Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

North American cover art, depicting protagonist Nathan Drake

**PlayStation 4**
PAL: October 7, 2015
NA: October 9, 2015
UK: October 9, 2015

***Uncharted: Drake's Fortune*** is a 2007 action-adventure third-person shooter video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 home console. A PlayStation 4 remaster, developed by Bluepoint Games, was released in 2015 as part of *Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection*.

*Drake's Fortune* follows treasure hunter Nathan Drake in his quest to uncover the legend of "El Dorado", following in the footsteps of his supposed ancestor Francis Drake; in his quest, he is aided by journalist Elena Fisher and his mentor Victor Sullivan. *Drake's Fortune* is played from a third-person perspective and combines elements of shooters, platform games and puzzle-solving.

Naughty Dog began to work on *Uncharted* in 2005, with focus on harnessing the power of the PlayStation 3 to create a more believable and humanized videogame in comparison to their work on *Crash Bandicoot* and *Jak and Daxter*. The game was delayed numerous times as Naughty Dog continued to modify the story and game engine; focus was placed to make Drake a reliable "every-man" protagonist.

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* was officially announced at E3 2006 and extensively marketed by Sony. The game received critical acclaim from gaming publications, particularly for its story, characters, vocal performances, technical achievements in graphics and animations and high production values; several critics compared the game's production values to summer blockbusters. The game received criticism for several graphical performance issues, repetition in combat scenarios and the campaign's short length. The game's PS4 re-release was met with mixed reviews, with praise directed towards its graphical and mechanical improvements, though it was also criticized for aged design. *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* was nominated for several year-end accolades after release.

A commercial success, *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* sold over one million copies in its first ten weeks, and was seen as an important title for the then-struggling PlayStation 3; by 2015, the title sold over 4.8 million copies. It helped elevating Naughty Dog's reputation as a game developer and launched a franchise. A sequel, *Uncharted 2: Among Thieves*, was released in 2009.

## Gameplay

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* is an action-adventure third-person shooter video game with elements of platforming, puzzle solving and stealth. Players control protagonist Nathan Drake as he explores the mysteries of the El Dorado treasure on an uncharted island. Under the player's control, Nathan can walk, run, climb surfaces, swing on ropes and swim through water bodies as part of the platforming mechanics.

Combat is broken to usage of firearms and performance of melee attacks, with Nate being able to take cover during shootouts and perform specific melee combos when in close proximity with enemies; Nate's melee combos require specified sequences of buttons to perform, and performing them successfully may yield enemies dropping more ammunition. Nate can only carry one sidearm, one firearm and up to four grenades at a time, and each weapon has a limited number ammunition. Weapons include handguns, sub-machine guns, rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers and rocket launchers.

Influenced by Epic Games' *Gears of War* series, Nate can take cover during shootouts, which often happen in large arenas where the player can also climb different surface. Nate lacks a health bar, and whenever he takes damage the screen becomes splattered with blood and loses color. When resting or staying behind cover without damage, Nate's health regenerates.

Several sequences in *Drake's Fortune* require the player to traverse or fight on vehicles, including a sequence in which Drake uses a machine gun on a jeep. In other sequences, Drake controls a jet ski through large bodies of water while the player partly controls secondary protagonist Elena Fisher with either a grenade launcher or a pistol.

Enemies are divided into three major factions, beginning with pirates who hunt Drake for the first half of the campaign. For the majority of the second half, these pirates are replaced by mercenaries hired by major antagonist Gabriel Roman who use more technologically advanced weaponry. The final faction is a feral species of infected zombie-like creatures called Descendants, who fight through quick charges at the player.

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* features a point and reward system, with the latter can be used after finishing the game at least once. Drake can earn those points through collecting the 60 treasures scattered in the campaign or complete specific challenges like killing enemies through melee, stealth and headshot kills. With those points players can unlock a variety of rewards and bonuses which include character skins, weapons, cheats and behind-the-scenes bonuses.

