influencing british foreign policy for centuries after an elaborate ruse nate and his friends managed to recover the device and are then able to piece together what marlo's order are really after the legendary iran the pillars also known as the atlantis of the sands from here the experience resembles your typical uncharted storyline with nate and his allies racing to exotic locations to find clues only to be ambushed by heavily armed goons intent on reaching the treasure first but unlike the first two games uncharted 3's story is a little bit more personal we're given a chance to learn about drake's origins for example with an extensive flashback sequence that introduces us to young drake in colombia and how he first meets up with victor sullivan i see great things in our future kitten great things marlow along with her right hand man talbot provided an interesting change up to the antagonist previously presented to the player marlow isn't capable of overpowering drake with physical strength but instead relies on psychological manipulation using brainwashing drugs to turn the characters against each other meanwhile drake's own ambition is revealed to be just as threatening as it frequently puts his friends into harm's way it's a slightly more expansive plotline one that occasionally stares off course in favor of some truly remarkable action set pieces but its finale is satisfying enough to close the entire series on which was a real possibility considering naughty dog split into two separate teams in 2009 leaving amy hennig as the sole writer for this project but despite the smaller team uncharted 3 feels even more ambitious than the game before it the game's action set pieces are pushed to the absolute extreme with players having to escape burning buildings a sinking cruise ship and a trek across the rubicali desert the game's core gameplay structure remains pretty much the same with plenty of environmental traversal combined with smooth gunplay and hand-to-hand combat but each of these features feels more carefully refined climbing sections for example have a lot more of those heart racing breakaway moments and some of the objects that drake can grab onto feel more dynamic like large chandeliers that swing realistically puzzles also seem to be more prevalent in this title and are a little bit more challenging requiring more effort from the player to solve and new cinematic chase moments have also been incorporated with a reworked chase camera and hundreds of scripted moments making for some intense moments throughout [Music] but one of the biggest improvements is to the game's melee system uncharted 3 features several moments throughout the campaign that encourage a straight up brawl with new enemy grapple attacks and counters big brutes to fight and even new options to interact directly with the environment allowing you to break bottles over enemies heads or smack them with a fish the gunplay has also seen a few changes pretty much every gun has been redesigned with different sound effects and handling greatly reducing bullet spread and making them feel more powerful as a result the combat arenas themselves also feel much more open-ended with lots of different platforms to climb on and even deep water that can be used to break the line of sight even the grenades have been tweaked and they can now be thrown back at enemies with a well-timed button press but even with all these changes and the drastically different locations to fight in uncharted 3 really doesn't change up the core format all too much naughty dog discovered a winning formula in 2009 and rather than try to reinvent it they decided to just make a new story with the gameplay that fans already loved there's still plenty of technologically impressive feats that weren't possible before like the incredible sand simulation effects used in the desert and plenty of smaller details like new animations for drake when he reaches out and touches walls but the playstation 3 was finally showing its age and the visual quality of the uncharted series was now being limited by the hardware itself despite this uncharted 3's new storyline and setting proved to be more than enough to police fans and critics the game was once again met with an overwhelmingly positive response with many even claiming that it surpassed the previous title in quality the game's unbelievable cinematic moments were hugely popular and set the bar even higher for the industry once again dominating the scene when it came to narrative driven third-person adventures many reviewers noted that while the experience remained familiar drake's deception feels like the ultimate uncharted game with plenty of heart passion and adventure to appeal to both gamers and non-gamers alike with uncharted 3's huge success naughty dog further cemented their reputation they had established themselves as titans in the industry with a team capable of taking incredible concepts and transforming them into enjoyable gameplay experiences and with the story essentially completed all eyes were back on naughty dog to see if they can continue to deliver the same level of quality with their brand new ip but there was one other game released around this time that bored the uncharted name one that wasn't even made by naughty dog themselves in 2009 sony had started to invest heavily in a next-gen handheld gaming platform capable of delivering aaa games on the go and to convince third-party developers to make gains for this device they reached out to their first party studios to create portable versions of their biggest properties including little big planet resistance killzone and of course uncharted but with naughty dog already splitting their resources to create two completely different games sony instead reached out to another