As usual, I’m going to start a post by talking about something only tangentially related. After falling for and having my heart broken by Alistair Theirin (Dragon Age: Origins) I actually came to quite like his character—as a friend. Always a friend. In fact, my favourite relationship with him was as the brother from another mother for my Warden, Aedan Cousland. I went on to write something like 600 thousand words of fan fiction after the game, most of which included their extremely close friendship. A large part of my affection for Alistair’s character stemmed from his dialogue and the note-perfect voice acting of Steve Valentine.
Because I’m something of a geek, when I find something I like, I look it up and see what’s related. Other things I can play, watch, read, experience. I do this for video game writers, directors, actors and voice actors, and authors. It’s how I find a lot of my favourites. So I looked up Steve Valentine and discovered he voiced a character in the game Uncharted. Naturally, I wanted to play this game. But I didn’t own a PlayStation 3. I had an Xbox 360. So, basically, I was S.O.L. (My budget didn’t extend to two consoles of the “same generation.”)
When the PlayStation 4 released, I started haunting the developer page for the Uncharted series because I’d heard that of all the games they might remaster for the PS4, Uncharted was near the top of the list. We’d put off buying a PS4 for a couple of years for stupidly practical reasons: I have about thirty un-played games on Steam and a drawer full of unfinished games for the Xbox. But when Uncharted 1-3 were remastered, my resolve crumbled. Also, I wanted to play The Last of Us and J wanted to play Horizon: Zero Dawn and so it was an easy sell. We bought a console… and left it in the box. Yep. I was told I couldn’t unwrap and play it until Christmas Day (2016). I finally convinced J to set it up a couple days early (in case we needed extra cables :D) and Christmas dawned over me on the couch, controller in hand.
Man, was it worth the wait. I LOVED Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. It started with a bang and kept me entertained with a combination of jumping puzzles, shooting alleys, witty banter, romance, and adventure. Nate quickly moved to the top of my list of virtual boyfriends, Sully not far behind. Although I got frustrated from time to time during the harder missions, I never lost patience with the game. The hints and abundance of resources kept me going and I reached the end with a fantastic sense of satisfaction. I’d played a great game.
I cued up the second and immediately got down to it. I liked Among Thieves a lot. The start is brilliant and I adored the environments. I liked the plot twists and the shifting character alignments. I liked Steve Valentine as Harry Flynn. It was neat to hear him as someone else. Of course, by then I was in love with all things Nate, so he couldn’t compete fairly for my affections. Also, he’s a lying, cheating… Ahem. Overall, I preferred the story of the first game. The second one was good, but not quite as absorbing, for me. Not sure why.
My favourite so far, though, is the third game, Drake’s Deception. Putting aside the fact they’re once again investigating a secret long buried because it could mean the end of civilization as we know it, the story here felt fresh and original and I think that had a lot to do with the glance back and Nate and Sully’s origins. How they met, how they began working together. Also, they’re reunited with Elena about halfway along and, well… <spoilers>. I think the pivotal point here, though, is that Nate grows so much as a character. He and Sully both. This game truly felt like a journey on all levels and I was even a little misty-eyed at some points. (Maybe a bit more than misty-eyed.) It was just such a solid story. I loved it.
If the series were to end here, I’d be satisfied. But there is another game (outside of expansions), Uncharted 4: Thief’s End. I kinda do and don’t want to play this. The title has me a little scared. I don’t think for a minute they’d kill Nate, but Sully’s getting on. Also, I sort of like the idea of Nate continuing to adventure, whether I’m tagging along or not. So I hope the title is more metaphorical than, er, prophetic. We’ll see! I put it on my Christmas list (along with Call of Duty: WWII because I HAVE to play that game—speaking of which, I really need to do a COD post one of these days…) so we’ll see what I have to say about it in 2018!
To wrap up, a list, in no particular order, of my favourite things about the Uncharted series:
