[ENG] Uncharted Anthology and The Luckiest Adventurer

(I have not played the following – Uncharted: The Lost Legacy; Uncharted: Golden Abyss – following column is made solely on my experiences from main/numerical parts with more or less interconnected storyline)

(I think it goes without saying – but there are spoilers below so... You have been warned!)

(There is an experimental coloring method I used so to put it shortly: green - refers to Nate, main protagonist; cyan - refers to friendly NPCs; orange - refers to locations; red - refers to antagonists and pink refers to historical characters)

Recently I have finished the entire Uncharted Remastered Trilogy (which is quite nicely called as a 'Nathan Drake Collection'). Back in the day I have finished the first installment – Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune countless times on my PS3 as it was one of the very few games I had when I got my hand on the console. And then I completed Uncharted 4: Thief's End somewhere around 7 or 8 months ago when I bought myself a PS4. See the problem? I didn't have opportunity to play Uncharted 2 or 3 (respectively Among Thieves and Drake's Deception)... Until now. But before we delve deeper into this sick and action-packed adventures – a quick word about the series for those unfamiliar with the franchise!

Throughout the series we follow the adventures of... Well – an Indiana Jones of video games – Nathan Drake, often referred to simply as Nate or Drake (or he is also called a male version of Lara Croft so... Pick your poison I guess). He is... I'll be frickin' damned if he isn't one of the luckiest people out there – as in world of video games characters are often lucky, Nate has his luck factor pumped to a whopping 40 out of 10. Every single time he is saved by either someone or some unexpected twist of fate – every single time when he faces almost certain death. Every. Single. Time. And he's not alone in his luck streak! There are also characters that appear in each installment of a franchise and have their story tied deeply with Nathan – namingly: Victor 'Sully' Sullivan and Elena Fisher – we meet both of these characters within the very first minutes of the very first Uncharted game. These two characters have their luck factor somewhere around 20 out of 10, not so spectacular as Nate, but impressive nonetheless! There are also characters that appear only in a part or two (excluding the antagonists of course) like Chloe, Cutter or Samuel aka Sam.

(Nathan and Elena, an enormous mix of luck)

The game series is a third person adventure shooter. Using a variety of weapons and cover you run from one safe place to another in the meantime sending waves of adversaries straight to hell. And using cover is especially important on higher difficulty settings (I played through the Nathan Drake Collection on Hard and Thief's End on Normal/Moderate) – but even on normal difficulty, peeking for a second too long from cover will almost always result in a bullet placed right between your eyes. There are a lot of exploration segments which often contain parkour elements and/or puzzles – both of them are sometimes interrupted by sudden burst of enemies. The game could be summarized like this – Exploration > Puzzle/Parkour > Fighting Enemies > Repeat Cycle – but this generalization makes the entire game look boring and barren and... It just puts the game in a bad spotlight – so despite me making this 'progression' system – it's not entirely true (well, for the most part). Everything works in a beautiful synergy and... I think my only complain is that there are a tad bit too many unnecessary fights in Uncharted 2, but... It's nitpicking, the game has a really great story (let's be honest, the entire franchise has a pretty decent story with each part having a bit of predictable but still satisfying conclusion).

The games sometimes force the weapons away from you, for example – you have a Desert-5 and RPG-7 – two incredibly powerful and quite weapons in the first Uncharted installment and then all of a sudden – due to a story event – you're left back with a basic pistol or in the worst case with no weapons at all. But the shooting isn't the only way of dealing with the adversaries, there is also Close Quarters Combat but... It was mostly explored and used in Uncharted 3 where you had entire sequences of game devoted solely to melee combat – it made the overall combat experience richer if you ask me. Although present in previous installments, CQC in Uncharted 1 and 2 was very often too risky to use if there were more than one or two enemies alive OR if enemy didn't come to your safe spot alone.

 (Thanks to the Photo Mode in Remastered versions it's possible to take beautiful screenshots like this)

Nathan Drake follows a motto engraved on his necklace... or more specifically a ring hanging down his neck. A ring of Sir Francis Drake, a pirate or simple corsair (depending on the source you take the information from) from XVI century, he had a certain motto engraved – 'Sic Parvis Magna' which roughly translates from Latin to 'Greatness from small beginnings'. Nate is incredibly cocky and proud even in the face of imminent death – I don't know... Does he know about his divine luck or is he just someone who just doesn't feel genuine fear? Though the answers may vary due to events presented in games – one thing remains certain – people often tell that someone is 'incredibly dumb or incredibly lucky' – in the case of Nathan, I think sometimes it's a mix of both.

Voice acting in this series is really on point both in English as well as in Polish dubbing. I may get screamed at after saying this but... I really think there aren't many good Polish dubs out there – if we exclude games made in Poland like Dying Light or Witcher 3 – it's really hard to find a decent, Polish dubbing in which voice actors knew who they were playing and how they should behave. For the most part it seems like VA's are receiving pure text – without knowing who the character is, what role he/she plays in the game, what emotions should be expressed... So despite playing through the all parts partially in English and partially in Polish – I can't recommend Polish dubbing over the English one, but it's totally worth it to check it out (if you can understand the language of course which... Well, learning Polish is a bit of a hassle for foreigners – and this comes from a native Pole)

(Nathan, Chloe and Cutter preparing a plan)

Before I'll jump to briefly talking about each installment – I want to talk about Nathan's pride. Throughout the first two installments Drake has a lot of moments where he questions and/or reflects about what he is doing and is the treasure worth the risk. For example? In the first part Nate decides that he is going to back off because chasing this treasure isn't worth the risk – once Elena starts mocking him and telling that she is going to chase it with or without him... He suddenly changes his mind and decides to uncover whatever was hidden on this island. Moments of uncertainty are one during which we can see what is behind his mask, behind his facade he holds for majority of the anthology. He often wants to step back and just leave everything to rot in hell, but... His pride often forces him to press onward despite the risk. I think it's a wonderful example of how pride can be deadly – you may work yourself to death or put yourself in an incredibly risky situation just because your pride won't allow you to step back. It's enormous generalization and taking things to the extreme as the pride takes many faces and... Okay, if you do something you strived to achieve for a long time – you should be proud of yourself, but don't let this pride blind you from reaching even harder goals!

With that out of the way, let's talk briefly about the installments.

(Yes, this is the first installment. It's remastered, but still - the first part still looks awesome!)

Uncharted 1: Drake's Fortune. 

The very first installment during which we follow the first meeting of Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan. Our main goal through the majority of the game is finding a mysterious treasure hidden deep within vast tropical jungle; a treasure known only as 'El Dorado'. Once we learn what this treasure truly is and what it caused the first time it was found... Or maybe rather why it was forgotten and left on the island – our objective drastically changes – we have to stop this treasure from getting off the aforementioned island at all cost! I stopped counting how many times Nate should have died but was saved by either someone or something. And it's just the first part! This guy is a lucky charm and everyone around him... Well everyone who is friendly seems to receive a Luck Buff. Nate himself as well as for example Sully are protected from everything with some divine luck – even when Sully should have definitely died. I mean – what are the chances of surviving bullet straight to the chest? Well, guess what – he miraculously survives because the bullet hits Sir Francis' journal instead of his vital organs. SEE? THAT'S WHAT I MEAN – EVERYONE, EVERY SINGLE TIME SURVIVES BY SOME AMAZING STRIKE OF LUCK! Buuuut, we're just getting started. We still have 3 installments to talk about.

(This is one of the first things you will see upon starting a new game)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

This part starts in a... weird place – in the snowy and windy mountains, Nathan wakes up in a wreck of a train and has to climb to the higher, much safer ground before this part of the train plummets down into seemingly endless abyss. When we manage to escape and as we make our way through the blizzard – Drake finds a mysterious artifact, an ancient dagger of some sort – it's at this moment when Nate sits down and recalls memories of events that lead up to this moment – and that's the first half of the game, we follow these moments and learn about the dagger, our main antagonist going by the name of Zoran Lazarević (as you can see from his surname – he's from Europe, a Serbia to be precise, there's nothing much about it, I just thought it's a nice fun fact) – he's a military psycho and a ruthless war criminal. We also learn that place we are looking for is called Shambhala which supposedly contains a gargantuan sapphire worth billions of dollars. To the surprise of no one Lazarević is also after Shambhala and it's treasures. Now – check this... Even after Lazarević catches Drake, puts a gun to his head when the Nate himself is surrounded by Zoran's mercenaries – HE MANAGES TO TALK HIS WAY OUT AND RUN AWAY WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY ARRIVES... LIKE... WHAT THE HELL. Oh, and when we learn that this supposed sapphire is in fact a mysterious material, a resin that grants immortality – we have to stop Zoran from drinking aforementioned resin from the Tree of Life. Once again, to the surprise of no one Lazarević arrives at the Tree first. And now, what do you think? Does Drake care that his adversary is supposedly immortal? Hahahaha! Of course not! Nate uses the very same resin Lazarević drank to weaken him and instead of killing him – he leaves him to his doom in remnants of the Tree of Life, where Shambhala's ancient defenders assemble to finish off Zoran. Shambhala goes to hell and Nate with both of the girls that entered with him – Elena and Chloe – manages to get out successfully... This is half of the anthology and everything I wish for is to have a luck Nate had just from his first installment.

(Scene representing the cover art for Uncharted 3)

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Definitely my favorite part of the entire anthology. Not only because there are the most varied and interesting locations and puzzles, the improvement and greater exploration of CQC combat but it has shown the broken and battered Drake awaiting his death in the most hopeless situation he has found himself in (but... Of course his divine luck won't let him die, but first things first). In this installment we get to experience childhood of Nathan, his beginnings when he was just a teenager already fascinated by Sir Francis Drake and his legacy, and we get to see how he met with Sullivan – which is always nice because - up to this point - it was never truly explained why these two behave like best buddies. In this part we are looking for once again mysterious and seemingly forgotten city known as 'Atlantis of the Sands' (as well as – Udam, Iram/City of the pillars) – hidden somewhere in the vast, empty and avoided even by beduins place called Rub' al Khali desert. At certain point in the game, Drake finds himself in the middle of aforementioned desert, without any idea where to go – that's the situation I mentioned before. During Nate's pointless wandering around the seemingly endless desert, he starts questioning his life, he slowly accepts that he will die in this very place – there are also some monologues that Nathan either speaks or hears. Plus the illusions that give glimpse of hope to Drake – like the Oasis full of water, his best buddy Sullivan coming for him. Somehow Nate manages to reach the long abandoned village, where he has to fight through hordes of adversaries – after making his way through the village, he finds himself outnumbered (don't get me wrong, Nathan is usually outnumbered but this time he is tired and he cannot think clearly... Plus there are in fact more enemies than usually at once on the screen)... And guess what. HE IS SAVED BY FRICKING BEDUINS CHARGING THE VILLAGE ON HORSES AND NATHAN IS TAKEN BY THEIR LEADER – SALIM – TO THEIR CAMP WHERE THE BEDUINS OFFER THEIR HELP! LIKE... DO I NEED TO ADD ANYTHING HERE?! (Okay, but I must admit that the sequence of chasing the convoy on horses and tearing it apart while jumping from horses to vehicles back and forth is simply epic).

(Atlantis of the Sands at it's finest!)

The final sequence of the game within Atlantis of the Sands is amazing, with a bit unexpected twist and of course realization why this city was forgotten. Aaaand of course everything goes to hell... Do you see a certain pattern here?

The thing is – everything Nathan Drake touches turns into dust – El Dorado? Gone, forgotten; Shambhala? Gone, destroyed; Atlantis of the Sands? Gone, buried beneath the sand... And if you think in the final installment something change – hate to break it to you but... Not really.
So despite being incredibly lucky in the face of imminent danger or certain death, Nate seemingly cannot find luck in his treasure hunting.

Before jumping to the final installment – I want to admire the humor in this series for a second, because if it wasn't for it – the game would get too serious and probably boring in the long run. Nathan Drake is not only incredibly lucky but he is also very charismatic which in effect causes him to joke even in the face of death as well as find a second of genuine fun in a battle torn city (Uncharted 2, hotel rooftop fragment where if we decide to jump into the pool... Well, let's just say Chloe gets a bit angry while Nate seems to have the best time of his life; or Uncharted 1 when Nate discovers that Sully survived the bullet that was sent to his chest – they hug and laugh at it like nothing happened!). And though he seems sad after the treasure he was hunting is destroyed time and time again, he doesn't seem to care that much. Nate just enjoys that he and his friends are still alive and he seems to be happy to at least have memories of these ancient places before they turned to dust

(Uncharted 4, Madagascar)

Uncharted 4: Thief's End

The ending of the entire anthology (unless there will be Uncharted 5 on the upcoming PlayStation 5 which... Let's be honest – no one would be mad if another installment kept the same level of ambiguity [in the case of treasures] and incredible luck factor of Nate and Company). In this installment we learn more about Nate's childhood as well as we get to meet his brother – Samuel, more often referred to as simply Sam. The entire adventure focuses on two brothers searching for the seemingly forgotten (to the surprise of no one) pirate village and the treasure of Henry Avery – that's right, for the first time (okay, if we exclude Uncharted 2 where we learn of Shambhala from notes of Marco Polo) in the franchise we are looking for a treasure that wasn't left by Sir Francis Drake. The village (called Libertalia) is supposedly place of death of Henry Avery as well as it's rumored to contain a ship filled with various treasures and wealth. Aaaand as you have probably guessed by now – the ship goes to shit once the Nate and Sam get there... Maybe everything would go the other way around if it weren't for the adversary Nate had to finish his unfinished business with Rafe. A guy who hired them to help him find the aforementioned treasure, but then their paths were... Well separated to say lightly.
Come to think of it – it's not the first time something like this has happened to Nathan. In Uncharted 2 – he is asked for help by Harry Flynn (and he learns about the supposed treasure from him and Chloe at the start of the game) but then Nate gets himself backstabbed on the first possible opportunity. In Uncharted 3 he is constantly tricked by the adversaries... But let's be honest – with his luck everything is possible. Just because he is backstabbed and tricked doesn't mean he doesn't come out victorious in the end.

(Who would have think that they freshly out of life-or-death scenario which left them without a reliable vehicle to chase their advesaries?)

Long story short – Uncharted Anthology is an amazing series of games which every owner of PS3 or PS4 should play (Well... That is unless you want to play Uncharted 4 as well – then preferably stick to PS4 as it's possible to get the entire anthology quite cheaply nowadays). It's a set of incredibly well paced adventures filled with twists, ambiguity, mystery and humor – thanks to the latter the game doesn't get too serious unnecessarily and allows for small breaks in discovering abandoned treasures or cities. And the games are filled with probably the luckiest adventurer in video games out there (as well as his fellow companions) standing next to Lara Croft in the terms of luck (okay, but I played only Tomb Raider from 2013 and it's first continuation so.. This comparison may be a teeny tiny bit stretched). The game has a satisfying and rewarding combat system (which can be infuriating at times on higher difficulties) and voice acting that is on point in both Polish and English. And as I said – the entire anthology can be bought for somewhere around 40€ - even less with discounts – it may sound like a lot, but think about it – you get 4 games each with like-able characters and mysteries that will take quite a bit of your time for 40€ - sometimes you pay 60€ for AAA titles nowadays and you don't even get enough content to satisfy you.

Nonetheless, follow the Nathan Drake's adventures and experience his divine luck while being jealous you aren't even partially as lucky as he is (unless you are, then I'm jealous)

Kind Regards,
Wing.