studio sony bend the creators of siphon filter resistance retribution and even more recently days gone bend eager to tackle the beloved uncharted series jumped at the opportunity but found the task to be incredibly difficult for several reasons first their studio wasn't really fit for a project of the scale they had roughly 55 developers most of which had never worked on a major game like this and at first had a very minimal understanding of what made for a good uncharted experience but naughty dog recognized this and provided plenty of assistance including direct consultation from amy hennig for the story and the source code for uncharted 2 which they then used as both a benchmark and a guide as they created their own game and rendering engines the second major problem they ran into was that for most of the development cycle they had no access to an actual finished ps vita they were given a few prototypes that gave them an idea of what kind of unique capabilities they wanted to showcase like the touchscreen and the gyroscopes but the graphical capabilities were up in the air forcing them to create their engines on the ps3 instead and the last challenge they faced was production time several choices sony ben made throughout the development of this game were created for the sake of saving time and money once they had landed on a good idea for the story for example they called in the actors to record motion capture and voice performances oh crap sully i had the map upside down paddle backwards they then pieced together the game using a lot of borrowed assets and textures from uncharted 2 and threw in a bunch of new gameplay mechanics to take advantage of the vita after getting the game in a playable state they then started to invite in focus testers to evaluate the experience this proved to be extremely helpful as it pointed out flaws and character personalities along with pacing problems that bend quickly tweaked by re-recording some of the voice lines and changing around the structure of the game's levels finally at e3 2011 sony ben took to the stage and revealed their completely portable adventure uncharted golden abyss which released exclusively for the playstation vita in 2012. golden abyss is a prologue adventure that takes place prior to the first game with drake in the rainforest around panama hunting for quivira one of the seven cities of gold he's joined by his old associate jason dante whose arrogance and greed makes him a unreliable ally and marissa chase a bold and intelligent woman who's driven to learn the truth about her missing grandfather but like with any uncharted game there's a catch now hey you watch the post roberto aguero a ruthless former dictator of panama that desperately wants to reach the goal first to help fund his revolution you're just a petty thug trying to steal my grandfather's work this belongs to the men who have spilled their blood for me the general plot is roughly the same as the past three uncharted games the player rushes around beautiful environments climbing unstable structures and discovering clues and is frequently interrupted by large groups of art militia woefully unprepared for nathan drake's godlike combat abilities but chase and dante do add a slightly more interesting twist to the feel of the story there's some nice back and forth between these characters thanks to some great chemistry between the actors playing the roles and chase's more personal mission gives this seemingly small handheld adventure more merit sully even makes a brief appearance partway through which helps to give the game a nice familiar charm damn how about one with less mosquitoes but despite a lot of the same story beats and characters golden abyss's narrative doesn't quite meet the same caliber as the more recent titles if anything this vita title feels like a slight step back sharing more in common with the more grounded action of the original ps3 game with very few memorable action set pieces and more of a focus on the game's exploration but considering the vita's slightly awkward combat controls this emphasis on platforming and discovery benefits the feel of the game greatly golden abyss on the surface is like any other uncharted there's lots of climbing shooting and fistfights the three pillars of the series's gameplay are all here but golden abyss also includes lots of additional mechanics designed specifically to take advantage of the ps vita's unique functionality that all they got players can make charcoal rubbings by literally rubbing the vita screen take pictures using the built-in camera balance across narrow beams by tilting the whole device and can touch the screen to control actions like climbing cutting through thick vegetation and fighting considering the latter implementation the veto mechanics do feel a bit shoe-horned in and detract a bit from the fluidity of the gameplay but it certainly served its purpose in providing plenty of unique examples of how the handheld's features could be utilized regardless of how you felt about the vita-specific features the game's core mechanics all play as you'd expect with plenty of great climbing and intense combat to deliver that classic uncharted feel and while it doesn't come with any sort of take on the popular multiplayer mode ben did release a sort of card game later that year with additional trading cards that could be collected throughout the course of golden abyss's campaign overall gold and abyss was met with plenty of positive reviews with many praising the game for its beautiful visuals familiar gameplay and mostly good use of the vedas controls a few faulted the title for its needless inclusion of touch controls for things like grenade throwing or melee combat but there was still plenty more appreciation for the more adventurous feel to the game thanks largely in part to the way players can clean off old artifacts and piece together puzzles by hand ben delivered exactly what they set out to do create a full aaa experience to justify the purchase of the vita and the few gamers actually played it were content naming it one of the best titles for the device but sadly third party studios still weren't convinced handheld gaming just didn't make sense to sink lots of development time and money into especially with the rise of more powerful cell phones becoming more common and even with additional great games like gravity rush littlebigplanet and killzone mercenaries the platform was eventually abandoned by sony meanwhile sony ben took the lessons learned from the development of golden abyss to develop a brand new game engine one that would be used several years later to create another new playstation exclusive property while this next title isn't a part of the uncharted series i do feel it's worth talking about for a bit as it's not only built heavily on the foundation of naughty dog's flagship series but it also marked a major shift in the studio's development process both in the style of writing and in how they approach gameplay design moving forward as i mentioned before work on naughty dog's newest intellectual property began way back in 2009 right after the studio had shipped uncharted 2. uncharted was obviously their most profitable game franchise so they couldn't just flat out abandon it especially after among thieves incredible success so the studio split into two teams with amy hennig leading efforts on uncharted 3 and neil druckmann and bruce shreley assuming creative control over what they called project thing the game's general premise stemmed from an old college project druckmann submitted back in 2004 about a cop escorting a girl through a zombie apocalypse this idea was expanded further thanks to influence from the likes of a rational's bioshock series creating a solid base to move forward with on the technical side the game was built using the same rendering engine they had been using before but with some slight changes lighting for example was tweaked to allow for more realistic refraction through dirty window panes and they had to create a more complex ai system to accompany the stealth oriented gameplay direction [Music] after years of development this new mature chapter to naughty dog's history was finally completed and the last of us released worldwide as the final exclusive title for the sony playstation 3. the last of us was a monumental success it won an insane amount of awards including best game best performance best visual design and story and still stands as one of naughty dog's most successful video games of all time gamers were blown away by the beautifully written narrative about a heartbroken father and his young sidekick traveling across the pandemic stricken country additionally this game proved that naughty dog was still plenty capable of innovating and bringing unique experiences to the table the gameplay was nothing like uncharted yet still maintain the same level of quality and polished fans had come to expect but the most important contribution this game made at least in regards to the history of uncharted was that the development of the playstation 4 remaster served a critical role in prepping the studio for nathan drake's first leap into a new generation production for uncharted 4 kicked off immediately after work had wrapped up on uncharted 3 with amy hennig and justin richmond reprising their roles as lead writer and creative director respectively early concepts for the game bear a lot of similarities to the final product like a hunt for pirate treasure taking nate and his friends around the world to locations like madagascar and scotland but in those early days the story threads connecting the adventure weren't quite the same amy spent months piecing together drafts for the story which would have taken the beloved cast of characters to a much darker place one of the key differences in the original plot was that nathan's brother sam was going to harbor a grudge against nate blaming him for his incarceration the story would have centered around this idea of reconciliation and forgiveness and would have at least for part of the game made sam drake to be an antagonist this direction for the story actually made it pretty far in the game's development richmond brought in all the actors to capture a week's worth of motion and voice recordings while the programmers and art department prepped for the inevitable transition to next-gen hardware but in early 2014 something unexpected happened lead writer amy hennig left the studio due to a non-disclosure agreement the details of this departure are still unclear though those loyal to hennik including director justin richman and several veteran developers left around the same time suggesting creative differences in the direction for the game were to blame neil druckmann and bruce straley who at this point were already eyeing a sequel to the last of us took over as leads for the project and found themselves scrapping months of hennig's work they retained the general premise like the hunt for pirate treasure the locations and nate's brother sam but instead of villainizing him they added in new flashback sequences to establish a strong brotherly bond changes like this set the development for the game back substantially delaying the game's release and many feared hennig's departure meant the beginning of the end for the accomplished studio and it made sense for people to worry this was the playstation 4's big game but naughty dog remained determined to deliver on its promises and with lessons learned from the ps4 remaster of the last of us they began to utilize the