## Synopsis

### Setting and characters

The main protagonist of *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* is Nathan Drake (Nolan North), an American treasure hunter and thief who claims to be the descendant of the childless Sir Francis Drake. He is joined by Elena Fisher (Emily Rose), a journalist and TV personality whose producers helped funding Drake's expedition to unearth Francis Drake's coffin, and gets tangled along with Nathan when the latter tried to ditch her. A final ally is Victor Sullivan (Richard McGonagle), an older treasure hunter who served as Nathan's partner and mentor in the past.

The trio are challenged by the likes of Gabriel Roman (Simon Templeman), an English crime lord whose Sullivan is in debt to. Roman is accompanied by two hired guns: Atoq Navarro (Robin Atkin Downes), a South American archeologist and mercenary who was picked up by Roman in the past and is the true antagonist of the game; and Eddy Raja (James Sie), an Indonesian pirate and a former associate of Nathan.

### Plot

Treasure hunter Nathan Drake and reporter Elena Fisher recover the coffin of Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Panama, finding Drake's old journal with information on the fabled El Dorado, a supposed lost city made of gold. After being attacked by pirates, the duo are rescued by Nate's mentor and partner, Victor Sullivan. Worrying Elena's reporting would attracted unwanted attention, Nate and Sully ditch her on a dock.

Following the journal's coordination to an Amazon rainforest, Nate and Sully discover that El Dorado was a massive golden statue instead of a city. The two eventually locate a Nazi U-bout harboring information about El Dorado's current location: an uncharted island. Before they can move on to the next location, they are confronted by Gabriel Roman, whom Sully owes money to, and Roman's lieutenant, a mercenary leader called Atoq Navarro.

Sully is seemingly killed in the confrontation, but Nate escapes and reunites with Elena, who followed the two. Nate and Elena decide to continue pursue El Dorado, but their plane is shot down by anti-aircraft fire, separating the two. Nate finds himself captured by the pirates who previously attacked them, led by his old rival Eddy Raja, but Elena rescues him and the two escape to continue explore the island. The two eventually find out that Sully is still alive, who explains he survived thanks to Drake's journal blocking the shot.

As Nate goes to explore the tunnels, he learns that Eddy was hired by Roman but was eventually dismissed due to being seen as superstitious for blaming the deaths of his men on the "cursed" island. Joined by Elena, Nate finds Francis Drake's corpse, which crushes the treasure hunter' motivation. The two encounter Eddy again before finding out that the island was populated by mutated humans who proceeded to slaughter Eddy's crew. Despite Nate's efforts, Eddy is killed in the skirmish.

Nate and Elena escape to a nearby German bunker, where Nate discovers that during WWII, the Nazies sought the treasure, but fell victim to the same disaster that befell on the island's previous residents: the Spanish colony that Francis Drake was tracking down in search for El Dorado, which ultimately ended with Drake flooding the colony and dying against the mutants. Elena is captured by Navarro while Nate fights his way to the statue before reuniting with Sully. Confronted by the treasure hunters, Navarro betrays Roman and reveals he intends to sell El Dorado, having been aware of the virus within the statue, which was actually a coffin.

Elena foils Navarro's attempt to escape, leading to a final confrontation between Nate and Navarro on a nearby ship. Nate sinks El Dorado with Navarro tied to it, and he and Elena are rescued by Sully, who stole a pirate boat and loaded it with some treasure from the island. The trio leaves by the boat, with Nate and Elena reflecting on their adventure together.

## Development

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* was developed by American game studio Naughty Dog, becoming the third intellectual property the studio created through its work with Sony Computer Entertainment, which published the game. Amy Hennig, who joined Naughty Dog in 2003 and served as co-director on 2004's *Jak 3*, was the project's game director. Bob Rafei and Bruce Straley were joint art directors, both previously working on the *Crash Bandicoot* and *Jak and Daxter* franchises.

## Release

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* was announced in May 2006 at E3 2006, though the title was named at the time; Naughty Dog and Sony would announce the title to be *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* in February 2007. The game was released during holiday 2007 across various territories: November 19 for North American territories, December 6 for Australia, and December 7 for Europe. A demo was released for PlayStation Network in November 8.

In June 2015, Sony announced that *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune*, alongside its two sequels, will be part of a remaster collection called *Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection*, for the PlayStation 4. Handled by Bluepoint Games, the games were released in October 2015.

## Reception

### Reviews

* Edge - 8/10
* Eurogamer - 9/10
* Game Informer - 8.75/10
* GamesRadar - 4/5
* GameSpot - 8/10
* GameSpy - 4.5/5
* GameTrailers - 8.9/10
* IGN - 9.1/10
* PlayStation: The Official Magazine - 8/10 (US) / 9/10 (UK)
* VideoGamer - 8/10

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* received critical acclaim upon its release. It holds 88/100 on MetaCritic, categorized as "generally favorable reviews" by the site; at the time of its release, *Drake's Fortune* was tied with 1999's *Crash Team Racing* as Naughty Dog's third highest-rated game on the site, after 1998's *Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back* and 2001's *Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy*.

IGN's Greg Miller felt that *Drake's Fortune* was a "standout for gaming as a whole" and considered it the "saving grace" of Sony's 2007 season after notable lack of killer apps and the disappointing release of *Lair*. Gamespy's Sterling McGarvey considered it a "breath of fresh air" due to its streamlined nature and uniqueness of being a third-person action game amidst "the current sea of first-person shooters". Eurogamer's Kristan Reed hailed it as "the first must-have PlayStation 3 title".

### Sales

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* proved to be a commercial success for Naughty Dog and Sony, becoming one of the PlayStation 3's first Platinum-labelled first-party titles with Insomniac Games' *Resistance: Fall of Man* and Evolution Studios' *MotorStorm*. By June 2009, sales increased to 2.6 million copies. By March 2015, *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* sold over 4.8 million copies.

### Accolades

*Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* won "Best PlayStation 3 game" at IGN's Best of 2007 award show. It was nominated for "Best PS3 Game" at Spike Video Game Awards, but lost to Insomniac Games' *Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction*.

## Legacy

The success of *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* launched the *Uncharted* franchise, which eventually grew to become one of PlayStation's most notable properties. *Drake's Fortune* would receive several sequels, include 2009's *Uncharted 2: Among Thieves*, 2011's *Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception* and 2016's *Uncharted 4: A Thief's End*; all three titles would go to receive much higher critical and commercial success than *Drake's Fortune*, with several critics seeing the first game as an essential proof of concept for their eventual success retrospectively.

In a column for IGN about the critical success and quality of Insomniac Games' *Spider-Man 2*, Simon Cardy noted that *Uncharted: Drake's Fortune* "concocted" the storytelling formula that would continue to be used by Naughty Dog and eventually adopted by other teams within PlayStation Studios during the sixteen years after its release. Cardy argued that characters such as Drake, Sully and Elena marked a shift within PlayStation's flagship characters by being "fully scripted humans with a newfound complexity" instead of mute mascots.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uncharted-drakes-fortune-review
2. ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/uncharted-drakes-fortune-review/1900-6183147/
3. ↑ http://ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/naughty-dog-ps3-project/835136p1.html
4. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/11/13/uncharted-drakes-fortune-review
5. ↑ https://www.videogamer.com/reviews/uncharted-drakes-fortune-review/
6. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/motorstorm-uncharted-resistance-first-platinum-titles-for-europe
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120217043755/http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210509/ps3-motion-controller-revealed-god-of-war-iii-due-in-march
8. ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/03/16/bloodborne-may-be-the-ps4s-salvation-in-2015/?sh=77f0b0dc28d8
9. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/spider-man-2-proves-playstation-is-still-king-of-story-driven-games