power of the ps4 to completely reinvent what it meant to be an uncharted game oh crap crap crap their first step was expanding on the actual gameplay experience itself while everything naughty dog published during the ps3 gen was met with an insurmountable amount of praise there was one complaint that really stood out to bruce the idea that their games were excessively linear as i mentioned previously naughty dogs were playing around with the idea of having large open-ended environments back in the jack and daxter days but they were forced to settle for a more linear story driven experience due to the difficulty of developing for the ps3 but now with the ps4's increased memory capacity and more powerful components the team decided to reimagine all the series's core gameplay elements to be more open-ended traversal for example was expanded significantly with massive open areas interwoven with funneled narrative events giving the illusion of an open world while still maintaining the series as tight pacing the combat was also reworked with much more intelligent enemy ai and environments and combat takedown moves taylor made for drake and then of course there's the actual visual fidelity that was improved a remarkable amount the characters for example have seen an insane boost to their poly counts with entirely new facial models that look almost unrecognizable when compared to their ps3 counterparts but one of the most impressive visual changes is to the game's animations [Music] the uncharted series has always sported some incredible animations for drake but with uncharted 4 noridok really wanted their characters to move believably in the world drake for example will now curve his body as he climbs based on the height and angle of the cliff itself giving him a more natural presence in the world the motion capture methodology was also updated with new mocap dots placed on the actors faces to capture their facial expressions as opposed to only capturing their voice and body movement finally after years of heightened anticipation naughty dog released uncharted 4 a thief's end the final title in the series centered around lead protagonist nathan drake a thief's end takes place several years after the events of uncharted 3 with nathan drake retired from treasure hunting and living peacefully with his wife elena but after years of deciphering clues and uncovering long-lost civilizations drake finds himself struggling to settle down and secretly yearns to return to the excitement of his adventurous past one day despite his best efforts to resist the temptation he's offered an opportunity that he can't ignore and sets out to find henry avery's legendary stash of pirate treasure nathan is once again joined by series regular victor sullivan along with elena fisher in a slightly smaller role than usual but it's the new characters that really steal the show first there's sam drake nathan's long-lost older brother uncharted 4 spends a great deal of time exploring the relationship between nate and sam with lots of extended flashback sequences that help to piece together nate's mysterious past and provide more context for why henry avery's treasure is so important to them on a personal level then there's the antagonist nadine ross a south african mercenary and leader of a paramilitary called shoreline and rafe adler drake and sam's former partner born with a silver spoon and desperate to be the one to discover avery's gold on the surface the story is a straightforward romp around the world with lots of puzzle solving epic action set pieces and the occasional plot to us but the themes explored throughout hit at a deeper more emotional level touching on the value of family dealing with guilt and coming to grips with getting older it's a beautifully written story one that explores fan favorite characters in a way that's never been attempted before and serves as a satisfying conclusion to nate's adventures and then of course there's the gameplay design uncharted 4's gameplay features improvements all around with bigger level environments more crazy over-the-top action and a total overhaul to the core mechanics the game's combat for example has seen some huge improvements in previous games combat for the most part was very scripted into the flow of the game you run into an area drop maybe one or two guys with some silent takedowns and then proceed to shoot at 10 other guys while popping in and out of cover repeatedly but with uncharted 4 these encounters are more organic stealth is designed in a way that actually feels practical with tons of new hiding places like tall grass and improved artificial intelligence that will actively hunt down the player when they lose sight of him this turns the combat from a repetitive shooting gallery into something more thoughtful allowing players to hide when they feel outnumbered and carefully plan out their next move and planning is worth it as these sandbox combat arenas offer lots of clever and interesting ways to take out hostels players can for instance drop down on top of enemies grab their discarded weapon in the air and churn to shoot someone else and then there's the epic action set pieces that thanks to the gorgeous visual design are even more incredible to witness and feel more immersive than ever but while uncharted 4 certainly features plenty of over-the-top action it also spends a lot more time than usual with its world building and expiration the climbing for example is now more free-form with players able to reach out freely to grab individual hand holds on huge jungle gym like rock walls areas like climbable rocks are often expansive offering lots of different paths stretch around several pillars and a lot of times the paths shown are entirely optional this transforms areas that would have previously just been tedious filler into a sort of puzzle letting players find the most effective way to their goal without getting themselves killed in the process i can practically see my house one of uncharted 4's most used new features is the rope swing ability that allows players to toss their rope into predetermined points in the environment and swing freely to clear huge gaps drake can also slide down steep slopes now and make use of a new rock pick that when combined together make for some really interesting and unique platforming in the later half of the game all these tools add a completely new dimension to uncharted 4's platforming with the rope swinging and rock sliding being molded around the classic red shimmying and big jumps that fans have come to expect without ever feeling too gimmicky or out of place in a few of the much larger open-ended environments players can even take control of vehicles including a jeep and a large motor boat these vehicles are pretty easy to maneuver and mostly serve as a method of delivering plenty of dialogue between characters but they do occasionally serve as critical tools to solve physics-based puzzles or reach high hand holes the jeep for example has a winch cable in the front that players can manually wrap around things like trees to pull the car up a steep muddy slope see sully winch totally worth it these vehicle driving mechanics also get a bit of use during some of the more action-heavy sequences where players can seamlessly transition from the classic roof hopping combat from the past games into controlling the vehicles directly again emphasizing player choice other changes include more intricate puzzle designs a rework to the game's ui to better indicate bullet spread more interactive treasures and new dense crowds adding a level of realism that simply couldn't be achieved before but one of the most interesting aspects of the game's design overall is that it takes each of the three pillars that have been used to structure the original trilogy and combines them the platforming is no longer as separate from the combat as it once was with the two now being seamlessly integrated together in a way that gives the game an entirely original aesthetic when the melee systems are so smoothly incorporated into the action it's easy to forget just how impressive that many different animations are overall uncharted 4 was met with a familiar high critical reception reviewers credited the game for its groundbreaking visual design its smooth controls and its top quality writing and character performances several reviewers noted the game's expansive madagascar and archipelago environments creating the illusion of open worlds while still retaining the excellent pacing and scripted action moments that fans love the game sold extremely well skyrocketing to the top of the charts for several months and became one of the strongest performing entries in the entire series after years of hard work coupled with delays and unforeseen departures gnarly dog still managed to turn out yet another masterpiece one that would finally close the book officially on nathan drake's hugely successful treasure hunting career but of course with uncharted being such a monumental hit for 10 years straight it's no surprise that the series wasn't about to end there after seeing a positive response from audiences regarding the downloadable side story for the last of us naughty dog decided to create a similar expansion this time for the uncharted series but with nate's story having come to a full stop they realized that they needed to find a new playable protagonist to take over the role they considered several fan favorites like sully and sam but ultimately landed on chloe frazier who had been noticeably absent from drake's previous adventure they also saw potential in expanding on nadine ross's character who by the end of uncharted 4 had walked away without any real closure these narrative gaps provided the perfect opportunity to build from and the small expansion pack quickly grew to become a full-fledged standalone experience and after only a year or so of development nine dog released uncharted the lost legacy the final entry to the series so far the lost legacy follows the story of chloe frazier who is in india following a lead regarding the legendary tusk of ganesh but to help her navigate the war-torn city streets she hires former shoreline leader nadine ross to assist this pairing offers an interesting dynamic to lost legacy story but after several run-ins with the insurgent leader and lead antagonist asav the two learned to work together giving the experience a sort of buddy cop feel it's not necessarily the most original or creative entry to the series but we do get a new emotional depth to both chloe and nadine that isn't at all explored anywhere else making them significantly more likable as a result as for the gameplay moss legacy handles a lot like uncharted 4 though there are a few new aspects that set the standalone adventure apart first there's the design of the environments lost legacy starts off fairly linear with an intense rooftop chase sequence in the rain but the experience really gets interesting when players arrive at a large sprawling valley filled with lots of interesting old temples and structures to explore it's a lot like the madagascar level in uncharted 4. only it's much larger and requires players to travel to each of its landmarks just to progress the story the area is so large even that chloe will pull out a map and mark off discovered locations to help players keep track of where to go along with the landmarks there's also optional temples to explore most of which contain either a collectible treasure or a special disc that when combined with the rest can unlock an even more valuable prize what is happening we got a prize other changes include new weapons a new set of melee fighting animations to better suit chloe and a new lock-picking mechanic to open special crates in the game world the lost legacy while not necessarily as much of a game changer as uncharted 4 provides another fantastic gameplay experience with an engaging narrative to go along with it but more importantly it confirmed that the uncharted series doesn't need nathan drake to carry it whilst legacy was met with positive reviews all around with a lot of similar praise being given to the game's visuals story and gameplay [Music] reviewers specifically praised the game for its huge open-ended play area giving it a more adventurous feel but because of a weaker marketing campaign the game didn't reach the same sales numbers as its predecessors which could potentially influence if we ever see a pairing of these two characters again after finishing up uncharted neil druckmann and the rest of naughty dog immediately flipped back to their newest property and continued work on the sequel to the last of us they made use of all the visual tools and concepts they had established throughout the course of uncharted force development and were able to create an even more visually stunning experience but with this story druckmann also wanted to challenge the audience with an even more bold story direction that as we've seen in the past several weeks since launch has had a fairly mixed response from audiences but disregarding that controversy there's a lot of influence from uncharted mixed into naughty dog's latest game including the return of the rope mechanic albeit in a much more simplistic and grounded form lots of tall grass to hide in and a lot of the same artificial intelligence tech that was created to make the shore wine patrols more convincing the last of us part 2 continues naughty dog's winning streak achieving near perfect scores across the board though its controversial story choices have created an interesting new shift in the fan's opinion of the studio with many even going as far as issuing life threats to druckman and various actors involved in the project but if we look past the current fan backlash nerdy dog has come an insanely long way what started as a way for a small group of talented developers to break into the emerging industry has blossomed into one of the most ambitious and talented studios in the industry and what's more known dog's incredible narrative driven experiences have hugely impacted the way other developers handle their game design we're seeing more than ever now games that tried to tell a strong character-driven story with lots of the same semi-linear style environments and epic cinematic moments that just weren't common before this series existed even tomb raider a classic action adventure series that uncharted owes a lot of its original concepts to has started to borrow elements of naughty dog's structure including similar breakaway moments and cinematic set pieces to help make the gameplay feel more cinematic but now the question that we're all asking is what's next what crazy adventure does naughty dog have planned especially now that we've transitioned to yet another generation of console hardware will they jump straight into a third entry to the last of us or can we expect uncharted to pick up where uncharted 4 left off possibly following a different character like the lost legacy or hell maybe naughty dog will finally give fans the long-anticipated jack 4 but at this point it's been put off longer than half-life 3. there have been rumors that an entirely different studio might try and tackle a new uncharted game which wouldn't be too surprising considering sony ben did a decent job with the property on the vita but the only thing we know for certain is that nolan north has expressed clear interest in reprising his iconic role and it's all dependent now on what naughty dog and sony want to do but no matter what ends up happening we can at least appreciate the fact that over the course of the past 13 years we've been given six incredible games to the series each filled with unforgettable characters engaging action and unbelievable artistic presentations it's hard to pick out a favorite due to the rich variety and experiences offered by each title and going through to replay the series has been some of the most fun i've had all year but what do you guys think which uncharted experience was your favorite and where do you think this area should go next let me know in the comments section now i want to take a moment to thank my patrons for helping to support my channel including chad trap wine no great mystery kung fu hot dog uriel thompsoff and b-man your support is greatly appreciated if you'd like to join this growing list of supporters please check out the link listed below where you can get early access to new documentaries behind the scenes content and personalized shout outs all while helping me to improve the quality of these projects and of course don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music] you

Channel: Nick930

Views: 764,964

Keywords: Uncharted, Nathan Drake, Francis Drake, Review, Comparison, Documentary, Naughty Dog, History, Analysis, Retrospective, Story, Gameplay, Features, Impression, Summary, Full, Fan, Favorite, Best, Professional, High Quality, Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, Drake's Deception, A Thief's End, The Lost Legacy, Golden Abyss, Vita, Multiplayer, Treasure, Lost City, Secret, Development, Making Of, Behind the Scenes, Sony, Bend, PlayStation, PS4, PS3, PS5, Remake, Remaster, History of Uncharted, Uncharted Retrospective

Id: vxb9vZNMJbc

Length: 53min 58sec (3238 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020